Praise the LORD!
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart,
In the company of the upright and in the assembly.

Psalm 111

I will give thanks. In order to lead others in praise, David sets himself as an example: first, with my whole heart, and then, publicly, in the company of the upright. Sincere adoration in secret is far better than an open, specious show of praise, yet the former will inevitably lead to public praise, otherwise God would be deprived of his due honor. It is not that any of us can ever attain perfection of heart in our praises; rather, even though our worship is defective, it will be acceptable to God if it is sincere. He speaks of the congregation because one of the main reasons for assemblies is to give worshipers the opportunity to voice their praise of God (Psalm 65:1).

John Calvin – Commentary on the Psalms (translated/abridged by David C. Searle, ) Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust.

(Original work published 1557)

Peace then, tried believer! Are you passing now through the deep waters? Who kept you from sinking when wading through the last? Who brought you through the last fire? Who supported you under the last cross? Who delivered you out of the last temptation? Was it not God, thy covenant God, thy faithful, unchanging God? This God, then, is your God now, and your God forever and ever, and He will be your guide even unto death.

Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, (Reformation Heritage Books, Grand Rapids, MI 2003) pg 68-69

Cowper was sick. But in his sickness he saw things that we so desperately need to see. He saw hell. And sometimes he saw heaven. He knew terror. And sometimes he knew ecstasy. When I stand to welcome the people to worship on Sunday morning, I know that there are William Cowpers in the congregation. There are spouses who can barely talk. There are sullen teenagers living double lives at home and school. There are widows who still feel the amputation of a fifty-year partner. There are single people who have not been hugged for twenty years. There are men in the prime of their lives with cancer.There are moms who have carried two tiny caskets. There are soldiers of the cross who have risked all for Jesus and bear the scars. There are tired and discouraged and lonely strugglers. Shall we come to them with a joke?

They can read the comics everyday. What they need from me is not more bouncy, frisky smiles and stories. What they need is a kind of joyful earnestness that makes the broken heart feel hopeful and helps the ones who are drunk with trifles sober up for greater joys.

John Piper, The Hidden Smile of God,

(Wheaton, IL : Crossway Books , 2003)

It would be foolish to think that Christ and the Gospel would come and sit down at our fireside. No, we must leave our comfortable warm houses and seek after Christ and His Gospel. It is not the sunny side of Christ that we must expect, and we must not forsake him if we lack it. Let us set our faces against whatever we find in life, until He and we are though the briers and prickly bushes and on dry ground. Our soft nature would prefer to be carried through the troubles of this life in Christ’s arms. But it is His wisdom, who knows what we’re made of, that His bairns go with wet and cold feet to heaven. Oh, how sweet a thing it would be for us, if we would learn how to make our burdens light, by preparing our hearts for the burden, which requires us to make our Lord’s will the law of our hearts.

I find Christ and His cross not unpleasant or troublesome guests, as men would call them. No, I think patience makes the water Christ gives us good wine, and His dross silver and gold. We have a good reason for continuing to wait: before long our Master will be back for us and shine His light into the whole world, making visible the blacks and whites. Happy are those who will be found ready. Our hour-glass doesn’t have long enough to run for us to become weary. In fact, time itself will dissolve our cares and sorrow. Our heaven is in the bud and growing up until the harvest. Why shouldn’t we persevere, seeing that our whole life time is a few grains of sand? Therefore I commend Christ to you, as your last-living and longest-living Husband, the staff of your old age. Let Him now have the rest of your days. Don’t worry about the storm when you’re sailing in Christ’s ship: no passenger will ever fall overboard. Even the most sea-sick passenger is sure to come to land safely.

Written on March 13, 1637 by Samuel Rutherford in a letter to Jean Brown.

Again, do we attend to the Word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving his charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word.

Again, do we love the holiness of the Word (Psalms 119:140)? The Word is preached to beat down sin and advance holiness. Do we love it for its spirituality and purity? Many love the Word preached only for its eloquence and notion (intellectual content). They come to a sermon as to a music lecture (Ezekiel 33:31-32) or as to a garden to pick flowers, but not to have their lusts subdued or their hearts bettered. These are like a foolish woman who paints her face but neglects her health.

Again, do we love the convictions of the Word? Do we love the Word when it comes home to our conscience and shoots arrows of reproof at our sins? It is the minister’s duty sometime to reprove. He who can speak smooth words in the pulpit, but does not know how to reprove, is like a sword with a fine hilt without an edge. ‘Rebuke them sharply’ (Titus 2:15). Dip the nail in oil, reprove in love, but strike the nail home. Now Christian, when the Word touches your sin and says, ‘You art the man’, do you love the reproof? Can you bless God that ‘the sword of the Spirit’ has divided between you and your lusts? This is indeed a sign of grace and shows that you are a lover of the Word.

A corrupt heart loves the comforts of the Word, but not the reproofs: ‘They hate him that rebuketh in the gate’ (Amos 5:10). ‘Their eyes flash with fire!’ Like venomous creatures that at the least touch spit poison, ‘when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth’ (Acts 7:54). When Stephen touched them to the quick, they were mad and could not endure it.

The Godly Man’s Picture, Thomas Watson, Banner of Truth Trust, (originally published in 1666)