TEHILLIM 116

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.