Seeking for the help of the Lord
and your prayerful attention, I direct you to the second psalm
that we read. Psalm 63, and reading for our
text, verses one and two. Verses one and two. O 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, to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee
in the sanctuary. Psalm 63 and verses 1 and 2. And what is upon my spirit to
speak to you this evening is the exercise of a living soul. This is a psalm of David, and
we are told that it was penned when he was in the wilderness
of Judah. This psalm and many other psalms
speak of the exercise of soul, what is going on in the heart
and before God at the same time as what is happening roundabout. And here we have roundabout,
he is in the wilderness, a dry place, but inside we have what
is going on in this psalm. In many psalms we are told what
David was doing and the pathway of the psalmist outwardly, but
in the psalm itself is what is going on in the heart. And it's good for us if we're
to clearly know where we stand in relation to our God, who are
able to see that we are not strangers to the life of God in the soul,
and that even in this as well we have fellowship with the Lord
in his sufferings, because when we come to the lights of Psalm
22, which begins, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And we realise that that not
only is the psalmist, but is also the path of the Lord and
will also be the path. of the people of God, and thereby
the life of God is shown, the true state of that soul, that
they don't just have an outside life, but they have that which
goes on within. And so I want to just notice
four points before we come to the actual part of the text that
I wish to speak on, the exercise of a living soul. And the first
thing I want to observe is this, that there is very often with
the people of God a joining together of their outward path and where
their soul is being led, or where they are brought to meditate
and think on spiritual things because of what they're actually
going through. You would be familiar with the
lovely hymn, Rock of Ages, one, four, three, in our book. Rock
of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Top lady, he penned that hymn,
and when he was sheltering from a storm, in the cliffs of a rock,
hiding from the storm in a rock. And with that outward experience
led his thoughts to how we are to hide in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure cleanse
me from its guilt and power. And there's the exercise of the
soul and he puts that in the word of a hymn. We think of when
our Lord was upon earth and they drew his attention to the stones
in the temple, the great stones that were in the temple. And
the Lord then immediately took that and applied a teaching. He said, "'Seest thou these great
stones, "'there shall not be one left upon another, "'but
shall be cast down.'" And he used the occasion from the outward
things to bring in a spiritual teaching. And we have the same
with the fishing, the Lord making the disciples fishers of men. We think of the way that he dealt
with the miracle of the fishers, the loaves and the fishers. And
the day afterwards, he reproves them that they did not follow
him and seek him, but because ye did partake of the loaves
and the fishes, labour not for the bread that perisheth, but
for that which endureth unto everlasting life. And in John
6, then, the day after the literal feeding with the 5,000, we have
our Lord teaching on the manna, the bread from heaven. And again,
many, they took it literally. How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? but he was speaking in a spiritual
way concerning the exercises of soul and the feeding by faith
on the Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a going then from
the outward, and we could go on, we could think of how the
Lord took the prophets and gave them literal illustrations, brought
them to experience things as illustrations of the truth of
God. Go down, the Lord said to Jeremiah,
go down to the potter's house and there he was taught a lesson
of the sovereignty of God and of the Lord forming of the clay
and of one lump unto honour, another dishonour and the Lord
saying that he can do this. with the house of Israel. And so dear friend, do watch
this in our own lives, that if we have a heading like over this
sun, what do we have under it? What has been happening with
the virus? What has been happening in our
lives so profoundly changed? Has it had any effect at all? upon our inward exercise? Has
it changed how we pray? Has it furnished our petitions? Has it changed how we have viewed
the Word of God and how we have viewed the house of God and the
people of God? Or are we just going through
it and untouched, unfeeling, and is not being used in any
way? That's very different than the
psalmist that was here. And those things that he went
through, they did draw forth from him the exercise of soul. We find this was the case with
Hezekiah. When he was sick unto death,
when Isaiah told him to put his house in order that he should
nigh and not live, then he turned his face to the wall, he cried
unto the Lord, The Lord heard and sent Isaiah back again, but
Hezekiah speaks of the exercise of his soul. He says, by these
things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. What was happening at the same
time? There was Sennacherib with his armies, Assyria, added to
the fact that Hezekiah was ill and sick unto death, these outward
things, and maybe with us. Maybe we haven't been well. The
same as not being well, we've got things happening in our lives,
things to be attended to, troubles, difficulties, one trouble upon
another. We think of dear Job, that had
one thing after another, that the Lord was so fit to lay upon
him. And all the Book of Job really
is what is going on between his soul and the Lord, between him
and his friends between him and Elihu, these things touch a soul. And so I'll make that point right
at the beginning. May those things that happen
in our lives, we never view them as just by chance, but appointed. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them that are the
called according to his purpose. The second thing is to notice
that link between providence and grace. Many of the Lord's
dear people are trying that their religion is only a religion of
providence. Well, if David was to look at
his outward experience here and say, well, this is what has happened
to me outwardly, and then ignore what was going on in his soul,
then he wouldn't have an evidence of how grace was working there. And this is particularly what
I want to look at this evening, these exercises of a living soul. And may you be able to see that
providence and grace, they do work together for good. The one
follows the other and they're interwined as wheels working
within wheels together. And may those who watch providence
prove that they'll never lack a providence to watch. This is
the Lord's work and it is marvellous in our eyes. The third thing is to have blessings
that we remember the psalmist here in our text he testifies
that he had seen the power and glory of the lord in the sanctuary
and he remembers that he remembers what he has seen and what he
has experienced and may we think of that tonight David was not
in the sanctuary at this point, he's in the wilderness, he's
not in this place, but he remembers times of blessing. Do you remember
them? Do I remember those times when
the Lord has favoured us, blessed us, when there have been those
that have been really touched by the Word and we have been
touched by the Word and the Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed
to us and shown to us Remembered blessings. In one sense, the
blessing is a blessing, and then a second blessing is remembering
it. Because the Lord says that he
will send the Holy Spirit, the remembrancer, and he shall bring
all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. And sometimes those are very
sweet times when there is a renewing, and a revisiting of blessings
that were many years ago. And so in the context here, what
is going to affect the exercise of his soul and his prayer and
express desires is what he remembers of former blessings of the power
and glory of God and what he has seen of God before. The fourth thing I bring before
you is the sovereignty of God when God shows and when the Lord
withholds. We have the psalmist here, very
obviously not in power of his own blessings. He has not got
sparks of his own kindling. He's dependent upon the Lord
to come and to bless him. That's why he seeks, that's why
he longs, that's why he remembers. But he needs the Lord to do it
for him, and the Lord to come and to bless him. And we are
to prove that with the psalmist as well. He that believeth shall
not make haste, and the soul that waiteth upon the Lord will
be blessed and the Lord will not leave his people empty, he
will not leave them destitute, but we are to know that even
though we may ask of the Lord in prayer, he will bless when
he will bless and we cannot dictate to him We are his creatures,
he will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them. But we are one evidence really
of a true soul that is blessed by the Lord. They wait for the
blessing of the Lord. When the Lord rose from the dead,
did the disciples ever had any control over when the Lord visited
them? They gathered in the upper room,
He sovereignly came with the doors being shut. They went to
Emmaus. The Lord drew near. They didn't
know him for a time. They went a-fishing and the Lord
came and stood on the shore. At first they didn't recognise
who it was. Then they did. The Lord was sovereign
in his visits. And we will prove that as well. That our lives are in his hand. Or as the hymn writer says, my
heart is in his hand, in thy hand, and it will move at thy
command. And so with these preparation remarks, I want to
then look at the exercise of a living soul as seen by the
psalmist here. And I hope also that we will
be able to look through from his exercise and to that of our
Lord, because it is said of our Lord that thou shalt see the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Now I want to note just four
points and because of that I will introduce them as we go along. The first exercise is this, is
the soul's claim on God. Our text begins, O God, thou
art my God. And we would think, well, what
a Very firm, and what a strong claim that that is. But it's
a blessed claim, and it's a claim that if the Lord blesses his
people with, they should never let go of. When the Lord rose from the dead
and was to ascend, he says, I ascend unto my God and your God, my
Father and your Father. We think of the hymn writer,
My God, my Father, blissful name, O may I call thee mine, with
a sweet assurance claim, a portion so divine. Really that spirit
of adoption, the spirit bearing witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God. When the Lord is blessed with
that, that then is what is cleave to and as a resort to, as a pleaded,
thou art my God. You think of a child that was
injured or in trouble or in distress and seeking help from a parent. It wouldn't be a time that they'd
question, are you my parent? Are you really my mother, my
father? The feeding, the care, the protection,
whole relationship they knew that that was the case and their
very claim would be upon what they were to them. We think of
when Lazarus was sick then Mary and Martha they sent to the Lord
and they said he whom thou lovest is sick and in their great time
of need they had a claim on the love of God. And so the psalmist
here in his position, thou art my God. The Lord in John 10 says
that one mark of his sheep is not only that the shepherd, the
good shepherd, knows the sheep, but it is that the sheep, they
know the shepherd. And any shepherd will know that,
that they can call the sheep and the sheep will know the shepherd's
voice and they will come. And the Lord is insistent upon
that. Those sheep, they know what fold
they are in. They know whose they are. And it's the blessing when the
Lord begins to work in calling by his people. then he lays claim
to them and gives them also that faith to lay claim to him, maybe
not at first, but in due time, that the Lord is their God. And so the exercise of the soul
right from the very beginning here is to Go to what the Lord
has already done. Thou art my God. In other parts
of scripture, we have the Lord comparing with his people and
those that have idols, those that are maker of idols, idols
that have hands they cannot handle, eyes they have they cannot see,
ears they have they cannot hear, But the people of God have the
true God, the living God, the God that made heaven and of earth. And that is what gives them the
help and strength that they need here below. and their exercise
of soul is to him. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. We have at the end of Psalm 48,
which is a song for the sons of Korah, a description of the
Lord. Great is the Lord, it begins
with, greatly to be praised in the city of our God. But it closes
with this, for this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. And we have later on in Psalm
68 the same expressions as well. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. He that is our God is the God
of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. And the exercise of soul is between
a soul and its God. It's not between man and man,
though we may commune one with another, but it is between a
soul and God. And that is why the mark that
was given to Ananias, when he was so fearful of going to Saul
of Tarsus, Paul, as he was the apostle, go thy way, he is a
chosen vessel unto me. And it was said, behold, he prayed. The Pharisee was now praying
the prayer of the publican, God be merciful to me a sinner. The day the Lord works with his
people is spoken of as the day that a man looks to his maker. If we trace right back we have
the genealogy of our Lord from Mary and Luke going right back
to Adam and then going back to God. Really in one sense everyone
It is God that made us and not we ourselves, even in a natural
way, but in a spiritual way especially. Thou art my God. Now we may ask ourselves, how
much of our exercise is this? That God is our God. That our God is in the heavens. and that we have dealings with
God and our thoughts are towards him. It is said of the wicked
that God is not in all their thoughts. But when we come to
the thoughts and exercises of the godly, God is in their thoughts. They do think about him. They
do meditate upon him. They do think upon his name. They do fear him. And so this
is right at the beginning, O God, thou art my God. Do we have those dealings with
God, the exercises of the soul toward God, our concern, whether
we truly are the Lord's or not, and where the Lord has granted
us those tokens for good and shown himself to us, and David
here, we may mention this, had already seen the power and glory.
Maybe some of you tonight have not as yet seen the power and
glory of God in the sanctuary. You have maybe seen and had some
blessings, but you wouldn't describe them as great as that. But Peter
speaks of having tasted that the Lord is gracious. And a taste,
though it might not be a feast and a meal, is still of the same
essence of the thing. That is why in the supermarkets,
if they want to get you to buy a new product, maybe cheese,
they'll cut up some small little pieces, put it on the end of
an aisle, just to get you to taste it. And they know if you
get a little taste, you'll want more. And we apply that in a
spiritual sense. The Lord draws his people, he
gives them little taste. And in this case with David,
he'd had great blessings and wanted those again. But whether
it is that we have that full assurance or that we have that
who can tell, the blessing is that our exercises, our thoughts,
our affections, our desires, are towards God. That we are
not seeking to serve another God, we're not seeking help from
another God, we're not going to another. That the God whom
we serve is the true and living God, the God that made heaven
and earth, the God of the Bible, the God of salvation, Thou art
my God. And the Lord help You each to
be able to speak that language, to come before the Lord in that
way, and especially if he's given you some taste, some touch, some
drawing, and know something of what it is that you have heard
his voice in his word. Mine ear hath he opened, thou
art my God. So the first exercise then of
the soul is toward God himself, a soul that has been turned from
idols to the living God, a soul that has been turned from self
to the Lord, from the world to the Lord, a soul that is having
inward dealings with his God. And all that follows here It
is the psalmist's profession and speaking to God. God who already knows what is
in our heart, He knows what is going on, but He'd have His dear
people speak in the way of this psalm to tell Him what is going
on. Does the Lord need to be told
these things in this psalm and in this verse? You say, He already
knows. But the psalmist doesn't say
that, and bless be God, he doesn't, he pens it down, he puts down
what is going on in his soul toward the Lord. And this is
a pattern of an exercised soul. The second thing of an exercised
soul is its early seeking. Early will I seek thee. Now again, the object is the
Lord for this soul that is seeking the Lord. Cannot help thinking
how this so applies to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our
Lord, He testified that God was His Father and so persecuted
because of that. But also early will I seek Thee. We have it recorded how that
when he was 12 years of age, his parents went away from Jerusalem
and he remained. And they found him three days
later sitting with the doctors, the lawyers, and asking them
questions and answering them. And his mother said, son, why
hast thou dealt with us thus? Thy father and I have sought
thee sorrowing. He said, wist thee not that I
must be about my father's business? A heavenly father, but how early
was he about his father's business? And when the Lord is then pleased
to work in the hearts of his people, they will then seek him
early. What do we mean early? There's
several aspects in this. It's a great blessing that the
Lord does work in the hearts of his people often when they
are young. There is a special blessing on
those that seek the Lord in their youth and while they are young
and the blessing of children that they should seek the Lord
before the days of evil come, not that they say that I have
no pleasure in them. But blessed be God is not just
confined unto the young and to the youth. But early will I seek
thee. If we read the accounts of Joshua
going into the promised land, then in each day, in the things
that were to be done, he always rose early. When there is much
to be done, where there's things to be attended to, There's a
great blessing in rising early. And so in a very literal sense,
early will I seek thee. In the beginning of the day,
before we start to get cluttered with other things and things
that are happening and burdens in the day, that we come before
the Lord in his word and in prayer and in the communion and fellowship
with the Lord. early in the day, so that then
we start to go through the day with that savour and blessing
of the Lord fast. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you. Do we need reminding of that?
The psalmist, he says early will I seek thee, but I believe it
follows Even further than that, in Psalm 107, we have, in one
sense, an amazing situation repeated again and again. And that is,
they came into trouble and into trial. And when they were in
those troubles and in those trials, then they fell down, there was
none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. Why did they not seek the Lord
first? Why did they seek him last? Where were they going for help?
Why did they, why did it need to be said? They fell down, there
was none to help. Were they not looking to the
Lord? How often it is we seek him last. We go to the Lord last. We try and work in our own effort,
our own strength. I hope we tend to learn from
that. Early will I seek thee. Early
in a trial, early in a difficulty, early in those things that we
are passing through. Not leaving it to be late in
the day or the last thing that we think, well, we've tried every
other means, We've racked our brains, we've used natural means,
we've asked man, we've gone to him for help. Oh, and as a last
resort, we'll seek unto the Lord. The psalmist, he says, early
will I seek thee. May this be a help. Sometimes
we might think, well, surely I can't bring that to the Lord.
That's a simple thing. But you know the gifts that the
Lord gives. Cast thy burden, it says in the
margin, gift. Cast thy gift upon the Lord and
he shall sustain thee. The difficulties, the trials
are those things that the Lord gives so that we seek the Lord. In one sense, it's not the thing,
the means that brings us to him. It is the fact that he brings
us to seek him. A soul in nature's darkness will
not seek the Lord. A soul that is a stranger to
the Lord will not seek Him. But an exercised, a living soul
will seek the Lord. And it's a blessed thing where
the testimony is with a psalmist here that is very early on in
a trial. that we recognise the Lord's
hand and our need of seeking unto the Lord. It is contrary
to, as we said in Psalm 107, much of the experience of the
people of God. And there's many times, I say
it on myself as well, that we leave it to the last to seek
the Lord. and delay going after Him. But if we could only see that
those sorrows, distresses and difficulties are so many things
as to bring us to seek the Lord in them. Early will I seek Thee. It is as this soul that is now
living before the Lord. It is an uppermost thing Is there
a trial? Is there a providence? Is there
a difficulty? Take it to the Lord. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Bring it unto me. You know, the Lord came down
from the Mount of Transfiguration, and there was the man with his
son cast into the water and into the fire. The disciples, they
couldn't heal him. They couldn't touch him. And
the Lord said to them that they were a faithless generation.
Bring him unto me. And what man could not do, the
Lord did. The woman with the issue of blood,
12 years, what man could not do, the Lord did. The disciples
couldn't help. The Syrophoenician woman wanted
her sent away, but the Lord helped her in the end. after trying
her faith. None could tame the mad Gadarene,
but the Lord could, and the Lord did. Those cases, the cause that
is too hard for you, said Moses, to the rulers that he had ordained
the seventy in Israel. Bring it unto me, and I will
hear it. It's like the Lord speaking.
Early will I seek thee. May that be the pattern of our
souls. Early will I seek thee. The third thing is the soul's
view of the world. The soul's view of the world. I believe this will be a very
clear mark in the lives of the people of God. In Hebrews 11, we read of those
that walk by faith, that one thing that they did, they embraced
the promises of far off. The other thing that they did,
they confessed that they were strangers and they were pilgrims
in the earth. David here is in the wilderness,
literally. It is dry, it's a thirsty land. And he says, my soul thirsteth
for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land
where no water is. It was so literally, like we
said in the beginning, the things that we walked through, and then
brings an exercise in the spiritual, and here it was in the answer,
in a spiritual way as well. And what is the world to us?
By nature, the friendship of the world is enmity with God,
and yet the friendship of the world is what we have. They are of the world, therefore
speak they of the world. We are not of the world, and
so it is to seek the Lord. The Lord said that he was not
of this world, they are not of this world. The world heareth
them because they are of the world. But they hear not God,
but God's dear people. Their ear is open to hear God
and to hear his voice. And the world to them then becomes
a dry land, a thirsty land where there's nothing to satisfy the
thirst and desires and longings of a living soul. When the Lord
first began to work in my soul, it was in two ways. Firstly,
to make me feel my utter ignorance of the things of God and of my
hypocrisy, in on one hand not desiring to walk in the Lord's
ways and to be in his house even, and on the other hand just making
a profession and being able to argue on religious things, but
not knowing it in my heart. The Lord was pleased to convict
me of my hypocrisy, my utter ignorance of the things of God,
and use that to give a real longing after Him and to be taught and
to be instructed. It's a blessed thing to have
a teachable spirit something we didn't and I didn't have at
all by nature. But then at the same time, and
I didn't link the two at the first, the things that I was
doing in the world, the pursuits I had, not sinful in and of themselves,
but very much in the world, in music, in choirs, orchestras,
things like that, and the loving, company and atmosphere of the
gatherings together. And I wondered why it was that
I couldn't take a delight and a pleasure in those things. I didn't link the two together.
I wondered what was wrong with me. And really the language of
Solomon, vanity of vanity, saith the preacher, all is vanity,
all is vanity and vexation of spirit. And that was what the
Lord was making me to feel. And it will be for the people
of God. This is not your rest. It is
polluted. This is not your home. You have
a heavenly home. We read again in Hebrews, they
that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. They seek a heavenly country
because they confess that there are strangers and pilgrims here
below. While we still have a cleaving
to earth, we will be like Demas in the end. We will be like Gehazi,
that covets after the money and riches and wealth and things
of this earth and not set our affections on things above. We exhort to set your affection
On things above, where Christ sitteth, on the right hand of
God, not on things on the earth. What a contrast we have on the
three crosses. We have our Lord in the midst,
we have two thieves. One on one side, his petition
becomes, Lord, save thyself and us. Come down from the cross. The other, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. The Apostle, when he speaks of
the resurrection and of the celestial body that is prepared for the
people of God, and he says that if in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we have all men most miserable, because we are
to seek a heavenly country. This is not our rest. And so
when we view this world, Then we'll view it that for our soul
there is nothing here. For our soul it is a barren place. It is a dry place. There is nothing
here. And it's the children of Israel
when they went from Egypt to the promised land and the Lord
brought them out as a people to himself. Where were they going
to be fed? There was no grass in the wilderness. Where were they going to water?
They had to get it supernaturally. They had to get it miraculously.
God had to provide it for them. It was not found there, and you
and I will find that. We will not find sustenance for
our souls. in this waste howling wilderness
of this world. A view of this world that we
do not hold from birth. A view of this world that we
hold because God is our God and that he has put us in a place
to see the curse upon it and to see that God is not here. The world is not our home. We have a home that is being
prepared in heaven And the Lord is preparing us for it, a prepared
place for a prepared people. So we have the exercise of a
living soul, their claim on God, and the exercise toward God,
and its early seeking of God, and the view of this world. But then we have it in the last
place of its longing It's thirsting after
Christ, after the Lord. We have in our text, my soul
thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee. And it is in
this world, it is in this place, this side of the grave, in this
world, a people in the midst of this world, with these feelings,
with these desires, Now with the psalmist, it is very specific
that he has got a benchmark, as it were. He has tasted something,
he's felt something. And you know, if we have felt
anything of the power of God upon our spirit, we'll want that
again. If we have seen any, even a little
glimpse of the glory of the Lord, we'll want to see that again.
And that will be the touchstone as we ask for the blessings of
the Lord. Then we want that same power. We want to see that same glory. So as I have seen thee in the
sanctuary. When the Lord rose from the dead,
how during that first day of the week, he gradually revealed
himself, several reports, and many times with the people of
God. There'll be a little here and
a little there. We think of in the Song of Solomon,
where we have the picture of the church and of Christ and
how he allures her. She is in a sleepy condition,
but he puts his hand by the hole in the door. He leaves a sweet
fragrance. She goes out after him. She wants
to find him whom her soul loved. Now I think of my own dear mother. She was blessed when she was
about 19 and then went most of her life to when she died when
she was 61 through cancer in much darkness of soul. But she
never ever forgot that which she'd had when she was young.
And that's what she wanted and wanted the blessing that answered
to that. And her pleas, her cries to the
Lord towards the end of her life. And the Lord did wonderfully
come and wonderfully bless her before she died. But she wouldn't
take anything less than that same blessing. Paul, when he
writes to the Thessalonians, says to them, this early church
and where the word first came to them, he says, knowing brethren,
beloved, your election of God, how did they know that? By how
the gospel came to them. Our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance, as ye know what manner of men We were among you
for your sake, and you became followers of us and of the Lord,
having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy
Ghost." And we have that effect upon the word. When the Lord
had worked in their hearts, he blessed them, he'd given them
to know something of the power, tarry at Jerusalem until you'd
be endued with power from on high. And the disciples went
out and they preached. And, bless the Lord, if he's
given us any little touchstone, you might be like the man born
blind. And he had the scribes and the
Pharisees try to wrench from him what he saw and knew of the
Lord, and he didn't know much, and you might not feel to know
much either of the Lord. But he said, one thing I know,
whereas I was blind, now I see. He had one little touchstone,
one thing of the power of God, one thing that had been done
for him and he would not let it go. And bless the Lord if
there's that with you, you say, I have not much, I have but a
little, but I want more of that same. I look for that same power,
the same softening, the same drawing, the same view of the
glory of the Lord, the same beauty to be seen in his name, the same
savour that I have known before, The joy that I once had, even
for a few moments. Are you basing your longing,
your thirsting, your desires, just upon that which you've heard
of the report of others? Or has the Lord given you a little
taste? And that is affecting how you
pray, how you seek, how you desire, That's the exercise of your soul,
that you want those not new things, not different things, but the
same real things, those same things that come from the Lord,
from his handiwork. And so the exercise of the soul
is in this way. And he uses, and some feel while
speaking the same thing, thirsting and flesh longing, is speaking
of the whole being, the whole being. In Romans 8 we read that
the whole creation groans, and our flesh, as it were, groans. We shall soon put off this flesh,
and we shall be given a new body, a heavenly one, and we shall
appear in the presence of God. And in one sense, for the people
of God, as the Apostle says, we grow, not that we would be
unclothed, but clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven.
We get a little glimpse, and we only have a little glimpse
of what heaven is like, but enough to draw us to be there, to make
it a desired haven. to bring us to long for it. And
part of that is because here below, there's nothing to satisfy
our soul, but where the Lord has given us some little drops
of dew and some tokens for good and little glimpses through the
lattice of his word, then that's what our exercise of the soul
is, desiring those same things, but in a greater and more blessed
sense, an opening up, a revealing of the preciousness of Christ,
what he has done for our souls, what he has accomplished at Calvary,
what went on in his soul, in the travail of his soul, when
he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. If the people of
God here below Are the exercises like this what of our Lord? How
long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Consider him that endured the
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds. to have some fellowship with
the Lord. The Lord says, they are not of
this world, even as I am not of this world. Father, I pray
not that thou hast take them out of the world, but that thou
keep them from the evil. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them. And then he prays, Father, I
will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. And it's a blessed thing just
to see a little of it here below. To see thy power and thy glory
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Now quite a different
subject as it were, and one that needs another time, is what was
seen in the sanctuary, in the temple, of the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. All of those things typical and
types of the Lord. May we though here see the exercise
of a living soul and see whether there's any echo, anything that
bears a resemblance in our soul, that there are things going on
in our soul. It is not utterly dead, is not
prayerless. There are thoughts, there are
concerns, they are to Godward. And blessed be God if they are
based upon those things we really pass through and those little
touches and tastes that the Lord has given us. The Lord says,
no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw
him. And it's through these things
that we're drawn not back to the world, but drawn to the Lord. And many a backsliding guest,
but drawn back again to the Lord. Our heavenly Joseph will have
his people, have his brethren, come back and back to him until
he reveals himself so clearly to them. May the Lord then bless
this word and bless us that we might have the life of God in
our souls as David did, even in this world, wilderness as
it is. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.