HOW PRESSURE LEADS TO PRAISE

Habakkuk 3: 17–19; Isaiah 38: 9–20; Matthew 11: 25–30

WMcK I suggested these scriptures that we might see how pressure leads to praise. Habakkuk, in the verses read, indicates how there is circumstantial pressure, but that he finds strength in God; the result is that the circumstances do not continue to depress and discourage him but he rises to the thought of walking “upon my high places” and “To the chief Musician.

On my stringed instruments”. Hezekiah refers to pressure in his own body rather than circumstances. He was sick unto death, and we have the exercise of soul that he went through, but as coming out of it we find that he rises to the thought of the praises of God. In Matthew 11, of the Lord Himself in the presence of the rejection of His works of power, it says, “Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father”. If we apply the passage to ourselves, what is against the Lord’s presence among His people and His works of power in persons and what He is saying through ministry, we are not to lose sight of the fact that all this, as we feel the pressure and are with God in it, is to become contributory to the praises of God. Habakkuk is an interesting prophet. He begins by speaking about “The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see”. His name, as we may have noticed, means ‘Embracing’, but he says in chapter 1, “Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God, my Holy One?” (Habakkuk 1: 12). They are very elevated thoughts of God in the prophet’s mind; then he is alert as to what is going on, according to chapter 2, and looking for a word from God, “Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and engrave it upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it”

(Habakkuk 2: 2). The end of chapter 2 is always timely for us, of course, “But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!” (Habakkuk 2: 20). Then we have the prayer of the prophet, and he again alludes to God as “the Holy One” (Habakkuk 3: 3).

Then he rises to this thought of walking upon his high places and “To the chief Musician. On my stringed instruments”. I thought this might be profitable for us to converse about.

JS I think it is helpful to see how these things result in some enrichment in what is for God in praise. The circumstances referred to in verse 17 are like things that are adverse, and we might feel at times that things are against us, whereas the point is that he has to do with God in relation to them, “Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah”, he says. As we have to do with God it results in some enlargement and some yield for God.

WMcK Yes it does, and if we take account practically of economic conditions about us, we can see that what he speaks about here is becoming more evident among the nations, and the fact that as some of our brethren are unemployed would indicate that what is happening among the nations in that sense is bearing on us. We are not immune from circumstantial pressure any more than we are from bodily pressure, but I think we need to be encouraged to strengthen our links with God. So he says, “Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength”.

GBG Does it give us an impression of the supremacy of God that He can use circumstances in the body or in the testimony, or even evil, all for His own ends?

WMcK Yes, so one said, “in pressure thou hast enlarged me”, Psalm 4: 1. Pressure is to lead to enlargement, not to discouragement or lack of fruitfulness or the impoverishment of service Godward. It is to lead to the enrichment of what is for God.

JS So the pressure in itself will not enlarge us, it is as we have to do with God in the pressure that the enlargement comes.

WMcK Yes it is, and I think we are soberly to consider whether we are not heading into a period of severe and prolonged circumstantial pressure economically as we look at what is happening among the nations, and he says, “For though”. While it was not present then exactly, he could see it was coming, and whether we see that certain things may be coming in the ordering of God to detach us from the world and from the earth, and from being dominated by our occupations, would be something

we need to look into. So he says though certain things may happen, “Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah”. It is God in His supremacy. He is greater than all these things that are about us, but we need to resort to Him, not only because of what may be current circumstantially, but what may yet be coming.

IMS Does the expression “be in subjection to the Father of spirits” indicate an intelligent embracing of the circumstances?

WMcK It would, so that we have a lengthy book, the book of Job, which typically shows how a man came to “subjection to the Father of spirits”, Hebrews 12: 9. It took him a long time and, as we know, his friends in their rhetoric were no help to him; he could defend himself as well as they could attack him, and it took him a long time to come to the point that he laid his hand on his mouth. The Father of spirits is God, and we want to be intelligent as to inward subjection.

JMM In that section to which reference has just been made, the objective is “but he for profit, in order to the partaking of his holiness”, Hebrews 12: 10.

WMcK Yes, and also that “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” is yielded “to those exercised by it”. So these two features are to be increased among us by pressure, righteousness and holiness. The highest thought of holiness would be what you referred to, “his holiness”.

JS In the midst of these pressures due to economic conditions that apply generally to men, the point would be for believers to seek what the mind of God is in these things, to be among “those exercised” (Hebrews 12: 11), do you think?

WMcK Yes exactly; and so the word is to “exercise thyself unto piety”, 1 Timothy 4: 7.

The world has come through a period of affluence, and we want to be preserved from being infected by that. Piety is the great preservative, that we are not influenced in our way of thinking and our manner of living, and the like, but as pious persons and exercising ourselves unto piety we want to bring God into matters.

AMcK What does he mean by saying, “he maketh my feet like hinds’ feet”?

WMcK Well he is not held down by what is circumstantial. His feet are capable of moving on the heights, I would think. You remember the feminine speaker says of her beloved,

“Behold, he cometh

Leaping upon the mountains,

Skipping upon the hills” (Song of Songs 2: 8)

which would give us an idea of what hinds’ feet are. Hinds’ feet would be a feminine thought, so that the movements of the saints should be characteristically on this high level. “My high places” would be what has been opened up to us, which is above the earth and outside of the world. Think of this prophet, as he has to do with God in the midst of pressure, saying “he maketh my feet like hinds’ feet”. If God does that it is a substantial matter, it is not some imaginary thing, but it is a substantial practical matter and characterises the saints as having their minds set on “the things that are above”, Colossians 3: 2.

APG I was thinking about Paul in Philippians, he rejoiced in the Lord. So you get rejoicing in this section. Paul said, “I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself”, Philippians 4: 11.

WMcK Yes, and it is in that epistle that he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always—again I will say, Rejoice”, Philippians 4: 4. It is the immutability of what is there in Christ, and the Lord’s own movements in John 20 would illustrate the idea of how His feet were moving on His high places. He had overcome death, and He was on His way to bring heavenly light to His brethren through Mary, and also to imbue them with a heavenly constitution by breathing into them.

JS Do you think in these more limited or restricted circumstances that God would have in mind, therefore, that we might be led away from the things of the world and the things of earth in view of a greater entrance into the heavenly things?

WMcK I think that would be what is in view. So we

think of John in the isle of Patmos, how limited he was, and apparently there alone, and yet he says, “a door opened in heaven” and a voice said, “Come up here”, and “Immediately I became in the Spirit”, Revelation 4: 1, 2. The more we accept reduction in an earthly sense, and are with God about it, the more we shall see that the outlet into what is heavenly is greater. Would you think that?

JS That is what I thought. He speaks a good deal in a personal, individual way here.

Do you think it is a matter for each one of us to be taking this up in our relations with God?

WMcK It is. So that we reach things substantially by spiritual experience. “He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet. And he will make me to walk upon my high places”, that is the operation of God, and I think Colossians would help us to understand that, through faith of the operation of God (Colossians 2: 12), so that there is a realm of things based on resurrection that is outside of all pressure.

IMS It was Habakkuk that enunciated the principle, “the just shall live by his faith”, Habakkuk 2: 4.

WMcK Yes, it is important to see that. So that in circumstantial pressure faith and piety are two great matters to enter into our experience; “the just” would be righteous persons who are living by their own faith, not by somebody else’s. And we should not individually just be carried along by the brethren. We are to be on the principle of faith ourselves.

ALMcK. Just going back to Philippians, Paul says, “the circumstances in which I am”, Philippians 1: 12. So he did not just ignore the circumstances, he personally was able to analyse the circumstances in which he was and to see what was in view. Something else was in view in his mind, was there not?

WMcK Yes, so does he not say there, “have turned out rather to the furtherance of the glad tidings”? Well that would be an important matter that the thought of the glad tidings is amplified among us as we are with God about what is circumstantial.

IMS In the weekend you alluded to the completeness of the Lord’s identification with the condition He came

into. Does that include what you have just spoken of as to faith and piety?

WMcK Yes, because clearly as Man the Lord lived on the principle of faith, and also on the principle of piety. Hebrews tells us He was heard “because of his piety”, Hebrews 5: 7.

Well these are all instructive matters for us, especially if things are going to worsen. And God may allow that in order to promote heavenly-mindedness among the brethren as well as increased faith and greater piety. He uses these things because, as was said about His supremacy, if He can make even the wrath of man to serve Him. He can make any given set of circumstances to serve Him. For us it is not just His acting to control the forces of evil that would work through men or through nations, but He is furthering things in us which enable us to reach what Habakkuk says, “To the chief Musician”. Well that would be Christ, and then he says, “On my stringed instruments”. Now “stringed instruments” is in the plural, meaning that He is clearly thinking about what will come out of this that others will enter into.

RG The extremity of suffering was seen in the Lord, was it not, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matthew 27: 46? But then the result of it was that, Thou art holy, Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, (Psalm 22: 3). Do you think the positive side is that there is something for God in praise and worship that should come out in our experience?

WMcK That is what I was thinking, and that the things I referred to which are practical, such as brethren unemployed, and so on, are circumstantial, but what will they lead to? And

“my stringed instruments” would seem to indicate there is something coming out of Habakkuk’s experience, as he is made to walk on his high places, that is usable among the saints. That is, the service of praise among us collectively is enriched.

RG It is interesting when it comes to your next scripture Hezekiah says, “we will play upon my stringed instruments”, as if there is a kind of response collectively to what he is going through, do you think?

WMcK Exactly, so now we have “The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness”. Well, God was merciful to him, and Hezekiah was quite despondent, as well he might be naturally, “In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death” (Isaiah 38: 1), and of course the word of the prophet that came to him could not have been very comforting, “Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live”. That ought to sober us that any one of us might get a word like that, because our house is not in order, “Hezekiah turned his face to the wall”, that meant he saw no way out, but still faith is operative, he “prayed to Jehovah”; then of course he refers to what he had done, and that was true, but referring to what he had done was not going to heal him and raise him up. So he goes through a good deal of inward exercise, but he comes through it, and it is interesting that in this chapter he goes from pressure to sonship, and from sonship to fruitfulness. In saying that, it has not originated with me, but many years ago when I was a young man I heard Mr James Taylor speak on this passage, and he said Hezekiah went from pressure to sonship, and from sonship to fruitfulness. Well this related not to what was circumstantial but to his own body. And again, to be simple about it, there is a good deal of physical pressure and illness among us, some with quite young brethren and some with quite elderly brethren. How are all these things affecting us? It is one thing to pray about it on Monday night, which we ought to, but is there any kind of real inward exercise related to this, because “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it”, 1 Corinthians 12: 26. If one person is going through something that is critical, how is that affecting me even if I am a young person?

JS Do you think as we take on these inward exercises relating to what happens in our bodies, it really leads to the acceptance of death morally, so that we come into the praise of God in a living way? He says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day”. Do you think we need to go through these kind of exercises to reach that?

WMcK We do, so that the acceptance of death morally is a very great point to come to in our soul experience, that by faith and by the Spirit’s power in some measure we are reaching what actually happened to the Lord Himself, that He went into death and lay in death. Well Hezekiah reached this point of extremity that he “turned his face to the wall”, and then we have these things he says, and he is quite open about a good deal of what he said which had no moral value, that is, “Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter”. But in verse 15 he comes to this, “What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it”. Well, you come to it that it is God who has done it, and as believers we ought to remember that there is nothing that happens in our bodies that is apart from God. He says, “He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it”. We may not have thought about that, but if we have hedged ourselves about circumstantially so that we are not much affected by what is outward, we may forget that God still has a means of touching us in our bodies, and that is probably the most testing thing.

RG To go back to Job, that you spoke about, he says, after suffering so much in his body, “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee”, Job 42: 5.

Is that like this, do you think?

WMcK I think it is. So he says here, “He hath both spoken unto me”, I suppose that would allude to the word to Isaiah that God spoke to him, but then “and himself hath done it”.

Now that would direct our thoughts, if we are conscious of being sons, that the Father is dealing with us with that in view. God conducts Himself towards us as towards sons. He is not dealing with us as reprobates or as unbelievers in the world. He “conducts himself” (Hebrews 12: 7), a very feeling and dignified word, towards us as towards sons.

AMcK He recognised that the Lord had spoken to him. There is a good deal that happens and we may not hear the Lord’s voice in it, when we should be sympathetic and be attentive.

WMcK Well exactly, and if something happens among us which involves sorrow and suffering, although it may not directly immediately affect me, does it affect me because I am priestly, and I am concerned about the whole scope of the testimony and what there is among the brethren universally? What we would certainly look for as a result of certain things that have happened among us in the last eighteen months or so is that our younger brethren would be marked by sobriety and piety, so that things that have happened would not just be uncomfortable memories from time to time, but the thing would enter into our souls. So he says, “Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit”; but before that he says, “I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul”. That is, certain things that have happened are to have a lasting effect, even though it involves bitterness of soul. I do not know if the brethren follow what I am saying.

JAW The weaver is mentioned in this section. Is something being woven into the fibre of the believer that is going to yield to God in the end?

WMcK Exactly. So that there are examples throughout scripture of persons who were not affected. We can think of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall; and of the man of whom the Lord spoke who said, “I will take away my granaries and build greater”, the word to him was, “this night thy soul shall be required of thee”, Luke 12: 18, 20. Well here is a man who is affected, and he says, “I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul”.

That would have, I think, a sobering, lasting effect on us.

APG Would it result in refinement in a spiritual sense? Malachi speaks about the refiner, does he not? Would that be a result of this, do you think?

WMcK Yes it does. So that certain things that are not suitable to the house of God and the service of God are being purged from us by this inward suffering in our spirits and this bitterness of soul. So you will notice that what he brings in here is “the house of Jehovah”.

Habakkuk does not mention that, but Hezekiah does.

GBG So the Father purges and brings forth more fruit. It is not necessary in that setting that there is something wrong. Purging is needed in any case, is that right?

WMcK It is, in order that there should be, as you say, more fruit. The Lord speaks about it as we know, “fruit”, “much fruit”, and then “more fruit”, in John 15. So in addition to God’s disciplinary ways with us as His sons, there is the fact that we are drawing from Christ.

The figure in John 15, although it alludes to the Lord and those who were with Him, yet the principle carries forward that “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15: 5). That is our position spiritually if we are real, that we are either drawing from the vine and bearing fruit, or branches that are unfruitful are cut off.

WB Can we say of Job, and also Hezekiah here, that God would make them worshippers? This is what God has in mind with us in going through exercises, that He would make us worshippers, in spirit and truth.

WMcK Yes, I would say that, so that all these things we are referring to are not the end in themselves and are not to unduly occupy us as together, save to promote exercise of soul, but the divine thought is that we should become worshippers. So he says, “we will play upon my stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of Jehovah”, and in the verse before, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee”. “The living” would include more than Hezekiah.

JS It leads to the enrichment of what is collective. These experiences would have in mind that that should be the result, do you think?

WMcK It should. So the thought of “the house of Jehovah” would be collective, and one like Habakkuk says, “we will play upon my stringed instruments”, it is a mutual state of life and spirituality, and as our brother was saying, persons are engaged in the praises of God in spirit and truth, a great result morally of this pressure through which he went.

JS When he says, “we will play upon my stringed instruments”, it means that we become available to merge in the collective setting, do you think?

WMcK Exactly, and see what a change there is in him from chattering like a swallow or a crane, he is now talking about playing “upon my stringed instruments”, which would point to skill in the service of God, especially viewing the saints as in the hands of Christ as the instruments, as David said, “four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments which I made”, 1 Chronicles 23: 5.

JS When he says, “I shall go softly”, do you think that would prepare the way in the soul for a readiness for the indications of the Lord, that we become accustomed to looking for some indications from Him? We become characteristically of that kind, do you think?

WMcK Yes, so we have the word in Ecclesiastes, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God” (Ecclesiastes 5: 1); and then as to Asher, in his blessing Moses says of him,

“let him dip his foot in oil”, Deuteronomy 33: 24. That is a wonderful matter that your walk now is characteristically an anointed walk.

WB Perhaps you can say a word about the instruments which David made.

WMcK Well, it would be ourselves, would it not? As it says in 1 Corinthians 8: 6, “one Lord, Jesus Christ ... and we by him”. What we are spiritually is what the Lord has made us, and it is especially that we should be in His hand in view of the praises of God, “we by him”. Do I regard myself as I come into the house of God as someone that the Lord has made, and made in view of the praises of God?

ALMcK. Would Lazarus of Bethany be an example of the living? It says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee”. I was thinking of the supper that was prepared for the Lord after Lazarus died and was raised again. The Lord Himself, entered into that pressure, did He not,

“Jesus wept” (John 11: 35). He entered into that pressure with them?

WMcK He did, so in chapter 12 Lazarus would represent this style of life, “The living, the living”, and even though he is not saying a word in that scripture, clearly for those who would have eyes to see, he would be an

instrument that David had made.

RG “My stringed instruments”, the tuning of the instrument would go on during the week and the exercise through which we pass, so that there might be heavenly music on the harp in the house of Jehovah, do you think?

WMcK Yes, and that the quality of the music, to speak of it that way, would be increased. There would be greater refinement and greater skill.

RG I was just going to ask if you think it should exercise us that there is something fresh each Lord’s day morning as we come up, as a result of the exercise that we have gone through during the week?

WMcK Yes, it should. Every week we experience pressure of some kind, and if we are not having circumstantial pressure or bodily pressure personally, yet there is always the pressure that is spoken of in Matthew 11, verse 20, “Then began he to reproach the cities in which most of his works of power had taken place, because they had not repented”, and then, “At that time, Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father”. You might say, as far as the eye could see there was not a single outward result from the works of power, but, “At that time.

Jesus answering said”. There is a beautiful address of Mr. Pellatt on ‘The Spirit of the Lord Jesus at the moment of entire rejection’. It is well worth reading it if the brethren can get hold of it. There He was, it was the moment of entire rejection, because in the next chapter He speaks about how the Spirit would be rejected, but then in chapter 13 He begins with opening out what He has in His heart about the assembly, the one pearl of great value. But at this point, at the time of entire rejection, “Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father”. What a model for us. We are in times that in this sense are difficult. In the public body the Lord’s voice is not being heard; sometimes it is not even heard among ourselves as it ought to be.

The way the Lord answered. His answer is not to say much other than what He did about these places, but “At that time, Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father”. The answer is in the praising.

JS I think we have to learn from the Lord Himself how to carry in our spirits the pressures of the testimony and, at the same time, maintain what is due to God in the service.

WMcK Yes, we do. So that we have often referred to it in Deuteronomy 26, as the worshipper comes up, one of the things he says is, in what he has brought for God, “I have not eaten thereof in my mourning”; that is, I have had sorrow but I have not let that impair what is for God, “I have not eaten thereof in my mourning” (Deuteronomy 26: 14). Well, think of the Lord here, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth”. He retreats into His knowledge of the Father’s operations, “And thou Capernaum, who hast been raised up to heaven ...”, it rejected His works of power; still the Father’s operations are effective,

“thou hast ... revealed them to babes”. Well, as we have gone through the pressures that Habakkuk and Hezekiah experienced, and have come through to those fine spiritual results, we are among the babes. The babes here are not exactly babes in the sense of helpless infants, but it is the character of the saints as subdued by the supremacy of God and the power of the kingdom of God, and the Father is revealing things to such. So the Lord says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. That is a great matter, because is there any record in the gospels that the Lord at any point ever became agitated and spoke without sensible judgment or acted in haste? In fact the prophet says, he shall “not make haste”, Isaiah 28: 16. You say, How do we learn these things? We learn them from Him in His presence.

JS Do you think we learn by observation of the Lord Himself in His relations with the Father?

WMcK I think we would, and that is why, as we are affected by the things we have spoken of, and it has brought about a spiritual formation in us, and we are such that the Father can reveal things to us as babes, we then can begin to observe what is in the four gospels and then learn from the Lord Himself in His own presence. I think “learn from me” involves communion.

IMS I was just taken by what you were alluding to, these instances of the Lord’s evenness. Would that be included in what He said to Paul, “My grace suffices thee”, 2 Corinthians 12: 9?

WMcK Yes, it would, so that applied to the thorn for the flesh that the Lord allowed Paul to have, as he says himself, “that I might not be exalted by the exceeding greatness of the revelations”, 2 Corinthians 12: 7. We know that, like ourselves, Paul at least once failed when he said to the high priest, “God will smite thee, whited wall”, Acts 23: 3. When the Lord was smitten, as it was said, “they shall smite the judge of Israel ... upon the cheek” (Micah 5: 1). He said, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?”, John 18: 23. There was no flash of indignation, no recrimination, “who ... when suffering, threatened not”, 1 Peter 2: 23. I would encourage us to see that we can only learn these things and acquire this character in communion with the Lord Himself in His presence.

IMS Is it peculiarly for those who serve?

WMcK It is. The Lord really is speaking to those “who labour and are burdened”, and He says, “I will give you rest”. Matters come up in a locality and immediately, because we have such quick means of communication and it is so easy to transmit misinformation, brethren are agitated and disturbed and unconsciously begin to form into little parties here and there, and all that interferes with the unity of the Spirit known practically. The Lord is saying, “I will give you rest”. I do not think labourers and burden-bearers have time to become agitated or to agitate their brethren because labouring and being burdened are full-time matters.

RG I was just going to say, agitation breaks communion, does it not? And if we are to learn from the Lord we have to learn in His holy presence in communion with Him.

WMcK We do, and as that communion is maintained by us individually, as we come together the communion of the Holy Spirit will be known among us.

GBG In Revelation 1 it says, “one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet” (Revelation 1: 13), is that the thought of the Lord not being hasty?

WMcK Yes, He is viewed as walking, but it would be deliberate and judicial there, and bearing especially upon the whole public body. But this section, as we are affected by His presence and communion with Him will bring about what He says, “I will give you rest”. Nothing may have changed in what exercises me, but the Lord says, “I will give you rest”. Without spiritual rest we cannot serve God acceptably. Is that right, Mr.McK.?

AMcK I am quite sure that is right. I was thinking of how in the offerings the fine flour is referred to. Now that is a certain process it goes through, but when it is refined then it is fit for the offering.

WMcK Yes, and that and the oil were not to be lacking in accompanying the offerings, were they? Whether it was a bullock or a kid, the oblation and the oil were always to accompany that. In fact later on God connects His drink-offering with it, as though there is always something for God out of every matter that the Lord brings us through. As we reach rest, the bread of God and the drink-offering will not be lacking.

Reading at Dundee
24 October 2002

KEY TO INITIALS

W. Becker

J. M. Macfarlane

I. M. Shearer

A. P. Grant

A. McKay

J. Strachan

G. B. Grant

A. McKay Jr.

J. A. Walker

R. Gardiner

W. McKillop