When once we have obeyed the beseeching command, “Be ye reconciled to God,” and, being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a right as His reconciled children to take the strong consolation of these words. They are then a seal of appropriation upon the whole revelation.
Every part of God’s word is a revelation, more or less clear, of Himself. When we do not see this, it is only that we miss it, not that it is not there. Do we not know how very possible it is to read the historical parts merely as history, and the prophetical merely as prophecy, and the doctrinal merely as doctrine, and miss the vision of God which everywhere shines through the glass darkly, if only His good Spirit opens our eyes to see it! And even when we do trace out God Himself in His recorded works and ways, how often we miss the personal comfort of remembering our own close and personal interest in what we see of His character and attributes. It makes all the difference to recollect, at every glimpse of these, that “this God is our God!”
It is wonderful what a freshness and reality the simple application of this little verse will give to all our reading. Just try it at once, whatever may be the next passage you read! I question if there is a single chapter, from the first of Genesis to the twenty-second of Revelation, which will not reflect the light of this beautiful little lamp. First ask for the direct and present and fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, that you may behold your God. And then, whether your gaze is turned upon a promise which reveals Him as the Loving One, or a warning which reveals Him as the Just and Holy One; whether you read a history which shows His grand grasp in ordering the centuries, or a verse which shows His delicate touch upon the turn of a moment as you admire, say, “This God is our God.” When you read “Great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend,” and the splendid variety of His book gives a glimpse of His power and glory in upholding the things which are seen, from the hosts of million-aged stars to the fleeting flakes of the “treasures of the snow,” say, “This God is our God.”
When you come to the many direct and gracious declarations of what God is, you will find these words light them up splendidly. “The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” This God is our God! “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.” This God is our God! “Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.” This God is our God! “God is love.” This God is our God!
When you come to those parts of the Bible which are too often undervalued and left out of the daily reading, still, though it may be through a less transparent veil, God will reveal Himself. For instance, when you come to the genealogies in Chronicles, consider how His individual care is illustrated by the otherwise unknown names, noted in His book because of their connection with Christ; no matter how remote that connection, through the distant generations and collateral branches, might seem to human ways of thinking. And then remember that “this God,” who thus inscribed their individual names for Christ’s sake, is “our God” who has inscribed our individual names in the book of life for Christ’s sake, because we are chosen in Him. And when we read the life of His dear Son, and see what that beloved Son, in the infinite loveableness of His exquisite perfection, must have been to the Father who yet spared Him not; and, most of all, when we read of the hand of God being laid upon the Man of His right hand, when He made the iniquities of us all to meet on Him, and let Him suffer unto death for us men and for our salvation, then, above all, let us turn to God the Father and say, “This God, who so loved the world, is our God!”
It seems as if this personal relationship to us as our “God,” were one in which He specially delights, and which He would have us keep continually in mind. In Deuteronomy, that wonderful book of reminding’s, He has caused this gracious name, “the Lord thy God,” or “the Lord your God,” to be written no less than two hundred and twenty-seven times. What a name for Him to be revealed by to the wayward wanderers of Israel and what comfort to us that He is the same God to us! When you want a helpful Bible subject to work out, suppose you take this, and trace out all through the Bible under what circumstances or with what context of precious teaching He gives these words, and let the gladness of the search be “This God is our God.” And then trace out (with your concordance if you like,) the responses to this constantly repeated and heart-strengthening Name, noting and arranging the passages that speak of “Our God.” Between these you will find every soul need for time and eternity supplied, from the first great need of the awakened sinner who is met with the words “He that is our God is the God of salvation, “to the fullness of present blessing, “God, even our own God, shall bless us,” and the fullness of future joy when “thy God shall be thy glory.”
As you study, the claim will grow closer, and the response will intensify from the wide chorus of “Our God” to the fervent thrill of the whisper, “O God, Thou art my God.”
Some of us may have an unexpressed notion that, after all, this does not come so near to us as the thought of “Jesus, my Saviour.” We almost feel dazzled at the vastness of the idea of “God.” And we take refuge, mentally, in what seems more within reach. This is almost always the case in the earlier stages of our Christian life. Having been drawn by the Father to the Lord Jesus Christ, we almost lose sight of the Father in the Son, instead of beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as He intends us to do. Practically, some of us know consciously only one Person in the Blessed Trinity, and do not honor the Father as we honor the Son. If so, let us ask the Holy Spirit to lead us on into all truth, and to mature our spiritual powers and widen our spiritual vision that we may know more of what God means when He reveals Himself, not only by some name which human relationships enable us to grasp, but as our God.
We shall not love Jesus less, but more, as we learn to love God, who was in Christ reconciling us to Himself. We shall not be less tenderly grateful for His coming to die for us, but more as we rise to adore the mystery of love which alone illumines the inconceivable eternity of the past when the Word was with God and the Word was God.
We shall find, too, that, while there is more than scope enough in the thought and revelation of God as God for the strongest hour, the very zenith of our intellect, there is rest in it for the weariest hour of the weakest frame. For when my heart and my flesh faileth, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death.
For the sad and sinful
Shall His grace abound;
For the faint and feeble
Perfect strength be found.
I, the Lord, am with thee,
Be thou not afraid!
I will help and strengthen,
Be thou not dismayed!
Yea, I will uphold thee
With My own Right Hand,
Thou art called and chosen
In My sight to stand.