Bible Commentaries
Psalms 17

Verse 15

SATISFIED

‘I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.’

Psalms 17:15

Notice:—

I. The date of the satisfaction.—‘When I awake.’ The intermediate state is often in the Bible called sleep. It is a metaphor, chosen not to describe a state of unconsciousness, but to illustrate the peace and the calm of that blessed interval in which the soul and the body, separated for a while from each other, await their final summons. By and by the dews of the morning begin to fall. The quickening Spirit—the same that raised Jesus from the grave—begins to do His resuscitating work. The Sun of righteousness rises high in the heavens in His perfect beauty. By His attracting influence every body and every soul, re-knit, are drawn up to meet Him in the air. The date of which David speaks is the Easter morning of the first resurrection.

II. The nature of the satisfaction.—‘Thy likeness.’ (1) Take it, first, with the body. Like the body of Jesus we are to believe our new resurrection body will be. Only it will have passed through a great change: no longer carnal, but spiritual; not dull, but glorious; not a hinderer but a helper of the soul; framed and moulded in exquisite adaptation, first to hold a perfected spirit, and then to be as wings to execute all the pure and unlimited desires of the soul for the glory of God. (2) And as with the corporeal, so with the spiritual nature of man. ‘We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ Everything assimilates to what it is conversant with. If a man dwells on any sin, he will grow to the type of the sin he broods upon; and if a man have his eye to Jesus, he will infallibly grow Christlike.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Satisfied when? “When I awake.” The moment of resurrection will be the first moment in our history when, in the fullest, amplest sense of the word, we shall be able to say, “I am satisfied! I have all that I can desire!” ’

(2) ‘There is a blessed moment coming when we shall awake to find ourselves in the very presence of God, changed into His likeness and enjoying His favour—we shall be recompensed and satisfied then. The treasures of this world cannot satisfy and will not last, but “when I awake, I shall be satisfied.” ’

(3) ‘Dr. Whewell had a great affection for the seventeenth psalm. It was read to him just before his spirit departed. With the words of our text ringing in his ears he fell into that sleep from which he was to awake in the likeness of Christ.’