NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 36
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 36
It is interesting to note the difference of effect when there was only a cloud of glory, and of beholding the Lord’s glory. The psalmist, bewildered by the state of things here, goes into the sanctuary; he expects an effect. Do we expect a distinct effect from being in the presence of the Lord of glory? The effect on the psalmist was very marked, the first was that the greatness of God so occupied him that he saw everything in a new light, everything in relation to God. The [p. 81] second effect was that he was conscious of his own littleness. “I was as a beast before thee”. Thirdly, he never was so sure of his place and acceptance with God; he says, “Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand”. And fourthly, he can now say, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee”, or more literally, With Thee I do not want anything beside. This was from the cloud of glory. The glory of God is that all His attributes, love, righteousness, truth, etc., are rightly expressed. It could not be shown to Moses, but now the light shines, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now beholding His glory, no veil on Him, mark the effect! This scripture tells you the effect of beholding the Lord’s glory. If the effect of coming where the cloud of glory was, was so great, surely beholding the Lord’s glory now will have a much greater effect. The queen of Sheba said to Solomon, “It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it”. (1 Kings 10: 6,7) Many are like her; they have read about beholding the Lord’s glory and the effect from doing so, but they have not come, and their eyes have not seen Him and His glory. If they had they would be able to say with her, “The half was not told me”. They think that they will come to it by reading the Scriptures, but they will not. The Scriptures tell you the effect of beholding the Lord’s glory; if you behold it you will be transformed into the same image, you will gain all that was conferred by the cloud of glory, and much more, you will be transformed into moral correspondence to the Lord at the time. Who could be near Him without being influenced and formed by Him? If we knew more of beholding Him in His glory in the holiest of all, we should know better the blessed effect produced by being in close association [p. 82] with Him. The Spirit of God tells us in the Scriptures the goodness of God to us, and as we walk in the Spirit we are led into the blessings which through grace are ours. May we not only read of them, but know them for ourselves.