Address—Bill Prost
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Oh, Lord, thy rich, thy boundless love.
No thought can reach, no tongue declare. We'll give our hearts its depth to prove and reign without arrival there.
This hymn was written by a man who knew what he was talking about. Paul Gerhart lived back in the post Reformation days in what is now Germany, and during that time there was still a good deal of opposition to the Gospel.
He encountered all kinds of persecution and difficulties, had to go through what you and I would call nightmares of difficulty, driven from his home and exiled. And when you read his hymns, you can't help but notice the spirit and the grace and the sense of the Lord's love and care that animated them.
#274.
Oh Lord, thy red thigh.
And reinstalled God.
4:00 Yeah.
My heart.
Came back and the room.
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I'm going to ask if some local brother would fill this cup because if I suddenly need it, it won't be much good empty. Thank you.
00:05:05
You know our brother Dawn brought before us yesterday afternoon.
What chastisement is all about and the importance of taking it in the right spirit.
And I had already had something on my heart, not exactly along the same line, but at least in a similar way. And I would like to turn this afternoon to the 84th Psalm, Psalm 84.
Two cups? Oh my, well, that's my cup runneth over.
Psalm 84.
Now we know that the Psalms have an unusual character, and I suppose we can look at the Psalms, and we don't mean to go into that in detail, but we can look at the Psalms.
In perhaps at least four different ways. First of all, they are the experience of the man.
Who wrote them or the individuals who were involved in the exercises?
And we can see what they went through.
Going on beyond that, we can see that they are prophetic because they bring before us the thoughts and feelings that Israel, and perhaps even more than that, the Jews, will go through in a coming day as they pass through the Tribulation and then through the various exercises that bring in millennial blessing.
Going beyond that, we find that the Spirit of God in some cases leads the psalmist to go far beyond human experience.
And to express that which can be true only of the Lord Jesus Himself.
And no doubt that is something of what the Apostle Peter refers to when he says that.
There were those Old Testament writers who searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
But then there's a fourth application of the Psalms, and that is to ourselves.
And that is what I want to look at this afternoon.
You know, those men who lived in the Old Testament, as Scripture says, were men of like passion, such as we are. And even though they didn't know the truth of the assembly, as you and I do, they did not know in the same way the finished work of Christ and all that He has done for us. Yet they went through many similar experiences, similar difficulties, and when we read how they reacted to them and how the Spirit of God led them to write.
We can find that which is an encouragement to our own souls.
Let's read this Psalm together. Psalm 84.
The inspired title says to the chief musician upon getteth a Psalm for the sons of Korah.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, My soul longeth ye even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Yeah, the Sparrow hath found in house, and to the swallow and nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee.
Sila.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them.
Who, passing through the valley of Baker, make it a well? The rain also fill up the pools. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.
Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed, for a day in thy courts is better than 1000. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.
00:10:07
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.
I'd like, perhaps arbitrarily, to divide this Psalm into 3 sections.
The first section dealing with the individual.
Having a desire for the Tabernacles, the courts of the Lord.
His heart and his flesh crying out for the living God.
Then the second part of the Psalm, verses 5 down to the end of verse 8.
Bringing before us, perhaps some of the difficulties, some of the things along the way.
That the individual maybe, if we can apply it to you and to me, some of the things that we have to pass through in order to be there.
And then finally, the last section from verses 9 to the end, the Lord encouraging us.
With his care over us and a vision of coming glory.
You know this Psalm, if we can just look at it, and I know reference was made to ministry going over the heads of the young people.
I've been at young people's get together sometimes and I know I've made this remark before.
But sometimes they play baseball, and generally young people are pretty good at assessing the capabilities of the person up to bat. And sometimes, somewhat embarrassingly, when someone goes up to bat, they move up in close. But other times there's a call, oh, heavy hitter, move back.
And I've never yet seen young people say, ah, he always hits it over our heads, so don't even bother moving back because you'll never get it anyway. No, they don't do that. And I know you young people want to know more about the things of the Lord. And sometimes you may find a remark made in meetings like this that at first glance you say, I don't understand it.
But you know what's good, what is good if it stimulates you to go home and say.
Now what was that brother talking about? I want to find out. I'm going to ask somebody, or even perhaps better still, go to the word of God, maybe go to the good books that I hope are on your bookshelf and say, what was he getting at?
This Psalm is found in what is perhaps very well known as the third book of the Psalms, and prophetically it's after the Tribulation period and Israel is beginning to be recalled. The 10 tribes are being brought back in. And so here in the first few verses of this Psalm, the individual is crying out for the Lord, but the emphasis is on.
Perhaps more of the collective aspect of it rather than the individual.
If we turn back a moment, perhaps to the 63rd Psalm, there we find more the individual.
And we'll just turn back to see very similar wording, but more on an individual basis.
Psalm 63 says verse one. Oh God, thou art my God.
Early will I seek thee.
Notice the language. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land.
Where no water is.
That's in the second book of the Psalms, and there they're in the middle of the Great Tribulation.
They don't even have the sense of that relationship to the Lord that they would like, and so God is addressed as God, not as Jehovah.
But the individual cries out his soul and then his flesh for the living God.
But here we find the same thing, but more in a collective aspect.
And I'd like to make the application, if I may. Israel will look forward to that collective aspect in a coming day because they have been denied it. They will be driven out of the temple, the godly ones that is. And for that awful time of the tribulation, they will not be able to enjoy the Lord's presence collectively. They'll have to go around individually. And there is that aspect of things in your life and mine today.
00:15:26
It's a time when you and I need to have that individual relationship with the Lord.
But thank God, thank God, he has preserved to us the collective aspect and here the individual.
Is, you might say, swallowed up in the collective aspect of things and the cry is my soul longeth verse two. Yeah, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
My late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe, and you'll pardon my repeating something he said, but I well remember his making a remark on this scripture. Ultimately it applies to the same thing in the 63rd Psalm. There is an order. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Oh, the heart had to come first, and then my flesh.
Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, and I don't mean that they necessarily are, you might say, physically difficult to go through, but I am finding perhaps that the situation is very, very hard for me.
But then the Lord speaks to my heart perhaps, and says.
And I'll use my own name. Bill, do you want me for my own sake?
Do you want me because of what I am and what I can be to you?
Or do you want me?
Just because the circumstances are rough.
Sometimes the circumstances collectively are not what they should be.
And I know that I am looking into the faces right here this afternoon of those who have been through real difficulties either recently or in the past.
That have, shall we say, jolted them to their very foundations concerning the collective aspect of things on the earth at this present time. And what a wonderful thing it is to be able to go to the Lord. But you know if those difficulties, hard though they are to bear.
Drive us to the Lord and to the One who wants to be everything.
To you and to me.
I say to my own heart.
They're worth it. They're worth it because there is a danger of my being taken up, perhaps with the.
Outward aspect of things, and it's wonderful to enjoy Christian fellowship. It's wonderful to be able to gather together like this. It's wonderful to have the Ways and Means to do it.
But I have seen brethren, and perhaps some here have had the same experience.
Who do not have these privileges, who do not have the money or the liberty to get together like this.
And for whom the collective aspect of things may be very limited, and yet you find in their hearts that reality as they get near to the Lord.
What does it say here in verse 3?
Oh, the Sparrow hath found in house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.
I don't pretend to be able to explain this completely, but it seems that the Word of God, the Spirit of God, picks up these two birds, specifically the Sparrow. Perhaps being well, in scripture it's presented as that which is cheap and worthless. Isn't it? In the Lord's time, he could speak of their being sold very cheap in the marketplace. And if you bought four of them, then they threw in one more just for well, they were so cheap they could give you one free.
The Sparrow, a bird that wasn't particularly pretty to look at, was of no account.
And sometimes we feel as if we're of no account.
But the Lord has a place for you.
A place for you where he is.
00:20:02
What about the swallow?
Well, that speaks more to my own heart because the swallow is a restless bird, always on the move.
And the swallow knows very well how to look after herself.
I well remember when our children were young how we had barn swallows that would build their nests right under the porch in our home and I couldn't believe it because we had a cat. A cat who didn't hesitate to catch birds if the opportunity arose.
But she never got that swallow.
In fact, the cat was afraid of the swallow and I can still remember that cat.
Standing at the edge of our yard, under the protection of the bushes and meowing for an escort to the back door.
Lest that swallow would die. Bomb it on the way there. Yes, the swallow knew how to look after itself. It was restless.
Fly very quickly.
And you know there's a place for that swallow, too, to have her nest.
What does the nest speak of? The nest speaks of bringing up young. The nest speaks of that bird laying eggs, raising young.
And they want a place where they use young can be safe. And I say to you, beloved young people, beloved young parents, I have heard parents say, oh, I can't bring my children up in this atmosphere or that atmosphere. I am afraid they will be affected by this or that. Oh, where can the Sparrow and the swallow find a nest for their young?
Where she may lay her young, even thine altars.
O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God, oh what a wonderful thing it is to come to where the Lord is, and the altar would bring before us that which would go all the way back to the cross of Christ.
I hope it's not stretching a point too much to emphasize what our brother was bringing before us in First Corinthians 11:00 this morning.
It brings before us that precious privilege of remembering the Lord in his death.
Our late brother Eric Smith, now with the Lord for quite a few years, used to say it's the dearest place to my heart this side of the glory.
And it's a wonderful thing to be able to sit down simply in the Lord's presence.
And to allow His Spirit to lead and guide as our hearts are lifted up in Thanksgiving and praise and worship to Him.
Oh, there's a place I suggest where the Sparrow and the swallow can find a place to rest.
And so I say to you, without any fear of contradiction, I believe with all my heart.
That God is going to preserve unto us a place.
Where we can gather together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the ground of the one body, with the confidence that the Lord is there in the midst, until he comes.
I know I quote the older brethren a lot, you'll pardon that, but I can remember our late brother.
Late brother. He's been gone a good many years now, Clifford Brown reminding us that God would always give us that privilege right to the end.
He said our God would not be God. And I don't believe that you and I will ever be put in the position where we read in God's Word precious truth that we want to walk in and things that we are told to do that we want to carry out. And yet we have to say, I can't do it because the circumstances, the day in which I live make it impossible. No, I say with all my heart, I don't believe God will ever bring us.
To that.
But we may have to find.
That it's those who have the earnest desire who get there.
And this does not bring any glory to us, but it's going to mean perhaps a sacrifice. It's going to mean effort.
But there's an expression here that occurs 3 times at least in this Psalm, which I have appreciated. It refers to the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. So that expression, the Lord of hosts, I suggest to you and to me, bring before us God in his power, and when you and I are in the pathway of His will.
00:25:06
We have all his power behind us.
I remember saying that to a dear brother in India quite a few years ago. He was feeling the difficulties in his own life.
He was feeling the opposition in his Christian pathway, and it was much more difficult for him than it is for me because they are in a land where they're, I guess are about 2% of the population that are Christians. There may be more, sometimes the statistics get a little bit skewed, but that would include even what they call nominal Christians who aren't perhaps truly saved even, but who call themselves Christians.
He was finding it very difficult to swim against the tide.
Oh, I said, brother, remember, if you are in the pathway of the Lord's will.
You can count on all the power of God behind you always said, Is that true? I said, indeed it is. It may not be the kind of power that manifests itself as it did in the times of Pentecost or in the early days of the Church, and it would be unintelligent to look for that, but in the pathway of the Lord's will. The Lord is with you, whether you are an individual or whether we gather together collectively.
You know Israel by this point, to use the words of prophecy.
Will have been brought to the position where it says Judah shall sit upon the ground.
They'll have been brought right to the very end of themselves through that awful tribulation.
To the point where they have to throw up their hands because God has allowed the enemy, the overflowing scourge, to come in in such an awful way that, as was remarked I think in one of the readings yesterday, the blood will flow. And I know perhaps the imagery is there, but nevertheless, the picture is clear. The blood will flow, clear up to the horse's bridles, says for a space of 1600 furlongs.
200 miles, just about the length of the land of Israel. That's what they'll have to go through.
And then when they get to this point.
They won't be trusting in themselves anymore. They won't be looking to themselves. And that's the point that the Lord has to bring us to sometimes.
There's anything in me that says I'm somebody, I know something we can handle the situation.
We've got the power. Oh, the Lord has to say no, I love you too much to allow that to go on. I'll have to humble that spiritual pride and I'll have to bring you down low. But then I will find when I'm brought to that point, when we are brought to that point, that that cry can go up. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Well, let's go on here.
What do we have to go through those the way going to be smooth sailing.
Oh, not necessarily. Verse five says Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.
Oh, you say. I have heard that over and over again. I have heard it over and over again that we have to rely on the Lord, that it must be in His strength.
But again, speaking to my own heart.
Do I realize it?
Or does it take a lifetime to learn it?
Does it take a lifetime to realize, as Paul said, when I am weak, then am I strong? Does it take a thorn in the flesh? It did. Paul, great apostle though he was there, had to be that thorn in the flesh to make him realize that the Lord must be his strength. But oh, what a wonderful thing it is to find that our strength is in Him. And this is nothing new. How many believers down through the ages have had to come to the end of themselves?
And have had to realize that they're cast totally on the Lord.
And then they find that He is their strength. But then it goes on to say, In whose heart are the ways of them? And I like the Darby rendering of this. I think it reads in whose heart are the highways?
What does that mean? In whose heart are the highways?
00:30:01
I suggest a thought, not the only thought.
But you and I have a path to walk down here. I cannot sit still.
I either slide backward or I go forward.
There is a highway.
But is that highway in my heart?
What does that mean? Earlier on in this Psalm, we saw that the heart was crying out for the living God.
And I have taken that to mean that if the highway is in my heart, it means that day by day, week by week, month by month, and maybe more frequently, maybe hour by hour.
My path has to be laid before the Lord and there has to be godly exercise.
Godly dependence and seeking his strength.
You know, in North America.
Our culture, if we could say it this way, mitigates against that attitude.
I have been in some parts of the world.
And this is not intended as a criticism, it's just a reflection of the conditions.
That are there where it seems very difficult.
For them to do something right.
And no matter what is being done, it doesn't seem to be done right.
I can well remember picking up a secular magazine some years ago now.
And there had been some criticism leveled, as it often is, at the United States.
I felt it was rather unjustified, but be that as it may, there was a reply to it and a man from the United States was making the point, and it was a good point as far as it went. He was saying no matter what it comes to when the chips are down, when something needs to be done, whether it's putting up a hotel, whether it's building a battleship, whether it's undertaking to do something in the world that needs doing in the right way.
The point, sort of all through the article was our people can do it.
Naturally it's true. Naturally it's true.
And we are living or I am standing right now in a nation which has been accustomed to men who had a go getter sort of attitude. It attracted people who could say, yes, there's an opportunity. And I'm going to use my ingenuity and my ambition and everything I have in order to grasp an opportunity.
But you know, when it comes to the things of God.
Oh, in the words of the hymn, O mine Divine, so must it be that glory all belongs to God.
And God will not have you and me boasting and saying we can do it. If you can't do it, move over, we can do it.
In whose heart are the highways and what's the result?
Who passing through the valley of victory make it a well? Is that what it says?
The Valley of Baker.
Baker, if you look at your margin, means weeping.
Weeping.
And I want to leave some emphasis on that phrase this afternoon, because it is one that naturally we do not like.
The Valley of Weeping.
How many times down through the ages have the Saints of God passed through that valley?
How many times do we read right in the word of God of what they pass through?
If we read perhaps in Hebrews Chapter 11, we find those wonderful examples of faith in the Old Testament, where victories were gained and where there were individuals, it says, who stopped the mouths of lions, quenched, the violence of fire out of weakness were made strong, and so on.
But then it says and others.
And others.
They were also men of faith, but it says they were tortured, not accepting deliverance, and it recounts the various things through which they passed, wandering in dens and caves of the earth, saw and asunder in sheepskins and goatskins. It says, were they men without faith? A deed not the valley of Beca.
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And yet, passing through the Valley of Baker, what do they do? They make it. Oh well.
You know a well is a wonderful thing because a well is not only something that the individual who makes the well can drink of, it's there for a long time afterward.
The woman at the well in John 4 remembered where that well had come from.
And she could look back hundreds of years and say, Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well? But there she was still drinking of it, hundreds and hundreds of years later.
General, beloved brethren, I don't know whether I can get this across as I would like, and I hesitate to lay too much emphasis on it because I know how much I need it myself.
But if you and I are going to make wells for others, I suggest that inevitably it will be having to pass through the Valley of Bacon.
Allow an example and only one I could think of a lot.
A name comes to mind of Joseph's Griven.
And many here, or at least some here, will recognize him as the writer of that hymn. What a friend we have in Jesus.
But how did he write those words?
Was it in good circumstances?
Oh my, no, it was very shortly after he had had to stand by.
And watch his bride to be drowned in front of his eyes just a few days before they were married.
And he was in a position where he was unable to do anything to help.
Can you imagine the thoughts and feelings that went through his soul?
But that was in the end. We know that he went to Egypt shortly after that, and the hymn that we sing so freely was written in Egypt, not as a hymn, but as a poem to his mother. In fact, I don't suppose he ever knew in this life that it was ever a hymn, because it wasn't set to music and sung until after he was with the Lord.
But he emigrated to Canada not too long after that, spent most of his life in Canada, actually not too far from where I live. He lived in Port Hope, ON, which is about 100 miles from our home. And there later on in his life, once again, he met up with a girl and was engaged to be married. And you would think, all right, Lord, he's, he's had his opportunity. He's written, he's written the poem.
But once again.
I'm not quite sure why they did it, but she wanted to be baptized and they baptized her in Rice Lake there in Ontario in the month of April.
Makes me cold to think about it. She caught pneumonia and died, and once again she was taken from him, the one whom he expected to marry. He never did get married.
But he left a legacy. He left a well. A well at which thousands of people have drunk.
Ever since he went to be with the Lord, he's been with the Lord many years now, 120 years to be exact.
How many people have drunk of the well that he gave?
And I suggest something to you.
I suggest.
That all our blessings.
Come to us through the obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus.
But our enjoyment of those blessings?
Comes in the same way.
Let me repeat that all our blessings come to us through the obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus.
There was one who gave up everything.
Oh, who could compare his valley of Baca with what the Lord Jesus went through?
But oh, what a well he left.
But our enjoyment of those blessings comes in the same way.
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Let's not be afraid because the last part of the verse says the rain also filleth the pools.
The thought here is of the early reign.
You know, in the land of Israel they have what is sometimes called a Mediterranean climate, and they would traditionally sow their seed in the fall, and then they would get the early rain in the fall and that would cause it to sprout. But then there would be kind of a damp, cool winter. And then they would look for the latter rain, the rain that would come in the spring that would bring that crop to maturity. And that is why so often in Scripture there is the reference to the early and latter rain.
I'm sure many know that, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.
This is the early rain here that fills the pools and I have puzzled as to why the latter rain is never mentioned in this book or in this Psalm. I suggest that it is because faith would say that latter rain will come. God doesn't always show me the whole pathway ahead of me, but the rain fills the pools and you know, it has been my experience and maybe yours too.
But excuse me.
That if you are passing through a night of affliction.
Some very difficult times. The Lord says, I'm going to give you some rain just to show you that I'm still there, just to show you that I'm with you.
And it's wonderful to see those rains fill the pools.
Verse seven, they go from strength to strength. Oh, that doesn't mean that I flexed my muscles and say well.
Whatever comes on, I can handle it.
I heard a man once who was running for governor in a state in the United States here.
And someone was saying that are you not concerned about the future? Are you not concerned about some of the problems and difficulties down the road? And he stood there with utmost confidence and said, no way, I'm not afraid of the future, the future, bring it on.
Well, that's fine from a natural point of view. He had some confidence and I suppose he hoped that would rub off on people who were perhaps potential voters.
But God doesn't deal that way with you and me, he says from strength.
To strength, that means I suggest just what we had back in that fifth verse. I have to go to the Lord day by day for strength. I have to say, Lord, I can't handle this myself. Give me the strength.
And then it says everyone of them in Zion, a pureth before God.
Oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful when we can have that before us, the Lord's presence.
The Lord's presence. And then it says in verse 80, Lord God of hosts.
Hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob.
It's easy in these days of hurry, these busy days, to neglect our prayer life.
But if you and I are going to have any power, there must be prayer.
A brother again long since with the Lord used to remark that a prayerless life.
Is a powerless life.
Why? Because a prayerless life says I can do it. A prayerless life says I have my own strength.
A prayerful life says I am depending not on my own strength, but on the Lord of hosts.
The Lord of Hosts.
Then it puts in that little word sela.
What does that mean?
I can only quote what educated brothers have told us in the past.
And that is that it simply means pause and think about it. Pause and think about it.
Sometimes it's necessary to have a pause, necessary to think about something, to let something sink in.
And so we had that at the end of the fourth verse, which we didn't comment on. We have it at the end of the eighth verse.
But then there's encouragement. We want to dwell on that just for a few moments.
00:45:05
Verse 9 Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face.
Of thine anointed.
What an expression.
Thine anointed.
At first glance when I read this, and I have read it, I suggest a few times.
I thought, who else but the Lord could that refer to?
Who else is worthy to be anointed but the Lord?
And that is true.
But isn't it wonderful that God delights to anoint you and me?
David could say in the 23rd Psalm, Thou anointest my head with oil.
It was customary to anoint people with oil so that the Lord Jesus could reproach the Pharisee for not anointing his head with oil, because that was the courtesy that ought to have been extended to a guest.
Anointed with oil?
And hear the psalmist is not, you might say, taking liberties. The psalmist is not going beyond what he should.
He is addressing the Lord. He is addressing God.
As his shield.
And saying look upon thine anointed.
Oh God delights for you and me to come to Him in intimacy.
Our late brother Merle Graham recently went to be with the Lord.
I well remember probably over 20 years ago now.
When he had a young people's address at a conference like this.
Was the only time that I ever heard him speak at that kind in that kind of a way, in a public way.
I don't mean I didn't hear him take part in his local reading meeting, but I mean as to having an address and standing up. It's the only time I ever heard him speak.
I well remember a remark he made. It stuck with me.
He said God does not appreciate familiarity.
But he loves intimacy.
God does not appreciate familiarity, but He loves intimacy.
Familiarity is presuming to take a place that does not belong to us and is putting ourselves on a level with someone.
With whom we ought to be in a different relationship.
But intimacy recognizes a known relationship.
And acts on it. And oh, there's a lot of familiarity today with the Lord, which is unwarranted and wrong.
But what a wonderful thing it is to approach God in that intimacy in which we have been brought through the finished work of Christ. No, they did not know that when this Psalm was written.
Look upon the face of thine anointed, he says, for a day in thy courts is better than 1000.
Down here we only have a day in his courts, don't we? Down here we have a day in his courts.
But all I say with all my heart to each one here is not a day in his courts better than 1000.
You know, and I know that there are those and my heart goes out to them who say I can't go there anymore or I can't be part of that anymore.
Sometimes it has to do with individuals going off on their own, other times it is going to a place which they know is not according to the Word of God, but their attitude is. I cannot, I will not go there. Oh beloved brethren, if you and I come in the right spirit, we will find that a day in His courts is better than 1000.
Maybe he's only on the outskirts, it says here a doorkeeper. The thought is he's only at the door, he's only on the threshold.
I remember again quoting my late father-in-law. He said if I could go to a Bible conference and just see all the faces and shake hands, it would still be well worth it.
00:50:07
Is that true?
I see a few smiles, a few heads nodding. It is true, isn't it? It is true.
Even if we were only on the threshold, it would be worth it, I thought as I walked into this hotel.
Yesterday what a pleasure it was to walk in and be greeted by brethren whom I knew and loved, and see immediately a number of faces that I recognized.
I had occasion in years gone by to go to medical seminars and things like that from time to time, and it necessitated, of course, staying in hotels, some of them similar to this. I didn't care for it. Oh yes, the medical knowledge was well worth getting, and you went for that reason. But to go into a place where you didn't recognize anyone, to stay in a room all by yourself, to have to intermingle with people for the most part who did not know the Lord?
But what a difference to come with the Lord's own. Oh, if it's only to be on the threshold. Oh, you say I don't fit in.
I haven't got any friends. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes we aren't as friendly as we should be. Sometimes we forget about people. But oh, if we're just on the threshold.
It's better than dwelling in the tents of wickedness, isn't? It's better than this world. 100 times better.
But what about the pathway? Is it sometimes still difficult? Oh, it says the Lord God is a son.
And shield.
Sun and shield? Why does it say a sun and shield?
Oh, because God gives us what we need at the time.
On a good hot day.
You want a shield, don't you?
But if it's a cold day and a brisk wind is blowing, we're glad to see the sun. And the Lord knows how to give just what is needed. He knows how to give just what will be needed. For your encouragement and mine in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And trust Him, He will do it.
But then there's something even nicer in the next verse. The Lord will give grace.
And glory.
I suppose we could look at that this way. That grace is for the pathway down here.
But glory is at the end.
And if you and I need more grace for the pathway down here, the Lord says I will give it to you. I'll give it to you.
What we have to ask for, we have to want it.
Sometimes we say I need more grace.
But forgive me for saying this, but I've experienced it in my own heart. Deep down inside, there's a thought I'm not going. I don't want that grace right now.
I want to nurse my hurt feelings for a little while and feel sorry for myself. Or I want to nurse that bit of anger, that bit of disgust with this one or that one. And then I'll take the grace a little little further down, Lord, when I've had the chance to nurse that a little bit. Or I want to nurse that bad feeling in my heart.
And sometimes I can nurse it for months and years on end.
Oh, how that shrivels the soul, how that saps our spiritual strength, how that deprives us of the enjoyment of Christ. In fact, I may be going out on a limb here, and I won't object if someone corrects me, but I suggest that bad feeling among the people of God probably does more harm than any other single thing. Now, I don't mean that bad behavior in terms of gross sin.
Isn't serious? It is. I don't mean that bad doctrine isn't serious. It is. But that can be more easily identified, perhaps, and dealt with. But under currents of feelings and undercurrents of things that rob us of the enjoyment of Christ, I am persuaded do more harm and quench the Spirit among us more than any other single thing.
And forgive me if I say that I experience it, and have experienced it in my own heart, but I see it as I travel around among the Saints of God and I can't help but feel it.
00:55:05
And I suggest that what we need to do is ask the Lord for more grace. Oh, it's a wonderful thing to be able to forgive. It's a wonderful thing to be able to get those things out and to get them right and not to harbor them anymore.
And what's the end? Glory. Oh, the glory is ahead. Perhaps very soon. Perhaps very soon.
And then it says that wonderful expression. No good thing will he withhold.
From them that walk uprightly.
No good thing, No good thing. Is there anything that you badly want in life?
He won't withhold it.
If it would be good for you and if you're walking uprightly, oh, doesn't that give peace to the soul? If I really believe that, oh, how often I think that I know what I want.
It's very difficult sometimes when there's something that I badly want.
Maybe it's a job.
Maybe it's a wife or a husband.
Maybe it's something to do with my life in another sphere, and I want it, and I want it badly, and maybe, as far as I can tell, I want it. I think for all the right reasons. Only the Lord knows.
Oh, let's find rest in this. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And then the Psalm ends. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man.
That trust in thee.
In everything. In everything.
Going back to what our brother Dawn said yesterday, Job had to learn that lesson.
He had to trust, he had to wait for the Lord. He had to have a man like Elihu tell him, Joe, justify God up front. That is where you start. Start with justifying God in everything that he is allowed. And then.
Go to him with the situation and wait for him. Wait for him. Oh, it's hard to wait.
It's hard to wait, sometimes, very hard to wait, but the Lord delights if we wait for Him. Well, May God bless His word to each one of our hearts, and may we by grace seek before Him.
To appreciate continually.
The collective aspect, as we had exemplified in the beginning of this Psalm.
If necessary, the pathway of suffering that we may have to go through.
In order to get to where He is and finally to enjoy in our hearts His provision for us along the way and the glory at the end.
Our time is gone, but maybe we can sing part of another hymn.
It's an unusual hymn to give out at this meeting.
150 The last two verses.
Verses 5 and six yet loving thee, on whom his love ineffable.
Doth rest the worshippers, O Lord, above is one with thee are blessed.
Of the vast universe of bliss, the center, thou and Son, the eternal theme of praise is this to heaven's beloved. 10 May we have that before our souls. 150 the last two verses. And I don't think we can sit down for this hymn.