But while He waits and the hour has not yet come we must wait as He waits on the throne. To the Thessalonians who had listened to teachers who judaized the blessed hope, fearing they were facing the day of the Lord with its tribulation and wrath, the Apostle wrote: "And the Lord direct your hearts in the love of G.o.d, and into the patient waiting for Christ" (2 Thess. iii:5). But we must not only wait patiently _for_ Him but also wait _with_ Him. He is the rejected One. The world cast Him out. As the rejected One He waits in patience for the hour of His triumph and His Glory. This place of rejection is our greatest privilege to share. And where is He more rejected than in that which calls itself by His Name! To bear His reproach in these closing days of this present age is our blessed opportunity. To suffer with Him, if not for Him, should be that for which our hearts should long, yea, pray. And we will be glad to be rejected with Him, to be nothing at this present time, to have fellowship with His sufferings, if He as the patient waiting Lord is ever before our hearts.
At the close of the one hundred and tenth psalm stands a word, which we should also remember.
"He shall drink of the brook in the way, Therefore shall He lift up the head."
It has puzzled many readers what this saying might mean. It speaks to our hearts of His humiliation and exaltation. One thinks at once of the three hundred of Gideon and how they stooped down to drink.
The brook is the type of death. He drank of the brook in the way.
His way was from Glory to Glory, and between were His sufferings.
And, therefore, He shall lift up the head. Wherefore, G.o.d has highly exalted Him. May we all, dear readers, follow in His path and suffer with Him; ere long in His triumph and glory we shall triumph and glory.
"And if children then heirs; heirs of G.o.d and joint heirs with Christ; if so be we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. viii:17-18).
A Vision of the King.
ONE of the most blessed occupations for the believer is the prayerful searching of G.o.d"s holy Word to discover there new glories and fresh beauties of Him, who is altogether lovely. Shall we ever find out all which the written Word reveals of Himself and His worthiness? This wonderful theme can never be exhausted. The heart which is devoted to Him and longs through the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit to be closer to the Lord, to hear and know more of Himself, will always find something new and precious.
The Holy Spirit can do this and reveals to our hearts from the inexhaustible Word of G.o.d the Glory of Him, whom to exalt the Spirit has come. Much depends on how we desire just Himself. And Christ alone and the heart knowledge of Himself can satisfy the believer, who has His life and is one Spirit with the Lord
"O Christ Thou art enough The heart to satisfy."
Soon we shall see Him, whom we contemplate now in faith. Soon we shall be in His own glorious presence and look upon that face, which was once marred and smitten, but which now shines out Heaven"s and the Father"s Glory.
The kingly Glory of our blessed Lord is one of the great themes of the Bible. The Man of humiliation, who here on earth walked in dependence on G.o.d, who did His will, suffered and died is now in the Father"s presence and on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
There He sat down with His Father in His throne, waiting for the moment when His work as the Priest and Advocate of His beloved people on earth is accomplished, and when the Father will establish Him as King, when He will receive the kingdom. Alas! that all this glory, which belongs to Him and which is still future, His Kingship, His kingly glory and rule, as it must be some day, is so unknown and even disowned in Christendom. It is but the uncovering of the condition of the heart of the great majority of professing Christians. They may talk of religion, of great reform movements, of service to mankind, world progress, but the Christ of G.o.d in all His Glory, past, present and future, has little attraction. Far different it is with the heart which knows Him and has given Him the place He is worthy of, the first place. That heart delights to meditate on all His Glory and longs for the time when He will appear, and when at last, crowned with many crowns, He will a.s.sume His righteous rule. Great is our joy and delight when we follow through the Scriptures His earthly life so full of His moral Glory.
Or when we think of Him as He died for us and bore in His own body on the tree our sins; we praise Him for His mighty Love. But what joy to think of Him as coming at last into that which belongs to Him the Lord of Glory, by right of redemption, when He will take possession of this earth and claim its Satan ruled kingdoms for His own. Then it will be true, "The earth is the Lord"s and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." Then the Seraph"s song will be realized, "The whole earth is full of His Glory."
How much the Word has to say about the King and His Glory; and we have never yet taken hold of it with our dull hearts! Take the Book of Psalms, for instance, that book which has been so belittled by the destructive criticism. While we read so much in those precious productions of the Holy Spirit of Christ"s sufferings, His humiliation, His prayers, His death, we may find there much more about Him as King and His coming manifestation.
The tumult of the nations, as predicted in the _Second_ Psalm, and about to be realized in our own times, the tumult of the nations against the Lord and His Anointed, will be silenced by the coming of the King. "I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion;" this is what G.o.d declares. The G.o.d-man Christ Jesus, the Man, who is with Him now is, His King. His destiny is the government of the nations, with a rod of iron.
The entire _Twenty-first_ Psalm tells out the Glory of the King.
Christian expositors have rarely discovered this. But Jewish exponents always knew it. Saith a leading Jewish authority of the middle ages: "Our old teachers have always applied this Psalm as meaning the King Messiah." Read its stanzas:
"The King shall joy in Thy strength, Jehovah; And in Thy salvation, how greatly shall He rejoice.
Thou hast given Him His heart"s desire, And hast not withholden the requests of His lips.
For Thou hast met Him with the blessings of goodness; Thou hast set a crown of pure gold on His head.
He asked Life of Thee; Thou gavest Him length of days forever and ever.
His Glory is great through Thy salvation; Majesty and splendor hast Thou laid upon Him.
For Thou hast made Him to be blessings forever; Thou hast filled Him with joy by Thy countenance.
For the King confideth in Jehovah.
Through the loving kindness of the Highest He shall not be moved."
Then comes His future action, when He whom faith sees now crowned with Majesty and Splendor, who rejoices in the Presence of G.o.d, appears to execute the judgments of G.o.d.
"Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies; Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee.
Thou shalt make them as a fiery furnace In the time of Thy presence.
Jehovah shall swallow them up in his anger, And the fire shall devour them.
Their fruit shall Thou destroy from the earth, And their seed from among the children of men.
For they intended evil against Thee, They imagined a mischievous device, Which they could not execute.
For Thou wilt make them turn their back, Thou wilt make ready Thy bowstring against their faces.
Be Thou exalted Jehovah in Thine own strength; We will sing and celebrate Thy power."
And in the _Twenty-fourth_ Psalm we have prophetically that triumphant shout, which will be heard when the King comes back to enter His City, Jerusalem, again.
"Lift up your heads, ye gates And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle."
The _Forty-fifth_ Psalm is a song of the Beloved, touching the King.
He is described as coming in His Majesty and Splendor, how He deals with His enemies and that He will be surrounded by His own redeemed ones.
The Glory and dominion of His Kingdom He will receive is described in the _Seventy-second_ Psalm. "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." And other Psalms enlarge upon these glorious visions, which will all be true when the King comes. Then Jerusalem will be a praise in the earth.
"Also I will make Him, my Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth" (Ps. lx.x.xix:27).
And how rich are the prophets in telling us of the Glory of the King and the glories of His kingdom. "Behold a King shall rule in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment" (Isaiah x.x.xii:1).
"Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is afar off" (Isaiah x.x.xiii:17). "A King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth"
(Jerem. xxiii:5). "And there was given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pa.s.s away, and His Kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. vii:14).
"The King of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee (the earthly Jerusalem); thou shalt not see evil any more" (Zeph. iii:15). "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth" (Zech. xiv:6).
These and many, many more utterances of G.o.d"s blessed prophets give us a vision of the King, of the Glory of Him, who was crowned with a crown of thorns, the thorns of man"s curse, and over whose cross it was written, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
And the New Testament fully brings out the same Glory of Him as King. He is "King of Peace" (Heb. vii:2); "King of saints" (Rev.
xv:3); "The Lord of lords and King of kings" (Rev. xvii:14).
At last the unfulfilled message of Gabriel will be gloriously fulfilled. "The Lord G.o.d shall give unto Him the Throne of His father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke i:32).
But nowhere is He called "King of the church," nor are we authorized as believers to address Him "Our King." He will be King, but then He will not be our King, but we shall _be Kings with Him_. He is not King of the church, but the Head of the Body, the church; Head and Body together, Christ and His church, will rule and reign over the earth. Glory to His Name! In loving tenderness He looks upon us, who possess His life, He is not ashamed to call us "brethren," for He is Man, the second Man, and He beholds in us those, who will ere long share His Kingly Glory, His Kingly rule.
Oh, Beloved readers! does it not warm our hearts! Does it not make us feel like falling down on our faces and confess to Him our indifference and our nothingness, and humble ourselves in the dust.
How little, oh how little we enter into all this. The Lord help us to have through His Word and in the power of His Spirit a greater vision of the King and our blessed, eternal lot with Him.
They crown Him King on high; Shall we not crown Him here, The blessed Christ of Calvary, To ransomed sinners dear?
They worship Him above, Shall we not worship too, The Son of G.o.d, the Lord of love, To whom all praise is due?
Up there they see His Face, The Lamb who once was slain, And in a new song praise His Grace; Shall we not join the strain?
Yonder His servants still Serve as their Lord commands; Oh may we also do His will With loving hearts and hands.--M. F.
The Fellowship of His Son.
"G.o.d is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. i:9). A blessed word this is. By nature the Corinthians were in another fellowship. The same Epistle (vi:9-11) tells us what some of them were. Like ourselves by nature they were in the fellowship of sin and death and in fellowship with him, who is the author of sin and the enemy of G.o.d, Satan. But a faithful G.o.d called them and has called us by the Gospel into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. If we have obeyed the Gospel and accepted the gift of G.o.d we are brought through the Grace of G.o.d into the fellowship of the Son of G.o.d. All believers are in the same fellowship, one with the Lord.