My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the
Lord,
&c.] The courts of the tabernacle now at Gibeon, though the
ark was in Zion, ( 2
Chronicles 1:3-6 ) as the court of the priests, and the court
of the Israelites, in which latter the people in common stood:
after these David longed; he longed to enter into them, and stand
in them, and worship God there; which soul longings and hearty
desires were the fruits and evidences of true grace, of being
born again; so newly born souls desire the sincere milk of the
word, and the breasts of Gospel ordinances, as a newly born babe
desires its mother's milk and breast; and he even "fainted",
through disappointment, or length of time, being impatient of the
returning season and opportunity of treading in them; see (
Psalms 42:1 )
( 63:1 )
,
my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living
God;
he only inwardly desired, and secretly fainted, but audibly cried
out in his distress, and verbally expressed, great vehemence, his
desire to enjoy the living God: it was not merely the courts, but
God in them, that he wanted; even that God which has life in
himself, with whom is the fountain of life; who gives life to
others, natural, spiritual, and eternal, and in whose favour is
life; yea, whose lovingkindness is better than life, and which
was the thing longed and thirsted after: and these desires were
the desires of the whole man, soul and body; not only he cried
with his mouth and lips, signified by his flesh, but with his
heart also, sincerely and heartily; his heart went along with his
mouth.