PRESERVATION IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRESSURE (1)
[p. 309] PRESERVATION IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRESSURE (1)
Psalm 42:1 - 11; Psalm 43:1 - 5
JT The hope and expectation is that this book will yield what will be found helpful in view of the effect on the saints of current circumstances in the world. In the second book, we shall perhaps labour under peculiar difficulty in looking into the Psalms, because they are very extensive and perhaps less known than most scriptures, but this one book is selected because there is that which bears peculiarly on the present situation.
The book contemplates the Lord’s people, Israel, who had been driven out of their land, at least out of Jerusalem. Many of our brethren are driven out in a like sense from their homes and their local meetings, and this book will yield, it is believed, in relation to them, and to us in relation to them, as to how this extraordinary exigency is to be met, indeed to some extent has been met, for the younger brethren are shut off from their homes and local settings and are in foreign circumstances, circumstances inimical to their spiritual welfare. We shall see that this book contemplates such a position and how the memory is taxed on what has been experienced; that is still to be retained in the mind, and used, so that our brethren may be preserved in freshness and not be overcome. This psalm begins with the idea of the panting of the hart, that is, a felt need of what it used to experience, but no longer experiences. So that the psalmist goes on to say, “My soul thirsteth, for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (verse 2). So that we may begin with the longing of the hart in these circumstances for what it once enjoyed and now is deprived [p. 310] of in a measure.
ANW Remembering such occasions as this, you mean?
JT Quite so. Many of our brethren are shut off from this occasion, and such occasions elsewhere. You can see how preservation in the cutting off is contemplated by the mind being kept fresh and active, because the psalmist while speaking of his tears says in verse 4, “These things I remember”; it is what we are able to remember of concrete experiences now being denied us, and how the Spirit would use the memory.
AHP Is there any special instruction in the ascription of the psalm being “... of the sons of Korah”?
JT That is a feature of this book which the Lord undoubtedly will stress as we proceed: they were persons who deserved governmental dealings, but were saved.
JWD It speaks of the chief Musician, which I suppose would involve general temple service. Do we not all come into this special exercise you refer to in a feeling, sympathetic way?
JT That is what I hope we shall see, but we are not all cut off. We are not all driven out. The assembly is one, and if one member suffers, all do. Hence, we are now carrying our brethren on our hearts sympathetically and they will gain. The constitution of the assembly implies that they will gain by this, although they will not attend these meetings, and we on our side will gain, too, of course. So that the work of God is to go on, notwithstanding adverse circumstances in this sense. It is a question of overcoming on the part of all, but one particular part suffering.
AAT Do you think Daniel was in circumstances like this?
JT He was, just so. He was shut off from Jerusalem, cut off from it, but the windows were opened [p. 311] toward Jerusalem. It does not appear that he opened them every time he went up to pray. They were kept open. So that is the idea. Whilst cut off physically and geographically, we are not cut off spiritually because “There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”, Ephesians 4:4 - 6. So that universal unity, in that sense, is maintained.
HB Is there a link with the book of Daniel? We get the maschilim thought in Daniel. Is this one of the Maschil Psalms?
JT Half of them at least are in this book, which is very important to remember, meaning that there are those who are instructed, as many of our young men are. They read the ministry and God will use that to support them in their isolation. It is striking that the maschilim idea is stressed in this book, because the written ministry is the thing that they have anyway and should have. They have a Bible, of course.
JWD What is the thought in it being Elohim so prominently, instead of Jehovah as in the first book?
JT That is they are not in covenant circumstances. We are in covenant circumstances here in this meeting, so to speak, but they are cut off from their covenant circumstances in the collective sense. We shall also see that there is hardly a mention of Jehovah in this book; it is generally Elohim or God, or other names of God.
J.H.3rd. Would David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:18 help in this? He says, “Jehovah, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and direct their hearts to thee!” Would this be the filling out of that, offering our prayers for those who are cut off?
JT Very good. “The imagination of the thoughts of the heart”. That is the thing that enters into this enquiry because these are psalms of remembrance, so here these things are remembered (verse 4). The idea of remembering is found specially in Christianity, because the principle of the Lord’s Supper is that it is a memorial. We are habituated to the idea of remembering through it. The mind is peculiarly stressed. It is calling to mind, the power of calling to mind, the power of eliminating what is unnecessary, or useless, but of calling to mind what is necessary and useful. So that Peter speaks about a pure mind, that a pure mind is to be stirred up.
HGH Do these psalms encourage us with the thoughts of the stability of the work of God, things which we can remember in spite of the circumstances? We are reminded how stable they are.
JT Very good. He says, “These things I remember and have poured out my soul within me: how I passed”, it is historical, “how I passed along with the multitude, how I went on with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, a festive multitude”. That is what he brings in in the power of memory, and in anyone who is isolated the power to do this is helpful. It brings the past into the present, and the Spirit, ever present and ever operating, makes the thing good in some sense.
HGH Does this suggest the operations of the Spirit in view of things being held in remembrance in any way?
JT I think it does. We all normally have the Spirit. The Christian normally has the Spirit, and the Spirit is always ready to aid in the use of the memory.
CAM Would the longing in Psalm 1 show that there is this desire for the Spirit?
JT The Spirit is symbolised by water, as you know. He says here, “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God”. Well, that is the thirst. The thirst is for God, for the living God. The Spirit is God Himself, really. The assembly is the habitation of God in Spirit. That is God in Spirit. That is how it is put in Ephesians. So that the real thing, the very essence of the dispensation is available to us in isolation, whether at sea or otherwise isolated. The constitution of man is intended to be self-sustaining under certain circumstances, so that one is not wholly dependent upon the physical presence of others. The constitution of the assembly makes way for the Spirit to operate for the help of isolated persons, that is, “Death works in us”, Paul says, “but life in you”, 2 Corinthians 4:12. Life will be operative where the senses are kept open in the individual. The Spirit will co-operate and work to the end that what is going on, what is current in the assembly, is available even to those in isolation.
ANW Would “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10) imply that John was ready for such a transfer of his mind and feelings?
JT That is a good illustration. He was an isolated brother “in the island called Patmos, for the word of God”. He was isolated and great things came to his attention, the whole of the book of the Revelation indeed, and that illustrates, of course, what is very special, but nevertheless what is possible.
JWD The idea of this thirst then is a commendable thing?
JT I think it is. I think God values it. “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink”, John 7:37. The thirsting is taken account of.
JWD I was going to suggest that in John 14 we have the idea, as I understood it, that if I am in isolation, the glory of the collective really is come into my soul. I do not quite see the idea of thirst, an unsatisfied [p. 314] desire.
JT I think that belongs to man’s make up. This is a legitimate normal thing, I would say, when you are deprived of anything: “My soul thirsteth”.
SJH It would be right to feel the loneliness of the position?
JT That is what I was thinking. The thirst is quite a normal thing which was, of course, more felt in the Old Testament when the Spirit was not given, as John says, “For the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:39), but the Spirit is now. He is now existent, active in the saints. Thirst may be met; whatever legitimate thirst there may be, it may be met.
JH God has been manifested in flesh. We should know God in a different way from these people.
JT Quite so. We should make all allowance for that. The psalmist uses the hart as a symbol: “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God”. The naming of the creatures by Adam runs through, and the psalmist here is contemplating a hart and what characterises him in what is normal. But notice, he not only says, “God”, but, “the living God”.
AHP Would it correspond with the thought of thirsting in the Lord’s word, “Blessed they who hunger and thirst after righteousness”, as distinct from an abstract way?
JT There it is. The thirst would be met.
RWS Is there something in verse 3 which is akin to the feelings of the heart of Christ when He was morally refused at Jerusalem, as the young men are today: “My tears have been my bread day and night, while they say unto me all the day. Where is thy God?”
JT Quite so. David himself longed for the well at Bethlehem — a good illustration. Of course, the [p. 315] Lord had these experiences in measure, so that it says, “Why art thou cast down, my soul, and art disquieted in me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him for the health of his countenance”. He was yearning for something that had been afforded him here, the health of His countenance. We may experience that here today at these meetings, divine presence involving health. Later the psalmist speaks of his own countenance, but this is the health of the divine countenance.
Rem “My soul” frequently occurs in his thoughts.
JT That is another feature, the soul. Man is composed of spirit, soul and body. Here it is the soul, meaning the affections or lower affections, but not the mere natural affections. It is the soul of the believer which is peculiarly liable to be affected, peculiarly as having the sense of need.
ABP Is there a great need of having our feelings controlled by the mind, by our mental attitude, if that is the right expression, as under the control of the Spirit?
JT I think that is right. The spirit is the highest part of the tripartite being called man. It is that which links him immediately with God, but then the same feelings may work out through the soul in a lower sense. So that the Lord’s Supper, I believe, is the centre for all this that we speak of: how the believer comes into the way under the influence of the mind, a renewed mind, so that it becomes a regulating power generally in him. “So then I myself with the mind”, the apostle says, “serve God’s law”, Romans 7:25. It seems to be the authoritative element in what we might call the institution. Man’s own self is an institution and there is an element of dominance by which other things are held in control and regulated. I believe the Lord’s Supper is intended for that among [p. 316] other things.
ANW Is that to be known by us that I should not only control but speak to my soul?
JT Quite so. We read that a man ruling his own spirit is greater than if he took a city. The believer is like an institution and the dominating feature, of course, is the spirit, but the mind is a member. The spirit is a greater thought because it really in one sense represents the person. But the mind is what we may call an instrument under the control of the spirit.
AAT If the mind has wandering thoughts, is it not out of control?
JT We become useless at a meeting like this if we are not under the control of the spirit through the mind; the control is through the mind. We sing, ‘No infant’s changing pleasure is like my wandering mind’. That is an acknowledgment of a defect which ought to be remedied. The spirit is given, divinely given. The spirit, it is said, returns to God who gave it. Every person receives the spirit directly from God. It is not a mere created thing. It comes directly from God and through it God has a means of reaching us and searching the innermost parts, we are told. It is like a candle and it is essential to the assembly in function that we should know how to eliminate what is unsuitable, and perhaps useless, and make full scope for what is suitable.
ABP Is the mind regulated by the truth?
JT I think that is generally the way it is. The epistle to the Romans makes much of that, how the mind is regulated, how it is renewed: “By the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”, Romans 12:2.
AAT In working this thing out, for instance on Lord’s Day morning before the breaking of bread, if I were occupied with outside things, it would damage the [p. 317] meeting?
JT It does and it is your business to see that the doors are closed against that. “The doors shut ... through fear of the Jews”(John 20:19), it is said. Every person there has a door in his heart or mind, whatever it may be, to keep out what is extraneous and useless.
AHP Is it not remarkable that whenever you get times of great pressure among the people of God, the deeper feelings of the saints are brought into activity and prominence as governed by the mind?
JT We can see here in the psalm, “My soul is cast down within me; therefore do I remember thee from the land of the Jordan, and the Hermons, from mount Mizar”. The psalmist clearly alludes to a position physically and geographically that was not his home. He was away from home. He calls it the “land of the Jordan” and “the Hermons” and “the hill of Mizar”. The allusion is to an eastern territory, as one would view it who had his home in Jerusalem and affections there, the house of God and the saints there. Now he is away but he is active; his soul is cast down but he says, “My God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore do I remember thee”. It is a question of the memory.
HGH So that verses 5 and 6 show the mind in operation in relation to those things?
JT I think so. When he says, “I remember thee from the land of the Jordan, and the Hermons, from mount Mizar”, he is alluding to his mind, the power to call into mind what he had experienced earlier of God, probably when he had enjoyed the holy convocations at Jerusalem which were times of great blessing; but now he is speaking of certain geographical positions which we can well understand when we speak of our brethren. Well, it is important to know where the brethren are, whether it be, as it were, in the region of the Jordan, or in the Hermons which alludes to a mountain of distinction in the [p. 318] east, in that district, or at a smaller mount which is the hill of Mizar. These are allusions to places of distinction known in the world and the brethren are there, but they are not where they used to be. Where they used to be has to be called to mind. They are going to live on their memories for the moment.
J.H.3rd. Would you say something as to the matter of the soul within? In verse 4 it seems to be an act of his own that when he remembers he says, “I ... have poured out my soul within me”: but in verse 6 he seems to have no control of it; he is cast down.
JT Well, I think we ought to be able to follow the psalmist. These psalms are written by believers and they tell us the experiences of believers in certain circumstances, how the soul is affected, how the mind is affected, how the heart is affected, and we are not strangers to these things. It is a question of gaining through their experiences. The Spirit of God has written them down for us. He has selected certain men to write and certain circumstances in which they wrote, and now the question is whether we can utilise these things, whether the Spirit of God intends that that should support us in the extraordinary circumstances in which we are found, especially those of us who are away in strange circumstances and positions and surroundings.
JWD Do you look at these strange circumstances as different to the remnant? It would almost look as if the devil was directly behind their position. What about our young men in strange positions? Are they in the same position as the godly remnant?
JT To some extent, we would say. We are counting that they are. We have to tax our memories as to where they are. We do not visit them very much where they are, but in general they come to us. In general we are all Christians and we have the Holy Spirit. The writers of the Psalms were [p. 319] Christians in that sense. They were the children of God. They were the ones taken up by God to write their experience. We have many historical psalms. They are to enable us to grasp the circumstances. Here we have a set of circumstances which are called the land of the Jordan, the Hermons which are the mountains or a group of mountains, and a little mount which is Mizar. Now we have to see where our brethren are, to see if they fit in with these circumstances.
CR It is beautiful to see in Acts 11 that Barnabas, the son of consolation, was sent down to those who were dispersed through the persecution of Stephen, and he exhorted them to abide in the Lord. They sent the right one, the son of consolation.
JT Very good. They were scattered. You bring up what is very important at this juncture because the scattering at the time of Stephen corresponds very much. The brethren were scattered. The word scattered was used. Peter used the word dispersion. In both cases it is a question of the government of God. In both cases the saints acted on the circumstances, so that they are far away from where they used to be. We find that God began to work. God used them where they were scattered and then the central position is linked up with them; that is, Barnabas is sent out, a man thoroughly in the thing, a man who was sympathetic with what God was doing, and we have a peculiar expression there, namely, “the ears of the assembly”(Acts 11:22). These are ears that we ought to have so as to understand what is transpiring in these distant positions into which the brethren have been driven. They have not gone there of their own volition. So the work of God at Antioch went on.
Ques Are the young brethren to have ears, too? John remembered all the seven assemblies in Asia when he was on the [p. 320] island.
JT Just so.
Ques Are these two Psalms spiritually balanced in relation to the one who has uttered them?
JT Well, that is for us to see. So far, you can see that the writer is influenced divinely. He is not linking up himself with anything in the new circumstances, any adverse thing, not finding any pleasure in them in a natural way. His soul is going through certain things, and now in verse 7 he tells us of certain experience that no doubt he needed. “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy cataracts”; he says to God, “All thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me”. We come here to the Lord’s own experience really, and each believer has something of this. He is with God in these strange circumstances. If he is with God, it is not all suffering in the sense that he is having a hard time of it. God has something to say to him in these circumstances.
ANW And does the “My God” imply a history in those far-off circumstances that can be drawn upon? It is “My God”.
JT The link is there. But there is a sense now of something befalling him. Well, what is it? He says, “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy cataracts”. The allusion, of course, is to some powerful water acting and then, “All thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me”. Take Jonah — what an experience he had in the Mediterranean! He was wilful for a time, and many of our young brethren are wilful. Maybe they are in those circumstances because of that, but at the point they accept that it is the will of God, it is God’s doing, it is not an accident. Jonah would not go east although God directed him to go east; he went west and the ship was overtaken by a storm; he was in the mind of God, this particular person; each young brother has to come to that, that there is something in me that God is dealing with. So at last he says,
“[p. 321] Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea”. Well, now he is coming to the position of Christ, and that is what I think this passage alludes to. We must not forget the government of God. Whatever the Government is doing, God is having to say to me. It is, “Thy breakers and thy billows”. So Jonah goes into the depths, and he links on with the temple from the depths of the Mediterranean, which is an excellent illustration of what we are saying: how a person who is driven out like that, whatever the cause, links on with God and His holy temple. His prayer came into God in His holy temple, so that he was not very far from God.
CAM It seems to result in some special sense and type of the sufferings of Christ Himself, does it not?
JT There is nothing to be coveted more than that. If things are hard, can I link on with Christ in them? He has been in that supremely and I think that is the point. It is a question of what God is doing. His deep and His cataracts, and His breakers and His billows all going over me. It seems hard, but it is God this time. It is not my officer; it is God.
J.H.3rd. I wondered if Jeremiah 45 fitted into this. Baruch, the young man, says, “Woe unto me! for Jehovah hath added grief to my sorrow; I am weary with my sighing, and I find no rest”. Jeremiah 45:3. I was wondering, if we are passing through that. God would help us to see what He is saying when the word comes to us, “And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not” (verse 5).
JT Quite so. He would keep watch. God is going to bring us out of this sorrow and this pressure. It is a question of seeing that His hand is in it. As Peter says, “It came even to me”.
RWS Where is the balance between taking advantage of whatever legal opportunities the Government [p. 322] offers to avoid this service, and the apparent gain that will accrue to the young men in the service?
JT That becomes a moral issue. If I understand you right, one seeking to evade; you mean that?
RWS Taking advantage of every legal opportunity the government gives to avoid the service. I was wondering if that was right, or if the gain of this experience would be missed?
JT That is a very fine point. It is the state of one’s soul, whether I am selfish, or whether on the other hand I may be using what God has put in my way to use. It would be a question of the state of one’s soul, and I should think it is a fine matter as to whether I go into a thing that the Government seems to put upon me, or whether I seek a way out of it. I am not so sure. I must confess I have never been in any of these circumstances, but I can see that it requires very close examination of oneself inwardly as to what one’s motives are.
ANW But even in availing oneself of an open door, which is really open, there is plenty of room for much exercise beyond that and much experience that you are speaking of.
JT Yes. “If thou canst become free, use it rather”. 1 Corinthians 7:21. It would be a question of motives. It is the word of God that helps you. It is “quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, Hebrews 4:12. If the word has full scope, then things may come to light that I did not discern before.
ABP Did you have something further in mind in regard to “Deep calleth unto deep”?
JT I think it is an allusion to what the Lord Himself experienced. It is in this book the people of God are peculiarly affected. The enemy has [p. 323] driven them out. I would not say that all the Jews would be driven out. The antichrist would have to say to the godly, however it will be. They are the ones to think of. Jehovah, or God, would take advantage of their then circumstances to challenge their hearts as to what may be in each case, in each Israelite. He has had to leave Jerusalem, but is there not something to judge in himself?
ABP Would the Lord telling Simon to launch out in the deep carry a suggestion?
JT Well, we have arrived at Peter in Luke 5. He had a household; he was a married man, which is a great matter just now. He had a mother-in-law in his house and this is Luke’s way of presenting the history of Peter; and the Lord in the beginning of that chapter selected a boat which was Peter’s and stood in it to speak the word of God, and then He said, “Draw out into the deep”(Luke 5:4). It would look as if He had Peter in mind and what you say really enters into what we are saying in a general way that Peter is intended by God to be a model in regard of God’s governmental dealings with us. “Draw out into the deep”. Peter thought he knew what he was talking about, but the Lord was in charge. The Lord was the real master of that ship and that is the position, and hence there is a great result in Peter at that time. He fell down at Jesus’ knees, and that is what I was seeking to occupy the brethren with. Is there not something in each draftee, whether he is a draftee or whether he is rejected, what are his motives? Is he with the Lord in the matter? What are his motives? And what are the parents’ motives? What are the wife’s motives? What are the local brethren’s motives? Is God not going to bring out something in all these matters? So that we have “Thy breakers”, “Thy cataracts”, “Thy billows”. Well, Peter’s house was not just right. The Lord put his mother-in-law right but the question is about Peter himself.
Rem “I will pay that which I have vowed”(Jonah 2:9), Jonah says.
JT Quite so.
WW What we are considering here in regard to Peter and others has in view enlargement, and David, who no doubt wrote this Psalm, had in view that pressure had enlarged him. Jehovah had enlarged him, and all pressure has in view enlargement for the saints, has it not?
JT Quite so. We are being searched in the very innermost parts of our being. That is what is going on. How are we going to come out of it? So that it says, “In the day-time will Jehovah command his loving-kindness, and in the night his song shall be with me, a prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God my rock”, which alludes to God in a foundational sense, a sure footing, “Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a crushing in my bones mine adversaries reproach me, while they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God?”. Well, this is very striking, because we are under the eyes now of the ordinary man, public man, and the challenge is. Where is his God? Am I able to bring God into these matters? And so, “Why art thou cast down, my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God”. This is like the sequel to the whole psalm. Now it is his countenance. He is making headway. He can talk about his countenance. The countenance reflects where we are.
FKC Do you think that Joseph had a healthy countenance in this way? Whatever he did prospered. It says of him that “They afflicted his feet with fetters; his soul came into irons; until the time when what he said came about: the word of Jehovah tried him”, Psalm 105:18,19. He was taken out of circumstances.
[p. 325] He might have gotten under them, but he moves through in power.
JT Quite so. That is a good section to bring up. The word of Jehovah tried him until what he said, what he had committed himself to, really came about.
RWS So that day and night occurs two or three times in this chapter. Does it mean that every use should be made of it? It is a twenty-four hour matter, not only as to our sorrows, but as to our joys. He says, “In the day-time will Jehovah command his loving-kindness” (verse 8).
JT He is spending his time well in that sense, showing how the day is apportioned. We often notice that God made the day and He was the first to work in it, to use it.
SJH With reference to the countenance, Nehemiah had never been sad before the king before. Does that help as to individual matters? A countenance should not be downcast because things are difficult?
JT The countenance was an exposure, in a way. He had to appear before the king with his complaint, or his request, and another thing that comes up there is that the queen is sitting by. That is to say, the government is balanced. The balance of government we shall see in Psalm 45, how the queen is on his right hand. We have got to keep in mind that the abstract government is in Christ: “The government shall be upon his shoulder”. Isaiah 9:6. And although the remnant are far away from their own place, yet they do not forget and they know in Psalm 45 something about the king and they make room for the queen. We shall see that this afternoon, God willing, but I allude to it now because Nehemiah had to do with the king and the queen. The queen was sitting by, showing that God favoured him. The queen has a modifying effect. The feminine side in [p. 326] government has a modifying effect which we can count on in having to do with the authorities. And so Nehemiah got his request, and it is encouraging to know that there is modification in government. Persons on the Boards, as the authorities are called, are modifying persons: they are not all the same. Sometimes a man on the Board is quite sympathetic with the conscientious brother; others are against him, but still there is always a balance. That is what Nehemiah found. That is what we shall find.
HB Is there a similar thought with the daughter of Pharaoh?
JT Yes — the same thing. It began in Genesis 1. He let them have dominion, the man and the woman. God has not forgotten that. We should not forget it. The truth of God has its place with us that God has government in balance and the feminine side is a balance.
Ques Pilate’s wife set a balance in that way?
JT Just so.
ANW Felix had a wife, too.
JT So this matter of countenance is important because it is a question of our appearance. Of course, the regimentals, the accoutrements, affect a young man, but it is a question of the countenance, what appears; too, what is reflected from the inward state of the person; how the countenance reflects and becomes a testimony. That brother, that person, finds favour with the superior man because of his countenance. He is not dour or resentful. He is bright and happy because of what he is inwardly, not because of his circumstances. He is greater than his circumstances. I think that is what the psalmist is aiming at. We get it also at the end of the next psalm. “Why art thou cast down, my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God”, Psalm 43:5. So that it is confirmed [p. 327] in this second psalm. Psalm 43 is really an adjunct of the 42nd.
ABP In the process of working it out, does verse 5 of Psalm 42 suggest the application of the truth, and verse 11 the subjective result in his countenance, as it were, reflecting the shining of God’s countenance?
JT As he says in verse 5, “For I shall yet praise him, for the health of his countenance”. It is literally ‘salvations’. The thing is stressed in the plural that he would be saved in such circumstances, and the salvation is in His countenance, and then verse 11 is “my countenance”. God’s countenance is working in me and is reflected in me. Then again in Psalm 43:5, “Why art thou cast down, my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God”. So there are those two things, the health of the believer’s countenance, and He is his God as well.
SJH What do you understand by the word health, health of the countenance?
JT The note says it is ‘salvations’. It is the plural of ‘salvation’. The thing is emphasised in the person. He is greater than his circumstances through it, reflecting God’s countenance in it, and what has been said about Joseph, is, I believe, a good illustration of it. He is always cheerful. As he came into the prison, to the servants of Pharaoh, as it were, he could say, ‘What is the matter?’ Yet he was a prisoner, too. He was superior.
PW Would Daniel and his companions come in here? They refused to eat of the king’s meat.
JT That is a good illustration. Finer and better looking than the others.
ABP Would Joseph in prison having been given a supervisory position show that it is possible for [p. 328] our young men to get advancement honourably without aspiration?
JT We have examples of that, of getting recognition because of their conduct.
WW Joseph accepted it from the hand of God.
JT He said, “God sent me before you”(Genesis 45:5). The name given him seems to mean the sustainer of the life of the world. It shows what God can make of one of His people in testimony and that in adverse circumstances.
ANW Referring to the young men again, do you mean that they should simply and humbly accept what honour is put upon them?
JT I would think so in that sense. We have to be watchful in all of this as to our motives.
JJ Would you say that promotion is not only honour. Is it not use, ability?
JT You mean that the promotion makes you more useful? Quite so, so that he is if he is clothed with humility. The salvation of God is there.
Rem Darius says that he thought he would make Daniel a president. I suppose he was worthy of it.
JT Quite so. It is remarkable how those men were promoted. It is a question of what we are capable of, what we are free from, free from personal motives, so that we are more usable. The word ‘salvations’ here in the note is just to stress the intensity of the thing, how a believer in his adverse circumstances reflects God in his countenance.
AHP “They shall bring me to thy holy mount, and unto thy habitations. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto the God of the gladness of my joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God” (verses 3, 4). Is that the secret of the countenance being bright?
JT Yes, God can act in spite of the distance from the place of privileges; “Send out thy light and [p. 329] thy truth: they shall lead me, they shall bring me to thy holy mount, and unto thy habitations”. It means that God is not simply going to stoop down and do some work in your soul. It says, “They shall lead me, they shall bring me to thy holy mount, and unto thy habitations”.
JTJr Peter spoke of the holy mount in his epistle in the way of remembrance — they were with Him on the holy mount. It is a matter of what had been impressed in his own soul.
JT He came in very late. He must have carried that in his soul all those years. He must have enjoyed it, perhaps no one more. He does not speak of the Lord’s sonship except there. A very striking thing, but he got the revelation of the sonship of Christ.
JWD I suppose that salvation in a practical sense is that the remnant will return to Jerusalem?
JT That is how God will do. Instead of employing a Canadian army to overcome the anti-christian army, God will operate morally, send out His light and truth and make the remnant greater. In Revelation 14 you see the hundred and forty-four thousand with the Lamb on mount Zion. How did they get there? Evidently through a moral process. They are really there with Him on a moral basis. Look at their character! What persons they are!
JWD I was wondering whether, in a certain sense, this thought of “light and truth” operates from those of us who are still in the Jerusalem position, so that the circumstances are ameliorated and our young men come back to us at different times? If the truth and light of this position is with us, it is a spiritual influence operating in relation to government?
JT I think we should especially notice this, light moving from the centre to a distance. “Send out thy light and thy truth: they shall lead me, they shall bring me to thy holy mount”. “They” is emphatic.
[p. 330] The book of Revelation, I believe, works this out in the Jewish remnant, the hundred and forty-four thousand on mount Zion. How did they get there? We have a description of them, what they were, how pure they were.
ABP Do you think this would be reflected in the letters that are written to the young brothers? If the letters are filled only with family feelings, the soul is liable to be disquieted in the distant circumstances, but if light and truth are mingled or contained in the correspondence, it will help them in their position.
JT Have we not heard of brethren, young men, getting together in these distant positions, adverse positions, able to help one another in the truth, the light and the truth operating in them so that they become, as it were, independent in that way? The light and the truth operate ultimately to bring them back in their souls, not in their bodies, but in their souls to God’s holy mount and to His habitations.
SJH Would you say a word about the first verse? Many of our young men may have to face unrighteous charges by ungodly men.
JT That is one of the things we get in the Psalms. It is wonderful how varied they are in their instruction. “Judge me, O God and plead my cause against an ungodly nation”.
SJH “Deliver me from the deceitful and unrighteous man”.
JT What a word that would be if you were unfairly dealt with by an officer or the like! How much of that there is, too. Well, the time is up but Psalm 44 should be read privately. The 45th may be the one to take up this afternoon and, perhaps, some of the psalms that follow.