Friday, July 17, 2009

July 19 - A TWOFOLD PSALM

"They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."
—Rev. xv. 3.

Moses and Jesus join in teaching me the psalm of the favoured children in God's family—a psalm not for the future only, when I shall be " safe from the frost and the snow, safe from the storm and the sun," but for the present, while the beast confronts me and entices me to worship his image. Moses cannot lead me so far as Jesus can; my Saviour and Master gives breadth and length and depth and height to the melody. But the one song is the precursor of the other. Moses points me forward to Christ, and Christ acknowledges and honours Moses; and I learn the doxologies both of the servant and of the Son.

The song of Moses is the song of emancipation. Broke are their nets, and thus escaped we: that is what it says. And it is the song of guidance. It celebrates the life of marching and encamping and marching again, over which the mercy and the wisdom and the omnipotence of the Lord preside. And it is the song of inheritance. Happy art thou, O Israel! the brave voice cried, on the borders of the land of brooks of water and wheat and barley and oil olive and honey. I hope I have learned, and am learning more fully and perfectly, such chords and octaves as these. Do I commemorate the goodness of the God, Who discovered me in the prison of shame and fear and helplessness and despair, and Who brought me forth by the promises of His Gospel and the bloodshedding of His Son and the mightiness of His Holy Spirit? Have I my testimony to bear to Him Who rules over the wilderness experiences of my history, and makes me glad according to the years wherein I have seen evil? Can I speak of the treasures of His wealthy land? The song of Moses is pregnant and rich.

But the song of the Lamb has new elements of delightsomeness and wonder. The crucified Lamb, as it had been slain, the cruel wounds healed, but the scars left as mementoes of the anguish and shame. The royal Lamb, in the midst of the throne, the Controller and the Lord of all. The Shepherd Lamb, feeding His flock and leading it to living fountains of waters. The conquering Lamb ; for these shall make war on Him, but He shall overcome them. Is He the theme of the hymns which entrance and satisfy me most? How He assumed my misery, and reaped the harvest I had sown. How He governs the" great world in my behoof, and directs and curbs the storms within my soul. How He conducts me by the best paths, and supplies my wants when I am hungry and athirst, and shelters me from every peril. How He is lionlike and soldierly, and will roll my strangling load from me, and will slay my craftiest and strongest enemies, and will rid me of the besetting sins which torment me most: Vicit Agnus noster, Eum sequamur.

I would complete the song of Moses the servant with the song of Jesus the Lamb.


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