I want to direct you for a text
to the words that we have here in verse 6. Psalm 72 verse 6. He shall come down like rain
upon the mountain grass as showers that water the earth. Psalm 72 verse 6. He shall come
down like rain upon the mountain grass as showers that water the
earth. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin
looked upon the Psalms as a Christian handbook. In fact, each of them
said what we have here in the Psalms is really a miniature
Bible. If the Psalms is a miniature
Bible, it's not surprising therefore that we will find the Lord Jesus
Christ throughout the book and surely we would recognize as
this particular psalm, Psalm 72, is messianic. It bears the title of psalm for
Solomon, whose name means peace. Solomon the son of David, but
he directs us to David's greater son, the Lord Jesus, who himself
is the prince of peace. I'm sure we're all familiar with
Isaac wants his paraphrase of this psalm, although strangely
it doesn't appear in Gatsby's selection. We know the words,
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun doth his successive journeys
round his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till ruin shall
wax and wane no more. And that hymn is really a paraphrase
of what we have in this particular psalm. It speaks to us then of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that hymn that we've just
sung, that lovely hymn of John Newton's, What Think You of Christ,
is of course based upon words that we find at the end of Matthew
22 when the Lord Jesus addresses the Pharisees who were always
seeking to catch him out in his words when he said to them, what
think ye of Christ, whose son is Huy. And I have to acknowledge
that he is the son of David, that he is the mark of the promised
Messiah. He would be the son of David. But then the Lord goes on to
direct them to the language of the 110th Psalm where David calls
him Lord. If David called him Lord, how
then could he be his son? He is both the son of David but
he is also the Lord of David. Reminds us of those two natures.
He is David's God and yet as a man he is David's son. Or what think ye of Christ? Or to be able to say with the
Apostle Peter as he confesses Christ's heir at Caesarea Philippi,
thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God. Well, as we come
to look at this verse this morning, this sixth verse, I want us to
consider something of the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. And interestingly, earlier this
week, an old friend Colonel Underwood, Don Underwood, was on the phone
and we were talking about one thing and another and agreed
out that it is this doctrine of Christ that is the chief thing. It is, of course, that that to
us is heaven because the Lamb will be all the glory there in
Emmanuel's land. But as we come to look at these
words in this sixth verse. I want to deal with just two
points this morning. First of all, to consider Christ
coming in the flesh. It is the promise of His coming
in the flesh that we have here. And then secondly, I want us
to consider how Christ also comes to us by His Spirit. That simple two-fold division. First of all, the historical
aspect of the words that are before us, the doctrine that
is being taught in this scripture. He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass, the showers that water the earth. It is a promise of Christ coming
in the fullness of the time. As the apostle says to those
Galatians, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. And so what we have here is that
that speaks to us of the great mystery of the incarnation, the
person of that one who did come. And the imagery is interesting. It says he shall come down like
rain upon the mown grass or showers that water the earth. Now we're told with regards to
this Hebrew expression that is translated as rain that comes
upon the mown grass, it really has a double signification because
it could be rendered somewhat differently as like rain upon
a fleece of wool. And apparently that is the rendering
that we have in what is called the Septuagint, that Greek translation
of the Hebrew scriptures that the Lord himself and the apostles
would have been familiar with. And thinking of that other rendering
of the word as that that comes down upon a fleece of wool, There
seems to be some allusion to what we read concerning Gideon's
experience. Remember back in Judges chapter
6 when Gideon is called to be the deliverer of the children
of Israel. He's to be a judge who will deliver
them from the Midianites. He feels himself and his family
to be so insignificant in Israel. And he wants God to grant him
some assurance that he is to do this remarkable thing and
to deliver the children of Israel from all that oppression of the
Midianites. What he asks of God initially
is that he will lay out a fleece of wool. And he wants in the
morning that the fleece should be wringing wet with the dew
and yet all the ground round about it would still be dry.
And the Lord granted him what he requested, that confirmation.
And then he wanted God to do the reverse the following night.
He would lay out the fleece again and this time he wanted the fleece
to be dry and yet all the ground round about to be wet with the
dew. But thinking of that first sign
that he required of the Lord, is there not some allusion we
might say in the expression that we have here if we take that
alternative reading, he shall come down like rain or dew upon
a fleece of wool. There is something here that
is so mysterious. Of course, what God did in the
matter of that sign that he gave to the judge, to Gideon, was
a miracle. It was a miracle that the fleece
should be wringing wet with dew and he wrings out the water out
of that fleece, we're told there at the end of Judges 6. And yet,
at the same time, all the ground round about was dry. What a miracle. What a mystery. We know that the dew distills
so silently and so secretly. When we get up on a nice sunny
morning and yet the grass is blistering, with the Jew that
has come down during the night season. It is mysterious to us. It has come so silent. And remember the language that
we have concerning the doctrine of Moses there in Deuteronomy
32. My doctrine, he says, shall drop
down as the rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as showers upon
the grass. And isn't that true with regards
to the doctrine of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ? How
silently, how silently the wondrous gift was given. And God imparts
to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. Says the words
of that hymn that speaks of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus.
Oh, what a mystery is here without controversy. Great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
says the apostle. Almighty God! Sighed human breath,
the Lord of life experienced death. How it was done we can't
discuss, but this we know it was done for us. He shall come
down. like rain upon the mountain grass,
as showers that water the earth, says the text. And that one who
has come down, who is it? It's God's eternal Son, who humbles
himself to become a real man. Remember how the Apostle Paul,
in the opening verses of his epistle to the Romans speaks
of that gospel that God had separated him onto and how does he define
that gospel? He speaks of the gospel of God
concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the
son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead. This is how Paul immediately
defines the gospel, by speaking of the mystery of the person
of the Lord Jesus. How he is, truly, with regards
to his human nature, of the seed of David. He is David's son,
and yet, he is also in the resurrection at the end of that life that
he lived. and that death that he died,
he is clearly there in the resurrection declared to be the Son of God. Who was it then that God granted
when Christ came into this world? God so loved the world, says
John, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting the love of the father in granting
that blessed gift, in sending his only begotten son here in
his love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Or he sends him to do that great
work, to be the propitiation, to bear in his own person all
the wrath of God against the sins of his people. the love
of the father then, but also there is that love of the son,
his willingness, his readiness to come for as much then as the
children were partakers of flesh and blood, we're told he likewise
took part of the same. He took not upon him the nature
of angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham. Why? He was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. Well this is that one
then that is being spoken of under the figure that we have
in this verse. He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass, like dew upon a fleece of wool, as showers
that water the earth. The great mystery of the incarnation. But then also there is his work. there is his work and there's
an allusion to the work as well as to the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ in our text this morning. How do we interpret
the word of God? Well the Bible is of course its
own best interpreter and the way in which we come to understand
statements that on the surface seem to be dark and difficult
for us to interpret is to try to bring other passages to bear
upon what's being said, to try to find some light in other parts
of God's words, to open to us these dark sayings. And I think
of those words that we have in Isaiah 45 and verse 8. What do we read there? Drop down
your heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together,
I the Lord have created. Oh, what remarkable language
is that there. I think I've said before, it's
one of my favorite texts in that remarkable book of the prophet
Isaiah, where we have the heavens falling down, dropping down great
blessing, righteousness being poured down from on high. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done. He was made of a woman. He was
made under the law. He is subject to the law. And
what has he done in his life? He has honored the law. The Lord
is well pleased for his righteousness. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. Oh, it's the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we're to think of here, as well as the person
of the Savior. How the Lord is honored by Christ,
and honored both in regards to all of its precepts, all of its
commandments, but also with regards to all of its penalties, all
those punishments that must be visited upon those who are the
transgressors of that law. What do we see? in him who has
come down. For what do we witness in his
life? We see the obedience of a sinless
life. How he goes about doing good.
How he is holy in all his dealings. He is ever that one who is obedient
to all the will of his father who comes not to do his own will
but the will of the one who has sent him and to finish his work,
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than
the heavens. That is his life. But he is not only obedient to
the precepts of the law in the life that he lives, fulfilling
every commandment in thought, in word, and in deed, but he
is also obedient in his death. As we read in Philippians 2.8,
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death. Unto death, it says, even the
death of the cross. And so, in the oblation that
he makes, the great offering that he presents to the Father
when he dies, we see him there honouring and magnifying the
law now with regards to all its punishments, all the penalties
that must fall upon those who are the transgressors. In all
of these things, He is a public person. He lives His life as
a surety in the place of His people, honouring, obeying the
law for them. He dies upon the cross as that
one who is their substitute, bearing in his own person all
that punishment that was their just desert. We think of the
language of dear John Newton again in the hymn 119. What wondrous love! What mysteries
in this appointment shine! My breaches of the law are his,
and his obedience mine. There is a blessed exchange He
takes to himself all the sins of his people, all their breaches
of the holy law of God, and he bears the punishment that was
their due, and in exchange, what does he give? He gives them his
righteousness, all that life that he had lived, in which he
kept every commandment of God, and that's what God requires.
That's what God requires of us. It's not enough to be without
sin. Not enough just to have our sins blotted out. No, we
need a positive righteousness. As we see there at the end of
Deuteronomy 6, Moses says to the children of Israel, He shall
be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments
before the Lord our God as He hath commanded us. The active
obedience then of the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who has come
down like rain upon the mown grass as showers that water the
earth. Drop down ye heavens from above. Let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together. I the Lord have created it. Wasn't this the righteousness
that Paul came to see as the only way of salvation. Or that
self-righteous Pharisee, how he must be stripped of all confidence
in himself, all his trust in his own religious life. And what
does he say there in Philippians 3 and verse 9? His desire to
be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. Well, this brings
me to the second aspect of what I wanted to say this morning.
We've said something with regards to Christ coming. He's coming
in the flesh. That that He's being spoken of,
the promise that is contained here in the text, that He would
come. The person of Christ, the work
of Christ. But turning now to is coming
by the Spirit. In other words, He's coming to
sinners individually and personally. That's coming that is really
experimental. He has to come to us. Sometimes
we sing that hymn 508 on the ministry of the gospel. It's
a sort of prayer for the preacher. Remember or think of the language
that we have there in the second verse of 509. O may he preach
the word of God with energy and power, may gospel blessings spread
abroad like a refreshing shower. Is it so we desire God's word,
God's gospel to come to us today? He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass, the showers that water the earth. beautiful
month of May and we very much enjoyed the sunshine day after
day, but the garden was crying out for those showers. How refreshing when God does,
after a spell like that, grants to us the refreshment that comes
in those showers of water, the earth. Or that we might be those
who desire that the Lord would come to us. which showers our
blessings. But let us think more carefully
about this idea of Christ coming by His Spirit. There's a two-fold
aspect, of course, to that coming. When the Spirit comes, as the
Spirit of Christ, there is first the necessity of that work of
the conviction of sin. Remember what he said concerning
the ministry of John the Baptist, who comes as the forerunner of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have it there in Isaiah 40,
verse 6, is the voice crying in the wilderness, and the voice
said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower
of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
thideth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
thideth, but the Word of our God shall stand for ever. How the Spirit comes, you see,
and when the Spirit comes there is first of all that that brings
a man and woman to the end of themselves. We feel what we are. We feel the weakness of our sinful
flesh. And it's interesting in Scripture,
again, I would emphasize the importance of this with regards
to our interpretation of the Word of God, that we compare
Scripture with Scripture. And we see quite clearly how
the rain in Scripture is often associated with God's work of
judgment. We have it so clearly in that
universal flood that came in the days of Noah. It was a terrible
judgment that God visited upon that sinful world so soon after
the great work of creation. How men were so evil, so wicked
in their ways. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thought of his heart was only evil continuing. And we're
told he repented, the Lord's, that he had made man on the earth
and he grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth. But then
we're told and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's
judgment comes. And David's spoken of there in
Genesis 7 of verse 11 and it's so precise we're told exactly
when it was the very year and the month and the day of the
month this is historic this isn't myth and fable this is that that
actually happened here in the earth in the 600th year of Noah's
life in the second month the 17th day of the month The same
day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and
the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth
forty days and forty nights. That was God's dealing, that
was God's judgment. The water there then clearly
speaks of the terrible works of God, and we see it also in
what he said with regards to how God will deal with the false
prophets in the days of Ezekiel. Besides there being those who
were the faithful servants of the Lord, there were false prophets,
as there is in our day. There are false teachers, as
well as faithful teachers of the Word of God. And that's why
we need that spirit of discernment, that spirit of the Bereans to
search the scriptures to see that these things are so. But
look at the language there in Ezekiel 13, verse 10. This is
the message of the false prophets in that day. And God says, because,
even because I have seduced my people, saying, peace. And there
was no peace. And one built up a wall, and
lo, others daubed it with untempered water. So unto them which daub
it with untempered water, that it shall fall. there shall be
an overflowing shower, and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall,
and the stormy wind shall rend it. Verse 13, Therefore thus
saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in
my fury, and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger,
and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. This is God's judgment upon those
who were false teachers. God's judgment, you see, upon
those who make a false profession of religion, how fearful it is. Again, look at the language of
Isaiah. Isaiah 28, 17, he says, Judgment also will I lay to the
lion, and righteousness to the plumage, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the
hiding place. Or those whose religion is but
a sham, a pretense, the hypocrite's religion. The hail shall sweep
away that refuge of lies. And the water shall overflow
that apparent hiding place. Now I know I'm referring here
to scriptures that we find in the Old Testament. But we have
the same, you know, in the teaching of the Lord Jesus. When he comes
to the end of his sermon on the mount, the end of that great portion of scripture in which
we have the preaching of Christ, remember what he says right at
the end concerning those who are hearing his ministry. And
he says this, Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them not, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish
man, which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. For the Lord,
you see, will sweep away everything of self. Now a man has to be
brought to that, This is the experience, is it not, of those
who are the election of Christ. They have to be convinced of
their sin, that they have nothing, that they are nothing. They have
to be made aware of their complete and utter inability, their sinful
impotence. Elect sinners must be convinced
of these things. There is that work that is necessary
that brings a man to that place where he can only cry to God
for mercy. He can do nothing for himself. He cannot help himself. He certainly
cannot save himself. That is administration of the
law. It's administration of condemnation and administration of death. But then we know the law was
given by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. And it is this aspect of the
Lord's dealing when he comes by his Spirit that he's being
spoken of in the text. He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass, the showers that water the earth. It's not a great storm that he's
being spoken of. No, it's something quite different.
It's the comforts of the Gospel that we really have here, the
gentleness and the tenderness. of the ways of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to bruise it richly, not break, nor quench the smoking
flax, until he hath sent forth judgment unto victory. Oh, however, the Lord, you see,
deals so graciously. We're told, are we not, that
the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land
springs of water. It's not mercy of God. Now, observe what we have in
this text. We have two things really. We
read of the rain and we read of the showers. He shall come
down like rain upon the mown grass, the showers that water
the earth. We have two particular figures. And it reminds us, in a sense,
that the Lord's dealings with his people are various. It doesn't deal with us, all
of us, in exactly the selfsame way. In fact, in that other verse
that I think I've already referred to, Deuteronomy 32, we there
have a fourfold figure. We read of real rain, that rain
that is prolonged and heavy. We read of dew, that dew that
comes so silently and so secretly. We read of small rain, That's
rain that is just drizzle, scotch mist we sometimes call it. And
then we have those showers spoken of, those showers that are so
refreshing. Remember the language there in
Deuteronomy chapter 32. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. His speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as showers upon
the grass. Oh, it reminds us so clearly,
so definitely of that variety that we have in the way in which
the Lord deals with us. And I've also mentioned that
there is that alternative reading at the beginning of this verse,
He shall come down like dew on the fleece. All that mysterious
coming, where does the dew come from? We have to see that the Lord
is so sovereign in His ways, we cannot always trace His hand
or understand His dealings. We have another figure, of course,
used with regards to the great work of regeneration, when the
soul is born again. What does the Lord say there
in John 3, 8? The wind bloweth where it histeth, thou hearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor
whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
And we have to recognize God and the sovereignty of God. And
the various ways in which the Lord is pleased to deal with
his people. And as God's sovereignty is seen
in the circuits of the wind, so also God's sovereignty is
seen in the rain. As he says in Amos, I caused
it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another
city. We know that sometimes we might
have a rain shower and yet someone who's only living a few miles
away from us, when we speak to them they know nothing of that
rain, or knew nothing of that rain. Our God is so sovereign
in all these ways. What must we do then? Well, we
must look to this God to visit us, to come to us, to work in
us. You know, We would never come
to God except he first come to us. Isn't that such a truism? Why do we ever come to God? We
only come because he has first come to us. He came, of course,
historically in the fullness of the time in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But he comes now spiritually,
in that time that He has also appointed. What are we to do?
We're to pray to Him, we're to call upon Him, that He would
come to us, and that He would visit us, and work in us, and
work in us that faith, that faith that comes, as we read in Colossians
2.12, by the operation of God. That mysterious working of the
Spirit, that sovereign visitation from on high. But we have this
word to plead and to pray over. He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass, the showers, the water of the earth. Lord,
that we might desire that the Lord would just do that very
thing for us. The guy, he promised, you see,
the prophecy of Hosea, I will be as the Jew unto Israel. He
shall grow up as the lily and cast forth his roots as leaven. And when the Lord doesn't work,
Well there we have that that is a deep work. The roots of
the cedars of heaven and striking deep into the earth. We want
the Lord to do a deep work and yet we want the Lord to deal
with us in that tender and compassionate fashion. To come as we have it
here in our text, to die. To come down like rain. upon
the mown grass, showers the water of the earth, refreshing us.
How does he do that? He comes in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's there that we see the
wonder of our God. Christ, the image of the invisible
God. That one who is God's, able to
save to the uttermost, and yet that one who is also a man touched
with the feeling of all our infirmities, we're told, tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. And that one who has come and
done that great work of redemption, or what a work he has accomplished
for the salvation of his people. He has stood in their very law
place, made of a woman, made under the law, and he has answered
the law in respect to all its terrible penalty. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. He has died, and he has died just for the unjust. But
he has not only died for sinners, he has lived for sinners, and
wrought a robe of righteousness for them. And now, having died,
he is risen and lives in the power of an endless life. or
that we might know Him then, that He might come to us even
as we have it here in our text today. He shall come down like
rain upon the mown grass, the showers of water the earth. Let the Lord then be pleased
to come and minister to each of us and to refresh us by His
Spirit in His Word. Let the Lord bless