God appeared to Abraham as “God Almighty.” (Gen. 17:11And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1).) To Israel He reveals His name as “Jehovah. (Ex. 6) To us He reveals Himself as “Father.” “To us (Christians) there is but one God, the Father.” (1 Cor. 8.) In the Millennium He will be the “Most High” in connection with Melchizedec.
In Psa. 91 we have an example of three of these names Almighty, Jehovah, and Most High. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.” We have here the soul dwelling in the secret of the Most High, and thus having Abraham’s God-Almighty. Jesus says, “I will say of Jehovah He is my refuge; I will take Israel’s God. The answer is, “Surely he will deliver thee.” The result is the triumphant declaration of what He is to the soul that rests in Him. In perfection it is the experience of Christ; but also of each confiding soul (in measure of course) however alarming the circumstances may be through which it has to pass. This Psalm brings out the Old Testament names of God; but 2 Cor. 6:1818And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:18) shows us that He says to us, “I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith Jehovah Almighty.” The God of the Jews and of Abraham is our Father.
In the Psalms we do not get the thought of Father, we have many good desires, and of separation to God, but not the relationship of Father. This relationship in consequence of the blessed Son having become a Man, and having accomplished redemption, we are brought into that relationship by the Spirit of the Son. It did not exist before. He says after He rose (John 20) “Go to my brethren and say unto them; I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” We never know how to walk right with God till we consciously get hold of this relationship, that we are really children of God, not merely as born of God, but as having the Spirit of His Son. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father.” (Gal. 4)
These two great principles run through Scripture, namely, confidence and relationship. The former is very fully brought out in the Old Testament Scriptures, especially in the Psalms. The latter, as we have seen, did not come out till after the Lord’s resurrection, though hinted at in the earlier part of the gospels.
In Psa. 63 we have a different thing. Not trials and deliverances, nor circumstances of any kind, but what God is found to be, by the soul which begins to prove what this world really is— “a dry and a thirsty land, where no water is.” This too, in perfection, is the experience of Christ. “Oh God, thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” It is a soul awake to this fact, that in this wilderness there is not a spot on which it can rest, and that if satisfaction is found it must be found in God alone. Oh! Low little do we realize this; how little do we suspect all the props on which we lean from day to day—the springs from which we drink—the Christian intercourse—letters—the thousand daily comforts! Christ alone could say, “all my fresh springs are in Thee!” He “looked for comforters, and found none.” Still, the heart must come to this, that it is in a dry and thirsty land where no water is; and when it does so, it turns with longing to God, and finds Him everything.
In Psa. 63 there is no thought of “the tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts.” It does not leave the dry and thirsty land, but it finds the all-sufficiency of God; and having tasted that it longs for more— “To see Thy power and Thy glory.”
Christ had seen it in the Sanctuary, and could desire again to share that glory which He shared with the Father “before the world was;” “As I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” One who has tasted of this can find satisfaction in nothing lower, but finds it all in God. The joy then is such, that one would not for worlds change anything. It is because things are what they are that the soul has found what God is, and finds His “loving kindness better than life.” No circumstances can occupy the heart; the lips are filled with praise. “Thus will I bless thee while I live—I will lift up my hands in thy name.” As in Rom. 5 we have what might seem enough. For the past, forgiveness and justification; for the present, access by faith into grace; for the future, the hope of the glory. Is not this enough? Nay, there is more. “Not only so, but we joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thus “my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips.”
Still a moment will come when we will remember that all this is not heaven! It is having God in spite of everything; but this is not rest—there is no rest here. God may give us momentary rest of heart here, as we find in Num. 10, the ark left its ordered place in the camp of Israel, and went three days’ journey in the wilderness before them to find out a rest for them. Grace gives us that rest of heart now. We are not to be weary in well-doing, but we are to “labor to enter into that rest.” Some like to say, as to Heb. 4:33For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3) “do enter,” as though it were by faith now. We do this, no doubt, but it is not the point here. Verse 10, which connects our rest with that of God, proves that it is future, for we rest from our works (not rest of conscience from legal works, or rest of heart by faith, but actual rest) from good works, as God did from His-good ones of course. “This is not your rest”—we labor to enter in; and the soul longs for that place where with ungirded loin and unshod foot she can give herself up to delight in all around; when all will be consonant with the divine nature, of which she has been made partaker, and she in harmony with all around; when it will be no longer God in spite of everything, but God in everything—God there is “all in all.” Not only nothing that defileth is there; but “nothing that maketh a lie.” There is plenty that maketh a lie around us now in the church and in the world.
This brings us to Psa. 84
“How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!” This is Jehovah, and the soul longs for His dwelling place—wearies, faints for His courts. No circumstances contrary there-no dry and thirsty land. All is pure, and all of God. Still knowing what God is, heaven would not be heaven without Him. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living-God.” It is true that the city has no need; but that is because “the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” (Rev. 21) v. 3. “Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.” This is the confidence of God’s people—that the poor weak things find a rest with Him. The Lord encouraged His disciples thus in Matt. 10:29-3129Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29‑31). Abraham pitched his tent and built an altar unto the Lord. If you go into the world you can have no altar there—God may keep you safe when the famine comes, but you will have no altar there. Whenever you go astray all the time is spent for nothing till you get back to the place you left.
“Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee.” “They rest not day and night saying Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” The twenty-four elders were in a more blessed place when they were prostrate before the throne (Rev. 4) than when they were crowned and seated on their thrones; because, when crowned, they were enjoying their own glory; but when prostrate, they were enjoying His glory and worshipping Him. The next best thing to being there is to know our own weakness. Weakness is a sensible thing, one feels it. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.” That is the thing to keep us safe here, for His strength is made perfect in weakness. How far can each one say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me!” “In whose heart are the ways.” Such a soul knows that the only thing it has to seek in this world is not a way to get on in it, or any way through it, but God’s way out of it. As with Moses to say, “I beseech thee show me now this way.” Christ and this path is the way. “Time valley of Baca,” or as we say, “the vale of tears,” is the place which becomes “a well” to such an one; instead of looking for compassion or sympathy, it becomes a well filled with blessings from above. Every fresh difficulty becomes a fresh spring of blessing, and calls down blessings from above” the rain also filleth the pools.” He learns in the difficulty more of himself and of God. Some desire “to see their way clear.” God’s way is for you to take the step which lies at your foot, and then He will show another. If you meet with difficulties, well, He has said, “In this world ye shall have tribulation.” Suppose I am going home, and one said, “you are to pass a bog and a high wall,” I would be very glad when I met them—they would show I was in the right road. Such go from strength to strength. There will be a continuity of it. They that wait on the Lord renew their strength. Every victory braces for another conflict, and the end is sure. “Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” These poor weak things arc each and every one “of more value than many sparrows.” The hairs of their heads are all numbered, and “not a hoof shall be left behind!”