The Great Resolve
“We will walk in the name of ‘the Lord our Gob fur ever and ever.” — Micah iv. 5.
HE Sacrament of the Supper is a votive as well as a commemorative ordinance. And these words may be appropriately taken as embodying a holy resolution, or rather a series of holy resolutions, on the part of those who have recently recorded their vows.
“The Name of the Lord,” it is said, “is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Prov. xviii. 10). You who, as good soldiers, have anew attested your allegiance to your heavenly Leader, are represented as garrisoning this divine Stronghold; — “They that trust in the Lord shall be like Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.” It has its “places of defence” — casemated battlements. And we are now to invite you to “go about Zion, tell the towers thereof, mark well her bulwarks and consider her palaces.” The various Towers of this Great spiritual Fortress are nothing else than the titles and attributes with which, in His own Inspired Volume,
God has seen meet to make Himself known. Of such there are six, more conspicuously presented to us, in Old Testament Scripture alone: —
Jehovah-tsidkenu. The Tower of Righteousness.
Jehovah-shalom. The Tower of Peace.
Jehovah- SHAMMAH. The Tower of the Divine Presence.
Jehovah-nissi. The Tower of Defence.
Jehovah-jireh. The Tower of Trust.
Jehovah-eophi. The Tower of Healing.
After a Sacramental Season, it is my privilege, as we survey these glorious munitions, to say to all believing communicants, in the words of the Prophet Zechariah — “I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in His name.” *
I. The First Tower we mention is Jehovah-tsidkenu. “The Lord our Righteousness.”
We were surely to-day specially invited to behold this Tower built on “the Rock of Ages.” What was the main purpose of our gathering at the Holy Table, but to commemorate the Prince of Life working out for us, by His obedience and death, a righteousness not our own? Any shelter we can rear is a tower of sand — a citadel of bulrushes — that will leave us naked and
* A recent discriminating writer on the Life and Times of the Leader of the Reformation in Germany, mentions, that in the British Museum there is a medal struck to commemorate the first Jubilee of the Confession of Augsburg. This Confession was drawn up by Melancthon under the supervision of Luther. The medal bears, on the reverse, a legend, “Tunis Fortissima Nomen Dwmini.”
defenceless in that solemn hour “which is to try every man’s work, and every man’s righteousness of what sort it is. But, says Jehovah, “I bring near My righteousness” (Isa, xlvi. 13). The salvation wrought out by His Eternal Son He has “appointed for walls and for bulwarks.” And the believer’s prayer who has fled to this Refuge city is — “Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy right hand, on the Son of Man whom Thou hast made strong for Thyself” (Ps. lxxx. 17). He hath finished transgression and made an end of sin, and made reconciliation’ for iniquity, and hrouglit in Everlasting Bighteousness (Dan. ix, 24). Perish all else that would interfere with it. Let the giant deed — the triumph of divine sorrow and love which we have had before us in significant symbol — stand forth in its solitary grandeur. To attempt aught of our own by way of supplement or addition to the merits of the Divine Surety, would be seeking to gild refined gold; holding up the taper to help the sunlight; or listening to those who counselled the youthful conqueror of Goliath to cumber himself with useless armour, a helmet of steel, and greaves of brass, and an untempered shield. Like him, let us cast them all aside, saying, as we stand panoplied in the great imputed righteousness: — “Behold! 0 God, our Shield, and look on the face of Thine Anointed.” Brethren and fellow- Communicants, think as ye pace that Tower, with its memories of suffering and victory, how it has been crowded by the Saints in the past. You are walking where Abraham walked, when “he believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” You are treading what was consecrated by the footsteps of Isaac and Jacob; — Moses, and David, and Isaiah; — the blessed Apostles, the holy Martyrs, the members of the true Church throughout all the world and in every age. You are taking up, in the text, the strain chanted and sung by each of them in turn — “We will walk in the name of the Lord our God:” and “this is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our EiGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. xxiii. 6)*
IL A Second Tower is Jehovah-shalom. “The
Lord my Peace:” or “The Lord send Peace.”
This Spiritual Tower of Peace stands side by side with the Tower of Righteousness. “The work of righteousness shall be yeuce” (Isa. xxxii. 1 7). “Being justified by faith” — faith in the finished work and righteousness of Christ — “we have peace with God” (Rom. v. i ). “Let him take hold of My Strength, that he may make peace with Me, and he shall make peace with Me” (Isa. xxvii. 5). It is through Him, who is emphatically the Strong One, that we can have peace. “Having made peace, through the blood of His cross” .(Col. iii. 20). The gifted author of the “Pilgrim’s Progress” speaks of the window of the chamber called Peace, in which Christian lay, as opening towards the risen sun. The window faces the Sun of Righteousness. Its gets its very name from the “Brightness of His rising.”
* 111 the account wliicli has accidentally presented itself to the writer as these pages are passing through the press,, of the deaths bed of one of the most cultured intellects of the century, and one of the most eloquent of its divines, the narrator mentions, that “One ejaculation was constantly upon his lips, ‘Christ my ri’diteousness! ‘” — Memoir of Professor Archr Butler, p, xxxviii,
Isaiah, in one of the beautiful emblems of his later prophecy, likens the believer’s peace to the “flowing of a river “^(xlviii. 1 8). How as of a river? Whence these tranquil streams — these still, deep-flowing waters? They cannot be fed from the low marshy ground of his own goodness; — his virtues, or moralities; his fitful frames and feelings; — but from the Everlasting Hills: — from that Righteousness, which the Psalmist describes to be as “the great mountains” (Ps. xxxvi. 6). Like the glacier Alps, from which streams, melted by the sun, are flowing all summer long in the midst of drought, when every other channel is dry.
Walk up and down, as Christian sentinels, in this Name of the Lord; — singing your watch-song, “Thou wilt keep him, 0 God, in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee!”
What a repose this Gospel peace gives amid all the petty troubles of life! The Apostle speaks of it as “the Peace of God, which passeth all understanding,” and which “keeps the heart” (according to the meaning of the word in the original), as in a citadel or garrison. What a calm elevation is imparted to the present; while the future can be contemplated undismayed! The chariot of peace in which the believer is seated rolls on; and life’s troubles are but as the thin clouds of dust on the gusty highway. Yes, ye who climbed so lately “the Hill of blessing,” as ye enter this Tower of Zion, and gaze from its loopholed window, see how, when God giveth His beloved the gracious boon of peace, He makes all things look peaceful. All that belongs to the Christian; his duties; his engagements; his very cares and difficulties, are softened and mellowed with this calm tranquillity; just as in nature the setting sun transforms and metamorphoses the whole landscape into gold. While from your Peace-Tower you thus look along life’s valley, you can descry also, beyond the border river, the fields of the true Canaan “dressed in living green,” and which this purchased peace has made all your own. With the present rest of grace in possession, and the rest of glory in reversion, we may well say of the Lord, “He is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my Strength, in whom I will trust; my Buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high Tower,”
Let us joyfully renew and ratify our vows; and with earnest heart and voice utter the resolution, “We will walk in this name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”
III. A Third Tower is Jehovah-shammah. “The Lord is there:” — The Tower of the Divine Presence.
It is a blessed thing for the believer to bear constantly about with him the realised sense of the Divine nearness, and it is his peculiar privilege and prerogative to do so. God, indeed, is everywhere. The world, the universe has written on its every portal Jehovah-shammah — “The Lord is there.” It is gleaming in starry letters on the nightly firmament. It is carved in deep hieroglyphics on earth’s lowest strata. It is inscribed on the brow of its loftiest mountains. It is written in mosaic on the floor of the sounding sea. Among the forest glades, — the cathedral aisles of tangled wood, — where neither hammer nor axe nor tool of iron hath built a Temple, God is there. Amid the waste of desert sands; on the mossy bank; on the lonely shore, God is there. In the summer calm; the raging storm; the smiling harvest, God is there. Like one of those giant mountains whose base is furrowed with lakes and valleys, and its top pierces the clouds; so is the Ever nigh — the Omnipresent One. Heaven is His throne, and the earth is His footstool. From among its lowliest insect tribes, up to the myriad ranks of Angel and Archangel — Jehovah-shammah — the Lord is there.
He is the living God also in Providence: alike in great things and in small. When we hear of kingdoms convulsed; nations reeling and trembling, The Lord is there. “Shall there be evil,” says the prophet, “in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” (Amos iii. 6). When we hear of death darkening the humblest dwelling; when we see the tiniest bud of earth’s affection falling, as we think, prematurely to the ground, “The Lord is there;” “Who knoweth not in all these things that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?” (Job xii. 9). Yes, it is delightful and comforting surely, with the eye of faith, to see Jehovah thus riding in the chariot of Providence, reining in (if I may so express it) at His sovereign Will its fiery coursers: the mighty wheels, like those in Ezekiel’s vision, — rather their complex movements, wheel within wheel, — revolving and evolving nothing but Rood: He cuidin and supervising all; appointing every sorrow that is endured and every tear that is shed!
There is yet a nobler and pre-eminent sense in which His covenant people can flee into this Strong Tower; and walking in the name of their God can say — “The Lord of Hosts is with us, — the God of Jacob is our Refuge: “—” Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ “( i John i. 3). Oh! how it would hallow all life’s duties, and take the sting from many of its sorrows, and fortify against its temptations, if we could ever regard ourselves as God’s foi’trcsses: our souls bearing the superscription on their living gates —” TJie Lord is there.’’ Where the term we now speak of is used, Micah is gazing with prophetic inspiration on the future city of Jerusalem, and the Sanctuary which was yet to crown the heights of Zion. He tells us that although there will be the absence of the glory of the First Temple, — no visible Shekinah — no visible cloud, — yet that the presence of the invisible God will be diffused like an odour of sacred incense around; and the name of it shall be Jehovah- shamm ah.
Dear friends, to-day’s watch-word, circulating from guest to guest at the Holy Table, was “Surely the Lord is in this place! This is none other than the House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven.” Let us seek to perpetuate the blessings of a Communion-Sabbath by the holy resolve — “If :Z7iy Presence go not with us, carry us not hence.” “Thou, 0 Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name.” “We will walk in this name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”
IV. A Fourth Tower is Jehovah-nissi. “The Lord my Banner:” — The Tower of Defence.
This reminds all of us who have given public testimony of our faith in Christ, that we are still in an enemy’s country. You remember how Bunyan (to quote the great Dreamer again) represents Christiana and her children knocking at the Gate; while in a castle, hard by, there were those who were assailing them. If any leave a Communion-table to return to the world in their own strength, they shall assuredly i’all. But we go not a warfare on our own charges. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God:” and He that is for us, is greater than all that can be against us.
Let our moral attitude be like the workmen on the walls of Zion in Nehemiah’s time, building with the sword girded by our side; ever ready, when the missiles are flying thick and fast around, to flee to Him who is a “High Tower against the enem.y;” and who thus invites all weak and helpless ones — “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast” (Isa. xxvi. 20). This is the true Tower of King David, builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men (Sol. Song iv. 4). “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, 0 Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For Thou art the glory of their strength: and in Thy favour our horn shall be exalted. For the Lord is our defence: and the Holy One of Israel is our king” (Ps. lxxxix. 15-18). “We will walk in this name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”
V. Our riftli Tower is Jehovah-jireh. “27ie Lord will ‘provide:” — The Totver of Trust.
It is always desirable for a conquering army either to be near its supplies, or to keep up its line of communication. That broken, all is lost. The Christian has his promise of assured help: “My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. iv. 1 9).” !Z7i6 Lord will provide.” Ah, that future! that unknown, sometimes dark and chequered future, how many a thought it costs! Who can forecast the varying scenes of changeful life? It is like walking up some sequestered dell; every turn in the path presents something new. A cluster ol flowers here, a rotten branch or decaying tree there; now a flowing stream, now a quiet pool, now a brawling cascade; now a gleam of sunlight, now the driving rain or muttering thunder. But each apparently capricious turn in life’s way, all its accidents and incidents, are the appointments of Infinite Wisdom: and “they that know Thy Name shall put their trust in Thee.” Trust: — trust in the goodness, and mercy, and faithfulness of God, is surely one at least of the great lessons which a Communion Season inculcates. Looking to these symbols and pledges of unutterable love, you can confidently make the challenge — “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans viii. 3 2). A child in the midst of the storm can muffle its head in its father’s arms and fall asleep. God is thy Father! Walk up and down in the strength of that Gospel Name. Every earthly father does in a small scale to Lis family what the Great Parent does on a large scale to all His people. From that glorious Tower on the Hill of Ordinances you can look through the emhrasures behind, as well as before. Survey the landmarks of the bygone pilgrimage! Count up your Ebenezers — the providential interpositions of the past, and then say — taking these as pledges and guarantees for the time to come, “Thou hast hccji my help: leave me not, neither forsake me, 0 God of my salvation.” The future, as we have already said, with all its vicissitudes, is in His keeping and ordering. You may work the loom: the shuttle may be in your hands; — but the pattern is all His: the intermingling threads of varied hue, even what are dark and sombre. Talk not of a tangled web when it is that of the Great Artificer. Confide in that heart of Infinite Love. Shall we dream of being wiser than God? Shall we dream of correcting His Book of Sovereign decrees? of altering the buildingplans of the Divine Architect? No! trust Him, where sense cannot trace Him. Trust is a staff not for level plains and smooth highways. It is the alpenstoch, the pilgrim prop for the mountaineer, for the rugged ascent, the slippery path, the glacier crevasse.
As the El-Shaddai — the All-sufficient, God hath said, “I will never leave thee, I will” (in the redundant emphasis and energy of the original) “never, never, never forsake thee.” He is a Rich Provider, a Sure Provider, a Willing Provider, a Wise Provider. Jehovah-jireh! “We will walk in this name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”
VI. Yet one other Tower remains to be noted.
Jehovah-rophi. The Tower of Healing: — “/ arti the Lord that healeth thee.”
Among those who partook of the Holy Sacrament, doubtless there were not a few members of the ever wide family of affliction. Some, experiencing soulsorrows — hidden, unspoken griefs, too deep for utterance or for tears. In the case of others, trials, the nature of which is only too patent to fellow-worshippers and fellow-communicants, from the sable attire and symbols of mourning. It is blessed for you to think of Him whose love you commemorated, as Himself the King of sorrows — the Prince of sufferers: who, just hccause He was thus “acquainted with grief,” is pre-eminently able to heal the broken in heart, and to bind up their wounds. He proclaims as His Name (and He suffered, and wept, and bled, and died, that He might have a right to say it) Jehovah-rophi: — “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” He is the true “Healing- tree,” which, cast into your bitterest Marah-pool, will make its waters sweet.
Brethren, if other earthly portions have perished, cleave to Him who is unfailing and imperishable: whose Name survives, when prized earthly names have either faded in oblivion, or are whispered through tears. When, let me ask, is the name of God most comforting? “I have remembered,” says the Psalmist, “Thy name, 0 Lord, in the night” (Ps. cxix. 55). It was at Jacob’s fierce struggle-hour, as at many of our own, he was led to prompt the earnest question to Him who was wrestling with him,” What is thy nameV And, as with the Patriarch, He blesses us there. That Name of God is like a lighthouse, with
its six-sided revolving lamps, it shines brightest in the gloom of trial. If some of the loopholes of your Tower be darkened: if the sun has set; and the midnight sky be over and around you; be it yours to sing — “Thoic lnlt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness;” “God our Maker giveth songs in the night.”
My closing communion wish and prayer is, that that Name, which is above every name, may be to all of you as “Ointment poured forth.”:” The name of the Lord! “it is spoken of as the badge at a more enduring Feast in the Church of the glorified.” His name” we read, “shall be upon their foreheads,” Nay more; that Name is to form the theme of the saints’ everlasting song. For what is the ascription of the Church triumphant — the ransomed conquerors beheld by St. John in vision, standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God? — ““Who shall not fear Thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy Name?”
0 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Three in One in covenant for our salvation: — Send us help from the Sanctuary, and strengthen us out of Zion!” that the resolve following a transient season of Communion on earth, may form at once the vow and the joy of Eternity —
“We will walk in the Name of the Lord our
God for ever and ever.”