THE BELIEVER'S ROAD TOWARD THE SPHERE OF LIGHT, AUTHORITY, AND BLESSING
THE BELIEVER’S ROAD TOWARD THE SPHERE OF LIGHT, AUTHORITY, AND BLESSING
Psalm 120; Psalm 122; Psalm 132:1 - 9; Psalm 133
Most of the brethren present doubtless know that the Psalms which we have read are from the Songs of Degrees; these Songs go from Psalms 120 to 134. Prophetically, they indicate the journey which will be taken in the future by the remnant, from the place of their captivity to the place of their blessing. In that day, Jerusalem will be the centre of blessing; before reaching there, they will have the light derived from the Old Testament scriptures, indicating the purpose of God concerning Jerusalem; it is indeed His thought to be occupied with Jerusalem, for she is the city of the great King, to make her the centre of light, of rule, of blessing on the earth. There, He will command the blessing, which is “life for evermore”.
I would like, however, to make an application of these Psalms to the present time, remembering that “as many things as have been written before have been written for our instruction” Romans 15:4. Thus, these Songs of Degrees may illustrate the journey which a believer makes at the present time, held in captivity in the world, in order to reach the sphere of light, rule and blessing; that is, in other words, the sphere where God dwells. Many Christians have no idea that such a sphere exists; they regard heaven as the divine dwelling, and indeed it is a divine dwelling; but nevertheless, the house of God is never spoken of as being in heaven. The house of God is a sphere established on earth. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost signified that God had come to dwell here below, so that we read in the epistle to the [p. 279] Ephesians that believers from among the Gentiles and from among the Jews are collectively the habitation of God by the Spirit. Speaking of us, Gentiles, it is said that we are no longer strangers, nor foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God.
Having made the position of the believer clear, I would like to trace his progress, as we find it in these Psalms.
In Psalm 120, the believer is in captivity, and he cries, asking for deliverance. He says, “Jehovah, deliver my soul from the lying lip, from the deceitful tongue”. Believers in Christ who are mixed up with the world, politically, socially, or even religiously, experience what is mentioned in these Psalms, and they are conscious of being in a foreign land, for they belong to a sphere of which I have just spoken, where God dwells; so they are conscious of the deceitful tongue, and ask to be delivered from it. We read later, in verse 5, “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” Those are regions foreign to one who belongs to Jerusalem, and he is not at all comfortable there. “Woe is me ...” he says, “My soul hath long dwelt with them that hate peace”. And he continues, saying, “I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war”. Men are willing to be on good terms with us, as being in the world, and they are until the moment when we speak of Christ; for the heart of the believer desires to speak of the Lord, of God. Certainly, in confessing the Lord Jesus, we discover that “they are for war”: the world hates the Lord Jesus. Satan will not acknowledge His rights; so, when the believer confesses the Lord Jesus, he finds that they are for war. But it is good to be warned in this way, regarding the place of our captivity, for, discerning the rights of Christ, we desire still more to be delivered; and there is a deliverance.
[p. 280] The following Psalm shows how deliverance comes: “I lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: whence shall my help come? My help cometh from Jehovah ...” Psalm 121:1 - 2. So, dear brethren, if we are in such a state, in order to get out of it we must turn to God. He desires more than we do that we should be delivered, and He has means of deliverance at His disposal.
I cannot go into the details of these Songs of Degrees; I only wish to bring out the salient points, and I would like to remark that in Psalm 122 the house comes into his mind. He says, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”. Other believers have also passed through the same exercises; perhaps they were exercised a long time before myself; they have followed the road; they have reached the end; they know what the house of God means, and at the needed time they said to me, “Let us go into the house of Jehovah”, and “I rejoiced”. That has often been said to young Christians, but they have not always rejoiced. Jacob’s first experience as to the house of God made him say that it was a dreadful place; the secret of this was that he was in a bad state of soul. He said, “How dreadful is this place!” Genesis 28:17. One is not happy when one is invited into a dreadful place. But twenty years after, Jacob was happy to enter there. God invited him to enter there; He said to Jacob, “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow to me” Genesis 31:13. God recalls to him an experience he had had twenty years previously. How often we repress or cast off such feelings! Jacob had had experience of the house of God, but he was content to remain outside for twenty years. Then, God told him to enter. “And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make an altar unto the God that appeared unto thee when [p. 281] thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. And Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments; and we will arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to the God that answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went” Genesis 35:1 - 3. He recognised that the house of God was a holy place, for God said, “Be ye holy, for I am holy” 1 Peter 1:16. So, when Jacob enters into Bethel the second time, he finds Jehovah there, not in heaven, as the first time, but as having come down to Bethel itself.
Many among us this evening have experienced the power of God in His house, and we would like to invite you to go there. “Let us go into the house of Jehovah”. Does your heart rejoice at the thought of going there? It says, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah!”
Now, dear brethren, I would like to show you how spiritual thoughts arose in his mind when the house was before him. He says, “Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem”. You see, he thinks of Jerusalem, for the house was in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a city, and the house is in a city. Our Jerusalem is heavenly. The New Testament speaks of “the holy city new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God” Revelation 21:2. And in Hebrews it is said that we are come “to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem” Hebrews 12:22. A city suggests what is political. Perhaps you say, But I did not know that Christians were political. They are; they have a heavenly city. That is the reason we stand, and it is what we are awaiting. It is said in the epistle to the Philippians, “Our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour” Philippians 3:20. We also await the Saviour, so that, in the measure in which we [p. 282] appreciate our heavenly capital, we are delivered from the politics of earth.
Speaking of Jerusalem, he describes it. He says, “Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together”. That city is quite different from a modern city. Modern cities are immense; some even reach beyond the boundaries laid down; their limits can hardly be discerned. But it is not so with the city of God; it is compact; it has definite limits. Many Christians have no limit, but seem to be able to move about here and there, without any sense of limitation. We ought to be placed within limits. We must be brought under rule, and this writer speaks of Jerusalem as being “compact together”. He knew when he was outside, or when he was inside. The tribes went up there; could they not fix the moment when they entered the city? It says, “Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of Jah, a testimony to Israel, to give thanks unto the name of Jehovah”.
He says afterwards that there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Need I say, dear brethren, that David represents Christ and that these thrones will be occupied by those who belong to Christ? There we shall find judgment; no one will have to wait years for a judicial decision, as is usual in the courts of justice of this world. There are thrones of judgment, and these thrones belong to the house of David. Believers ought to learn now how to sit on thrones suitably. It is those who suffer who will sit on thrones. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” 2 Timothy 2:12. We learn at the present time to come to decisions. We have no need to go to the courts of justice of this world. The righteousness of God is in the assembly, so that judgment according to God is rendered.
Then, the believer asks that there should be prayer. He not only sees the gain connected with the city, but he asks others to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
[p. 283] One is sometimes distressed to see how limited our prayers are. For us there is at present only one Jerusalem: that is the Jerusalem above. In fact it is the assembly here, and if we pray for it we pray for all saints. The Colossians and the Ephesians were characterised by love for all the saints, and they are exhorted to pray for them all. So he says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”. He sees that the testimony depends on Jerusalem. It is found in the world; he knows that there is war — “they are for war” — and he desires that peace may reign among the people of God, not however to the detriment of the truth, for we must pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace.
I would like you to notice that he speaks of “brethren”; he says, “For my brethren and companions’ sakes I will say, Peace be within thee!” Are we fully awake to the fact that all Christians are our brethren? Do we know that there is such a thing as the family of God, to which all believers belong? Do we desire that all may have part in this city, this sphere of light, authority and blessing, and that peace may reign there? Then he says, “For my brethren and companions’ sakes I will say, Peace be within thee!” The Lord Himself said, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another” Mark 9:50. Salt preserves; it preserves us from corruption, and in that way we have peace in incorruptibility, as the apostle Paul says — “with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption” Ephesians 6:24. It is thus that we enjoy this peace among us.
Without going into the details, I wish to show you how we progress. In verse 7 of Psalm 124, it is said, “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we have escaped” Psalm 124:7. The believer now enjoys liberty; his soul has escaped. He has been in the snare of the fowler, but his soul has escaped. “The snare is broken, and we have escaped”. You see, dear brethren, he speaks of himself and of others. In all simplicity between us, we can speak in the same way. I know thousands of brethren who can truly speak in this way. We have been held in this foreign worldly element, whether political, social or religious; but “the snare is broken, and we have escaped”. So we are free, in the freedom in which Christ has placed us; as the apostle says, “Christ has set us free in freedom; stand fast therefore, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage” Galatians 5:1. He has set us free in freedom, certainly not liberty for the flesh, but for spiritual affections — liberty to love one another, liberty to serve God, liberty to preach Christ. Is it not precious to be placed in liberty, dear brethren?
Time does not permit us to speak of the intervening Psalms. In the second verse of Psalm 126 it is said, “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing: then said they among the nations, Jehovah hath done great things for them” Psalm 126:2. He does not take all the credit to himself; it is God who has done it for him. He says, “When Jehovah turned the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream” Psalm 126:1. None of us can deliver himself; but Jehovah has done it. God has turned the captivity of Zion, so that He now has His place in the soul of the believer. God has done great things for us; wherefore our mouths are full of laughter. You remember that “Isaac” means ‘laughter’. Isaac is a type of Christ; He is a type of Christ, in that He occupies a whole position in the heart of the believer. When Ishmael is cast out, Isaac has in the soul of the believer an undisputed place; when Isaac occupies that place, there is a state of joy in the heart; our mouth is filled with holy laughter. It is Christ, now raised from among the dead, in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen. Our position is thus sure and stable. Also we read in Psalm 125, “They that confide in Jehovah are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved; it abideth for ever” Psalm 125:1. You see we are now on the ground of purpose. It says, “Jerusalem! — mountains are round about her, and Jehovah is round about his people, from henceforth and for evermore” Psalm 125:2.
Dear brethren, I would now like to show you, in Psalm 132, how we begin to consider things in relation to Christ. Jehovah had had consideration for these Psalmists. For them He had done great things: He had brought them into a sure place; He was round about them. Now, Psalm 132, written doubtless by David, says, “I will not come into the tent of my house, I will not go up to the couch of my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob!” You see one is ready to renounce one’s own comfort; one has left behind for ever one’s private interest. The believer is in the light of what it has cost God, what it has cost Christ, to bring him into liberty; and he places the interest of God before everything else; he places the interest of God in the first place, in the second place, in every place, positively. He is then a vessel for the divine testimony. He thinks of God; he thinks of Christ; he thinks of divine interests and forsakes his own interests, even refusing slumber to his eyelids, until he had found out “a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob”. Now we also are concerned to gather the saints, because we see that the saints are a place for divine dwelling. As Peter says, we are “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5); and Paul says that we are “built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” Ephesians 2:22. We read further down, “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy”.
The believer now looks at the field; he thinks of all the saints of God; in the language of the apostle [p. 286] Peter, he considers them as a holy priesthood, but they need to be clothed with priestly garments. They must have to do with God, and God is holy, so that he says, “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy”. Priestly garments have a prominent place in the Scriptures. In the return from the captivity in the time of Nehemiah, it speaks of “priests’ coats” (Nehemiah 7:70) which were given for the work; the priests belong to the temple, and if they are to serve there, they must have priestly garments. As regards ourselves, the saints, these garments are “the righteousnesses of the saints” Revelation 19:8. Priests recognise the rights of God and the rights of men. They are righteous in all respects. They are righteous in their houses; thus, they draw near to God. We are able to be occupied with divine things: we are the true house of Aaron. But here, what is essential is to be clothed with garments of righteousness. Then, as saints of Jehovah, we shout for joy. We find that in verse 16, God undertakes to answer the desire in verse 9: “And I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy”.
In verse 13, it says, “For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his dwelling”. You see that God makes use of what we prepare for Him. However religious human organisations may be, you can never find such a thing there; and we read later, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”. And among other precious things, He says, “And I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy”. You see, dear brethren, how God works in relation to our exercises. What the psalmist desired, God has brought to pass.
In Psalm 133, we have the culminating point — the family. The other Psalms all refer to the experience of the believer, until he reaches a point which is described as being “good and pleasant”, and it is “for brethren to dwell together in unity”. What an appeal to the people of God! The way is very clear for us, dear brethren, to break all our earthly links, in order to reach this place of holy liberty and of blessing. So he compares it to the dew of Hermon, but first of all to “the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard”. The thought of brethren dwelling together in unity, according to God, involves the position of Christ in heaven. Before ascending to heaven, He sent the message to the disciples as to His brethren; afterwards, having ascended to heaven, He poured out the Holy Spirit, the precious oil with which He Himself had been anointed. It comes down to us — “to the hem of his garments”. Then, “the dew of Hermon” refers to the place of Christ exalted. The refreshment of heaven comes down, so that the saints are preserved, always green, in the energy of life. They are maintained in vigour of spiritual affection, as it is said, “Let brotherly love abide” (Hebrews 13:1), for love according to God is “love in the Spirit” (Colossians 1:8); so that, as I have said, there is a sphere in relation to the divine purpose — “the mountains of Zion”. Mountains are a symbol of strength; they are a figure of the power that exists among the brethren. There is in the brethren considered thus a correspondence to God Himself, for in Ephesians it speaks of “the power which works in us” Ephesians 3:20. It is the power by which Christ has been raised, so that God commands the blessing. There is what is morally in accord with the divine will. If you analyse the epistle to the Ephesians, you will see how the will of God acts through the exercises of His people. There is “the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5), “the mystery of his will” (Ephesians 1:9) and “the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11). The will of God is one of the greatest things in the universe. I have no doubt that it is like the jasper that characterises the heavenly [p. 288] city, the unfolding of the will of God in a vessel down here. Christ has been down here for His will, and so the assembly is also here for His will. The mystery of His will, therefore, will be fulfilled. No power can hinder what He commands. Think of the greatness of God who commands the blessing! He has “commanded the blessing”, that is “life for evermore”.
So you see in these Songs of Degrees how the believer obtains deliverance from this world, to whatever phase of it he may belong, and how he reaches the sphere of light, authority and blessing, where brethren dwell together in unity. Note that they dwell “together”.
May God bless His word!
Address by J.T. at Paris, 20th May, 1926, evening.
Pages 289 - 350 — “The Gates of Zion”, Readings and Addresses. Belfast and Glasgow, 1927 (Volume 88).