A Salutation

by Brown, J. | Category: General | Mar 1955

" As the hart panteth after the water brooks,

So panteth my soul after Thee, 0 God.

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:

When shall I come and appear before God?

"These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, How I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holy day"

(Psalm 42. 1-4).

This Psalm by the sons of Korah expresses like desires to those or David. David was often hunted for' his life by wicked men who had risen up against him. His enemies sought to capture and destroy him, but the God, in whom he trusted, guarded him. How he longed as in Psalm 63.1, 2, for the sweet fellowship and rich spiritual blessings he had known and experienced in the house of God! God and His house were closely associated in the thoughts of David, and of the sons of Korah. They were inseparable. Thus while their minds were dwelling upon God and His house, they long to be there when those sacred songs and hymns would be sung, which, as psalmists, they had helped to prepare for the service of God's house.

The hart, in Psalm 42.1, has scented the water which could quench its thirst, but finds that the water is beyond its reach. One has touchingly written of that tired, thirsty animal, and of how it longed for a drink to give it renewed energy.

The measure in which we grasp the disappointment and desire of. the hart for the water helps us to realize the intensity of the desire of the sons of Korah and of David for God and His house. As the hart panted after the water brooks, so panted their soul after God, the living God. To come and appear before God; was the cry and deep desire of their hearts for they were shut out from sharing and enjoying the collective worship of God in His house. The great truth that the Most High dwelt in the house that men had built for Him, was ever present in the mind of the devout Jew. Divine specifications for it had been given, and all had to be worked out in accordance with the plan shown.

The same is true of God's spiritual house today, for there is a divine pattern which must be followed before God will recognize it as His house. It was clearly seen that the house of God could not be built with material which had the stamp of Babylon upon it. Had the sects of Christendom been churches of God, forming part of God's house, we should never have left them. But to have remained in them, even when some of them claimed to be gathered into the Name of the Lord, would have been wilful disobedience to the call of God. And so, at the bidding of God we came out of the spiritual Babylon to which they belonged, and sought to build the spiritual house of God according to the divine pattern shown in the New Testament. On one occasion our beloved brother, Mr. J. A. Boswell of loved memory, said, "We must keep Babylonish rubbish out of God's building; there is no room for it in the house of God." The time came when the house of God was again built according to God's plan. It was then that Dr. C. M. Luxmoore, in the presence of his brethren, praised God that he had lived to see the house of God. He had lived and fought for it. It meant so much to God and to His saints who were separated from spiritual Babylon with its awful spiritual filth and rejection of Him whom God has made both Lord and Christ.

Onward, beloved brethren in the Lord, let us with the help of Him who hitherto has been our Helper, keep the banner of God's truth unfurled, and never, never let it droop or trail upon the earth! God in His wondrous grace has helped us to light a beacon of New Testament truth which will continue to be "needed truth" until our Lord shall come to take us home. We cannot play with the truth of God and make use of it as we like. The churches of God, which form the house of God, and these only, have the scriptural right to keep the Remembrance which the Lord instructed to be kept in fond memory of Himself. There is no Word of God to show that it was kept outside of assemblies of God.

"Holdthe fort, for I am coming!

Jesus signals still;

Wave the answer back to heaven,

'By Thy grace we will!'"

Good-bye, until we meet again, if not on earth, in the land where the surges cease to roll.

Brown, J. | Mar 1955
General