PSALMS 143


1 (A Psalm of David.)

Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.



3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

The judgment of the prince of the world by God, was exhibited in the contest between Jesus and the civil and spiritual power in Judea.

"Its poison was like the poison of a serpent" (Psalm 58:4),

when

"the iniquity of His heels compassed Him about." " The battle was against Him for a time. They bruised Him in the heel" (Gen. 3:15).

The enemy smote His life down to the ground and made Him

"to dwell in darkness, as those that had been long dead".

But here the serpent-power of sin ended.

It had stung Him to death by the strength of the law, which cursed every one that was hanged upon a tree; Jesus being cursed upon this ground, God "condemned sin in the flesh," through him (Gal. 3:13; Rom. 8:3).

Thus was sin, the prince of the world condemned, and the world with him according to the existing course of it. *

*Elpis Israel 1.3.



4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

7 Hear me speedily, O Yahweh: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.



8 Cause me [Messiah] to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

The father [logos] dwelling in him.

'In the morning' came the resurrection and justification.

But, Jesus rose again, leading captivity captive; and so giving to the world an earnest, that the time would come when death should be abolished, and sin, the power of death destroyed. Sinful flesh was laid upon Him, "that through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil," or sin in the flesh (Heb. 2:14): for, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL. *

* Elpis Israel 1.3.



10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

God and his Spirit are inseparable. His Spirit is combined or "free"-combined in measure, and sometimes without. In measure, it sustains all created things in life; so that when withdrawn they perish, and man returns to dust, Job 34:14; but in immeasurable combination with sinful flesh, it is "God manifest in the flesh, " and named "I shall be the powerful, " or Jesus in the Greek.

God speaks by his Spirit through prophets and apostles, therefore what they say the Spirit says. God, by his Spirit, also spake through Jesus, so that what he said the Father said; in their doctrine, therefore, the prophets, apostles, Jesus and the Father are one.

God has rarely spoken to mankind by his Spirit, except through certain selected individuals. What the Spirit caused them to utter has a quickening effect upon them that believe it; therefore their words, which are also the Spirit's words, are said to be "spirit and life"-John 6:63.

Hence, when a man believes the truth, he believes the Spirit, "because the spirit is the truth" -1 John 5:6; but when he rejects the truth, being faithless or not obedient, he resists the Spirit. It is absurd, therefore, for such, however pious, to profess to have the Spirit. The spirit, in a moral sense, dwells in the heart when the truth dwells there in full scriptural assurance of faith and hope, and then only.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Dec 1856



Continuous daily habit


The man who is no reader is necessarily more or less of a barbarian according to the true standard, for not otherwise than by reading can we know and remember what God has done, what God has said, and what He wills us to do. Our reading furnishes constant materials for inspiriting reflection concerning our present ways.

We are saved by what we read from being overcome by the weaknesses and the dolefulnesses of present life. We are enabled to see the present life in its right place in the great place God has with the earth and man, and to be patient and wise accordingly. Each part of our reading will give us something different but something suitable for this. Nothing that is in the Bible is unrelated to the plan that it embodies as a whole.

Seasons 2.20