Ephesians 1: 5-6
1 Chronicles 17: 16-17, 21-24
RT In thinking on these verses my mind was directed to Joseph bringing his two sons to Jacob. It says he “brought them out from his knees” (Gen 48: 12): a place of great affection, it conveys to me. He speaks about these two sons as those “whom God has given me here”, v 9. It is like what we are thinking about in this reading.
Thou gav’st us, Father, in Thy love,
To Christ to bring us home to Thee
(Hymn 88).
The name of the first son was Manasseh, “For God has made me forget”: that is the Lord in this section. For Him the cross was a settled matter; the agony, His pathway of suffering, were forever over. He looked on these few men and He says, “God has made me forget”. Joseph looked at the other son and said, ‘double fruitfulness’, Gen 41: 51, 52 and note. These disciples were something to Him that far surpassed the sufferings; He saw the glory of it all, and that is the Lord in this section. He is coming to the Father, but, dear brethren, He is carrying us with Him, and what He is speaking to the Father about is you and me.
So in the verse we began with He says, “And in that day ye shall demand nothing of me: verily, verily, I say to you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give you”. Then He says, “In that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not to you that I will demand of the Father for you, for the Father himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me”. I would just like to linger on that word for a moment dear brethren; “the Father himself has affection for you, because ...”. It brings just a little touch of responsibility into the matter. The Father is attracted because we are lovers of Jesus.
I would like to speak to you young people for a moment. The Father rejoices when you confess the name of Jesus. He rejoices when He hears you testifying to your friends that you love the Lord Jesus; that draws out the Father’s affections. God has affection for us because of His sovereign love and grace and mercy, but there is an added touch in that verse; “the Father himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me”. Has Jesus drawn our hearts enough, dear brethren, that the Father takes account of it? He says, ’They are loving my Son, and I am going to open my house with all the wealth and favour that is inside it’, and He is saying, ’Come in, come in in Christ’s name’.
I read verse 16 just to introduce us: I hardly know what verses to read, and the brethren will be free to bring in other verses, but it is very wonderful that the Lord does not say this privately; He must have prayed a lot privately, but He says this in the hearing of the disciples. It is read today, dear brethren, in our hearing, that we may be attracted to hear how the Lord would speak to the Father about you and me. You could go back and think about Peter and his failures, about how they had all let the Lord down, but He does not say that. He speaks about them and He says, “They were thine, and thou gavest them me”, chap 17: 6. He says they had continued with Him in His temptations. Where were they in John 4, where were they in those testings that the Lord passed through, where were they? Well, the Lord says, ’They have continued with me’. It reminded me of that verse, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”, Jer 2: 2. Could you find that verse in Numbers? No, Numbers brings out their history after the flesh in responsibility. But, “I remember for thee, the kindness of thy youth”: let me tell you this in all reality, that the Lord Jesus and the Father have great respect for young people turning to Him and being faithful to Him. I can tell you that with all assurance. The Lord will remember for you the simple prayer you made in the time of need, the way you turned to Jesus. I remember turning to Jesus when somebody told me they could not help me; I fell on my knees and found Jesus helped me. These are just simple things. The Father remembers for us ‘the kindness of our youth’. Dear young people, do not spoil it, do not let the allure of the world draw you away; “the Father himself has affection for you”: there is nobody that loves you more. It is fine to be loved by your parents and know you are in a home where you are loved, a local meeting where you are loved, but get to know “the Father himself has affection for you”. It is a wonderful place of favour and, especially, I say again, He is very ready to convey to young people that they may get an impression of Jesus in their early years that will never leave them. They may depart from it, and they may touch much sorrow, but the Lord Jesus and the Father will remember for you the simple confessions you have made, and the simple trust and the prayers you have made to Jesus and to the Father. I say that for our encouragement, but there is a responsibility, “because ye have had affection for me”.
But then He goes on in chapter 17 to speak about these men, and He is concerned that they might get to know something of the Father Himself. He says, “I do not demand concerning the world”; then He says, “I am no longer in the world”, but “I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me”. That is what the Father does, He keeps you in the name of Jesus: the preciousness of Jesus to the Father shining out in His affection for you in the very circumstances you may be facing today. Then the Lord goes on, and you can just imagine Peter and the apostles hearing these words, and they would say, ‘What me?’. “They are not of the world”; that is how He views you! Maybe you have tampered with the world, maybe you are still tampering with the world; the world is very near, it is in us all and we all touch it, but the Lord Jesus says of them: “they are not of the world”. Now it is not all abstract, dear brethren. The Lord saw in those few disciples a character that was not of the world, and He gives full credit to it. He magnifies our expressions of loyalty, touches of faithfulness. He appreciates it far more perhaps than the brethren will. I would encourage our hearts to be simple in your links with the Father. That is why He takes that name; there is nobody that loves you more; so He takes that name. And the Lord says, “And now I come to thee”, and now He says, ‘I will leave them in your hands’. What better hands could you be in? “Sanctify them by the truth; thy word is truth.” Let us keep in the area where sanctification is enjoyed. It is a simple word that means that if you are a believer in Him, the Lord Jesus has set you apart. That is not all, He has set Himself apart, to serve you until you come into the fulness of the Father’s house; what a place of favour! The Scriptures are the truth, we will get the truth in the meetings, but we come to this that we are pilgrims here waiting to be in the Father’s house. The more of the blessedness of the Father’s house we know, the better pilgrims we will be. That is what He is saying here: “I sanctify myself for them”. And then He says, “the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”, and then He says, ‘Thou hast given me a glory’, and He speaks about them.
I only refer to Ephesians, and then I thought we might just close with a man that went in and sat before God. He heard unspeakable things. I just want to touch on that word in that passage: “thou … hast regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree”. O what favour! Cloudless favour rests upon us here.
DBR I was thinking back to what you said about “the Father himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me”. I was thinking how Mr Stoney loved to speak about the Christian circle. I thought we are really brought into a circle of things; the Father is in it, the Son is in it, and the Holy Spirit is in it; it is an economy as you were saying, but we are in it too! It is affecting, is it not?
RT O circle of affections all divine (Hymn 207)
Well, it should not be hard for us to have affection for Jesus should it? He makes it very simple; children are taught it in their youth, but then, how is it displayed in our lives? The Father is looking on us in our wilderness path and the temptations that come in, which will maybe grow, but we will only get through them as we have a sense of this favour. ’Because you have affection for Jesus’, the Father says, ’I am opening the whole doors of my house’. The whole economy is there active to bring us in and to be at home in it.
DBR As you say, the Father is vigilant in taking account of every expression of affection for Christ. I like how you bring it in not only for the young, but for the old too: we need it. We need to be revived in our affections for the Lord Jesus daily, and I think that what you say is very precious, that the Father takes account of any expression of affection; it is “because ye have had affection for me”.
RT I think we have proved it in our youth. Some things came up, and who could we turn to? Turn to the Father and He makes it very real. Some things that men could not help me about, the Father just put His hand on the whole thing. We are not speaking about abstract things, dear brethren; we are speaking about experience - “the Father himself has affection for you” - just in that simple thing. Not because you have been good, but He loves you because you “have had affection for me”; a rejected Christ, Someone whom the world has despised. He rejoices to see His name, the name of Jesus, being confessed and maintained in simple believers.
JDG It is a wonderful thing to ask in His Name. I was thinking it would be new to them; they had not done this before. We are used to it, but it is a real thing to be experienced and to realise that the Father takes account of that precious Name that we mention, if we ask anything in it.
RT He sees the traits and features of Christ coming out in the saints in simple dependence and simple appreciation of Jesus, does He not?
JDG It is not a formula; it is meant to affect our own souls when we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus.
DBR It is not only the power of the Name, but the fragrance of the Name. That is the kind of prayer that is of value to the Father, do you think? Something that is asked in the power of the Name, but also the fragrance of that Name to the Father.
RT Well, that is the burnt offering going up; the fragrance of that offering: Someone there in the full delight of the Father’s affections, and He is in ours and we are asking in His Name.
RFW That is like when Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “to the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father”, 1 Thess 1: 1. Is that why He writes to them in that way? I was just thinking of what it was to belong to such a company of persons who love Jesus and are loved by the Father on that account.
RT Yes, and what credit He gives to them, does He not? He is almost attracting the Father to them. He writes of their love and hope, ’They are worthy of all your blessings because they have had affection for the Lord Jesus’.
NJH So that supreme affection marks each divine Person; it is unlimited. But it is “have had affection”; does that show that the Father remembers every sincere expression of affection for Christ?
RT Yes; the credits are full, are they not? Just simple loyalties to Jesus, and we see here how the Lord appreciated it. He is looking at them, Peter, John, Andrew, these simple disciples, and He says, ’They have left all and followed me. They have come through amidst all the Pharisees and the traditions of the Jews, they have endeared themselves to me and now I am endearing them to the Father’. What a commendation!
QAP The name is an ointment poured forth
Song of Songs 1:3.
He has drawn us to Himself, has he not?
RT Yes. He has drawn us to Himself by experience; experience is what has made Jesus precious to us, experience of meeting our need: that is one thing here He is saying to the Father about us. Just put ourselves in this: what could the Lord say to the Father about us? Beyond what we could think! He is viewing us from His own thoughts; He bypasses so much, but He appreciates every little spark of loyalty and faithfulness to Him in His absence and He says, ’I want them at home in the Father’s presence’.
RGr Mr Darby says in one of his hymns;
Yet deeper, if a calmer, joy
The Father’s love shall raise
(Hymn 178).
Do you think there is some sense in which the Lord would teach us the distinctiveness that belongs to divine Persons? I am thinking again of this word “Himself”. What would you say about it?
RT Well, it is to identify that it is a Person. It is not just abstract, but it is a Person who has been seen in the pathway and ways of Jesus, is it not? What would you say?
RGr Well, we get the thought in regard of all divine Persons; it comes eventually to God Himself, Rev 21: 3. Do you think there is some sense in which we would take account of the Persons in their own glory and majesty apart from any question of need or want or failure? We would see the Person as He wishes to be known, would that be right?
RT Yes indeed, and as the Lord would wish us to know Him as well. “Nor does any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal him”, Matt 11: 27. It would encourage us in these practical things we have spoken of to be faithful so that the Son may be pleased to speak to us about the Father.
PAG The expression is used in John’s first epistle that “he who confesses the Son has the Father also”, chap 2: 23. Could you help us as to what it would mean to have the Father? We might understand what it means to know the Father but what does John mean when he says, “he … has the Father”?
RT He has everything! What do you think?
PAG So you could not have more than that, could you?
RT You could not! Would you want it?
PAG Well what else is there?
RT Nothing! Yes, that is just the whole thing put in a few words. If we come to the Father; what a Father He is! It is He that sought us out as sons of Adam’s race. In fact, it says the Father gave them to Christ.
Thou gav’st us, Father, in Thy love,
To Christ to bring us home to Thee
(Hymn 88).
That is part of these glories; that is the glory that Christ has given us, the glory of sonship, that we may be at home in all the blessed liberty and intelligence of being brought to the Father.
JSp The revelation comes from One who is in the bosom of the Father. Does He draw us into that kind of intimacy?
RT That is everything; that is very sweet. I do not think there are many verses more precious than this section that we have been reading from: it is the Lord, the Spirit, and the Father. And the Lord is bringing us into this great economy of love, a dispensation of blessing, and here He is bringing us to the height of it. The Father links with purpose in Ephesians: “he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”, chap 1: 6. He has sanctified Himself for us: that means that it is the Lord’s whole occupation today. This is the pearl seen in these few disciples, something that man had no hand in at all, and here He is; He is taking that pearl into the Father’s presence and we do not hear any more about it, but we will see it at the gates of Jerusalem; the Holy City, a pearl at every gate. That is the great result of the Lord’s sanctifying Himself for us. So it says “I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth”. Now “the truth” does not just mean reading all the ministry, but you have an impression that you have been brought into a great system of resource. The truth is resource, it meets difficulties, but the great point in the truth is to bring us into the glory and blessedness and preciousness of the presence of the Father. That is what He says, “thy word is truth”. “I do not demand for these only”; He is speaking about you and me here in that verse 20, demanding for us: “also for those who believe on me through their word; that they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”.
Well, they will know that in a day to come. It may be that there is a lot of ruin round about us, but there will be a day to come when the saints of this dispensation will be displayed to a wondering universe because Christ has sanctified Himself for them and they have been sanctified by the truth. The Lord will bring them all out; He will bring them all out into display, the joy of His own workmanship, and all the efforts and expenditure of His love shining in that heavenly company. And then He says, “the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”; it is to be enjoyed now, dear brethren: a glory that is given us. It is not to make anything of us, but it is to make us settled in our affections in the Father’s house, sonship. That is what is referred to if you put a name on it, but I could hardly put a name on it. It is sonship, I am sure of that, but it is a glory, “the glory thou hast given me”. It is a reflected glory; it has been given to Christ, but He did not keep it all to Himself; but He makes Himself an object to our hearts. “The glory which thou hast given me I have given them”; oh what favour has been conferred upon us by Jesus to bring us in!
JAB How does truth sanctify us?
RT Well, by practising it.
JAB The note says ‘in the power of truth’. Say more about it from your experience.
RT Well, you believe it! We are not talking about theories today; it is beyond what I can possibly put over very well, but it is an experience that the truth sanctifies you. If sonship lays hold of me the truth will sanctify me. What would you say?
JAB Is the Spirit’s service, that we were speaking of earlier, to guide us into it? There is gentle regulation in the guidance of the Spirit into all the truth, is there not?
RT It is through companionship with Jesus, I would say, companionship with Him. He is the truth.
JAB Is what you are bringing before us a motivation to want to do this?
RT Yes, because there is nothing better. Some of us would know that better than others from our experiences, but we would like to convey it to the young people that there is nothing better. The brethren may look a motley crew to the world, but this is how they are viewed in divine affections and that alone is what is going to matter. Let the world say what it will about His brethren, let them despise them as they might, they despised the Lord of glory, but He says, “They are not of the world”. The truth, believing it, taking it home, praying: that is sanctifying us by the truth.
JCG The Lord taught in the sermon on the mount “that ye may be the sons of your Father”, Matt 5: 45. Would that be the exhibition of it?
RT Yes, very good; that is sonship laying hold of us, is it not? There are a lot of things which you may not do because the brethren do not like them; that is all right, but do you do things because you want to be pleasing to the Father? You do not want to offend the Father by taking worldly things in to your house, or living in worldly habits, because you love the Father. If we loved Him more we would not want to grieve Him, would we? And that is what the Lord is encouraging them about: “the glory thou has given me I have given them”. It is encouraging us that the Lord has put something upon us that is precious to the Father.
JCG Have we to learn something as we go along like Peter? When he recounts the experience on the mount of transfiguration he speaks about “such a voice being uttered”, (2 Pet 1: 17); that was the Father’s voice. He had learned something additional of the Father.
RT Yes, indeed, and the Lord is saying here, ‘This is my Father’. He could not put them into better hands; He puts them in a place of complete satisfaction. Then He says, “Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me”; that is a wonderful glory, resting upon a worthy Person, “my beloved Son”! The Father has put everything into the hands of Jesus, and He is attracting us here that “they also may be with me”. We have some fresh touches of it in our pathways, and especially at the Supper, some fresh impression of the glory that has been given to Jesus. Where is breakdown if you are looking on that? It is a glory that He has in all the worthiness of His Person, and He will bear it for all eternity; that “they may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me”. I think that is the blessed assurance that things will finish in triumph. We know breakdown only too well, but all will finish in triumph because of the glory that Christ has been given; and He is: it is shining out today in Him to carry us through this wilderness journey for God’s eternal praise and glory.
NJH Do we come in some sense experimentally to what is meant by “Holy Father” and “Righteous Father”? He says “my Father”; that is, He stood in a particular relationship which He had along with the Father, and then He says, “your Father”, John 20: 17. I just wondered if something is worked out in experience so that you come to the Father as “Holy Father” and “Righteous Father”; what do you think?
RT Well, we never forget that, do we? He has come very near to us, but He is God. I enjoyed reading somewhere: ‘My Father is God, that gives me wonderful resources, all that God is, is shining out to me as Father, but that my Father is God, brings me to a sense of responsibility’. His Father is a conveyance of love in its fulness, but He is God, He is over all blessed forever. He remains in His majesty, but all that He is, is shining out towards me in fatherly grace. But if that lays hold of me I will want to be a son to my Father. It says that.
JDG Would subjection work out in us on account of that? I was thinking of 1 Corinthians 15 where it says “the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection”, verse 28. That must shine out in all the saints: ‘my Father is God’ - subjection is the answer to that.
RT Very good. I think that is something to guide us. We have got all the resources of majesty and divinity available to us, but in the enjoyment of it, we ever remember that we do not want to offend Him; we want to walk as sons in the grace and enjoyment of His love, do we not?
NMcK Is that the last scripture you read in Chronicles, “Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, is God to Israel”. Is that the two sides? He is the God to Israel, He is everything they need as God should be, but He is the God of Israel too.
RT Yes, He has the ability to bring them through the wilderness, but as they come into the land He is God to Israel. What resources are His, available to us.
DBR I was thinking we could reverse what you said. My Father is God, but God is my Father. Both are precious, are they? The Father is God, the supremacy of the Father, and yet that Person is my Father.
RT We approach in reverence; the reverence is never forgotten. We are brought to enjoy divine favour but there is to be no familiarity, we are ever to remember the majesty. “To us there is one God” (1 Cor 8: 6), but then He is “the Father”.
PAG Does the Lord insist on that in what He says to the woman in John 4, “the Father seeks such as his worshippers”, verse 23? There is the seeking of grace, looking for an answer, but “God is a spirit; and they who worship must worship in spirit and truth”, v 24. The worship must be in accord with who God is.
RT Yes, and the Spirit has come to that end. The Lord speaks about the Spirit there, does He not, to worship “in spirit and truth”? He is able to accomplish all that He purposed, He is able to accomplish it all, and the glory that Christ has been given is something distinctive: that God will effectuate all His purposes in the Man of His counsels.
DBR You said in the beginning that He said this in the presence of these men. They must have had the impression that they were on holy ground. And we are on holy ground today.
RT They showed it in the beginning of the Acts. You see these same persons standing up, turning Jerusalem upside down. There they are in the power of divine affections. Something of John 17 was in Peter’s heart when He stood up with the eleven; what power was in that preaching! The whole of Jerusalem was set aside and Peter was shining out there, “neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”, Acts 4: 12. What power there was in that testimony at the beginning of Acts. I think they were enjoying the Father’s favour. They were receiving the glory that Christ had been given and they were standing up with something of the glory that they had been given shining in them.
JCG What you quoted from Deuteronomy 33 as to Naphtali, “satisfied with favour”, bears on it very much, that this was God’s purpose that we should enjoy it. I was thinking of part of Mr Darby’s hymn;
Free, our peaceful feet may venture
In the paradise of God.
(Hymn 206)
RT Very good; that is washed feet! That is where it leads you. Feet being washed, washing one another’s feet, leads you to the paradise of God. That is very sweet!
So what I was thinking about in Ephesians was “he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”. That is John 17; you get the Beloved there, speaking to the Father. This is like the Father’s answer to that speaking, “he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”. We need to get an impression of this on Lord’s day morning, and I think we do. I have spoken already about through Christ, and that “by one Spirit we have access to the Father”, chap 2: 18. Here is the access, we are home, and we get some sense of divine favour. I would encourage the brethren to think more about impressions we get at the Supper. It is a stay in the wilderness, the Lord’s day. And the Lord will impart something to us if we make room for it. Write it down, try and write a little about it. Try and just let it work into your system a little bit, that the Lord has left something. The Lord comes in and brings everything with Him and He always leaves something. Well, He leaves something for you, different from me perhaps, but whatever He leaves with you, think about it. Think it over; Paul says, “the Lord will give thee understanding in all things” (2 Tim 2: 7), if you think it over a bit. Now, think of what it is, “he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”.
TCM The scripture that you refer to as to Naphtali goes on to say, “And full of the blessing of Jehovah”; is that Ephesians?
RT This is Jacob enfolding the two sons of Joseph: they came out between Joseph’s knees, and Jacob says “let my name be named upon them”, Gen 48: 16; there they are brought into favour, favour all divine! Neither really should have been one of the twelve, but Jacob brings them in: “let my name be named upon them”. Jacob speaks about God’s blessing; let it rest upon these two sons. What favour we have been brought into! It is a love term:
Father, Thou lovest! favour all divine,
A cloudless favour rests upon us here;
(Hymn 73).
Well, there is more than we can say about that section, but the wealth of it should come into our souls, and I think it came into David’s heart in Chronicles.
NJH Is it the lovability of Christ that is conveyed in “the Beloved”?
RT Yes; well, it is the Father’s appreciation of Christ, is it not? It is not only mine, but we are taken into favour not on what I have done, or what I have thought about Christ, but He says, ’You are taken into my favour in what I think about Christ’: “taken us into favour in the Beloved”. What an impress that should make upon us. I think as the Lord comes in at the Supper what He leaves there is more than we can take in at the time, but just think about a simple thing. It may be even a hymn that has been given out on Lord’s day morning - we have some very precious hymns - and maybe something strikes you: think about it. That is being taken into favour. These persons would not just go out and walk away as they had done before; if we are taken into favour, we will walk here very, very differently, we will look at things very differently, and that is what David does here.
David had met with the biggest disappointment of his life; he might have said, ’Well, if that is how it is turning out I am finished with it’. Some of us have said that, you know; looking at things in the breakdown we have thought, ’Well, I do not want any more to do with that’. But that is not what David does; in the face of his biggest disappointment it says he “went in and sat”. I do not know what he had in mind when he was going in, he maybe did not know what he was going to say, he might have said, ’Lord, everything has broken down, all that I expected has not turned out that way’. No, he just sat. Moses did the same thing; it says God spoke to him when Moses went in, Num 7: 89. Make room for that in your prayers, in your closet: make room for that, let God speak to you. He will give you something more. Maybe David intended to say a lot more, and God just put His hand upon him and said, ’That is enough David, listen to Me’; he “went in and sat”, and he said, ’You have spoken about me’ “according to the rank of a man of high degree”. I love that verse. David says, ’It is far more than I could ever have thought about myself or ever done’. He says, “O God; and thou hast spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree”. What could the world confer on a man like that? The world can do nothing for you if you have some sense of that, that God has thought about you “according to the rank of a man of high degree”; that is “taken us into favour in the Beloved”, enfolded in unchanging love.
Then he goes on to speak about the brethren, Israel; well, what had they been! It says, they are “the one nation in the earth that God went to redeem”. Those brethren that you may look down on, maybe even despised, they are “the one nation in all the earth”, and you are part of that company “that God went to redeem”; what an elevation to think that you belong to such a company “the one nation in the earth”! Were there not better nations, in a sense? God had every right to give them up, but David says that He went to redeem them. What for? To free them from their sins, yes, but to bring them to Himself. What a journey that was! “God went to redeem them to be a people to himself”; Then he finishes by saying, “Let it even be established, and let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, is God to Israel; and let the house of David thy servant be established before thee”. What resources, “the God of Israel is God to Israel”! And then, “For thou, my God, hast revealed to thy servant that thou wilt build him a house; therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray before thee. And now, Jehovah, thou art that God, and hast promised this goodness unto thy servant”.
DBR Wonderful language!
RT Beyond what we could ever make up. It brings us to His purpose; what He has purposed, He has effectuated.
JCG Do you think it is because David listened and understood what God was saying to him in relation to the building of the house that he is able when he brings in the wealth to the house? In 1 Chronicles 29: 10 he says, “Blessed be thou, Jehovah, the God of our father Israel, for ever and ever. Thine, Jehovah, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the splendour, and the majesty”; then he says, “thou art exalted as Head above all”, v 11. He has that appreciation of the supremacy of God in that sense, and that would be what we reach in the service of God as led by Christ, do you think?
RT I am glad you referred to that. The effect upon David is that he went out and started to prepare out of his affection, and out of his affliction, for that house of God. That was the effect of it; I do not know how he felt when he went in, what he expected, but he comes out and he says, “thou art that God” and he commits himself wholeheartedly out of his affection and out of his affliction; his whole occupation was the house of God.
DBR This is possibly one of the finest moments in David’s history, do you think?
RT Well, you come out better than you go in!
DBR I was thinking practically; I value what you said about it. We have our own individual times with God; I think sometimes it is good just to be quiet before Him. What do you say about that?
RT That is it, David went in and sat. I am sure he had much on his heart, but I think God stopped him, He does not want to listen to our shortcomings. That is what it said about Moses: he went in and God spoke to him from off the mercy seat. God has Christ before Him when He is speaking to us. His eye is on Jesus, the Beloved, on Christ, and He is speaking to us according to “a man of high degree”. Well, may it rest on our spirits, dear brethren, that we belong to such a family, we have been brought into such an economy of love that we are able to tread our path here in simple faith, dependence, and obedience to the One who has so loved us that we ought to spend the rest of the time pleasing to the Father.
Glasgow
5th October 2013
Key to Initials:
as in the January issue, plus - T C Munro; J Spinks, both Grangemouth