Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty # 3

I have said that these afflictions have to be. For still the question is raised, as it was in Job's time, in the counsels of Heaven, as to whether a man will rejoice in God, and enjoy His love, when he has nothing outwardly at all to prove it. Still satan goes on saying, as he did in those days, 'Of course those people sing; of course they are radiant; of course they are happy: look what You have done for them - miracles, deliverances, blessings, healing, provision, answers to prayer - who would not sing?!'  And God has to say, for His own reputation's sake: If I take every one of those things away, and leave that person without a single blessing, visible to himself or to others, I believe he will say, 'I love the Lord'; because (you notice the expression) he has set his love upon Me - he has set his love upon Me. Hell is answered, and Heaven is vindicated, when God is able to say, "I have a son who loves Me, not for what I give him, but just because he loves, and I love him. And, in the Person of the Lord Jesus, we know that satanic lie was answered, and the Divine truth was seen that it is possible, between Heaven and earth, God and man, to have a perfect love relationship. But it needs all the arrows and terrors and trials and testings - it needs them all, to bring out that great truth. So, there is a reason and an explanation.

satan's Misuse of the Psalm

Now we come to the subtle use by satan of this very Psalm. He came to the Lord Jesus, as we know, quoting the Word of God; and this was the fact implicit in that quotation - and it is a fact, and it is stated here. It is that Heaven will care for its own sons; that God has undertaken, through all the pestilences and trials and troubles, and everything else that may be sent - He has undertaken to see that no harm comes to them. He will send His angels: "He will give His angels charge over thee." It is quite true. The fact was true. But the suggestion that satan brought along with that fact was this: All right, then: use this truth for Your own ends; use this truth to impress men, to prove to them that You are the Son of God. And since, even with us, crude as we are, satan usually wraps up his temptations, and makes them look a bit spiritual, how much more with the infinitely sensitive Son of God. He must have argued something with diabolical ingenuity, some thing that looked right; it must have looked right, or it would have been no temptation.

I suppose the argument went like this: You owe it to Yourself, as a servant of God; You owe it to the people, among whom You are to work and minister - You owe it to prove to them, to demonstrate, to show that there is something exceptional about Your life. If You just walk into the Temple courts, as a humble Galilean, what hope have You that they will listen to You? And how can You expect them to believe that God has sent you? No, Your entry must be a dramatic one; Your appearance must have something of the sensational about it. Arrive in their midst with all the outward signs that appeal to carnal man, of something supernatural and wonderful, and they will say, 'You are the Son of God!' And quite likely they would have done. But the snare, the snare of it all, was that the Lord Jesus could not do that without moving out from under the cover of the Father's wings. It would have meant taking things into His own hands - with the best of motive and intention, maybe; nevertheless, while He did not give satan the reasons for what He did (it is no use arguing with the devil), He just gave him a sword-thrust with the Word of God.

I think if we turn back to the origin from which this quotation came, and read anew the Psalm, we will say, This is where the Lord Jesus found His deliverance. And it is where we will always find ours, if at every point we make the first thing not verse 11, but verse 1. It is not once of the outcomes - it is the basic principle. The basic principle is: You must abide under the shadow of the Almighty. There is a phrase, that we often hear used, about being 'under covering': there is a great deal of spiritual truth in that phrase, and our Lord Jesus is the supreme example of a Man Who always kept under the cover - the "shadow', as it is called, or the "wings" - of His Heavenly Father. Thank God that for us also there is deliverance from every temptation, however subtle, as well as from every trial, however bitter; and the deliverance comes by heeding Heaven's reminder: It is he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High who can prove Divine deliverances and Divine vindications.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 4 - "Correction of Misconceptions (3) As to Ultimate Vindication")