CHRIST AS THE MAN AFTER GOD’S HEART

Acts 13: 34–37; 2 Samuel 7: 1–17; 1 Chronicles 22: 14–16; 29: 1–5; Psalm 22: 21 (from “Yea”)–26

PM We should look a little at David’s love for the house of God. If he was to be here, as a man after God’s heart who shall do all His will, it was necessary that there should be an answer for God in a collective sense; something established under David that had never been there before. He says in the last words of David, 2 Samuel 23, verse 1, “Now these are the last words of David—David the son of Jesse saith, And the man who was raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel saith”. There is something established through the experiences and exercises of David, that formed the basis for a response Godward that had never been known previously. It says in Acts 13 that he ministered to the will of God in his generation (Acts 13: 36); but there was One who fulfilled that will. We have been speaking of Him already, but David ministered to the will of God in his generation. What comes out in these passages that we have read is that David himself was not going to build the house, but he had substance that he was able to pass on to the next generation in view of the house of God. That becomes an exercise, I know, to those of us that are getting older, as to what is being passed on to the next generation that is usable in relation to the house of God—These experiences of David affect the heart of God. He says, You want to build Me a house—I went about in a tent. Think of God being satisfied from that point of view to move with His people in all their journeyings, the exercises of the wilderness; He says, “I went about in a tent and in a tabernacle”. What wonderful grace. But David has something more in mind, not only that God should be with us, but that we should be for God, and that there should be an answer for God in His people in a collective way. David has that in view. I think that enters into his ministering to the will of God in his generation. He has secured material through his affliction. What substance there was; and material secured in his affection for God. One thing that marks David is his love for God. It comes out in his psalms in a distinctive way, and it is formed in the saints of the assembly, an answer in affection for God, in the appreciation of the way He has moved towards us; and in the appreciation of what He is and who He is, and the glory of His name, made known in the revelation of Himself. There is something secured in the affections of men that is for the pleasure of God.

RJC There was a full response to God. I thought of him maintaining things at the divine standard, “gold for things of gold, and silver for things of silver”. There is nothing inferior, it is what is best and great, that God receives from His own through the experience He passes them through, do you think?

PM I think so. That reference comes in in relation to what he had prepared in his affection, that in his love for God there is quality there, “gold for things of gold”. In his affliction we have more the side of substance, but in his affection for his God there is quality. He knew what was suited to the divine presence; he knew the One of whom it spoke, and he is able to prepare it and to pass it on to Solomon. The house of God really involves the establishment of sonship; so that David does not build the house, but it is built by his son. This is instructive for us perhaps, and gives a certain character, does it, to what is for the heart of God?

DBR Intermingled with the references to David in Acts 13, there are these beautiful references to the incorruptibility of Christ. What appeared in the humanity of Christ was a humanity which was completely clear of the consequences of sin; and if there is to be something for God there must be something that is completely clear of the consequences of sin, and that must relate to the humanity of Christ, do you not think, and those that come in of His own order?

PM Yes, I wondered that; that is why we read those verses. It was not possible that He should see corruption. There was that there intrinsically in the humanity of the Lord Jesus to which death did not attach. He went into death vicariously, but the corruption that is the result of death did not belong to Him; it was not possible. It is a wonderful statement that. That character of manhood is formed in the saints by the Spirit in order that there might be this collective response for the heart of God. Nothing less than that would be suitable or satisfying to the heart of God; He must have an answer to what He had in Jesus.

DBR “Holiness becometh thy house ... for ever”, Psalm 93: 5.

PM Yes, and the affliction that comes upon the saints, and the chastening that we have in Hebrews 12 has in view that we should become partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12: 10)—a wonderful statement. I would understand that the saints are suited to be in the presence of the divine holiness.

NJH Corruption had to be met in Lazarus and in us, but not in Christ. It brings out His uniqueness, that manner of man, is that right?

PM Yes. David saw corruption. Great man as he was, yet he saw corruption; but it was not possible that our Lord Jesus could see corruption. It did not attach to that order of humanity. What was carried through in that blessed Person, carried through intrinsically for the divine pleasure, every footstep giving fresh delight. There was nothing there to which death or corruption belonged.

JSp It speaks about those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. What would you say about that? There is something among the saints that is purely of the work of God; and that is who we are related to even as we are sitting here today, is it?

PM That is what the Spirit is working with, is it not? That comes in right at the close of the epistle to the Ephesians, at the height of Paul’s ministry, that if there was to be that here which would continue in the testimony, it must be on that basis, “them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”, Ephesians 6: 24. I believe what you refer to is very farreaching in its exercise and effect upon our spirits, that there is to be here until the coming of the Lord Jesus, that which in its character is in keeping with what God found in that blessed Man. That is the testimony, dear brethren. There is nothing less than that—that is the testimony.

RHB Was it in your mind in referring to the way that he ministered in preparation for the house of God, the introduction of the service of song?

PM Yes it was. Go on please.

RHB I was hoping you would say some more about it. In the verse you quoted he speaks of himself as the “sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23: 1), and that was something that had never been known before, nor had it been prescribed, had it?

PM It was a man who was after God’s own heart who understood what God was looking for from His people. There had been the offerings in the Mosaic period of time, but when we come to David there is something affectionate in the feelings of men drawn out responsively to God in song. David himself contributing so fully to that, and drawing on his own experience with God, because that really is what the service of God flows from, experience with God that answers to the heart of the One from whom that experience comes.

RHB It seems a peculiar feature of manhood according to God that there is the ability to express intelligent affection in that way God-ward with joy, would you say?

PM Yes, I am sure of that, and it came into expression in the pathway of the Lord Jesus, “having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”, Matthew 26: 30; Mark 14: 26. There was something there that God received in those days of the Lord Jesus here that was distinctive to His own ear.

WMcK Romans refers to “the glory of the incorruptible God” (Romans 1: 23); and in 2 Timothy, which would bear on our day, the Lord Jesus as coming out of death “brought to light life and incorruptibility”, 2 Timothy 1: 10. That is the order of things that is to be found in persons now, would you say?

PM Paul says, “given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, but has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings; to which I have been appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of the nations”, 2 Timothy 1: 9–11. I just wanted to touch on that, because Paul’s reference here to Timothy has a very wide bearing, what God is working out in this dispensation all flows out from the work of the One who has “annulled death and brought to light life and incorruptibility”.

WMcK And is it not striking that John reminds us that he that is born of God cannot sin (1 John 3: 9)? The work of God in us is incorruptible.

PM Do you believe that?

WMcK Of course; does not every one here?

PM I think it is something we should just ponder, that the work of God in the believer is of that character, it cannot sin. It is of God. John uses that expression, “He that is of God hears the words of God”, John 8: 47. It is a wonderful thing, and I only ask it because we have a lot of younger persons here, and God has begun a work in the heart of each one of us, I trust, and that work is not according to sinful man but it is of Himself.

WMcK So the renewed mind, which was referred to previously, can distinguish between the flesh, which is still in us and needs to be kept under in the Spirit’s power, and the pure work of God as we are derived from Him morally in righteousness and holiness and truth—it cannot sin, it is incapable of it.

PM We need just to rest our souls on that because we are in conditions, as you say, in which the flesh is still with us, and we are moving through a scene of low standards and morals of men, but God has begun a work in the soul of the believer which cannot sin. John says, does he not, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3: 6)? There is something affected in the believer; it is of another source and it is another character from what we are by nature.

WMcK So as we appear before God tomorrow under the hand of Christ, and by the power of the Spirit, all God sees is His own incorruptible work. He does not see the flesh in you or me, even though we know it is there, but it is not there in the eye of God; and through the grace of God we have experience that is free of being affected by that.

PM What you touch is most helpful and important for us; and as assembling together, as we do, to remember the Lord, we would assemble, would we not, with our relations with the Spirit free, in order that we might be lifted, as the Lord comes to us, out of the scene of responsibility, and touch without hindrance the sphere in which the Spirit’s work belongs and is set at liberty.

JCG When David is quoted in Acts 2, “nor wilt thou give thy gracious one to see corruption” (Acts 2: 27), then he goes on to say, “Thou hast made known to me the paths of life” (Acts 2: 28); that would bear on the practical expression of the work of God in the saints, would it not? And further he says, “thou wilt fill me with joy with thy countenance”, (Acts 2: 28). Do you think that that is a hint of going on to the service of praise in God’s house?

PM I am sure it is, and striking that it is coming in just at that moment, just as the Spirit has come, would you say?

JDG Why does God not see the flesh in me? Perhaps that could be clarified because, as we have been speaking about, it is still there, but He does not see it in the service of God. I go with it, but why is that?

PM You tell us.

JDG Because of the work of Christ. In Acts 13 it says, through this Man “remission of sins is preached” (Acts 13: 38).

PM And from God’s side He has already removed man in the flesh. He is not looking at it, is He? We are clothed in the worth of another Man as we are in the presence of God. The best robe, we often refer to it, was not to cover up the man in the flesh, it was to embrace the man according to God so that he is in liberty in the presence of God, in the worth of a Man before God in subsisting righteousness.

JDG Reconciliation had been established, the prodigal comes back in Christ; it is another order of man in the believer.

PM Yes, and we are viewed as in Christ before God, and we have the liberty, and perhaps the responsibility, to view ourselves as in Christ. We are there, not on the basis of what we were, but on the basis of all that that Man is, who has accomplished the will of God. We are taken up in the light of a Man who is “after my heart, who shall do all my will”.

WMcK Is that not in mind in “taken us into favour in the Beloved”, Ephesians 1: 6? That is an allusion to David, but as a type of Christ.

PM That is helpful. I am sure that is right; and we are taken into favour in Him, not because of what we were. Perhaps our dear younger brethren would just lay hold of this, that God has taken us up, and He has taken us up not for some lone place within the doors, as some used to sing, but He has taken us up to be in the full favour of Christ, and to be there in the One who is “the Beloved”, the One whom the Father loves.

WMcK While it is quite right to say we are clothed in His worth, the full truth is we are in that Man before God.

PM Yes.

RJC I just thought of what the Father sees in us is Christ,

‘Every feature Christ reflecting,

And Thine own surpassing love’. (Hymn 83)

He does not see us in the flesh, as our brother has said, He sees us in Christ; and that is what He sees in His presence, do you think, an extension of that blessed Man?

PM Yes. It may be that sometimes we get disappointed with ourselves. We get disappointed with ourselves because we have not maintained what we felt was the standard. But God is never disappointed with us; He has taken us up in Christ. He has removed the man that disappoints us. I get disappointed because I expect something from myself, but God does not. He has taken me up in another Man, and in that Man everything for God is established, and that Man fills the heart of God. It has been said that that Man has ascended up above all the heavens, He filled every heaven through which He passed and He fills the Father’s heart. Our place is in Him; what a Man He is!

RGr Do you think the fact that the new covenant is brought in in connection with the cup is intended to confirm that in our hearts as we come together? Has it not been said that the reference to the new covenant there is a reassuring touch that we are indeed before God clear of all sin, and in Christ?

PM That is very affecting; confirming our affections that every matter has been cleared from the divine side, and all that is towards us is the love of God. We have the witness of it in the cup. As we look at the cup on Lord’s day, we have the witness of the expression of the love of God that went to such lengths in the death and shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus, in order that we might be set at perfect liberty without any question against us. What a God we have!

PAG Does what you are saying bear on the point you raised earlier as to sonship? I am just enquiring about that. In the scripture in 2 Samuel that you read He says, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son”. If God is looking on us as He looks on Christ, then would features of sonship enter into that?

PM Yes, and would not those features come into expression for the pleasure of God as He sees those that are like Christ? Along with that are the affections that God has secured in man in sonship. Think of God securing the affections of men! The hymn of J. F. Garland says,

‘‘Twas thy thought in revelation, To present to men

Secrets of Thine own affections,

Theirs to win’. (Hymn 118)

God has done that, and He has that answer in the affections of men in sonship before Him.

PAG Is that why the Lord says to the Father in John 17, “the glory which thou hast given me I have given them” (John 17: 22)? The glory of sonship involves a direct link with the Father’s own affections, does it?

PM It does. What a place of favour and intimacy we have been brought into, into a relationship so intimate. The Lord Jesus in speaking to Mary in John 20 has that immediately in His heart as coming out of death, “I ascend to my Father and your Father” (John 20: 17). The fulfilment of the will of God involved that there would be men in relationship in the presence of God.

CKR So in the light of what you are saying, what is the house in this aspect that you are seeking to help us on?

PM The house in Chronicles is different from what we have in the New Testament. In the New Testament the house of God is where God is known in His testimony. I think what David has in view here is not so much where God is known in His testimony, but where God finds His own rest and His dwelling. I think that comes out in this section in Samuel. Jehovah says, “I went about in a tent”. I find that most affecting. It is as if God would say—I was quite content to do that, I entered into your circumstances. You proved My presence in the wilderness, proved it all the way through those testings, and now you say you will build Me a house. It is almost as if God is affected by the committal of a man like David to build God a house.

CKR I thought it was affecting in 2 Samuel 7: 5, “Go and say to my servant, to David, Thus saith Jehovah—Wilt thou build me a house for me to dwell in?” So this is a significant development, we may say, in the history of God’s relations with David, and David’s relations with God as it is going to look on to Solomon.

PM Yes, and as you would know, the service of God reaches its climax in the completion of the house. God is there. We are going on to Solomon here, but it says, “the priests could not stand to do their service”, and then you get that immediate touching response, “Then said Solomon”, 1 Kings 8: 11, 12; 2 Chronicles 5: 14; 6: 1. There was One who was great enough to uphold it all, in the presence of the glory of God filling the house. That was what was in David’s heart, and Jehovah says, You are not going to do it, it is going to be based on one who is thy son.

RDP It is a very affecting word, is it not, “In all my going about”? I was just thinking, these things that we are speaking about, with David the treasure for the house was brought about in affliction. It was not exactly brought about by intensive study but in the affairs of his life, and sometimes in the wilderness, their faces were going back towards Egypt again, but He went about with them, and out of all the exercises of affliction there was something for God. I was thinking of our day, and what our brother said as to incorruptibility, if there is “life and incorruptibility” (2 Timothy 1: 10), it is active, is it not? It is not static. There is something being produced from sometimes sorrowful exercises today, and then this great matter of affection is like the top stone, do you think?

PM It is almost as if Jehovah says to David, You have proved Me in the circumstances through which you have passed, now I want you to be in My circumstances. It seems to me, dear brethren, that God would say that to us. Paul says, “we for him”, 1 Corinthians 8: 6. He has come out towards us. There could be no question of the extent of His love in the way He has come out towards us; but what David touches here reaches beyond that, “we for him”.

RDP David says, “thou shalt add to it”. Do you think that there is something being added today, or does it all lie in the past?

PM If it lies in the past we might as well go home. There is something being added. It may not be exactly in fresh light, but there is something being added that is being worked out in the souls of God’s people, worked out through experience.

KC Just going back a little, I was thinking of what it says as to the matter of corruption, it says, “this corruptible must needs put on incorruptibility”, 1 Corinthians 15: 53. That was never true of Jesus, was it?

PM No, it never had to be put on Him.

KC I was thinking of Mr Darby’s hymn,

‘O Lord, amid corruption

Where hatred did abound,

Thy path of true perfection

Was light on all around’. (Hymn 189)

PM Moving here amongst men, feeling the effects of sin that had come in, touching the leper, yet that blessed Person remained and ever will remain incorruptible. He could not see corruption. What a Person He is!

DBR It speaks of a house of cedars. Cedars are the fruit of growth. As well as discipline there is growth in the saints, do you think? And that growth contributes to the house of God. I thought that would be an encouragement for the young people, that they should grow, and in that growth there is something that God could say is the house of cedar, do you think?

PM That is very fine. Something that is formed in an unseen way, it goes on quietly. That is the character of the vegetation growth, it goes on quietly, it does not make a noise or a show, but there it is, it grows; and what we have here is what is substantial, something substantial reached in David’s history that is going to be entirely for the pleasure of God.

JWr Although David was not allowed to build the house, do you think when he went in and sat before Jehovah, the atmosphere of the house was there? A sense of God’s presence and the pleasure God had in having a man like that before Him.

PM Yes it is a very affecting reference that, in 2 Samuel 7: 18, “king David went in and sat before Jehovah”. It is not exactly here that he sat before the ark, but he “sat before Jehovah”. I wonder, dear brethren, if we make enough time to go in and sit before Jehovah. Lives are busy, we have much to do, and sometimes we do more than we need to, but do I make time to go in and sit before Jehovah? As you say, he enjoyed the character of the house. He was there at perfect liberty in the presence of Jehovah. In 2 Samuel 7: 18 he says, “Who am I, Lord Jehovah, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And yet this hath been a small thing in thy sight”. Think of the liberty that he had. I believe the affliction and the sorrows of the testimony will help to produce greater liberty in the presence of God, greater intimacy.

JWr Do you think you have refinement in David, and that is what is in mind, that there should be spiritual refinement with us?

PM Yes. These references that we have read in

Chronicles, what he supplies out of his affliction really brings out the wealth of substance that David had. But when you come to what he supplies from his affection, as our brother has said, it is “gold for things of gold, and silver for things of silver”; there is an intelligent response in quality that is for the heart of God. What the Spirit is working out in our lives here, in the knowledge of God Himself, is intended to produce refined quality for the service of God. That is what is in view, that there should be an answer, not just for us. I tend to rest too much on what is for me, but David is reaching out here to what is for God, and it is of a quality that God could appreciate.

RB Is that why Paul was drawing the Corinthian saints into this realm? In 2 Corinthians 3 it says, “we all, looking on the glory of the Lord ... are transformed” (2 Corinthians 3: 18), or changed; is that the idea?

PM Yes, just help us; how does that link with this?

RB We are absorbed with the Man of God’s choice. The glory of the Lord is really what He is to the Father in all His excellencies and all His moral perfections and that is such a delight to the Father. We become occupied with that. We are really into the sanctuary, are we not? We are occupied with the Man of the Father’s choice, and we come out of that area changed.

PM Yes, it is really a collective look there, is it not, in 2 Corinthians 3, “we all looking on the glory of the Lord ... are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”—what is before us, what is open to us. Our brother was reminding us last night of what is open to us in this dispensation. Dear brethren, what is open to us that there should be wrought in the saints that which is according to the same image, we are “transformed from glory to glory, even”, he says, “as by the Lord the Spirit”.

NJH While God had conveyed to His people the thought of dwelling in the tent and the tabernacle, is this the first reference really arrived at that He was actually going to dwell with men, tabernacle with men?

PM Yes, and have an answer from men in a way that He had not had before. He gave Israel the assurance of His presence as He went round, as He says, “in a tent”, but here this is more than that. He is dwelling, there is something fixed for His abode. David has that in his heart. I think David had this in his heart when he was young, you know. If he had the ark in his affections there had to be a place where God Himself could be rightly served.

JSp In the book of Revelation “God himself shall be with them, their God”, Revelation 21: 3. Is that one of the finest expressions of the house?

PM I am sure it is. Think of God finding His delight to tabernacle with men, God Himself being with them. He says elsewhere, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”, Psalm 132: 14. I wonder whether we contemplate enough the longings of God Himself to eternally have His dwelling in relation to man, and man dwelling in relation to God.

RG Do you think when the psalmist says, “My heart is welling forth with a good matter—I say what I have composed concerning the king” (Psalm 45: 1), that that is the area in which God is dwelling? The affections have been touched and are affected, and then the spiritual contribution, “My tongue”. How pleasing that is to God, that Christ in all His glory is so magnified by persons, do you think?

PM It is affecting, and something we should just ponder on for a moment, because the fact that God has secured an answer in men who share His own delight in Christ is something that affects the heart of God. Not only what the Lord Jesus is in relation to His work for me, great as that is and one would not seek to set it aside, but what you are touching from Psalm 45 relates not only to what He has done but what He is, and what He is for the Father’s affections. The blessed God has secured a collective answer in men, in whom His own thoughts as to Christ are being expressed in the hearts of men, and this affects the heart of God that He should have secured His end in that way.

AM Does David reach that when he sits before Jehovah? He says, “is this the manner of man, Lord Jehovah?”, 2 Samuel 7: 19? It is really sonship that is in mind in Christ, and that extends to us.

PM Yes, and that reference again in John 20, “my Father and your Father”; His relationship ever distinctive so He says “my Father”. We do not enter into that relationship. He has His own relation with the Father; but then we are brought in through adoption as He says, “and your Father”. The Lord Jesus had that in mind as immediately out of death. In Psalm 22, “from the horns of the buffaloes hast thou answered me. I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee” (Psalm 22: 21, 22). He has nothing less in view as having accomplished the great work which was given to Him to do; He comes out of death with an answer for the divine affections in His heart.

JAB Could you say a little about what it means? The substance which David had prepared in his affliction was immense, as we have read. A million talents of silver, I do not know how much that would be worth, a huge amount, but then in 1 Chronicles 29, “And moreover, in my affection for the house of God I have given of my own property of gold and silver”. Could you help us as to “in my affliction”, and then “in my affection”? There is something additional there which is overlaid on what we have been speaking about. Is that right?

PM He went through the circumstances of affliction with God. The Psalms bring that out. What wealth comes out in the Psalms when David is before God in relation to the sufferings through which he is passing, maybe sufferings in relation to his own failure that he brought on himself. But even in relation to that, what wealth comes out of it for God; and that is I believe how we begin, that there should be substance for the heart of God even in relation to our own histories, and we come to appreciate what God has done in the meeting of our history. David expresses that in the Psalms. But then he says as to what he has prepared out of his affection. It is from my own property.

JTB(Ed) Just in that regard, he refers to the gold of Ophir. Actually it was the gold of Parvaim that was used in the house (see 2 Chronicles 3: 6). I wonder if the reference to the gold of Ophir as coming from his affections brings out the fact that there was something personally of Christ’s glory that pervades the house, do you think?

PM That is helpful. You will have to tell us the difference.

JTB(Ed) The reference in 1 Chronicles 29 is to the gold of Ophir, but actually in the construction of the house it is the gold of Parvaim. I think the gold of Ophir—does it reflect the splendour of God’s thoughts in righteousness, really as bringing out what was in Christ inherently and intrinsically, and the splendour of that really pervades the house, does it? Something of Christ personally pervades the house, is that right?

PM I am sure it does. It all speaks of Christ. But is the gold of Ophir not quoted in Psalm 45 that our brother speaks of?

JTB(Ed) Yes indeed, that is right, “upon thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir” (Psalm 45: 9). That is really reflected in the assembly, is it not? But there is something of Christ personally. I thought the reference in 1 Chronicles, because it comes from David’s affections, brings out what there is in Christ personally that is brought influentially into the house, do you think?

PM Very fine, and David provided that from his own property. It really shows where David’s life was, where his affections were, that not only in relation to what typically Christ had done, but what He was. May we be helped, dear brethren, to feed more on what He is. Never to set aside what He has done, we could never think of that, but to feed on what He is, and what He is in His person, the glory of that blessed Man and yet divine. God has had an answer here on earth, as the hymn-writer says, ‘Divine perfection in a Man!’ (Hymn 20). How wonderful. I think that relates to the gold of Ophir. But then there is an answer in the assembly that is in keeping with what came into expression in that blessed Man.

RDP Amidst all these riches David provided plenty of nails in abundance (1 Chronicles 22: 3); it was for fixing, was it not? It is very important for us that these divine thoughts not only come to us but there is a means of fixing, you may say, that things are secured. Do you think that is right?

PM I am sure of that, yes, and held in its setting. You might say, That experience I went through did not contribute very much; but it might have been a nail. It might have just helped to hold things in their right place, because we so easily let things slip.

RG Is it interesting that in his affliction he prepared for “the house of Jehovah”, but in his affection it is for “the house of my God”?

PM It is interesting. Go on, you have more to say.

RG I was just wondering if the affliction brought into his heart the covenant giving God and the relationship with such a One; but then in his affection there is something related to the purpose of God, and he can claim his place in there as he speaks about “my God”. It linked a little in my mind with “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. What do you think?

PM That is helpful, and links, do you think, with the fact that it was from his own property, it was for his God? That intimate knowledge that David had of God was answered by what he had from his own property.

CKR It must be that way because Paul says in Galatians, “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”, Galatians 4: 6. That is the whole environment, is it not, for the service of God, which really looks on to assembly function, does it not, in our dispensation? So that it is sonship that is being reached in the house, is it not? And sonship is what is going to be given expression to eternally, is it not, in the enjoyment of our link Godward?

PM It must be because Christ will give character to everything. His own relationship with the Father, and our relationship with the Father, He gives character to that too. How wonderful He is, and setting men in liberty, in responsive liberty from affections that are wrought by the Holy Spirit. What we go through, dear brethren, in our secret histories has in view that there should be substance for God, but substance from the affections of men. He is winning the affections of men through varied circumstances, through teaching, through His own ways with us; He is enlarging the affections of men in order that there might be the presentation of what is suitable to His own house.

DBR What is known of God in His house is His nature. This is really how there is an answer to that, the Lord using the very language. He says, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Hebrews 2: 12. So there is an answer fitting to the nature of God; a most wonderful thing. I thought that, it is what our brother referred to, in Revelation, God Himself, a sphere that is permeated, we may say, with the glory of the outshining of the nature of God in Christ, and the only suitable answer is, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. That is what we have part in now. There are exercises we pass through, but it is in view that we might have part in that exalted sphere and order of things in response to God, do you think?

PM And all that has lain behind divine operations has been the heart of God. There has been the meeting of the claims of His majesty and of His righteousness, they had to be met, but what lay behind all His operations has been His heart, and He has secured an answer to it. How wonderful that is. I wondered if the Lord might just lift our spirits in this reading, to see that what we go through in the circumstances that He passes us through are all in view of what is for the heart of God.

RGr Do you think then that this that he prepared in his affection might have the character of the drink-offering? I was thinking of what Paul said, “I am already being poured out”, 2 Timothy 4: 6. It was his own feelings and his own affections that were involved. It is like a crowning touch, do you think, on all that David had prepared?

PM Yes, it was what was formed in Paul that was of Christ that could be poured out for the satisfaction of God.

RT Is it still left open for us, to offer this day? He dwelleth amidst the praises of Israel, does He not?

PM A willing-hearted people (Psalm 47: 9). God has secured that by making known His own heart, has He not? He has secured a willing-hearted people, answering to Him from affection. What David ministered to in relation to the will of God was to bring out into expression not only the house, but the people that would answer to God for His own pleasure. He ministered to the will of God in his generation. The question may come to us, What about our generation? Are we willing-hearted? There is that which is willing-hearted in the company of the saints, but it comes to each one of us. As David ministered to the will of God, so it is open to us to do so also.

RH I wondered if something, before we finish, might be said a little more as to what “Abba, Father” means.

PM The expression “Abba, Father” is a term of endearment. It could perhaps be uttered as ‘Father, Father’. It was an expression that the Lord Jesus used Even in the midst of suffering He could use that expression, “Abba, Father”.

RH Is it something that has been bequeathed to us then?

PM And is the result, I think, of the formative work of the Spirit in the souls of men, that there is that expression of endearment towards the Father Himself.

RH Very precious that we should be given such a cry as that.

PM Yes. As you know, in Galatians the Spirit Himself cries “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4: 6), because the state was such that those feelings were not there in the Galatian saints, but when we come to Romans the Spirit is forming that instinctively in the hearts of believers, that is in keeping with what He had in Jesus. RH Every son should have that seal, that cry.

PM That is the Spirit’s work in each one of us, “whereby we cry, Abba, Father”, Romans 8: 15.

Reading No. 4 at Glasgow
14 August 2010

KEY TO INITIALS

R. Bain	J. C. Gray	Martin
J. A. Brown	A. Gray	R. D. Plant
J. T. Brown (Ed.)	R. Gray	D. B. Robertson
R. H. Brown	N. J. Henry	C. K. Robinson
R. J. Campbell	R. Hodge	J. Spinks
K. Clark	W. McKillop	R. Taylor
R. Gardiner	A. Mair	J. Wright