DRINKING AT THE BROOK.
“He shall drink of
the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.”-Psalm 110:7.
OUR TEXT refers
directly to our Lord Jesus, and secondly to all the members of the church, his
body, each one of whom must share his experiences-walking in his steps and
drinking of the same “brook,” if they would in due time share with their Lord
in his exaltation, to glory, honor, and immortality; this exaltation being
represented in our text by the expression, “lift up the head.” In ancient times
as at present, human language was full of figures and symbols, water
representing truth, and drinking of water representing appropriation of the
truth, namely, wisdom (See Prov. 18:4); and lifting up the head,
exaltation.-See Gen. 40:13.
Our text is given as the reason for the glorious blessings and honors predicted
of the Christ and described in the preceding verses of the same psalm. Let us
notice these. The first verse is directly applied to our Lord by the Apostles
(Acts 2:34; Heb. 1:13; I Pet. 3:22), and our Lord applied the same to himself.
(Matt. 22:44.) A figure of speech is again employed, descriptive of our Lord’s
relationship to the Father in Glory; he is not literally seated beside him at
his right hand, but he has been honored with a superior station, a position
above all others-he specially is at the right hand of divine power. Nor does
his second coming hinder or change this relationship; at his second coming he
will still be at his Father’s right hand as he himself, declared. (Matt.
26:64.) At the Father’s right hand during the Millennial Age, the Father,
through him, shall subdue all things to himself-put down all opposing authority
and insubordination; blessing those who come into heart-harmony with his
kingdom of righteousness, and destroying from the earth all who after fair
knowledge of good as well as evil, choose the evil. These will be considered
as followers of Satan instead of followers of God, and the second death, we are
specifically told, is for the Devil and his messengers, servants.-Matt. 25:41.
The description of the Millennial Kingdom is continued by the Prophet, who
declares, “Jehovah shall send the rod of thy strength out of (or through)
Zion”-primarily the Church, the “Bride,” the “body” of Christ; the rod or
sceptre or authority shall be exercised through the Church, by the Lord Jesus
the Head of the Church, under the divine commission,-“Rule thou in the midst of
thine enemies.” This is not in any measure fulfilled yet. Jesus when in the
flesh did not rule in the midst of his enemies, and the Church has not thus
ruled; on the contrary, both he and his followers have been subject to the
powers that be, and the violent have taken the kingdom by force and have despitefully
used the Head and the body members. (Matt. 11:12.) The enemies are not yet made
the footstool of the Lord, Zion has not yet been glorified, and Messiah’s
sceptre or authority has not yet gone forth therefrom. On the contrary we are
still in “this present evil world,” we still wait for the completion of the
elect Church that together she may be glorified with her Lord-enter into His
glory-when he, the due time having come, “shall take unto himself his great
power and reign;”-then the nations will be angry, etc., (Rev. 11:18) and divine
wrath will come upon them; and following that “day of wrath” shall come the
promised blessing, upon all who shall demonstrate under the good opportunities
of that Millennial Kingdom, that they love righteousness and hate iniquity.
This latter class-those who during the Millennial age, during that day of his
presence, shall become the Lord’s people (I Cor. 15:23)-are referred to by the
Prophet when he says,-“Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.”
The day of his power is not yet here, as the poet declares: “Wrong and
evil triumph now.” The “Prince of this world” still rules and is “god of this
world” as the Apostle asserts; because our Lord has not yet taken to himself
his great power nor begun his reign. The people who shall be willing in
the day of his power are not, therefore, the saints of this Gospel age: these
latter are only the “first fruits unto God of his creatures” and are willing before
the day of his power-willing to hear the Shepherd’s voice and to follow
him; willing to sacrifice all and to lay down their lives in his service, for
the brethren.
Evidently, therefore, those referred to as “Thy people” who shall be willing in
the day of Christ’s power, the Millennial Age, are those whom our Lord
represents as his “sheep” in the parable of the sheep and the goats. They are
those who after the Son of Man shall be seated on the throne of his glory, and
after his Church is seated with him in his throne, and after the judgment or
trial day for the nations, the world, is ended,-after the knowledge of the Lord
has filled the earth, after it has gradually proved the savor of life unto
life, or death unto death to the world, shall be found truly “his
people,”-willing, nay, glad to serve him when they know him and understand his
will. As his sheep they will desire to follow in the way of righteousness,
truth and holiness; as his people they will not need to be coerced further, but
learning the truth in the day of his power, when the adversary is bound and
when the eyes of their understandings are opened, they will be willingly his
people. And all who shall not then become willingly his people will be
esteemed his enemies, “goats,” angels or messengers or servants of the
adversary, and be destroyed with him in the Second Death.
“In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of
thy youth.” That is to say, as morning after morning comes forth fresh and
vigorous as its predecessor, as the sun grows not old and feeble, so with Messiah,
and so also with those accepted as the members of his body, they will have
perpetually the freshness and vigor of youth,-glory, honor, immortality, the
divine nature-this is part of the blessing that is promised, and which will
result, our text tells us, from drinking of the brook in the way.
Having told us of the kingly power and authority of Messiah, it is appropriate
that the Lord through the prophet explains to us that Messiah’s priestly office
is to be also of a higher type than the earthly,-that his priest and kingly
offices are to be blended and united as was typified in Melchisedec, who was
both king and priest. Our Lord when on earth was not of the Aaronic
priesthood, nevertheless, Aaron was his type, and the sacrifices which Aaron
performed were typical of the “better sacrifices” performed by the antitypical
priest, in the laying down of his own life and in the consecration and
sacrifice also of all those who are his during this Gospel age, who thus “fill
up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.” By and by our High
priest will have completed all that was illustrated in the Aaronic type, he
will have finished the Day of Atonement sacrifices, and then the glory promised
will follow,-instead of a suffering priesthood there will be “a royal
priesthood”-a reigning priesthood.-I Pet. 2:9; Rev. 5:10.
Then follow assurances that this glorious priest-king will prosper, that his
reign of righteousness will be successful; the assurance being that God will be
at his right hand supporting him and bringing matters to a successful
issue,-smiting down kings and wounding the heads over many countries, and
subduing all things mightily. The great day of trouble coming is very
generally referred to as “the day of Jehovah,” the day of His wrath, although
it will be under the direct supervision of our Lord Jesus, for the purpose of
introducing and establishing his Millennial dominion.
These, foregoing, descriptions of the greatness of Messiah and his kingdom,
lead up to our text; and it, as before suggested, is given as the reason why so
great blessings, honors, and dignities and authority are conferred. “He shall
drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head-[be
exalted.]”
LEARNING OBEDIENCE BY THE
THINGS SUFFERED.
As we look into the Word for testimony upon the subject, we find that our dear
Master did indeed learn certain lessons of experience; as the apostle declares,
he “learned obedience in the things which he suffered.” Not that he had
ever been disobedient to the Father’s will, but that his testing at the time
that he came into the world to do the Father’s will was of a character and of
an intensity such as never before had been brought to him nor any other
creature. His obedience attested his love to the Father, attested his faith in
the Father’s love and justice; and in all these things he fully approved
himself of the Father; he overcame every trial, he drank frequently of the
brook of wisdom, in connection with these lessons. Moreover, it was expedient
that he, to be the great High Priest of mankind, should be touched with a
feeling of their infirmities, and therefore that he should be tempted in all
points like as his followers are tested-along the line of personality, of self
will; along the line of worldly ambition; along the line of faith and trust;
along all the lines of obedience to God’s plan. He drank deeply of the cup,
and rejoicingly said, “The cup which my Father hath poured for me, shall I not
drink it?”-John 18:11.
And now we come to a point of special interest in our text; for we perceive
that if it was necessary for our glorious Lord from the heavenly courts to
drink of the brook of experience, and gain wisdom by the things he suffered,
endured, and thereby to demonstrate his confidence in God, it is equally
necessary that all the members of his body should likewise drink of the brook
in the way, if they would hope to share with the Lord in the Kingdom
blessings-glory, honor and immortality, the divine nature.
Our dear Master’s time for drinking at the brook is past, yet the lessons and
encouragements therefrom are still before us in the Scripture records. It is
now our time to drink of the brook of experience,-to learn the lessons that are
necessary to our preparation for the Kingdom. It is not enough that we have
tasted of the brook of experience, that we have learned something of obedience,
that we have endured some trials, that on some occasions we have learned
obedience through the things we have suffered; we must continue drinking until
we can gladly say-Father, thy will, not ours be done! If we drink not of the
brook in the way we shall not share in the glory to follow.
Some of the Lord’s people not discerning the matter in its true light, are
disposed to pray that they may be spared from trials and temptations; whereas
they ought to understand that the trials and difficulties of the consecrated
are witnesses of the spirit that they are children of God, and are under his
training and preparation for a glorious share in the Kingdom, to which he has called
us. Because if we are not tried we cannot be “overcomers”; if we do not suffer
with him, and learn to endure hardness as good soldiers, and to esteem our
trials and difficulties from the right standpoint, and to count it all joy when
they come to us; knowing their object and knowing the Lord’s sustaining grace
and strength, we will not be “fit for the Kingdom.”
Others interpret the trials of life as evidences of divine disfavor, and fail
to realize that they are designed of the Lord to shape and polish our
characters and thus to work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. Because of their misunderstanding they are profited little by many
of life’s experiences through which they are called to pass-they feel the rod,
but not discerning the loving purpose behind it, they fail to learn the lesson
intended. Let us become more and more awake, more and more alive to the things
of God,-to the facts of the case as he presents them to us in his Word-to our
call to joint-heirship to the Kingdom, and incidentally to the drinking of the
brook of experience and wisdom in the way that will fit and prepare us for the
glories to follow.
Drinking of the brook does not, however, imply that we sorrow and are
disconsolate above others; on the contrary, those who drink of the brook
properly are full of joy. As the apostle declares, they are enabled in
everything to give thanks unto God,-in life’s difficulties, as well as in its
pleasures-even as he again says, Count it all joy when ye fall into divers
difficulties, knowing that under divine providence they will work out for you a
greater blessing. (James 1:2.) It is the world, which must also share its part
of life’s difficulties, that sorrows as those who have no hope, or who
have false hopes. The apostle points out side by side the world’s condition
and the Church’s condition under the trials and difficulties of this present
evil world, saying, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until
now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Then he explains the
position of God’s people, begotten of his spirit, who are walking in the Lord’s
footsteps, and drinking of the brook in the way, saying, “We ourselves also
groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the deliverance of the
body”-the body of Christ, the Church. This hope, which we have, gives a
changed coloring and silver lining to every dark and troubled subject which
comes to us in common with mankind; so that inspired by draughts from the brook
we can sing in the house of our pilgrimage, even though as yet we must also
groan, because we are in this imperfect tabernacle, this unsatisfactory mortal
body.
We want to ask the Lord, our Master and Head, that he
will bless us more and more, as with fresh zeal we shall endeavor faithfully
and rejoicingly to drink of the brook of life’s experiences, and gain wisdom
therefrom that will fit and prepare us for his service by and by; and which
will the better fit and prepare us for his service also in the present time,
and enable us by his grace to show forth his praises in all the trying
circumstances and vicissitudes of life so as to glorify him in our bodies and
spirits which are his. Let us, as we drink of the brook, take a lesson from
the little birds, which when drinking repeatedly lift the head as though giving
thanks to God. Let us continually give thanks to our Lord for every taste of
life’s experience, for every lesson, for every trial-appropriating them all to
our spiritual development. The time for lifting up our heads in glory
is nearing, too, and already the Master directs that seeing (with the eye of
faith) the evidences of their approach, we may lift up our heads and rejoice,
knowing that our redemption draweth nigh.-Luke 21:28.