PSALMS 116


12 What shall I render unto Yahweh for all his benefits toward me?

Any service, kindness, or favour creates an obligation and whenever we receive any privileges or benefits, we assume a corresponding responsibility. We speak, of course, in a moral, not in a legal sense. The obligation may not necessarily be to the person who has done the kindness. In fact, the higher the degree in which this law finds expression, the further this becomes from being the case. The source of all good is God.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above."

-- says James (James 1:17), and again (1 John 4:19):

"We love, because He first loved us."

It comes from God to us, and then from us -- if we fulfil our proper part -- it radiates and diffuses in ever-widening circles. He teaches us not to do things for those who can reciprocate, but for those who cannot -- they will bless His name, and He will complete the chain by blessing us. Not that we do these things for reward, but it is the working out of the great law that as we sow, so shall we reap -- He that rolleth a stone, either good or ill, it will return to him, to bless or curse.

It is upon this law, in its highest form, that God's relation to us is based. He freely pours His blessings upon us, involving us in an obligation that we can never repay, but which is a lifelong incentive to effort, and a powerful stimulus to love.

 He does not say, "If you do this and that, then I will reward, or bless you." He says rather, "I have redeemed you, I have given you life and hope, I have made you sons and daughters, I HAVE LOVED YOU -- therefore do these things to give Me joy and to show your love and appreciation."

Bro Growcott - Holy and Blameless in Love



13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of Yahweh.

Christ will drink it new in the kingdom of God. It will be the cup of salvation, the cup of joy and rejoicing-filled to the brim.

Now it is a cup of blood-shedding, a cup of suffering and death-a cup of blessing truly, because of the blessedness opened to us by its means, but still a cup pregnant with a significance of evil, speaking to us of sin and affliction and the triumph of the wicked.

Then it will be the symbol of pure joy and the centre of a ceremony having a thrilling interest or the vast assembly that will surround the Lord Jesus on the day of the new celebration...

...There will be times and seasons of festal intercourse; but times and seasons also of more practical service-intervals of separation and work-pleasant work-the work of ruling nations-the work of instructing the people-the work of administering justice among the inhabitants of the earth-each saint in his own particular district-over his own particular "ten cities" or "five cities"-for which there will be ample qualification in the possession of a spirit nature.

In this nature there will be no weariness; work will be a pleasure. And there will be no error of judgment; what is true of the head will be true of the whole ruling body of Christ.

"He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears . . .. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord" (Isa. 11).

What a glorious prospect. Look at it and feast your eyes and heart upon it. It is no cunningly-devised fable. It is not the conception of any human brain. Though so gorgeous, it is the picture plainly and soberly placed before us in the gospel.

Men in the weariness of constant disappointment may whisper or shout that it is "too good to be true"; but wise men will remember that weariness and weakness are conditions of the present transient state only.

They are not the standard by which the purpose of the wisdom that made all things is to be measured. They will pass away. God, the strength of all, remains; and His mighty purpose will prevail at the last, and fill every waiting, sorrowful, obedient soul with gladness.

Christ is our hope. He is God's pledge to us of the glory to be revealed. We call him to mind, and thank God with all our hearts for him, while we take this cup into our hands, concerning which he said,

"I will drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."


Seasons 1.93.



16 O Yahweh, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

I am The Son of Thine Handmaid


This deliverance is in answer to his prayer in Psalm 86:16:

"O turn unto me, and have mercy on me; give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and save the Son of Thine Handmaid. Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see, and be ashamed; because Thou, Yahweh, hast helped me, and comforted me."

The person here styled Yahweh's Handmaid, is the woman of Gen. 3:15, ...the Mother of Jesus, whom Elizabeth, her cousin, styled "the Mother of our Lord"; and Gabriel, "the highly favoured of the Lord," whose handmaiden she averred herself to be.

"The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee," said Gabriel, "and the power of the Highest One shall overshadow thee; therefore also, that Holy One that shall be born of thee, shall be called 'the Son of God'."

Creative power was to be preternaturally exerted as in the formation of the first Adam and of Isaac; and therefore the product was the Son of Power, that is of God.

We see, then, from Moses and David, that Christ was the Son of Woman and the Son of Yahweh: will the Jews, who object to Jesus on the ground of what they call his illegitimacy, which if proved, would make him unholy or unclean, show us how such a Christ could be born upon any other principle than that narrated by Luke?

But we must conclude for this time, with the remark for further elucidation hereafter, that that which is born of Deity is Deity, as Jesus has declared.

Phanerosis - David's expectations of the Messiah

Deity in the flesh from birth ("from the Dr's own pen")



17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of Yahweh.

The two words that should always be on the tip of our mind's tongue are "Thank God." Not just "God," but "THANK God." This is the atmosphere and environment in which our inner heart must constantly dwell.

It is wholesome, holy, beautiful, and serene. But cannot Love exist without prior benefit? Is it not purer so? Must Love be built merely on thankfulness for something received? Well, are we speaking of theory, or reality? And are we speaking of the primary Root, or of the subsequent Flower?

"We love BECAUSE He first loved us,"

John says. Could we do it, if He hadn't? No. We are mere flesh. We would not have either the knowledge or the power ourselves. Let us get a true picture of the flesh: not the proud human fantasy of it. God had to show us, and motivate us.

Our thanks are for the power and enlightenment of His Love -- the essential root of all we can ever be. Once He has set in motion this glorious process, once He has lit the Lamp and kindled the fire, then Love indeed can go forth and initiate goodness without prior benefit, because its living roots always reach back to this, and to Him.

Bro Growcott