THE SERVICE OF SONG

THE SERVICE OF SONG

1 Chronicles 16: 4; Habakkuk 3: 17 - 19; Isaiah 38: 19, 20

H. D. Thomas It may be appropriate, dear brethren, at this juncture to be reminded of the service of song, particularly in what is suggested in the Old Testament by “instruments of music,” that is, we may say, organised singing. There are songs in the Scriptures which appear to be spontaneous, composed in certain circumstances and expressed, and once expressed they remain in the treasury of the saints. But it is evident that, under David’s regime, and subsequently, there was a certain ordered service, and we are reminded of that in our exercises as to the new hymn book.

The word used for ‘instruments of music’ is very often translated “vessel,” which is a suggestion, not only of ability, but of capacity and substance. So that we are faced with this, dear brethren, that whilst thankful to God for divinely given ability to write new hymns, thankful too for the services of those who are moving the matter forward and praying too for those upon whom the very heavy task of translation falls, we are confronted with this fact that putting these beautiful sentiments into the hymn book does not put them into our souls. What is expressed is to be the outcome of our knowledge of God. There is, of course, such a thing as getting into the current of the Spirit and being taken further than our normal capacity. I am sure we all know that. But, on the other hand, we may refer to these three men - Asaph, Habakkuk and Hezekiah - as those who learnt how to praise by the experiences through which they passed. There is something about experience, dear brethren, that in a certain sense is unique. We tend to be academic, so God sees to it that we are passed through matters under His hand which are used for our education, so that we acquire things substantially, and, moreover, there develops amongst us a certain spiritual affinity. I have noticed that Scripture tells us quite a bit about the three men to whom I refer, and it would be found, if this is examined, that they, though in different circumstances, learned very much the same lessons. I would commend that to the brethren, that similarity is not achieved by the insistence on mere outward uniformity but by learning how to go on with God. He has the whole matter in hand. The wonderful structure of the assembly, dear brethren, baffles the most astute human mind, if we think for a moment of what is involved in Christ having His bride, having the assembly, in the midst of which He sings God’s praises. If you think of the extensiveness of the work, including every blood-bought saint from Pentecost to the rapture who has the Spirit, and all fitted in and made to coordinate, all having their own personality, all having their own individuality, and yet all linked together in an organism that finds its impulse from Christ in the power of the Spirit and shall yield to the Persons of the Godhead all that They desire for eternity. The magnitude of the matter, dear brethren, lifts us out of anything that is small or paltry and makes us understand what a work God has put His hand to. The assembly is made up of persons and we have histories, and I thought perhaps it might be profitable to refer briefly to these three men. I confess that I have Hezekiah mainly on my mind, and I was a little confirmed in it by our brother’s subject, because he is presented - indeed, as the others are - as being figurative of those who are in the enjoyment of eternal life, that is, in the knowledge of God; not that they knew it as we know it now, Jesus having become a Man, but then there were certain foreshadowings, dear brethren, and that makes the Old Testament so interesting.

When David appointed certain of the Levites to celebrate and to thank and to praise Jehovah we are told, without any explanation, that Asaph was the chief. No one seems to have quarrelled with it, for he carried his own moral qualifications and, where Christ is supreme, as typified in the ark coming into its place in the tent which David had spread for it, there is an elimination of rivalry amongst the brethren. Nothing is likely to exclude party faction more than the supremacy of Christ amongst the saints. David’s service at that time was to make the ark supreme, the result of the ark being brought into its place being that God was served and the saints were blessed. But this result was not to pass away with the occasion. David made provision that God’s portion was to be rendered to Him as the duty of every day required. Whilst we are very much concerned about the assembly singing, it may be that we are not so concerned about our ability to sing constitutionally. Now, as regards Asaph, the chief, if we read through the Psalms he wrote we shall find the exercises of the man that led David to give him that position. At the start he had a good deal of query. That should encourage us. Sometimes we hide our queries from ourselves, but it is far better to have to do with God about them. Asaph was very concerned because he saw the wicked prospering. He looked around in the world and found all things awry. Is it not so today? It surely is! He says, “As for me ... truly have I purified my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency: for all the day have I been plagued and chastened every morning,” Psalm 73. He almost says, dear brethren, ‘I am having too much of my share of discipline.’ Never so! In the divine realm all is measured, all is calculated, all is weighed accurately before it is allowed to fall. The hand of One who loves us, dear brethren, is above all. The poise that entered into creation enters into the care of the soul, and if we get to do with God, we find that there is always some mitigating thing. ‘In saddest skies, some silver gleam,’ and in the most trying circumstances some tenderness, and in the thing that seems so bitter something that reminds us of the sweetness of the knowledge of God. So we find these things, dear brethren. Asaph found them; and where did he find them? He found them in the sanctuary. He says, “Until I went into the sanctuaries of God ... “ Psalm 73: 17. It is there everything is seen in right perspective, and he comes to the conclusion, “As for me, it is good for me to draw near to God,” verse 28. It may seem a very simple thing to say, but I believe constitutionally our ability to sing lies in our knowledge of God, and we never learn Him at a distance. There are a good many young people here, I perceive. God often follows us very carefully, even though we may drift; but real progress of soul is made when we draw near to God. There is such a thing as deliberately drawing near to God. I believe we are to be taught how to do it. The Lord, in speaking of prayer, says, “enter into thy chamber, and having shut thy door ... “ Matthew 6: 6. It is not just finding a second when you can; there is deliberation in it. Draw near! - and we have a promise that, as we draw near to God. He will draw near to us; James 4: 8. It is in these things we see the making of the man and he is a most interesting subject.

The way Asaph recurs in different parts of scripture is noticeable. In the historical books, David and Solomon are often referred to for the simple reason that they are types of Christ. But Asaph is often linked with them and he is not a type of Christ but a type of the product of the ministry of David and Solomon; he is one of ourselves in that sense, and he goes through; for in practically every revival in Judah you will find his progeny have their place in the service of God in song. What we are saying about him makes him an important man to us. You will remember he tells us where promotion comes from; it says it comes “not from the east nor from the west, nor yet from the south,” Psalm 75: 6. By inference it comes from the north as has been often remarked, involving discipline, but only as accepted from the hand of God. “For God is the judge; he putteth down one and exalteth another,” verse 7. What does that mean? It does not merely mean one brother being passed over and another one exalted - it may mean that, and sometimes it does - but I would suggest it is more what we were having today, that God, by His handling of our souls, is putting down one order of things and building up another order of things. Jesus came here not to perpetuate the situation but to end it and to bring about something that is going into eternity because it is fit for eternity. What a wonderful thing, dear brethren, to understand that every particle of work in our souls belongs to that realm in which God is operating. The world has no right to it; it does not belong there. We are not of the world as Christ is not of the world. We can afford to leave this poor scene behind us in our thoughts and aspirations and hopes, and take on something in our souls that belongs to another world, and the Spirit is called “the earnest of our inheritance.” We have Him now.

The brethren will remember that, whilst Asaph went through his individual exercises and seems to have learned in a certain measure of solitariness, yet on the other hand he (of all people!) recounts God’s goodness to His people as a nation. He speaks of the long journey through the wilderness and what God was to His saints. He speaks of God’s way being in the sanctuary and also in the sea: “thy paths are in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known” (Psalm 77: 19), as if he has given up trying to explain everything to himself and is just in the quiet submission to God’s will, and he comes to the conclusion that God was leading His people as He had before, by the hand of Moses and Aaron. What a wonderful thing, dear brethren! One thinks of the scripture which has engaged us today, one upon which my heart has often rested, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand,” John 3: 35. The heart finds peculiar rest in thinking that God in Christ has one blessed Man to whom He has committed everything. Not one thing will fail. I suppose the greatest thing that was ever committed to Christ was the work of redemption. But think of all the rest! The more we think of it, the greater Jesus becomes to us. The Son of God - how competent He is! What hands are His! - they will never fail. Moses knew it: “all his saints are in thy hand,” Deuteronomy 33: 3. There we are, and we might as well stay there! He will do the best for us. He led them by the hand of Moses and Aaron and these typify Jesus who is made Lord and Christ. We learn to submit to His authority and we learn to benefit by the support He alone can give. We often lean upon one another but sometimes we arrive at a stage when there is no one to lean upon but Christ, and He will never fail.

Now all that enters into the constitution of a man who has his part in relation to stringed instruments. Indeed, in this chapter they are called musical instruments of God. Asaph has a responsible place in this matter for he had learned in this well-worn road of the discipline of God. So we are to continue with our eye on another Man in another place, and as we do so our path through this world is simplified because we have another world before us. Also we find we acquire the ability to have our part with the saints in the service of God in song, for the discipline of God never makes one doleful. “No chastening at the time seems to be of joy, but of grief,” Hebrews 12: 11. If God is humbling us, we want to be humbled - I fully admit that - but, on the other hand, dear brethren, you will find that, as soon as anything is accepted from the hand of God there is a sense that good is intended and good comes. God is good and He does good; and it is the way to keep the enemy out of our minds and out of our circumstances and out of our outlook so that we are free to have our part in what is being yielded now in the assembly. Think of it, dear brethren! - made up of persons like ourselves. We sometimes think of the assembly in its greatness and grandeur, and we get an almost grotesque idea of it. But then, to soberly reflect in the power of the Spirit, it is made up of persons like ourselves, every one for whom Jesus laid down His life, as we had before us this afternoon. I suppose the flock is the most elementary figure of the collective position. The assembly perhaps sometimes conveys something a little more official. We graduate to higher levels of the truth by coming into the flock in attachment to the One who has died for us; it is intended that Jesus should have a unique place in our hearts as the One who laid down His life for us. Moreover, as I look at my brother, he is the one for whom Christ died. So that, not only is there attachment between the sheep and the Shepherd, but also to one another. So, dear brethren, no doubt as the Lord helps our brother as he serves us these three days, further things will develop; but how enjoyable they are, and I am reminded of these things in what is being said about Asaph.

Now Habakkuk: he is obviously in the good of eternal life because there was nothing else for him to enjoy. The enemy said to God, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” As surrounded with blessings,

with practically no complaints and prosperity on every side, there may have been apparently some justification for the taunt: but God knew His man and, in point of fact, Job trusted Him when all else went. It is a remarkable thing, dear brethren, that the Spirit of God has not seen fit to give us very many verses describing Job’s prosperity; He has given us a whole book of his discipline - and that in itself is instructive. But to refer now to Habakkuk: he had fully considered the outward position and learned it was all under control - absolutely. I, perhaps, ought to say at this juncture that the language that is used in the verses I have read I do not expect to find fulfilled in this dispensation. The Spirit of God being with the saints, I doubt very much whether the fig-tree will ever not blossom - publicly, yes, but never so privately. There will always be fruit in the vines, dear brethren - always! I believe this looks on to the great tribulation; it looks on to another day when there will be a time the like of which had not been previously. We may learn from the figure but I believe that God gives us assurance in the presence of the Spirit here and Christ on high that such extremity will never be reached at least for the saints. Indeed, I am encouraged to think this. You will remember in a day that is to come that the wheat and the barley reach a famine price, but they are still available, as though in that day what will sustain the soul will be available though a high price has to be paid for it. That is the principle that sometimes, when things get scarce, we may have to surrender more to acquire them. But you will remember John heard a voice saying, “Do not injure the oil and the wine” (Revelation 6: 6), as though there was a touch of consideration for God’s people at that dire moment. Well, if then, so now; and, as we know, the Spirit will be here until we are taken to be with Christ. I cannot believe that what is suggested in its fullness in these verses will ever come about in our day. Indeed, dear brethren, the revival in which we are having part is going through to the end. It is not all going to disintegrate and everything come to an individual position: there will always be some with whom we can work out the truth, when, as Paul says to Timothy, “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2: 22); he does not say ‘as long as there are any,’ because they are going through to the end. They are going through to the end of the dispensation, so that, in the break-up that is taking place in the world, stability is only found in keeping close to Christ and in keeping close to one another.

Well now, even though this is the case, it is interesting that Habakkuk knew God sufficiently to face this contingency. “Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive-tree shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food: the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herds in the stalls” - we may come to that and have to live a day at a time; and sometimes our reserves are badly cut into, but God never fails - “yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” It is an individual matter, dear brethren, but we have been having stressed before us this very day, the personal side. What is the use of being carried along in the faith of others? Thank God for the company of the brethren! Thank God for the sphere of salvation that it means! Many of us can look back and lift up our hearts to the Lord in thankfulness for the companionships and pursuits which have kept us from the world. But when it comes to a real issue, what stands us in good stead is our links with the Persons of the Godhead and our knowledge of our Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessed sense of communion with the Holy Spirit. All these things, dear brethren, mean that the saints have something in their souls into which they can retire in the knowledge of God. So, I suppose, we all have to admit that we are far more affected by circumstances than we are aware of and sometimes we find it out in a remarkable way, but it is all worth while. It is all calculated and the result is to help us to stringed instruments. “Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength,” as though Habakkuk is discovering that that is where his strength lies. “And he maketh my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places.” They are his high places, but God is doing it for him. I believe self-reliance is one of the most baneful things we can indulge in. If we allow it in our minds it will come into our activities. It is a question of finding things in God and not ourselves, and the note at the end shows that his contribution has a place, you might say, in the Psalms that are written from experience with God. “To the chief Musician on my stringed instruments.”

As I have already remarked I really had Hezekiah especially in mind, and I refer now to him and his exercises. He had to consider the external position; he had to consider also his own internal weakness. In other words, he, with the other two I have mentioned, had to come into the good of eternal life in the knowledge of God. I am using that term, dear brethren - I hope you will not mind my doing so - because there are some things which are said by inference in Scripture. Eternal life, in the Old Testament, looked forward, I suppose, and finds its answer in the world to come. However, speaking of it as we have been today, we may enjoy it now in the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ the sent One. We read only a verse or so of what Hezekiah says but you will remember the circumstances. They are akin to the present time. He was a man who had been greatly helped and God did not forget that. For fourteen years he had been greatly helped and he did what was good and right and true before Jehovah, and that is a very good commendation, dear brethren. We should love to warrant anything like that, anything approaching it. He did what was right and true. Think of it! This is what Scripture says. Indeed, the enemy attacked after this faithfulness as though we are reminded that the devil does not waste his ammunition on that which is valueless oftentimes; he attacks what is worth while. Now it is pretty evident from the scripture that Hezekiah’s illness synchronised with the attack on Jerusalem. He was a man who had a good deal to do with the singers. It was in his time that the sin offering having been offered, the burnt offering began; and the moment the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah began with the singers and the trumpeters. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished and, when the burnt offering was finished, Hezekiah and all those with him bowed their heads and worshipped, which shows the very great progress that was made in his day, and that coming after the wicked reign of king Ahaz. It would appear from what Scripture says that there were two attacks of Sennacherib; at the first it would seem, from the book of Kings, that Hezekiah accepted a levy and came under tribute to the king of Assyria. Indeed, he took the silver from the house of God and sent it to him and stripped off the doors of the house - a most extraordinary thing! I wonder at it but it is true. That is what the Spirit of God tells us. It means that if we compromise with the world, the things of God are impoverished. However, we have been helped before; if we compromise we impoverish our links with divine things. They themselves, of course, always remain at their intrinsic value. Then it would appear that he was taken ill and faced the whole matter with God, and the next time Sennacherib comes up, he is met with a very different story; as though we are stronger in our afflictions than we are in our prosperity, and we find that out. I say to the dear young people that we often find more integrity of heart, in the Spirit’s power, in the acceptance of affliction than in our moments of prosperity; but, at all events, they evidently were made to synchronise. God not only works to plan but to time. Some may say, as I used to think myself, that it was after these things that Hezekiah was sick; but it is very easy to calculate it. We are told that he reigned twenty-nine years; we know very well that fifteen years were added to his life and we are also told that it was in the fourteenth year of his reign that Sennacherib came - fourteen and fifteen make twenty-nine. So that there is my warrant for bringing forward what some may object to. God causes these things, dear brethren; He is not the instigator of Sennacherib’s attack but He is watching over the whole situation. It is one of the items of faith at the present time with the world in its precarious state, with things that might happen at any moment. It is obvious, dear brethren, that politically this world is like a volcano that may go off at any time, and many dear saints of God are quaking with perturbation. The fact of the matter is that those who know God know that He has His eye on the saints and nothing happens without Him. Whatever He allows, He can use for good. In this particular instance we know that the enemy was turned back and he never shot an arrow at Jerusalem. We may not have such immunity as that, but God will see us through - we know Him well enough. He has pledged Himself to see His people through so that anxiety can be written off as an anxiety. It may induce prayer for men, it may induce love for souls, for there are thousands in this world that know not our God. Oh, the world with all its sport, and all its pursuits, and yet, at the same time, all its disasters and sadness! I often think, as I look around at this world, what Mr. Darby said, ‘when all this woe shall cease.’ We do very well, you know. We have our occasions, we have our joys; we are having them today. But oh, what a world we are in! - and we are not to forget to pray for the souls of men and to pray for kings and those in authority; not in the fearful expectation that marks them but in the understanding that the divine hand controls everything for the good of the saints.

But synchronised with that, dear brethren, was a much more personal thing. What caused Hezekiah’s distress was not any doubt about his soul’s salvation but being removed from the sphere of usefulness. I have read that John Newton, the writer of ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds,’ wrote to a friend two hundred years ago and said, ‘The last idol I buried was my own usefulness.’ The fact is, we have to learn that whilst God would employ every one of us, no one is indispensable. We are not the centre of anything. Christ is the centre of everything, and it is real deliverance to come to it in the soul. So Hezekiah - oh, how much he had done! What a help he had been to the saints! What there was to show, you might say, for his exercises amongst the brethren! - yet he is to be removed and he felt it. Oh, what bitterness he had! Possibly it was a bitterness that only a servant would know; but, at any rate, he experienced it, and it was an internal matter. I have often wondered why it did not happen before. Fourteen years of help from God - everything that he did he did with his whole heart and it was prospered; and yet, after two complete periods he has to learn something about himself. He has, as it were, to come through death into the sphere of eternal life, and God is leading the saints that way. Jesus, the Captain of our salvation has been made perfect through sufferings, and, as our brother was remarking this afternoon, we go that way. Death is poured in but it is only a means to an end, and as we accept it, we enjoy life out of death, life in the Spirit, life in the knowledge of God, life in relation to another scene, and the blessed Man that fills it to God’s praise! So that is what Hezekiah comes to. He recognised in relation to his outward circumstances that God was the same God - God does not change. We often judge Him, dear brethren, by the allowance of His hand, but He never changes. His love is always unalterably towards His own, and eventually we learn to trust Him. Hezekiah learned that, and has put down in sobriety the lessons he had learned in facing what was so acutely personal. He says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee” - not they shall, he shall. This confirms what our dear brother has told us. There is need for the personal side to be pursued, not that I am decrying the collective side. We are living in wonderful days; there is a great need to understand that the collective position is made up of the persons who form it. “He shall praise thee, as I do this day.” The fathers to the children shall make known the truth. Dear brethren, what can we pass on? There may be instruction but what can a father pass on? - something that he has learned from God; something he has learned in his own soul; something that rings true in the experience of the brethren. Not an academic word that next week cannot be remembered, but something that is said in the power of the Spirit, which is like a seed sown that brings forth fruit to the praise of God. Oh, the need for fathers, persons who can serve in love and care and can pass on the value of experience so that the saints are brought positively and personally into the knowledge of God and what He has secured in the assembly. It says, “Jehovah was purposed to save me,” and so He is! All the time before the trial and afterwards and all through as well, Jehovah was purposed to save him. “And we will play upon my stringed instruments,” as though the discipline of one man is going to enrich the saints. They are all going to be brought into it. It is like the discipline on the household in John 11, the discipline on the one household enriched the whole of Bethany. It does not say the Lord came to the house of Martha but He came to Bethany. The bereavement and the sorrow was in one household but the whole place benefited by it; and so here, dear brethren, the exercises of one man and his discipline are benefiting all the saints. “We will play upon my stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of Jehovah,” as though his heart has found a home.

Now one more word: after all this you might wonder why it was that he succumbed to the temptation that lay in the visit of princes of Babylon. We need to speak very carefully of such a thing, but I notice this that when the prophet Isaiah came to king Hezekiah and said to him, “What said these men, and from whence came they to thee?” Hezekiah said, “They came from a far country to me, from Babylon.” Now, dear brethren, I think that is where he made his miscalculation. I think sometimes we get very satisfied and think Babylon is a long way off; we think it is this great professing system that is going to be judged, and we reckon in that sense it is a far country. The fact of the matter is, it is very much nearer to us than many of us are aware. The seeds of the thing are in every one of our hearts, and it may come out if not judged. What is it? It started with Nimrod in the beginning of Genesis and it goes right through to the great city in the end of Revelation. It comes under the judgment of God. What is it? It is just aggrandisement and show in the place where Christ had but a cross and a grave. That is what our hearts are capable of. In the presence of all that God has bestowed, a little flattery may cause disaster if we have our armour off. Well, let us be vigilant and let us know how to judge ourselves and go on in humility. Let us rejoice in the blessed ness of the moment. Let us go on with God and go on with Him together, keeping rank. The supremacy of Christ before us, the praise of God in our hearts, the presence of the Spirit impelling us, not only in the service of God but in the testimony. Let us remember we have everything in God and not in ourselves lest there should be any Babylonish principle which might cause disruption. Let it be kept away from us, every one of us. I have to judge my own heart every day, and every exercised person has to do the same, that nothing may be allowed that would interfere with what God has designed, the supremacy of Christ. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and may we find, as going on together in the truth, that we have things in divine Persons and be content to have them there.

So, dear brethren, I trust these impressions will work out to our better part in the praise of God. We look forward to the morrow and the following day. One rejoices in assembly privileges, and I am sure we are looking expectantly forward to the new hymn book coming into our hands: but I believe we should be commensurately exercised that we are capacitated to sing according to God, to worship Him in spirit and in truth. May it be so, for His name’s sake.