HEAVEN
DWELLERS

Doctrinal

Dispensational

What We Believe

Practical

Prophetical

Charts

Audio
Room

Flash

Forum

Quarterly

Resources/Links

Testimonials

Test Your

Knowledge

Home

Support

View
Guestbook

Sign
Guestbook

S. Van Mierlo

Summary of the Divine
Plan

---

The Message of the Kingdom

---

Three Spheres

---------------

Alphabetical Analysis

Also -

HOPE

---

THE ABOVE HEAVENS

---

"Practical Truth in
Ephesians"

---

A Study in Pentecost

---

Heavenly Places

by Charles H. Welch
PDF

Quick Search

Bible
Studies

The One Great
Subject of

The
Word

RIGHT DIVISION

By Charles H.
Welch

RIGHT DIVISION

by E.W.
Bullinger

RIGHT DIVISION

by Tom Ballinger

Present Truth

The Foundations of Dispensational Truth

Introduction To Acts 28

Dispensational Expositions

ACTS
28. The Dispensational Boundary

None Other Things

The One NEW MAN

Tested
Truth

Things That Differ

Before and After Acts 28:28

Who is
YOUR Apostle

The Ministry of
Paul

LO-AMMI

A
Study in Pentecost

The Elect Remnant

Time and
Eternity

Death,
Soul and Hell

Do YOU have an Immortal
Soul?

Satan

The Gift, Hope
and the Prize

The Fullness

Three
Spheres of Blessing

The Bride and
The Body

Structures or
Parallel Lines

Adoption

Children
vs. Sons

Earthly Things

EONS AND
WORLDS

Predestination

"Written"

Dispensational Outline Of The Books Of The N.T.

75 DIFFICULT
QUESTIONS

Gementria in Christ's
Geneaolgy

They
Sang His Praise. They Soon Forgat His Works
by E.W. Bullinger

"Then believed they His words: they sang His
praise. They soon forgat His works: they waited not for His counsel"
(Psalm 106:12,13)
These are solemn words,
because they record a solemn fact. They are true, not only of Israel but
of God's people in all ages. They refer to that tendency in the heart of
each one of us to cry unto the Lord in our trouble, and then to need the
exhortation, "Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness" (Psalm
107:8), and even to sing His praise and then forget His
works.
When God separated a people to Himself,
it was not merely that He might be the God of Israel, but a God to Israel.
He will not only have the people for Himself, but He will be their God,
and "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 144:15). This
Psalm records many examples of the statement made in the text. The first
refers to the deliverance from Egypt. For a brief moment we see them in
the attitude of faith: "Then believed they His word, they sang His praise"
(verse 12). They are on the wilderness side of the Red Sea--"THEN." The
waters that opened just now for their salvation and closed again for the
destruction of their enemies roll between them and the house of their
bondage. They are celebrating in their song the triumphs of God's right
hand. They measure everything by it. Not only do they sing of what it has
done, but by faith they celebrate victories yet to come, Exodus 15.
Compare verses 12 and 13 with 15-18, and note the repeated "shall,"
"shall,"
"shalt."

Not
one thing remains to be done; all is accomplished to Faith. Faith is seen
thus to be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. And now Moses and the children of Israel are silent, and Miriam and
the women are taking up the strain, but still the burden is the same
(verse 21). But what is the Divine comment on the scene? "They sang His
praise, they soon forgat His works." So quickly does praise give place to
murmurings: "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness (Exodus 16:2).
Is, then, the
Lord's arm shortened that it cannot save? Is His ear that heard their cry
in Egypt grown heavy that it cannot hear? No! But the instrument of
deliverance has been leaned on instead of the Deliverer. Yes! So really is
this true that as soon as Moses is out of sight, they run with haste to
Aaron, and say: "Up, make us gods which shall go before us, for as for
this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know
not what is become of him " (Exodus 32:1). The comment of the Spirit is:
"They forgat God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt"!
(Psalm 106:21). And so it is ever! Where there is not a living God-wrought
faith, man must have something to look to that is visible and tangible --
that is IDOLATRY.Occupied with the instrument
We have another example
of this in the days of the Judges. The people had gone into open idolatry,
and the Lord had sold them into the hands of their enemies Yet (as in
Psalm 106:8, 41-44) "Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which
delivered them" (Judges 2:16). But there was man's "nevertheless" in verse
19; they returned to their evil ways after God's merciful deliverances,
and in chapter 6 we see them greatly impoverished The hand of Midian
prevails; the Midianites were as grasshoppers for multitude, the people
betook themselves to mountains, dens, and caves, the highways were
unoccupied, the harvest was reaped by others, there is no sustenance left
for Israel. Then the Lord raised up Gideon, He looked on him and
strengthened him; He went forth with him, and delivered Israel with a
great deliverance by "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon." But Israel was
occupied with the Instrument! and they say to Gideon: "Rule thou over us,
both thou and thy son and thy son's son also: for thou hast delivered us
from the hand of Midian" (Judges 8:22). It was "thou, thou." Gideon was
true to God here, but a few verses later we find him making an ephod of
the gold that had been given him, and "all Israel went a whoring after it,
and it became a snare to Gideon and his
house."
Again, if we turn from the times of the
wilderness and the days of the Judges to the reigns of the Kings, it is
still the same. The history of the Kings is a dreary record of provoking
the Holy One of Israel to anger, so that but a few reigns, like those of
Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah stand out as bright exceptions.
Manasseh, indeed, did repent and reform at the end of his reign, but we
read of his son Amon that "he did evil in the sight of the Lord as did
Manasseh his father... and humbled not himself before the Lord as Manasseh
his father had humbled himself, but Amon trespassed more and more." We see
the condition of things worse and worse till Baal-worship was carried on
in the Temple of Jehovah, and actually the horses of the idol were stabled
in the house of the Lord (II Kings 23). At this juncture Amon's son Josiah
succeeded to the throne, and the history of his reign is minutely given in
II Chronicles 34 and 35.
"While he was yet
young," he sought the Lord (II Chronicles 34:3), and four years afterward
he set about purging the city and the land, and thus fulfilled a prophecy
uttered 300 years before: "There came a man of God out of Judah by the
word of the Lord unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn
incense, and he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said,
'O altar, altar! thus saith the Lord, behold a child shall be born unto
the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the
priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones
shall be burnt upon thee" (I Kings 13:1,2). And although the messenger,
the instrument employed, failed directly after delivering his message, yet
the word of God could not fail. That word came to pass. The king, "Josiah
by name," received a great encouragement for his work, and a solemn
warning to "take heed" to the voice of the Lord, for in the midst of his
labours "the Book of the Law" was found (II Chronicles 34:14). The king
received it in its power, for he traced all the misery up to neglect of
this blessed book (verses 19-21). He learned that the Law may be
neglected, though it cannot be broken. A blessed season from the Lord was
vouchsafed, and the chapter which gives the record ends with the words:
"All his days they departed not from following the Lord." Ah! "all his
days"!
Man's "nevertheless"
Yes, it is the same lesson still; the
Lord Himself detects it, He sees the heart, and He has recorded what He
saw in Jeremiah 3:6,10. Treacherous Judah "hath not turned unto Me with
her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord." Hence we read: "After all
this... Necho King of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish... and
Josiah went out against him" (II Chronicles 35:20). Listen to Necho's
words: "What have I to do with thee, thou King of Judah?. I come not
against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war, for God
commanded me to make haste; forbear thee from meddling with God who is
with me that He destroy thee not" (verse
21).
Hark what the Scripture says:
"Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him... and hearkened not
unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God" (verse 22), with fatal
result. Oh, how solemn! how instructive! We are not told all the reasons,
and how far, like Uzziah, "he was marvellously helped till he was strong.
But when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction" (II
Chronicles 2:15,16). Like ungodly Ahab he disguised himself in the battle,
but no disguise will hide us from God's eye, no shelter will avail us, and
like another Ahab he is struck down by an
arrow.
Sad! Solemn! and instructive lesson! Yet
he was taken away from evil to come, and great lamentation was made for
him (II Chronicles 35:25). Let us draw near and listen to the mourners.
"The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their
pits, of whom we said, 'Under His shadow we shall live among the heathen'"
(Lamentations 4:20). Ah, it is the same lesson still. Israel served God
"all his days," but at heart they were the "same generation." In the light
of Josiah they walked, and not "in the light of the Lord." Upon "the
breath of his nostrils " they lived, not on the words which proceeded out
of the mouth of God. Under the shadow of Josiah they thought to dwell, and
not under the shadow of the Almighty. These things happened of old, they
are "written for our admonition." Like a bell swinging to and fro over the
sunken rock, giving warning to the mariner, that hard by where he is
passing others have made shipwreck, they sound in our ears: "Take heed,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God."
The Christian life
No one is really a Christian,
but he who has received the Word of God "with the Holy Ghost and with
power." He who has done this has turned to God from every idol, and is
entitled to know that the blood of Christ has cleansed from all sin; and
in Him who is now at the right hand of God he has been brought nigh. But
the Christian life down here is not merely a fresh direction given to
religious instincts or to the fleshly activities of man. It is not the
holding of certain views or the taking of certain vows; pledges, or
badges, or the shaping the conduct after a certain course, but it is the
having to do with God in Christ, believing God, obeying God, fearing God,
walking with God, worshipping God, serving God, joying in God. In short,
"setting the Lord always before us," and setting the heart and conscience
before Him. All ministry of the Word is for this end, and is healthful
only as it subserves it.
The days in which we
live are marked by the same character as of old: "They sang His praise,
they soon forgat His works." God is forgotten, the instrument is too much
thought of; man is glorified, the creature is exalted as though the saint
has anything which he has not received. See what godly jealousy was
manifested, by that faithful pastor, Saint Paul: "Let no man glory in men"
(I Corinthians 3:21). "These things, brethren, I have in a figure
transferred to myself and Apollos... that ye might learn in us not to
think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up
for one against another" (I Corinthians 4:6). "The Lord gave... God
giveth" (I Corinthians 3:5,7).
To lean on the
instrument is the very essence of idolatry, for it displaces God. It is
natural for us to do so because it is ever irksome to the flesh to be
directly, continually, and absolutely depending upon God. When the
stripling David returned from the fight, the women sang his praises (I
Samuel 18:7); but they were no true daughters of Miriam, their song was
not "The Lord hath triumphed gloriously, "but "Saul hath slain his
thousands, and David his ten thousands"; and we read that "Saul eyed David
from that day forward" (I Samuel 18:9).
While
we may see in this Saul's envy and jealousy, we must note that it became
David's "thorn in the flesh," the Divine antidote for man's praise, and
though a "messenger of Satan," it ministered the love of God. There is but
ONE on whom we may safely depend, only ONE under whose "shadow" we may
dare to dwell. Of that One, the voice from the excellent glory has
testified as the cloud hid Moses and Elias: "HEAR HIM" (Luke 9:33-35).
What do we know of all this? Are we dwelling under His shadow, occupied
with Him ? Or are we taken up with instrumentalities, doctrines,
observances, ceremonies, things about Christ instead of with Christ? Oh,
to be occupied with Christ Himself! May God bless His Word to our hearts,
reveal Christ to us in it, and open our ears to HEAR HIM!

[
Forum  |  Quarterly
|
Participants  |  Audio Room
|
Resources/Links  |  Right
Division  |  Salvation
| Charts
|  Books/Tracks
| Support|
Home ]