PRESERVATION IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRESSURE (3)
PRESERVATION IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRESSURE (3)
JT This is a psalm of repentance, which is evidently fitting in this section, the second book of Psalms. The historical heading, which is undoubtedly inspired, helps. The psalm is addressed to the chief Musician, meaning it is fit for the service of God; “A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba”. That is an historical account entering into the book that contemplates the consequence of Israel’s guilt. It is not only David’s guilt, but Israel’s guilt which goes deeper than the sin of an individual. Psalm 45 contemplates buoyancy, spiritual richness and liberty. This one, as we have remarked, contemplates repentance; the following psalms will bear in the direction of Psalm 45, so that we have a further incident in David’s life in the next psalm, the treachery of Doeg the Edomite; then we have Psalm 53 which corresponds with Psalm 14 which is a question of the fool, what he says in his heart; and we have a further incident in David’s history in Psalm 54, when the Ziphites came; and then we have another historical reference, the Philistines taking David in Gath, in Psalm 56. Then we have three psalms, Psalm 57, Psalm 58 and Psalm 59, in each of which the words, “Destroy not”, are included. So that the brethren will see, I believe, the order of things in the Psalms, how we have one leading psalm and then one following which is corroborative.
Ques Do you look upon the sin of David as an illustration of what we might call church iniquity: the responsible element in the meeting violating the sanctity of womanhood, what the church should be to [p. 358] Christ?
JT I am sure that is an important remark, and Psalm 50 preceding this fits in in that it alludes to the spirit of ritual which marks Christendom. Ritualism is their protection, in a sense, from the guilt you allude to, a terrible state of things existing in Christendom, becoming just like the world itself, looseness.
Ques What do you allude to in Psalm 50?
JT Well, the allusion is to ritualism, I think. “Hear, my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify unto thee: I am God, thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy burnt-offerings, continually before me” (Psalm 50:7 - 8). They are there, but He is not reproving them for it, nor is He commending them. They are not to be commended, for they are superficial as shown in verses 9 to 23. “Unto the wicked God saith ...”, that is to Christendom, making the application according to what we said: ungodly, unconverted men taking up the thing in ministry. So Psalm 50 is preliminary, according to what you say, to the 51st.
Rem That is very illuminating, and I suppose verse 6 of Psalm 50 stands out over against that; it is what is inward, the working out of things there.
JT The Lord is saying in Psalm 50 that He is not ignoring the people who offer sacrifices, who carry out ritual, that is those who take on the Lord’s supper in an ordinary way, but He is not paying attention to guilt. So He says in verse 5, “Gather unto me my godly ones, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”. That is there are those, the godly ones, and God is paying attention to them; but He is not paying any attention to the wholesale ritualism in Christendom except to reprove it. It is obnoxious to Him. Hence, the note of the gospel at the present time and the appeal to people [p. 359] to repent.
JWD Is it your thought, as we had it yesterday in regard to the idea of being cast out of Jerusalem, that our young men have been taken from us to accentuate this spirit of repentance amongst us?
JT That is why I called attention to the previous psalms, instances in David’s life which contemplate that he was cast out, an outcast, pursued by Saul; and then over against that, the spirit of grace, that we are not to be vindictive to brothers or to professors around. The three psalms with the words, “Destroy not”, i.e., 57, 58 and 59, and another one elsewhere, call attention to grace in spite of the retribution meted out finally; it is a period of grace, “Destroy not”. The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives. So those brothers who are in the army, while they have their place in the governmental ways of God, with armies, navies and air force, understand the Christian’s principle is not to destroy but to save.
CAM Referring again to what you said about David, his experience not being confined to him personally but representing a larger matter, would you say that the fact that a principal ruler or a principal man passes through such intense pressure is largely on account of what is necessary for the people of God? I was thinking of the apostle Paul saying, “But for this reason mercy was shewn me, that in me, the first, Jesus Christ might display the whole long-suffering, for a delineation of those about to believe on him to life eternal”, 1 Timothy 1:16.
JT Very good. Yes, he was a son of abortion, meaning that he was born before the time, showing that he really represented the Jews in the coming day. He was an insolent, overbearing man, and he had to go through things himself. Who experienced such pressure as he, as we learn from the letters to Corinth and other letters? David has to go through things, not only for himself, but for the state of the [p. 360] people so that he might be a delineation of the state of the people, in principle, in the call to repentance. It is accentuated at least in some person.
ANW So the Lord’s word to Peter is, “When once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren” — as never before, I suppose.
JT These men are outstanding — Moses and Paul, Peter and David, in the Old and New Testaments, persons in whose histories God delineates some principal features of His testimony, whether negative or positive.
RWS Do we not have to own that the work in most of us is very superficial and this allusion would deepen the work of God in us?
JT We know it is true in David’s history, particularly. God would bring about a depth and richness from the incident alluded to in this psalm and how He met it. It was not simply that David made confession verbally, but the facts relate the depth of feeling that is necessary for repentance, if one is to be accepted by the assembly. 2 Samuel 12 records the parable in which the lamb is used, which is kept in the house; then David is very ready to condemn the guilt of the man in Nathan’s parable. But Nathan says in verse 7, “Thou art the man!”(2 Samuel 12:7). Then he records what happened, and it says, “And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against Jehovah. And Nathan said to David, Jehovah has also put away thy sin: thou shall not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, even the child that is born to thee shall certainly die. And Nathan departed to his house. And Jehovah smote the child that Urijah’s wife bore to David and it became very sick” (verses 13 - 15). That is, there was unfaithfulness in her also. That is to say, all this which is recorded in verses 7 to 23 preceded Psalm 51, showing that [p. 361] while it is so far so good, more was needed; this psalm is calculated to be the written words of a truly repentant person, not only one person, but a delineation of God for others.
Rem It says of Sardis, “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”. I wondered if that would link on with this. Do you think the characteristics of Michal, Saul’s daughter, as to womanhood, representative of Thyatira, might be carried forward so that dissatisfaction with Michal might lead to Sardis conditions? All these go to the test of repentance and the opening up of David’s soul in relation to the divine system of things.
JT Quite so. God would have a man here really repentant at all times; but especially in Israel is the spirit of repentance brought out thoroughly and surely. All these instances to which you refer bear on it. The spirit of the world characterises Rome and all the other so-called denominations, so God takes up Jezebel and the persons representing the working out of sin in the most shameful way as the opposite of David.
WL Do you think it requires the knowledge of God to bring about repentance with us?
JT It does indeed. It is a question of ministry, really. Nathan was the gift of God to His people to meet such a thing as this.
WL I was thinking of verses 1 and 2 of this psalm.
JT It is much better to pay attention to the ministry to understand how the thing is brought about in us. Ministry has such a place with God. Nathan represents the ministry: his name signifies gift, a man raised up for a purpose and used of God, who is near enough to David to touch him. It is prophetic ministry. He had Nathan and he had God: he began with God.
[p. 362] Rem In a sense it is like, “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and keep it and repent”, Revelation 3:3.
JT Well, Sardis is in a way the outcome of Thyatira. I think that is the guilt of Rome. God allowed it. It is the guilt of centuries still going on after it is thoroughly exposed; it is still going on, but it came out at the time of the Reformation; the guilt was called attention to then. God raised up ministry, particularly in Luther, for that purpose, so there should be prophetic ministry from God to meet the case and it comes right down.
JHJr Would the woman at the well of Sychar be something like this? The Lord asked nothing of Nicodemus; would that link with Psalm 50? But He asked something of the woman and when He speaks of what the water shall be in her, He raises the question of her moral state; and she recognises the minister: “Sir, I see that thou art a prophet”(John 4:19).
JT It is at that point He calls her ‘Woman’. The true character of woman would come in there. Nathan was not there. God was there, and so it refers to prophetic ministry now. God honours it at that juncture. So the woman says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done”. It is a prophetic matter.
WL Do you think the prophetic word brings out the work of God in us?
JT It does. That is the point. It brought it out in David. How rightly he admitted the truth! Nathan says, “Thou art the man!” and David replies and then Nathan says to him, “Jehovah has also put away thy sin”.
CR Is the effect of the prophetic word seen in Psalm 32:1? After David had kept silence for so long he says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!”
JT That helps as bearing on this psalm, as leading up to it because the maschilim character of that psalm (it is the first of the Maschils) shows there is instruction interwoven with this matter of repentance.
RWS Where are the feelings as to this condition normally expressed as ‘in the great house’? Are they expressed in prayer or privately or in the prophetic meeting?
JT Do you mean the feelings relative to repentance?
RWS Yes. Our sad part in the confusion of Christendom.
JT I think the assembly is selected for that purpose. There are to be right feelings. The women of John’s gospel, for instance, afford the feminine side of the matter. Nicodemus did not. He was a Pharisee and was more mental in what he was saying; but the woman in chapter 4 is more faithful. She is called woman. We have running through John several women, the next one being in chapter 8, the woman taken in wickedness. That is the thing that has to be recognised. The assembly would take account of all that, so when such wickedness arises and has been dealt with, the feelings are there, but the Holy One as well is there. Not only the prophet, but Peter recognises the Holy One of God and He passes over nothing; He is a priest.
CAM You stress the importance of all this matter of deep exercise. It seems to have come through the long centuries before the glory of Solomon in sonship could be reached.
JT Solomon comes in positively as the outcome of David’s great sin and the exercise consequent upon it. In 2 Samuel 12, he is scarcely spoken of, but the development came later in 1 Kings, and so today, I believe; the end reached in the Reformation was to bring out something in the way of repentance [p. 364] negatively, but positively some movement of the Spirit in relation to Christ too. We might say it was centuries until the real thought was developed as to the Spirit, that is the truth of Christ and the assembly; it was more than a hundred years ago, but the Reformation preceded it. It was not for nothing. It was essential to it. The great call for Christendom to repent which was made through Luther’s writings and so on at that time was not for nothing. Then there was the Puritan movement in England and the revivals before the nineteenth century. Following on that — what we have alluded to already — the truth of Christ and the assembly. All these furnished contributions for the service of God from individuals, but now we come to the real Solomon, God has brought that out, and I believe these psalms would humble us and sober us and subdue us so as to bring that out, so that the service of God might be enriched.
Ques I have noticed that the matter of sonship is particularly trying and adjusting to some of our brethren. Do you think the root of that difficulty is perhaps the lack of repentance?
JT Psalm 51 is the negative side, the repentance side; and if that is not there, there will be no Solomon. God has brought the test in of Solomon, Christ as the Son of God, and if it is refused, as it is being refused, you will get no contributions. The test has not been answered to.
Rem Psalm 32, verse 5 refers to the same line, showing how David came into the thing.
JT It is the first teaching psalm so-called, and undoubtedly the teaching from the Reformation onward is to lead up to sonship.
HB In Psalm 50, verse 17, it says, “Seeing thou hast hated correction”, or ‘instruction’.
JT Well, there it is. I thought we should keep that in mind. God is not condemning the ritualistic [p. 365] side. Ritual enters into the service. 1 Corinthians stresses it. The instructions have to be carried out, but the thing in itself is nothing; the breaking of bread is nothing in those independent companies, but there are actually some that are recognised. What is needed really to offset the mere ritualism of Christendom is in Psalm 51.
JWD I was wondering whether our young people are instructed as they should be, in the historical side of the truth in the Reformation so called, and the Puritan movement, and the great revivals up to the 19th century.
JT Just so. It is well they should be.
JWD Very few know the tremendous change in connection with Wesley’s ministry and so on.
JT The sad thing is that all that we have been speaking of, although it contributed to the service of God, ended in nothing. It did not lead in any collective way to the assembly. It led to nothing; all these great movements merged in the old system of Christendom. They did not lead on to the various truths that have been developed in the last 125 years or so, connected with Christ and the assembly, particularly recently the truth of eternal life and the thought too of sonship, both involving the collective side.
CAM It is interesting that the delineation that Paul alludes to is that they should come into eternal life.
JT Quite so.
AAT Repentance cannot be carried out in a general way.
JT No. The call to repentance is from the Reformation. That was the call to repentance, but the remnant was to come to light. “To you I say, the rest who are in Thyatira”. The rest. That is another important matter. It is not the whole body. The whole body is Jezebel, which is left for the tribulation [p. 366] because she will not repent. This psalm is calling on us to repent, but it is exhibited in someone; it is in David. The incident is indeed wonderful. But Jezebel will not repent and therefore the whole body is left. “But to you I say, the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I do not cast upon you any other burden; but what ye have hold fast till I shall come”. Revelation 2:24 - 25. That is the beginning of the remnant, and the thought I had is that the remnant is developed in Philadelphia.
RWS Is it church repentance?
JT Well, I believe it is a question of the individual coming into it. This psalm helps us to acknowledge our part in the thing; if in any way this has happened in any one of us and we have repented in any special way, let us see how the thing is done, how it is exemplified here.
Rem The collective idea is in Psalm 50, verse 5: “Gather unto me”; then the continuation of this idea of repentance is not by sacrifice, for sacrifice might represent the historical side of things, but offering sacrifice would be more the continuance of things.
JT Offering sacrifice would be the thing being done. One might make use of sacrifice to make some confession in regard of it. It is a simile of it, so to speak.
SRMc Is the sacrifice here a broken and contrite spirit?
JT Just so. That is what we come to in Psalm 51. The actual remnant in Psalm 50, verse 5 is the thing to notice as to the general position. “To you I say, the rest who are in Thyatira”, that is the actual remnant. Here we have, “Gather unto me my godly ones, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”. That is to say, the sacrifice is [p. 367] recognised and God is not ignoring it, because we have the cross, the supreme sacrifice in the death of Jesus before us, and God looks to us to be in accord with that.
AHP Does this matter fit in with chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians where Paul speaks of the grief according to God working repentance to salvation never to be regretted? Would that be individual or collective?
JT Both. God allowed the man to sin in a most abominable way just as we have already alluded to, the looseness of the assembly at Corinth. Well, that is God. With David it was the same sort of thing. God allowed the sin to take place. The only thing said about the man at the first was that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. It was not suggested that he might be saved for the assembly, but in the day of the Lord Jesus; but his repentance was an example and if others are not warned by it, discipline will come in. When the Corinthians were subdued and repentant and obedient, then Paul says, ‘I will deal with them’.
JWD David is conscious of his origin in verse 5, then in verse 7 it is “Purge”, and then in verse 10 “Create”. How do you understand the attitude of the heart towards God in regard to creation?
JT We have the exemplification in David himself in 2 Samuel 12. This is composed afterwards, and we should expect to get something more from the later composition. The attitude and actions of David were exemplary at that time, but this psalm is evidently later; so that we have a call first. It says in the beginning of the psalm, “Be gracious unto me, O God”. That is, he knew God, and if we are going to call people to repent, we cannot do it unless grace is reigning and so David says, “Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according to the abundance of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me fully from mine [p. 368] iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin”. This is a prayer to God; that is God is ready to operate with anyone who is ready to repent and will help them do it. “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is continually before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in thy sight”. He had sinned against others too, but the chief thing is to own our sin against God. Then he justifies God: “That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, be clear when thou judgest”. That is quoted in Romans 3, showing that it enters into the gospel in a negative sense. “Behold, in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear gladness and joy; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me”, Psalm 51:1 - 10. It would seem as if it involves the creative power of God inwardly in new birth. So the word born again means born from the top. It is a thorough matter.
Ques Is the idea of grace the essence really, the revelation of God in an environment and condition of things where there is nothing to call it forth? Therefore it is necessary to bring that in and then the basis for receiving it is undoubtedly on the line of new birth.
JT Well, quite so. It is a question of the constitution of the system, that grace is reigning. It is not demand, but it is grace. Reigning is absolute. If we are calling upon people to repent, grace is operative. So that the matter is dealt with on the principle of the dispensation. Surely the Reformation and all that has followed since is again to set up the [p. 369] dispensation. So that there is the operation of grace since God began to work in recovery.
Ques Do you think in dealing with the principle of sin as we occasionally have to, it would be helpful if we could bring in some feature of the divine glory to bear on the person?
JT How many distinctions there are! How many appellations we can list of the gospel! Take the gospel of the grace of God, and the glory of His grace, and a number of others like that showing that God is reasserting the dispensation in view of repentance. If He expects persons to repent, He is able to help us to repent and to resort to the idea of creation so as to help us.
Rem The apostle uses the phrase, “The might of his glory”. That links on with it, does it not?
JT Quite so.
JP Is it interesting that Peter quotes at length from David in his first gospel preaching in the Acts, and it says, “And having heard it they were pricked in heart, and said to Peter and the other apostles, What shall we do, brethren? And Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God may call”, Acts 2:37 - 39.
JT Quite so. People were affected by the Spirit of God and then they wanted to know what to do. Well, will the clergy tell them that? Will the public do it? Will general ministers of Christendom do it? No. The repenting people appealed to Peter and to the rest, that is the levitical brethren, the twelve apostles. Whoever represents them today are the ones God is using; we have been speaking of the psalms of instruction beginning with Psalm 32, which is a great psalm for the gospel. The great point is,
[p. 370] what shall we do? It is teaching people very largely, and so Peter says. Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is a beautiful statement of the gospel.
Ques Would this chapter indicate to us that the person that could write such a psalm has the Holy Spirit?
JT He might not have. Most people in Christendom who are exercised in this way have not got the Spirit. They have not the truth of the full gospel because, as Paul says, “In whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”, Ephesians 1:13. Well, there are those that are anxious about their souls, but it is a question of whether they have the Spirit. It is a question of teaching; they are not told about the matter. These psalms of instruction beginning with Psalm 32 (most of them are in the second book of Psalms) are to teach us so we can enter into what is necessary to come into the full truth of the gospel.
JH-t Is that why Paul says, “In meekness setting right those who oppose, if God perhaps may sometime give them repentance to acknowledgment of the truth”(2 Timothy 2:25)? That is clear full knowledge.
JT I am sure God would use the brethren, those who seek to walk in the truth, to enlighten our brethren around who are largely in the dark night spiritually.
Rem One who has the Holy Spirit might grieve the Holy Spirit.
JT The allusion just now has been to the present application of it: that possibly many have the Spirit who have sinned and repented. Possibly many have. David represents these here, although it is true that the Holy Spirit was not given in that dispensation as it is given now, still David had the experience of the [p. 371] Holy Spirit and that would apply at the present time. There are those who experience the Holy Spirit. That helps because there are many like that, and David, I believe, is representative of that for us so that we might make allowance for persons who have the Spirit. So you can ask, ‘Have you any experience of having the Holy Spirit? Have you got that truth, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise?’ Well, the person might say, ‘I have not’, and yet he might have experience with the Holy Spirit, and that would mean he is sealed.
CAM John 3 helps in regard to that because the Lord speaks to Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit in a remarkable way.
JT That is so. The word the Lord uses is not ‘convert’ at all. It is from the top. The work must take place in the believer from the top to the bottom, re-create. We might say new birth implies that.
WL I was wondering if repentance involves a new start with us. David gets back to foundations here.
JT Well, I think if anyone is to be exemplary of the truth of repentance, it is to be one who has the experience of the Holy Spirit, like David. He knows how to deal with himself inwardly.
TS In Luke 15:7:10 it mentions twice, “one repenting sinner”. He also shows us one who does it in a full way too.
JT A good point. It enters into what we are saying. For a man who really repents is a changed man. The man was brought into it and that involves the teaching psalms, that I take in the truth and let the truth I have taken in operate inwardly in me.
RM Would you say the repentance of David brought out the beauty of Jehovah and the woman at the well brought out the beauty of the Lord Jesus?
JT Quite so.
RWS [p. 372] Do you differentiate between experience of the Holy Spirit and possession of the Holy Spirit?
JT In this dispensation, I would think as to the experience of the Holy Spirit that the person has the Spirit, but is ignorant as to the doctrine, hence there is the need of the instructive psalms to get the man active; then we receive the truth; that is what David is speaking of here.
Ques Just what do you mean by experience in this connection? A sort of inward conflict with the flesh or does it go farther, sitting under the ministry of the Spirit?
JT It would be a question of what would be applied. Paul says, “After that ye believed”(Ephesians 1:13) It is in the order of one, two, three. The believing comes first. That is with the mind, and then you are sealed with the Spirit, meaning the Spirit acts so as to give you to understand you are divine property. That is the idea of sealing, God has a claim over you, and you are consistent with that. You have an entirely different view of God than you had, in the knowledge of God in the gospel.
MacC David and Saul were both anointed.
JT David had the experience of the anointing.
JAT Romans 5:5 says, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”, but the indwelling of the Spirit does not come in until the 8th chapter.
JT But He is there. It is a question of order. ‘After that ye believe’ is an act of the mind; and after believing, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
AAT How much time might elapse after you believe?
JT A long time with many because of want of teaching. These teaching psalms tell the truth of God in the gospel. “Be gracious unto me, O God”. Grace [p. 373] reigns.
RA David gives a lead in this matter so that henceforth he says, “I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall return unto thee” (verse 13).
JT That is the idea. You are exemplary of the truth of repentance in the gospel, but ready and able to teach others. The youngest believer can teach. In fact a young believer can often help unbelievers because he is fresh in his ideas of the gospel.
ABP Do you distinguish between faith and the Spirit? Does faith necessarily precede the gift of the Spirit?
JT Always, I would say.
ABP There is a question being raised about some not knowing that they have the Spirit. I was wondering if there was a distinction between what we can touch or reach by faith and what we can touch by the Spirit.
JT The order is faith first — having believed. That is, ‘having’ means I have got it. Faith first, and then the sealing which is not so much the Spirit working in me as that God has a right over me — I am God’s property. I am sealed, belonging to God. The Holy Spirit would work in me in that sense. I feel God has some rights over me, and I cannot do as I please as I used to do. I am God’s property.
—.H—t.Sr. Hebrews 6:4 says, “Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit”.
JT That would be just as we are today. The Spirit is here and every person in this room, if he has any sense of right feelings, is partaking of the thing; but he is under responsibility because of that particular fact. He may give it all up, and that makes him all the more responsible.
JWD Is the thought in verse 14 of blood-guiltiness linked on with the government of God and the possibility of being delivered from it?
JT He had really to answer to Bathsheba’s husband as well as to God, do [p. 374] you mean?
JWD I was thinking in connection with sin that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Can we count upon God to deliver us from the fruits of His government in regard to sin?
JT Quite so. To be delivered from blood-guiltiness is to be delivered from the state in which you are which is intolerable. Cleanse me from unrighteousness. Blood-guiltiness is an awful thing. Primarily this psalm will apply to Israel in future; the smiting of Christ which Peter laid on their conscience. But then the man sinned against too is not to be forgotten. I believe that comes out in the next great psalm that will come to our attention, the 69th, which, no doubt, will teach us something about this and how the sufferings of Christ enter into all this.
EC Do you think David had in mind the building of the house when he said, “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness”?
JT No doubt.
ANW In that connection should we not look at verse 18, “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem”? Is not that to be the objective in these recoveries?
JT Quite so. If any of us are engaged in the gospel service, we have nothing less in mind than Zion. Converts ought to be brought into that, but instead they are taken into this great system, built up during the last two centuries, and now they do not build up the assembly, they just build up human organisations. In fact some of the leading men advise them to go to this denomination or that, not the assembly.
HB Is there the same principle in 2 Corinthians where we get the ministry as to the collection in chapters 8 and 9, building up Zion and its walls and so on? It seems to develop out of the thought of purifying themselves, as though there is a state there for the consolidation of what [p. 375] is of God.
JT That is so. In chapters 8 and 9 of the second letter, the truth is used as advancing in Corinthians. The collection is so wonderful in that sense. It makes much of the assemblies and Christ’s glory. It brings that to light which involves Zion, of course.
AHP Then verse 16 corresponds with what was said earlier about sacrifice, and does verse 17 suggest the sacrifices that are secured by way of repentance, what is more positive?
JT Yes, they are viewed in their spiritual quality: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise”. The knowledge of God enters into all this, leading up to Zion.
ABP Would the steadfast spirit, referred to in verse 10, have in mind that we should be preserved from apostasy?
JT I think that is good. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me”. So we are not wanderers like Edom. He is regarded as a roamer. Faith makes us steadfast.