PSALM 36
8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
It is a mode of self-test to ask ourselves how far the prospect of an endless life devoted to the celebration of God's praise appeals to our sense of pleasure. In a state of fully-developed and enlightened reason, the prospect is a ravishing one, of being clothed with power, and endowed with capacity to open out our faculties in the lucid contemplation of rapturous and sustained admiration of the inherent and supernal excellence of eternal wisdom and power.
No privilege or joy of created existence can in the nature of things come near to this - none so purely sweet, none so lasting and inexhaustible. The delights of human friendship are great, the pleasure of personal gratification is something, but who shall measure the joy of reciprocal communion with the Eternal Father,
"Of Whom and through Whom and to Whom are all things?"
It is written,
"In Thy presence is fulness of joy;" and, again,
"Strength and gladness are in His place."
To be linked in unity with Him must be a noble ecstasy, burning with the steadiness of eternal glory, with an intensity that does not diminish its power, and a gladness that does not interfere with its dignified and perfect symmetry. "To drink of the rivers of Thy pleasures" must of necessity be the highest possible joy, and a joy that does not pall or exhaust itself because fed by the inexhaustible supply of the Spirit.
Seasons 2.72
9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
It is often the simplest lessons that are the hardest to learn, because they cut so deeply into our lives. They cut deeply into, and uproot, the basic principles that the world operates upon, and regards as fundamental wisdom.
The teaching of Jesus was addressed to the task of breaking into this taken-for-granted and almost impervious bottom layer of false human wisdom, and completely clearing the ground so that a unique and different kind of life, based entirely on spiritual principles, might be developed in men for God's eternal use and pleasure.
The actual, recorded words of Jesus are comparatively few. Therefore their individual importance is great, for in this brief body of teaching alone lies life.
"The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life" (John 6:63).
Let us not be misled by the apparent simplicity of Jesus' words. They will be found to be the deepest, most piercing, and most revolutionary words ever spoken. Once they come into a man's life, and begin to actually take hold upon it, they will gradually rob him of everything that the world regards as desirable and worthwhile, but as they clear away the empty, worldly things they will fill his life with satisfactions infinitely more desirable.
It is only those, says Jesus, who lose their lives that truly find life. The life of Jesus cannot be veneered on to the surface of a prosperous, worldly life. It must be a fresh, new creation. New wine cannot be put into old bottles, nor can new patches be put on old wornout garments.
Bro Growcott - BYT 4: 20