(NOTES OF A LECTURE.)

Read 2 Sam. 15:13-16:14, and Ps. 84:

My object in reading the chapters I have is, that in them we find something that in this day is very rare, and which I am sure, as we look at it a little together, with the Lord's help, we shall say, " Would God I knew more of it! "

What I refer to is simply this, that we have here before us a. man passing through the most trying circumstances, and yet one who looks out of it all and puts his trust in God, and so goes on perfectly calm and at rest, come what will.

Now what we find ourselves constantly saying is, that if this thing were set right that is a trial to me, or if this difficulty were removed, I should be free to enjoy the Lord more.

But change the circumstances, and remove what appears to be a hindrance to our enjoyment, and what will be the result? Shall we be more happy than before? No, we should not; for though circumstances might be altered and brighter, yet what is at the bottom and causes the unhappiness is there still. Whatever I may be, I carry the same heart of distrust with me, and until we have learned to judge that, there is no true rest. How often do we try, and vainly too, to get things right here, and overlook all the time the blessings we might be enjoying where we are. We forget that He has said, " In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world;" and along with this, " These things have I spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace." And if really in the sanctuary of God's presence,, we should say often, " I would not have it otherwise if I could." Not that our hearts should not feel the state of things around and amongst us, nor that there is not much in ourselves and elsewhere that should rightly exercise us :surely there is, but we have this in God's Word :" Be careful for nothing." What! not careful about anything? No, "careful for nothing" absolutely nothing. And how can this be ? Is it that there is nothing to give us care and sorrow down here ? There is much, surely. But we have in what follows how it can be, " In every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." (Phil. 4:6.) What a relief ! There is not a sorrow or a burden that I am not privileged to bring there and tell into His ear. And what then ? " The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus."

Just look at Paul, and see where he is at the time of his writing this, and how far circumstances are affecting him. We find him in prison at Rome, in bonds for the gospel, shut out from the work which was so dear to his heart, and what effect has it upon him? Does it cast him down ? No; look at what he says in chap. 1:He would have them know that his "bonds had fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." " I do rejoice,-yea, and will rejoice." He thought of Him who was carrying on His own work notwithstanding all that came in seemingly to hinder; and with all the evil before him fully, and felt by him, he would tell the saints of a joy and rest above all the sorrow. What effect could circumstances have on a man like this? None whatever:circumstances can have no power when our confidence is in God ; but when that is wanting, we are easily affected by them. They only test how far we are leaning upon God, and simply trusting Him.

But we may give up our Nazariteship, and neglect to walk with God; our strength is then gone, and we are" weak as other men," and, just like Samson, say, in view of our enemies, "I will go out, as at other times before, and shake myself." But " he wist not that the Lord had departed from him." The provocation of the Philistines brings out this, but his strength was gone before ; and so with us,-the trials only prove where we are. They do not make us weak ; but if we give way before them, they prove that we have departed from the source of strength. And as we have God, by Jeremiah, when recalling to the hearts of Israel the cause of their ruin, saying, " My people have committed two evils :they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." God is practically given up, and something else taken up with.

We see again with Israel at Sinai the same thing. They had got a golden calf in the camp in the place of God, from whom they had turned away; and when Moses had been in intercession with God, and entreats for their forgiveness, God says that He will not go up in the midst of them, but will send an angel before to lead them into the promised land. His threat of judgment made them mourn ; but the land flowing with milk and honey, and an angel to lead them there, suited very well. But Moses goes deeper. Nothing suits the man of faith but God Himself. Israel may be satisfied with an angel by the way and the land at the end, but faith says, "If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence." Let us not move a step on the way without that. What was the angel's presence and the promised land to him if Jehovah withheld His presence?

And it was just this that brought Israel to Bochim, as we read in the book of Judges, and David into the place in which we find him in these chapters, " passing through the valley of Baca." The place of strength, because of self-judgment, had been left. It was there that the " ark of God " had made a way for them through Jordan. The reproach of Egypt had rolled away, and Gilgal tells of not only deliverance from the "iron furnace," but of entrance into the promised rest, and circumcision is renewed. In all their wars at first, they returned there, to the camp at evening. And where is our Gilgal but at the cross of Jesus, the heart returning there to meditate upon its glories and the results for us of not only deliverance from Egypt, but entrance into Canaan ?

There must be walking in self-judgment, denying the flesh a place, to walk in confidence with God and consequent strength. If this is not done, another thing will surely come-we shall find, instead of strength at Gilgal, tears at Bochim. ("Baca" and "Bochim" both from the same root, meaning "tears," or "weeping.") And may we not ask ourselves, Am I at Gilgal, and finding there strength through the circumcision of nature, the judgment of it as before the cross ?

But we get when Israel left that, God did not give them up ; they did not gain victories, 'tis true, but God still follows them. What wondrous grace ! and what comfort for our hearts!

So God uses Bochim to discipline and break us down, as he did with Israel, and here also with David.

David had sinned against the Lord, and is here driven from his throne into exile by his son, and he gets to Baca, and what he finds even there is refreshment and blessing, when bowed to the hand of God. He "makes a well, and the rain fills the pools." There is no place in which God cannot bless us, if we are in a state of soul to receive it.

The first thing I would notice here is the unselfishness that comes out in David. He would send Ittai back :he would not have others to go into exile and sorrow with him. But Ittai, true-hearted and devoted, would cast in his lot with him, and share his fortunes, whether in rejection or glory. And such is the path of the Church, sharing with Christ His rejection, as soon His glory.

But it is David under discipline we are engaged with now, and the next thing we have to witness is his telling Zadok and Abiathar to carry back the ark of God into the city. Now why was this ? Was it that David did not value it ? Witness the joy he had in bringing it from Ephratah (Bethlehem) to Zion, type of the journeying of the true ark, the Lord Jesus, from His birthplace to the cross-the place where (or the work, rather, by which) God could find a rest among sinners. Why, then, take back that ark, but to show us that God's rest is undisturbed- remains the same, notwithstanding all the ups and downs of His people, and that rest is where His people look in faith while passing through the trials of this scene ? "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!" etc. And therefore he says, " If He find pleasure in me, then will He bring me back, and show me both it and His habitation."

And is it not so for our hearts amidst all the circumstances that summoned us here ! Where can one turn to for comfort and rest in this evil world? Is there one thing not spoiled by sin ? Well, if there is nothing here that the heart can find rest in, think of God's tabernacle being open to you. When man had spoiled all down here, both for God and himself, God opens heaven by the cross to sinners, and says, There is the place I have for you now. And where can our hearts turn from all this scene of failure and ruin? Not to the Church, or things being set right here, either in it or in the world, but to God's habitation, in the blessed assurance that He who has gone to prepare a place for us in there in the Father's house will come and take us to it, that we may be with Himself where He is.

All this with David is, "If He delight in me :" a question we cannot raise who are accepted in the Beloved ; but he adds, " If He say, I have no delight in thee:behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good to Him." What a blessed state of soul this was ! He says, God's will is best; if I am never brought back, yet He does what is right. What lies at the root of half our trouble is that we are not come to this in our souls-our wills are too unbroken ; the moment we are broken in spirit, we are happy; nothing but self-will hinders our blessing. We like to have our own way naturally, and practically deny God's right to order every thing in our circumstances for us. But God will be God, whatever people make of it; and He does what He pleases and where He pleases and when He pleases ; but what He does is always right. But can we say, " Let God do just what He pleases with me ? " There is this thing that is a trial, and that thing which I should like changed ; but whilst in prayer I can tell Him all these things, and find relief about them thus, my heart should say, " Let God do as seemeth good unto Him."

What we often do in circumstances that try us, and varied pressure that comes on us, is to turn to wretched expedients instead of the living God. But look at David here, his heart pressed with sorrow, his own son driving him from the throne and seeking his life, yet he accepts it all at the hand of God, and looks out to the place of His dwelling, and leaves all to God to order for him.

They speak to him of Ahithophel being among the conspirators. Now David knew him to be a crafty man, and one likely to do him much harm ; and what does he do? He turns to God, and says, "O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel to foolishness." He casts His cares upon God. He goes to the top of the hill and worships, and there receives an answer at once. He finds at once comfort for his heart and rest about the evil of Ahithophel, and there finds the suited man to do the needed work in Hushai.

In coming to the sixteenth chapter, we find what is sorrowful, in the easy way in which David was deceived by Ziba about Mephibosheth, but we pass from this to a brighter part of the scene. Shimei takes advantage of his sorrow to heap reproach upon him, and attributes his suffering to a wrong cause, and openly curses him. Deliverance is easy, and Abishai would go and "take off his head," and the Spirit of God marks out his being "surrounded with all his mighty men." He had power to deliver himself from his enemy. But for David, God is seen in it all, and deliverance must come from the hand of God, and he will have no other. He would have God put him right, and accepts at His hand the chastisement for his sins. God is the One who occupies his thoughts.

And this is what we have in Ps. 84:, which refers to this time. David's thoughts are about God's house, and His altars, and the One who dwelt there, when himself in exile, and passing through the valley of Baca. He is weeping as he goes along. And what about? About failure. And yet David in his palace, a great man, was not half so happy as when driven out into exile and looking to God's house. He was satisfied with the excellency of Him who dwelt there, and longing to be with Him.

David had enough to give him a bad conscience and a troubled heart ; and surely he felt it all, and rightly so. God had forgiven all, according to the word of Nathan, " The Lord hath put away thy sin;" but he was reaping the fruit of his sin, and that fruit was bitter in itself. Yet so gracious the God we know that there is no place in which He will not bless. Even here there is a well springing up in the place of discipline for failure. Have we not found it so ourselves, according to our measure, oftentimes? Peter got his heart into this scene; his self-confidence leads to a thorough break-down, and he denies the One he professed to love beyond the rest. A look from that Blessed One sends him out to weep bitterly and after He is risen, the Lord goes on to restore his soul; and did not he find a well there ? Surely he did. H:had his heart probed to the bottom, that the cause of failure might be seen and judged, and then the well was opened, an abundant spring.

But that is not all, "the rain also filleth the pools," Not only is a well springing up there, but blessing comes down from above, There is no thirst left. It is not saying," My moisture is turned into the drought of summer," but refreshment full to overflowing. May we not mote and more covet this place,-not the failure, of course, but the blessed sense of what God is to us? What He wants to do is, to get at our hearts; and to do that, He must break down our wills. He has a controversy with all that is of the flesh in us, and when our confidence in that s broken, He leads us on from strength to strength; " Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God:' And this is what He is doing with us, teaching us our weakness, bringing our hearts to own it, and then bringing in His strength for us. Now the end is all triumph and praise.

It is in the sense of this that David can say, although the world had spread out its glories before him, "A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness."

"The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory." " He will give grace ;" He has done this, and " He will give glory." You can only have it from Him, and He will give it. What blessedness is this, beginning with grace and ending with glory ! But there is more than that:" No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." All along the way we have Him doing this, blessing us at every step. Does He give us every thing we want? Oh, no; but " no good thing will He withhold." He meets us in every need we have, giving, in His love, what is good for us. Are we happy in its being so? "O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee." R.T.G.