Then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace…For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation…– Luke 2:28-30

Saints are willing to depart when their work is almost done. This will not be the case with many here present, perhaps, but it was so with Simeon. Good old man! He had been very constant in his devotions, but on this occasion, he came into the temple, and there, it is said, he took the Child in his arms and blessed God. Once more he delivered his soul of its adoration-once more he blended his praise with the songs of angels. When he had done that, he openly confessed his faith: another important work of every believer-for he said, “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” He bore public testimony to the Child Jesus and declared that He should be “a light to lighten the Gentiles.” Having done that, he bestowed his fatherly benediction upon the Child’s parents, Joseph and His mother; he blessed them, and said unto Mary “Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.” Now, we read that David, after he had served his generation, fell on sleep; it is time for man to sleep when his life’s work is finished. Simeon felt he had done all: he had blessed God; he had declared his faith; he had borne testimony to Christ; he had bestowed his benediction upon godly people; and so, he said, “Now, Lord, lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace.” …When a man feels, without claiming any merit, that he has fought a good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith, then will he rejoice in the crown which is laid up for him in heaven, and he will long to wear it. Throw your strength into the Lord’s work, dear brethren-all your strength; spare none of your powers: let body, soul, and spirit be entirely consecrated to God, and used at their utmost stretch. Get through your day’s work, for the sooner you complete it, and have fulfilled like an hireling your day, the more near and sweet shall be the time when the shadows lengthen, and God shall say to you, as a faithful servant, “Depart in peace!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm

Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace… – Luke 2:29

Beloved, saints have drawn their anchor up and spread their sails, when they have been made to hold loose by all there is in this world; and that is generally when they hold fastest by the world to come. To many this world is very sweet, very fair, but God puts bitters into the cup of His children; when their nest is soft, He fills it with thorns to make them long to fly. Alas, that it should be so, but some of God’s servants seem as if they had made up their minds to find a rest beneath the moon. They are moon-struck who hope to do so. All the houses in this plague-stricken land are worm-eaten and let in the rain and wind: my soul longeth to find a rest among the ivory palaces of Thy land, O Immanuel.

Brethren, it often happens that the loss of dear friends, or the treachery of those we trusted, or bodily sickness, or depression of spirit, may help to unloose the holdfasts which enchain us to this life; and then we are enabled to say with David in one of the most precious little Psalms in the whole Book, the 131st, “I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child.” I have often thought that if David had said, “my soul is even as a weaning child,” it would have been far more like most of God’s people. But to be weaned, quite weaned from the world, to turn away from her consolations altogether, this it is which makes us cry, “Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace.” Even as the psalmist when he said, “And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm

Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word… – Luke 2:29

“Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace.” Heaven realised and anticipated by hope renders the thought of departure most precious to the heart. And the like, also, is the effect of the grace of love upon us. Love puts the heart, like a sacrifice, on the altar, and then she fetches heavenly fire, and kindles it; and, as soon as ever the heart begins to burn and glow like a sacrifice, what is the consequence? Why, it ascends like pillars of smoke up to the throne of God. It is the very instinct of love to draw us nearer to the person whom we love; and, when love towards God pervades the soul, then the spirit cries, “Make haste, my Beloved! be Thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of separation.” Perfect love, casting out all fear, cries, “Up, and away.”

“Let me be with Thee, where Thou art,
My Savior my eternal rest!
Then only will this longing heart
Be fully and for ever blest.”

I might thus mention all the graces but suffer one of them to suffice! one which is often overlooked but is priceless as the gold of Ophir-it is the grace of humility. Is it strange that the lower a man sinks in his own esteem the higher does he rise before his God? Is it not written, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?” Simeon had no conceit of his own importance in the world, else he would have said, “Lord, let me stay, and be an apostle. Surely, I shall be needed at this juncture to lend my aid in the auspicious era which has just commenced?” But no, he felt himself so little so inconsiderable, that now that he had attained his heart’s wish and seen God’s salvation, he was willing to depart in peace. Humility by making us lie low helps us to think highly of God, and, consequently, to desire much to be with God. O to have our graces always flourishing, for then shall we always be ready to depart, and willing to be offered up. Lack of grace entangles us, but to abound in grace is to live in the suburbs of the New Jerusalem. ~ C.H. Spugeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm