SPIRITUAL POWER
The history of Samson applies particularly to us in the present time, for Samson is the last of the judges and I believe that with him we are given the line following which we would be able to arrive at the great features of the truth. The Angel who appeared to Manoah and his wife told them as to His name: “it is wonderful”, with the evident intention of suggesting to us the Lord Himself, He of whom one title is “Wonderful”. It is also said that the Angel “ascended” in the flame of the altar, thus communicating to Manoah and his wife the thought of ascension. He introduced symbolically what properly belongs to the assembly according as it is found in John 20, so that we have in this figure the end to be reached.
Although the outward conditions in the book of Judges are very sad, as is the case alas with the assembly currently, yet God had made it known that His people would be set free from the domination of the Philistines and that great things were in reserve for such as should be delivered. But what is so striking is that a place of evident pre-eminence should be given to a woman and that it should be beyond question to develop power; not only power in view of facing the opposition, although it would be indispensable to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of the Philistines, but the power without which it is not possible to get into the realm of what is of God.
I think that the Lord would in the present time insist on the fact that along with the light that has been liberally given to us, the great thoughts of God being communicated to us, spiritual power, spirituality let us say, is an urgent necessity, and without it, we will be unable to get into God’s purpose for us now.
There is thus a contrast with the case of the judges who have gone before: in relation to the introduction of Samson, who represents spiritual power, the subjective element—the woman—is especially brought forward. So the Angel appeared to the woman and said: “And now beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean”. These words could be considered as simple injunctions, but yet there is no doubt they are at the foundation of the great subject of power, for we must note well that, when Manoah supplicated Jehovah that the angel should come again, and he comes again, and Manoah demands of Him: “what shall be the child’s manner and his doing?” (v 13), the Angel merely repeats the words He had said to the woman: “Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware: she shall not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither shall she drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean: all that I commanded her shall she observe”, v 14. I have the conviction, dear brothers and sisters, that the point is important: the fact that the Angel answered Manoah’s demand by repeating the same words that He had said to the woman is a very clear indication that, if he took account of these words, all the rest would follow normally in its time. The application of this to us is that we have all to be in constant exercise so as to leave the way entirely clear for the Spirit of God; this is the only power which will allow us to get into all that the Lord sets before us at the present time.
We have recently remarked in reading chapter 11 of Hebrews that the Spirit of God refers to Gideon and Barak, and Samson and Jephthah, to David and Samuel, and to the prophets, two names at a time being given in each case, and the second put first, so that Samson in particular is found before Jephthah. In considering this, it is clear that we have God’s thought with Samson, while Jephthah just represents what has preceded and which brought Samson to light. We can therefore easily discern the force and interest of this preferred order. With Jephthah, you remember, there is the conflict which necessarily preceded the recovery and maintenance of the truth as to the knowledge of the Spirit. The conflict for Jephthah consisted in the fact that he desired to recover and assure himself of the possession of the land of Gilead to the east of Jordan, a possession that the people had acquired in power in a time when the Spirit of God has been recognised in the springing wells; so he had taken possession of the land of Gilead with the power to occupy it. It was not part of the land, but a part of their inheritance, and this refers to the fundamental fact of recognising the Spirit of God, which is manifested by an absolute uprightness in our path of responsibility down here. This is the essential foundation of all spirituality in view of arriving at experiencing the power of what the Spirit of God can be for us according to chapter 8 of Romans. And this is indeed really what characterises Samson.
This word is addressed to the woman: “And now beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean”. It is easy to apply this to Christian experience; it conveys to us the urgency of considering the subject and of watching over its practical application, refusing all that could hinder the liberty of the Spirit so that He might be able to reach His end in us that he desires. The essential point comes out of this; it is not necessary to enlarge on the details.
The woman having taken to heart the exercise relating to the word of the Angel, the result is that Samson is brought in. As we know, Samson was a man of considerable power, but his history is very unusual; it is a mixture of power and many sorrowful things. In this sense, he represents well the history of the assembly with many sad failures and infidelities, and along with this a power entirely outside every human power; it is by this power—the power of the Spirit—that the Philistines are entirely defeated and that it is possible to grasp the truth of God in our minds. We all have need to watch indeed that we do not grasp God’s thoughts simply by the natural mind, mentally. This faculty is indispensable to us and we have to use it, but only under the control of the Spirit of God, for we do not otherwise receive the mind of God but by His Spirit. The Philistines represented the power of the natural mind and grasped the things of God in a purely mental way, but the more the truth is received in a spiritual way, and the vaster the horizons that God reveals to our eyes, the more we prove also that we are able to penetrate there only in the power of the Spirit and being marked by an essentially spiritual state.
This is why I so insist on this matter, that we concern ourselves, brothers and sisters, old and young, all together, each of us having to consider with great attention the instructions given by the Angel to the woman herself and then to the man; and if this question is seriously considered, then power will inevitably result.
It is not necessary for us to read the following chapters about the life of Samson. You remember that in the course of his history Samson lost his power. He fell from his condition as Nazarite by carelessness and he lost his power. “And he knew not that Jehovah had departed from him”, chap 16: 20. What a sorrowful thing if the Lord withdraws from us and we do not know it! We see that this is possible if we allow our spiritual sensibilities to be blunted and if we become indifferent. What a solemn consideration! And yet it happened to Samson. The result was that the Philistines led him captive, put out his eyes and made him turn the millstone in the prison house.
But grace is introduced, and this is how it is mentioned: “the hair of his head began to grow”. Thank God for the fact! There is always this way open to us: to return to right moral and spiritual conditions subjectively, which is essential so as to take possession of divine things. So it is said, “the hair of his head began to grow”. The consequence was, as we know, that he got free of the last link that held him with the world. This is the question to exercise us. God desires that we reach perfection and that we acquire spiritual power so as to be able to penetrate spiritually into all that He puts before us. Thus Samson recovered his power, greater than he had had at any time in his life: “And the dead that he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain in his life”. This suggests that, his hair re-growing, he recovered a measure of power greater than he had ever known beforehand. This happened to him when he freed himself from the hand of the boy, that is to say when he had broken his last link with the world. How this bears on us! We cannot have a link with the world, whether in manifesting its features or being marked by its principles, without being contaminated or weakened by it. What the Lord seeks, and we must take to heart so as to realise in a definite way, is that we should free ourselves from all that tends to weaken us morally and spiritually. This is why the word is repeated twice to the woman, “beware”.
That is the message that the Lord would communicate to us today.
PARK STREET, LONDON
14th July 1948
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, 1948
THE WAYS OF GOD TOWARDS THE SAINTS
I feel pressed to speak of the ways of God towards us both individually and in movements together, having in mind especially the last verse of Psalm 107: “Whoso is wise, let him observe these things”, that is to say that it is for us to seek the development of a spiritual point of view as to what happens among the saints in the ways of God towards ourselves, and towards others, and also as to all our movements together.
We are considered as being able to observe and to understand, and what I hope to show, having confidence that I will receive the necessary help, is that God’s ways, being always in accord with His purpose, have for their objective that we should be ever more qualified to occupy our place in the assembly with intelligence, for everything in the present time in God’s ways converges on the assembly. We have had occasion to consider the passage, “the heavens display the glory of God”, arresting us with the fact that God always desires to draw our attention to the heavens. The heavens are high above the earth and they are interested in us; light comes to us from heaven, heat also comes to us from heaven; this is why the heavens are laid down to draw our attention in this way; and I believe that God’s desire is that it should be so when we come to the spiritual realm.
In Psalm 19, it is written that God has established a tent for the sun in the heavens, that is to say that Christ is there, and that it is possible for us to be constantly illuminated by the light, the light of Christ. It is not exactly the light of Christ personally, for in fact, if Christ is presented to us, God would have our attention drawn to the assembly—His great masterpiece, the fruit of His travail, that which should be in every way suited to correspond to Christ, to be with Him in every position that He occupies. I believe that we can speak of different positions as to Christ, as Man, except the fact of what is mentioned in verse 5 of chapter 17 of John which is particular to Him. The portion of the assembly with Christ is not only for the world to come and for eternity, but it is a high elevation, a very great elevation in the present time, because if there is presented on the earth what is for God’s pleasure in a response worthy of Him, this is secured by Christ in the assembly. In truth, as we know well, it is in the midst of the assembly that Christ Himself sings God’s praises. So we understand that all the ways of God have as their end to make us understand better what the assembly is and to make us more suited to occupy the place which is marked out for us.
I have read the passage in Genesis 9 not to be detained by it, but only to indicate, if in a general way, that it envisages, so to say, that we will always have the light that shines in the heavens, even if there are sometimes clouds. They do not obscure the light entirely, but its brightness is much dimmed; we do not enjoy the full light that the sun spreads if clouds come in. God says, “And it shall come to pass when I bring clouds over the earth”, as if to indicate that the clouds in a spiritual sense can be sent, overshadowing our hearts in a certain measure and affecting our spirits. (These clouds can come over us as a result of our lack of vigilance or the manifestation of our own will.) It may also be that God sends them so that we should be taught by this means. The prophet Nahum says, “Jehovah,—his way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet”, that is to say that the coming of clouds is an indication that God is in movement. He has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet, as if to bring home to us the fact that all is under divine control and in view of the end that God proposes in blessing for His own. So the fact that Elijah went up in a whirlwind is striking, and it is very remarkable also we are to be caught up together in the clouds to go to meet the Lord in the air. This shows how all is at God’s disposition in view of His saints; but what I desired to bring out is what has already often been brought to our attention, that it is in relation to the clouds that God says, “And it shall come to pass when I bring clouds over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud”. God desires to remind us that whatever happens, we can discern His own glory. This is an important point which we do well to keep in our minds. God says, “that I may remember the everlasting covenant”, and we read in chapter 4 of the Revelation, when John saw the throne, that there was a rainbow around it; and in chapter 10 of the same book, when he sees the strong angel descend to set his right foot on the sea and his left upon the earth, there was a rainbow around his head, showing that God had not forgotten His covenant. God remains faithful to Himself, as He says, “when I bring clouds over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud”. He does not only say, “I will see” but also “the bow shall be seen in the cloud”, that is to say that it will be seen, whatever happens that has the appearance of a cloud, we will at the same time see the glory of God in it. God’s intention is that by means of such things, whatever they are, we should learn to know some new feature of Himself. I think it must necessarily be uniquely so because God is God.
It is said in verse 28 of chapter 8 of Romans, “But we do know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose”, that is to say that if we have in mind the fact that God foreknew us before the foundation of the world, and that He has conceived a purpose of love in which we are included, God being God, it must necessarily follow that everything will go on together to the end that He has in view as to us. It may be that on account of our carelessness or our own will, or even on account of our unbelief or lack of spiritual discernment, we fail to see the appearance of the bow, so losing the benefit of the clouds in spite of all the good we could have drawn from them: “when I bring clouds over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud”.
If we come to Psalm 107, a remarkable Psalm, an expression of personal experiences, as are all the Psalms, we see from the beginning that the end in view is that we should give thanks to God, “For he is God, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever”. In verse 8, we have an exclamation in the desire expressed that all men should “give thanks unto Jehovah for his loving-kindness, and for his wondrous works to the children of men”; and also in verse 15, and then verse 21 with the added thought: “let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works in joyful song”. Then in verse 31 we find again the same desire with the added thought: “Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the session of the elders”. But the highest point is found in verse 43: “Whoso is wise, let him observe these things, and let them understand the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah”. And so, beloved, it is clear that the end of God’s ways towards us is that we should be enriched in the knowledge of Him and certainly also that praise to Himself in the assembly should be overflowing, deep and varied: it should not be limited to a single line of thought. I recognise that there is what is more especially suitable to the assembly’s service on the first day of the week, but this opens a very vast horizon, and our knowledge of God being increased, the praise towards Him being spontaneous, enriched, varied and overflowing with affection.
So, the psalmist begins with this thought: “Let the redeemed of Jehovah say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the oppressor, and gathered out of the countries, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea”. The Psalm really envisages the people of God as having been set free from the captivity so as to be found in a city of habitation. In verse 4, we read, “They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way, they found no city of habitation”; but in verse 7: “And he led them forth by a right way, that they might go to a city of habitation”. Here is God’s mind. In fact, it is a question of the assembly or the saints really finding their place of habitation, their living interests, nourishment, satisfaction, and the refreshment they need. “Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them”. It is a matter of finding a place where there is a richness of spiritual ministry and at the same time the refreshment and support of the love of the brethren. It is said, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 35. It is a great thing that is found in this circle. I think that, thank God, all of us, or at least most among us, have found it. He “led them in a right way”. This links with the second epistle to Timothy where emphasis is placed on what is right. Having eyes opened to what is right, we must commit ourselves to the right way first, then to faith, then love and then peace. The result of this will be that we will find a “city of habitation”. Then, before going on, the psalmist says, “Let them give thanks unto Jehovah for his loving-kindness”: think of the richness that belongs to the experience of God’s ways in view of delivering souls from what displeases Him, what richness is produced in this way among the saints!
In chapter 10 of the gospel of John, the Lord presents Himself as the Shepherd who has come into the fold in view of making the flock go out, and He says, “He calls his own sheep by name”. He comes into the individual exercises and difficulties of each of His sheep: He takes account of each individually in the exercises which necessarily attach to the fact that what displeases God has to be set aside. Being called by their name, and being led out, He sets them in the flock and from then on it is no longer a question of calling them by their name; from now on, the sheep are going to have the capacity to move together. I mention this to show the richness of God’s ways among the saints, while they take account of the way in which they have been delivered from all that is contrary to the truth so that they should be able to find a place of habitation. All this must have the effect of forming substance in our souls.
“Let them give thanks unto Jehovah for his loving-kindness, and for his wondrous works to the children of men! For he hath satisfied the longing soul and filled the hungry soul with good”. The question for us is to know if we are hungry, if we have desires, and how far we have a spiritual hunger (if I can put it like that), and are waiting for the coming of the Lord as an answer to our spiritual aspirations, for He “satisfies the desire of every living thing”, Ps 145: 16. To be practical, the question is whether we carry on the meetings out of habit or rather because we have the real spiritual desire to receiving living food with the assurance that the Lord is going to satisfy us fully. If that is the case, we will find that there is an inexhaustible provision of spiritual food for God’s people.
When we come to the following section in the Psalm, it is a question of someone who was marked by a spirit of rebellion and who had “despised the counsel of the Most High”. This is a very solemn matter for we have to do with God who does not accept men’s person. In the first epistle of Peter, there is a remarkable passage which associates the thought of grace with that of the government of God; it is said: “And if ye invoke as Father him who, without regard of persons, judges according to the work of each, pass your time of sojourn in fear”, 1 Pet 1: 17. We invoke God as Father—grace is linked with the name of Father, it is the inheritance of the saints, as it is said: “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God”, 1 John 3: 1. We hold ourselves in this relation of children of God, and also as sons, but the One whom we invoke as Father judges according to the work of each: He is absolutely impartial. While we invoke Him as Father, God judges according to the work of each; let us conduct ourselves with fear in the time of our sojourn down here; that is to say, that the fear of God is what suits us all, for the oldest and most spiritual among us down to the youngest; the fear of God is what suits us at all times because it is God with whom we have to do.
It is said as to those who “had rebelled against the words of God, and had despised the counsel of the Most High”, who are “such as inhabit darkness and the shadow of death”, that they have been in affliction and in chains; but it can be said that the sun does not cease to shine. The light of Christ always shines: “Arise, shine, for thy light is come”, Isa 60: 1. The light of God’s most precious thoughts, in which we are all included, this light shines; and in spite of this there could be with some the spirit of rebellion and despising of the counsel of the Most High! It is by means of the brethren that we are given the counsel of the Most High and it is very serious to despise divinely ordered counsel that comes to us in this way. Yet we see that some will be marked by such features, dwelling in darkness—there could be no light in their souls—“and the shadow of death, bound in affliction and iron”. This is why He has humbled their heart with labour: “they stumbled, and there was none to help”. “Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses; He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands in sunder”. How wonderful this is! It is what God proposes to do in every case to which these details refer. We can say this with the greatest certainty. God waits, and He is ready to act thus. If only those who are in such conditions would indeed cry to the Lord in their distresses, so as to be helped.
And so, beloved, we are to feel very serious about what can be seen of God’s ways among His people, in a time when the most precious truth is put out in the ministry, we can consider the course of God’s ways towards the saints—we are not exempt while we are found down here. It could be that we have been marked for a long time by the tendency to rebel or to refuse the counsel of the Most High, but God’s ways will apply to us to the end.
So it is said: “Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses; He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands in sunder”. And this brought out a fresh occasion to celebrate Jehovah for His goodness and His marvellous works towards the sons of men. My thought is that the end of God’s ways is to lead us nearer to Himself, so that having Him thus before us, there will not remain with us the least thought of personal merit or of any capacity on our side. I know that this is very easy to say, but very much more difficult to arrive at! This is however where God desires to lead us. It is said in verse 3 of chapter 3 of the epistle to the Philippians: “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”. We renounce every other power than that of the Spirit of God and every other man than Christ Jesus; there is no confidence in the flesh. I have the conviction that God’s mind is that by means of His ways towards Christ, and God’s mercy, should be pre-eminent in our hearts. His grace, His wisdom, His patience as to His ways towards us should be ever more in evidence before our eyes, while the maintenance of the divine level is absolutely assured. God cannot lower His level to accommodate us, but He desires to make us able to rise to this level: He leads us progressively in accord with Christ.
In the passage that follows, verses 17 to 21, it is said, “Fools, because of their way of transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted”; then in verses 23 and 24, “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, These see the works of Jehovah, and his wonders in the deep”. I have no doubt that this portion refers to the exercise of saints moving together in the testimony, for the ship on the sea is often symbolic of the testimony in the present time. In the gospel of Mark, which is the Servant’s gospel, as we know, the gospel that has the course of the testimony in view, there is more often allusion than in any other gospel to the Lord Jesus being found with His disciples in a boat on the sea. Thus it is said, “For he speaketh, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof: They mount up to the heavens, they go down to the depths”. Here is God who commands. The fact that it is He who commands that the waves should be lifted up and not stilled is very encouraging. He can say in an instant, “Peace, be still” and when He commands the waves to be calm, whatever Satan can do, nothing can raise the storm. Here we find that it is God who commands and who makes the storm. What can be the significance of that? The wind that stirs up the storm is generally a figure of the influence and power of the enemy who desires to oppose the testimony and to make conditions difficult. But here it is said, “He speaketh …”, which testifies in the first place that the power of evil itself is under divine control in an absolute way. It is a very encouraging thought in days when evil reaches its climax—the power of evil rising up in opposition to the truth—to have the feeling that all is under divine control. It is not only that God has the power to calm when and as He pleases, but before even calm is made, all is under His control. “For he speaketh, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof: They mount up to the heavens, they go down to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble”. This simply shows that God’s mind towards us in testing and contrary circumstances in the testimony is that our knowledge of Him should grow, knowledge of His faithfulness, of His wisdom, His power even in a time when the saints prove their extreme weakness in presence of the storm. It is in such conditions that God can see to His satisfaction the faithfulness of His saints to Him. It is a matter of formation for the assembly: we have to be led into conformity with Christ. In everything, He is supreme. He has been supreme in faithfulness, and it is essential that we also in the experiences of the way where faithfulness is required, we should come to see that it is supremely in Christ. If therefore this passage of scripture is a test to us, it is also very confirming, for it gives us the certainty that the power of evil is under divine control from the outset, and subject to divine command; it is by such exercises that our confidence in God is developed in us. If we have finished with our own mind, we will have finished with human resources, and God’s end is indeed that we should acquire a full knowledge of Himself, knowledge that we will only acquire in finishing with what comes from our own minds. The thought of the assembly is such a wonderful conception! The assembly which is to be like Christ, which must perfectly correspond to Him in spiritual intelligence, in right feelings and moral features; this is what God is pleased to produce in the saints at the present time; and it is in His ways that His work is accomplished in this sense. His ways are, so to say, at the service of His end towards the saints. Thus, beloved, there is great enrichment for us while we pass through exercises relating to the testimony, even if we have to come to the point of having finished with our own minds, because the result will be that we reach thus a knowledge of God that we would not acquire otherwise. The disciples themselves could say, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4: 41.
Then it is said in the Psalm we are occupied with: “He maketh the storm a calm, and the waves thereof are still”. Oh! how those who have such experiences come from then on to praise Jehovah for His wondrous works towards the sons of men! “Let them give thanks unto Jehovah”; “Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the session of the elders”. He is praised in the assembly of the elders, those who have acquired experience with God. Their knowledge of God is not a knowledge in the letter, but the result of experiences with God Himself.
I have read a portion of Psalm 18, although these expressions are of an individual character, because it is the language of an elder, as we read at the head of the Psalm: “To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David, the servant of Jehovah, who spoke to Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul”; that is to say, it is a case of a Psalm composed after a long period of experience with God, it is a song of an elder, and we must take into consideration what is said by elders. Elderhood is not a gift; what the elders say is the result of their experiences with God. So David says, “With the gracious thou dost shew thyself gracious; with the upright man thou dost shew thyself upright; With the pure thou dost shew thyself pure; and with the perverse thou dost shew thyself contrary”. I have no doubt that David had learned this. He had known what it was to be perverse and had known God’s ways as to him on account of that feature, perversity; on the other hand, he had known what it was to be gracious, and at the same time he himself had benefitted from grace. In verse 2 of chapter 7 of Matthew, the Lord says, “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you”. If, individually, we find that God’s ways are apparently hard or severe towards us, we need to examine our own way and to see if we have not ourselves been hard or severe, and not to doubt that the ways of God are invariable. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you”. I say this that we may always have to do with God simply because God is God. There is much to be worked out in our souls in view of their formation! We need to be supple in the hand of God, and we will find that with the gracious He shows Himself gracious. He is then adjusted: “For it is thou that savest the afflicted people; but the haughty eyes wilt thou bring down”. And David, speaking from experience can say, “For by thee I have run through a troop”. He had passed through circumstances that seemed impossible to endure; “and by my God have I leaped over a wall”; that is to say, he had overcome difficulties that had seemed insurmountable. This is the language of an elder as the result of his experiences with God. He can add, “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of Jehovah is tried: he is a shield to all that trust in him. For who is God save Jehovah? and who is a rock if not our God?” It is Him alone we can count upon, unchangeable: “The God who girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect”. This is the divine end as to each one of us. He goes further and says, “Who maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places”. The result of God’s ways towards the psalmist had been to make him able to move with energy, his feet having been made like those of hinds, and able to be set on high places: which represent for us such great privileges that are those of the assembly according to God’s purpose. The psalmist, the elder, had discerned God’s ways as to him and he could therefore move on the high places, to move there with all assurance and security, his feet being made like hinds’ feet.
One is impressed by the fact that the Lord seeks to help us to take on the most elevated features of what is true in Christianity; and there is in the Spirit the power to arrive at it—we will not find any other power for it—and our exercise ought to tend to development in spirituality. Spirituality can really only be in us if we are marked by moral features of righteousness and faith and others that we know. The psalmist faced up to God’s ways with him, and as a result, as the culmination of this, we read: “Who maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places”.
That is what I have on my heart, beloved, the desire that we should understand God’s ways as to us better, and that we should know to discern in observing them. It is said at the end of Psalm 107: “Whoso is wise, let him observe these things, and let them understand the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah”. It is to this we are led. The main point is to be wise and to observe God’s ways as to us, and His ways in the testimony. We will discover in doing this that we grow in the knowledge of God and that is where we are going to abide, the riches that abide eternally after all the circumstances by which we have learned to know God come to an end.
PARK STREET, LONDON
11th September 1948
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, July 1949
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