Psalm 68:1, 4, 7 - 12, 18 - 20, 24 - 26, 34, 35; Ephesians 4:7 - 15; Acts 20:28
I wish to speak a word about leadership, and I have in mind the leadership of God. In a primary sense God leads His people, and if we lose sight of that we leave the faith system in a practical sense, and are in the way of shipwreck.
Psalm 68 refers to God going before His people, and it is written by the greatest leader of the Old Testament. I suppose we might speak of David in that way -- the greatest leader under God in the Old Testament -- although one would not like to compare him with Moses. David could look back on the experience of Moses. He knew about Moses as a leader, and he knew about Joshua as a leader, and he knew what it was to lead himself, although he does not refer to that in this Psalm. He speaks of the great fact that God went before His people. Leaders under Him are important, but the great thing is that God goes before His people, and therefore the position is assured, and for faith there is no question about it. The only danger is that we may drop out of the testimony, but the position in itself is absolutely sure and certain, because God goes before His people, and who can stand in the way of God? What enemy can overthrow God? Therefore the testimony of God will go through in complete triumph in spite of breakdown in human vessels. From the divine side the testimony will go through. The only question is as to whether we shall go through with it.
I call attention to the greatness of God as depicted
in this Psalm. It is a great thing to have an apprehension of the greatness of God. Who is like God? The name of relationship is only used once in this Psalm -- Jehovah. In all the Psalms from 60 to 68 you will find little mention of the name of relationship. We need to have an increasing apprehension of the greatness of God as God. This Psalm speaks much of God. "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered ..".. What else could happen if God arises? Then it also says in verse 4, "His name is Jah". Mr. Darby's notes indicate that Jah is the most absolute name of God in the Old Testament. God, that is, Elohim, refers to Him as the supreme Being, but then it says, "His name is Jah", the One to whom absolute existence belongs. Another title used in this Psalm is Adonai, translated "Lord". Who can dispute the rights of the Adonai? He chooses to exercise those rights in mercy and grace, and who can dispute them? That is the God who goes before His people. It would give us a sense of great assurance if we were in the faith of this. We belong to a faith system, but if we do not see that God is going before His people we are not vitally in the faith system. He can raise up whom He will, and use whom He will, but it is God who is going before His people, and we need to believe that.
"O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness", (verse 7). What could Moses have done without God? The point was, God going before His people. He led His people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron were the instruments, but God was leading His people like a flock, and doing it in a most considerate way. His presence was borne witness to in the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. Think of a God like that, going before His people. "When thou didst march through the wilderness ... the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God". Think of God marching
through the wilderness. God led them out, God went before them, and God brought them in. He used Joshua, but God brought them in to that good land. Later it is said, "He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds from following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and led them by the skilfulness of his hands", Psalm 78:70 - 72. It was what God did. One prays that we may all be encouraged in this matter, encouraged in God, and that we may get a greater sense of the greatness of God.
The names God (Elohim) and Jah and Adonai are very great names, conveying the greatness of God, and yet that is the God who goes before us. We know that God. He is made known to us in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Think of all the operations of the Father, the tenderness of them, the care of them! He led His people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. It is like a father to take his children by the hand. Think of the greatness of the Son, because what is known of God finds expression in the Son. He is the image of the invisible God. And leadership also finds expression in the Son. He is the great antitype of Moses and Aaron -- He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; and He is the true David, the Son of David, the Root and the Offspring of David. He is also the true Joshua. He is the One in whom all the features of leadership shine in their magnificence, and they shine in Him as Man. But we never forget who He is in His Person. It is God who is going before us. Whether we think of the Father, the Son, or the Spirit, it is God. These titles, Elohim and Jah and Adonai, are equally applicable to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is God, and God is going before His people; and so we think of the
Spirit too. "He will guide you into all the truth". What a lead the Spirit graciously affords!
God is going before us, but it is important that there should be leaders under God, and He will see to that. And so it says, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts in Man, and even for the rebellious, for the dwelling there of Jah Elohim" (verse 18). That links with our first passage in the New Testament. That passage has to do with what we may speak of as ministerial leadership. The second passage has to do with the leadership of elders, those whom the Holy Spirit sets as overseers. If we are moving in faith we shall discern what God is doing and shall know how to give a right place to those He is using. A true leader under God will never disturb the place of God among the saints. False leaders hold their position by displacing God, and a dreadful thing that is. In other words they seek to rule over the faith of the saints. If a man rules over people's faith he comes between them and God -- a most serious thing. Even Paul did not seek to rule over the faith of the saints, for he says, "not that we rule over your faith, but are fellow workmen of your joy", 2 Corinthians 1:24. On the contrary, he put the saints in living relations with the God who was going before them. Paul's ministry was not that of a dictator. Dictatorship is easy. It does not require any moral qualifications. But it means that God is displaced. We see that full blown in the great religious dictatorship. Leadership according to God requires moral qualifications and moral power so that the authority of God is brought into the soul: not simply the authority of a man but the authority of God. The truth is brought home with all the authority of God, and the saints take it up as having been brought into touch with God. Paul at Corinth put the truth to them in such a manner that it put their souls in touch with God.
God will maintain leadership under Himself and leadership in the ministry of the word is connected with "thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive". It is a touching thing that, even in this connection, according to Ephesians 4, deity is emphasised. "He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things", Ephesians 4:10. What is stressed there is that this blessed Man who descended into the lower parts of the earth has now ascended above the heavens, which implies His deity, and it is remarkable that the gifts are shown as coming from that altitude, which stresses that it is God who goes before us. It is from the ascended Man the gifts come. He ever retains His manhood. But we have to remember that the condition which the Lord took when here no longer remains. He said, "Now glorify me, thou father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was", John 17:5. Why should He say that in the presence of the disciples? To bring home to us that, as a glorified Man, He is also glorified with the glory which He had along with the Father before the world was. We have to distinguish between these two glories. He has thus ascended above all heavens and He is the One from whom all the gifts come. So that He is; still, in that sense, the great Leader on ministerial lines. "He has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds, and teachers, with a view to the work of the ministry". We may say that there are no apostles today, and that is true; although we have their writings. But Mr. Darby says clearly that in a lower sense apostolic gift can be said to remain, because right down the ages the Lord has reserved the right to give to certain persons specific authority. He quotes Luther as an example, and there are others since his day. While what such a person said and wrote could not be put
on the level of inspiration, it was not infallible, and they were not called upon to lay the foundation like the apostles, yet there is a kind of apostolic authority about their gift. Who can resist the authority if the Lord has given it? It is really God going before His people still. If He chooses to give a person special authority, and we are really in the faith system and believe that God is going before His people, we shall not fail to discern what He is doing.
Then there are not only apostles but also prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers. In all these gifts the One who has ascended above the heavens, the glorious Man, expresses Himself. They involve that He is leading. He is going before His people. He is really the Apostle, so that apostolic gift is but the expression of Himself. It comes from Himself and expresses Himself in some little measure. He is the Apostle, the Prophet and the Evangelist. He says "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor". Christ was the Preacher; and He is still the Apostle and the Prophet and the Preacher, and He is still the Shepherd and Teacher. Only He delegates the work to persons He equips down here. "He has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists". He has given them. He is in charge; we cannot tell Him what to do, nor question His sovereign rights. The One who has gone above all the heavens is acting in sovereign grace. He is the Adonai (see Psalm 68:17, 18). "He has given some apostles, some prophets ..".. Let us never forget where the gifts come from. If we do, we leave the faith system in a practical sense and see men as trees walking instead of seeing the Man above the heavens. The gifts are given for the work of the ministry, "with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man,
at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ". The end in view is that we should be fully in the liberty of the family and also set together in the wonderful vessel, the assembly, for the service and praise of God.
If ministry is to be effective, the person must be in accord with what he ministers. Personal influence enters into all leadership and thus there must be moral qualifications. But while moral qualities must characterise those who do the work of the ministry, I would just add that all of us can have some part in ministry because it is said, "but to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ", Ephesians 4:7. Ministry in its widest meaning is not limited to the ministry of the word. The ministry of the word is in mind in the gifts -- the apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers -- but then there is a range of ministry in practical ways. The Lord says, "the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister". He washed their feet; He fed the five thousand. Phoebe was a minister of the assembly in Cenchrea. We can all come into this, for to each one of us has been given grace. We can all minister to the saints in some way. We can wash their feet. We can do a thousand things to express Christ and thus edify them. There is thus "the working in its measure of each one part". There is no part left out in the operations of the body. Some of the things we call the simplest things are the hardest things -- visiting the sick, going after those who are getting cold. There are thousands of brethren who can do these things better than I can. It is skilled work. One is deeply thankful to find some sister who is skilled enough to do effectively things like that.
I wish now to refer to Acts 20:28. It is not there a matter of gift but of leadership which flows from experience with God -- the influence and power that
a man acquires through experience with God; that is, the influence of a true elder. And so Paul says, "take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers", Acts 20:28. Think of the Holy Spirit. God is going before His people, and the Holy Spirit is included in that. The Holy Spirit is taking account of men who have had experience with God and He sets them in the flock as overseers. We have spoken of the Lord Jesus, the Man who has ascended above the heavens. The gifts come from Him; and now there is the Holy Spirit. He takes account of men who acquire power and influence through going forward with God day by day, and He sets them as overseers, and if He sets them there they will be supported by Him, for the Holy Spirit is here to care for the assembly of God. He chooses those He can rely on and He sets them in the flock as overseers. What results would the ministry of the word achieve if there were not this background of leadership and shepherd care and real love for God and the brethren on the part of the local elders? The Holy Spirit, we may be sure, loves such persons because their work is for love's sake. He would support such persons and He sets them in the flock. What dignified service! They are those who have gone on patiently with God, and the Holy Spirit takes them on to shepherd the assembly of God, which He has purchased with the blood of His own. Think of being entrusted with a service like that! Paul says to Timothy, "let the elders who take the lead among the saints well be esteemed worthy of double honour, specially those labouring in the word and teaching", 1 Timothy 5:17. This is not ministerial leadership but a most necessary form of leadership without which all the ministry would fall to the ground.
The Lord would encourage us all to be available to Him and to the Holy Spirit in the service of God and
of the saints, but we shall not be available unless we are vitally in the faith system. If we try to enforce things in a human way we become dictatorial, but if we recognise that God is going before His people we become available to Him and the power of God becomes evident in what is done.
Now just one word as to verse 24 of this Psalm. "They have seen thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, my king, in the sanctuary". This is the great end in view, the service of the sanctuary. Can we join with David in such language as this? Have we seen His goings? Have we ever reached the point in the service where God in His supremacy fills the vision of our souls? "My God, my king". David was the king, but not in the presence of God. He does not take the place of the king there. Unless we are maintained in the faith system, in apprehending God as leading His people in the pathway of testimony here, we shall certainly fail to apprehend the goings of God in the sanctuary; but if we keep in faith as to the testimonial position we shall more and more understand His goings in the sanctuary. It is one thing to know God in His greatness going before His people in the testimonial position, but it is a greater thing still to know God in the greatness of His own realm. "They have seen thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, my king, in the sanctuary". Would that we knew more of that, dear brethren! What return there would be in response and worship to God -- God in His supremacy in His own realm in the sanctuary! It is lovely to think of God in that respect, and to say "my God, my king". May God grant that we may all be helped to know God in His greatness, as maintained vitally in the faith system, so that He may more and more fill the vision of our souls.
(From Words of Grace and Comfort 1955, page 145)