O LORD, Thou art Glorious: Thou Blessed JESUS

"Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey." -Psalm 76:4 [KJV]

My soul, the more thou turnest over the word of God in inquiries after Thy beloved, the more will thou be astonished at the relation given of Him in His excellency and glory. By every thing that can represent the adorable Redeemer, in His beauty, loveliness, grace, fulness, and all-sufficiency, whether considered in His absolute, His comparative, His relative, or His official glory, or in His glory as the Head of His body, the church, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all; thou art constrained, with the church to cry out at every view, "Yea, He is altogether lovely; the chief among ten thousand." There is somewhat particularly striking to this amount in this verse for thine evening portion: "Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey." Yes! it must be so: for when the soul hath found Jesus, like the merchant-man seeking goodly pearls, having found this one of immense and incalculable value, the soul gladly parts with every thing beside, to attain it. Hence one of old, having got possession of Jesus, cries out with holy joy and rapture, "I rejoice at Thy word as one that findeth great spoil;" Psalm 119:162.  

In life men become mountains of prey to one another; and too frequently find, to their sorrow, that the pursuit and chase is folly, and the end of the game, vanity and vexation of spirit. But in following Thee, Thou blessed Jesus, every renewed discovery of Thee is glorious, and every new attainment most excellent indeed. In Thy person, offices, character, relations, Thou art most glorious and excellent. Thou art a glorious Redeemer, a glorious Head of Thy church and people; a glorious husband, brother, friend; a glorious prophet, priest, and king, in Thy Zion. And when I behold Thee in all these relative excellencies, and can and do know Thee, and enjoy Thee, and call Thee mine, under every one of them, surely I may well take up the language of this sweet scripture, and say, "Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey?" 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)