Psalm 22:1 - 3; 1 Corinthians 3:9 -- "ye are God's husbandry, God's building" -- 16; 1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:15

I want to say a word, dear brethren, about the praise of God and how we are brought into it as appreciating the One who suffered to bring it about. Psalm 22 touches the heart of every one of us here tonight. It is the language of Jesus Himself at Calvary, and it touches the very depths of our being. Our blessed Lord Jesus suffered there on the cross of Calvary. You say, He suffered there for my sins; and how very true that is, and our souls go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him and the blessed God in appreciation and gratitude! But, we want to see that our sins do not come into Psalm 22. The sufferings of Jesus are depicted there in that touching manner, because of His intense feelings and desires that God should be praised, and praised rightly and adequately in the great congregation -- according to the fullest thoughts of the heart of God.

The thought of serving God in praise runs right through the Scriptures. Moses and the children of Israel lifted up a song of praise after coming out of Egypt and the Red Sea -- which is a type of Christ's death for us. They speak of "My strength and song is Jah, and he is become my salvation: this is my God and I will glorify him: my father's God, and

I will extol him". They even speak later in chapter 15 of Exodus of being brought in and planted in the mountain of his inheritance, "The place that thou, Jehovah hast made thy dwelling, the Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared. Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever!"

Then David takes up the service of song and praise, with the priests and Levites and singers in a more ordered setting in the house of Jehovah. Also how full are the Psalms, the language of deep feelings of David and others in their appreciation of God! Speaker after speaker voicing aloud his inner feelings of joy and praise of the God he has come to know in the circumstances peculiar to his own experiences, either individually or in a collective sense in the midst of those engaged in the service of song and praise in the congregation of Israel. Until you reach the last few psalms where, after the wonderful variety of joyful praise and worship is uttered throughout Psalm 145 to Psalm 149, the Psalmist rises to the climax of the great Hallelujahs in Psalm 150, touching every feature of intelligent praise and worship on the various kinds of stringed instruments, that the close of the Psalm is "Let everything that hath breath praise Jah. Hallelujah!"

Then Isaiah sees the King, chapter 6, high and lifted up, sitting upon a throne and his train filling the temple. What a glorious sight of the King and His saints as His train -- with the Seraphim calling out, "Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" But Isaiah felt his utter unsuitability to the scene, and one of the Seraphim brings a glowing coal from off the altar -- the altar is not far from the King on His throne -- and touches the

prophet's mouth and his iniquity is taken away from him. But how wonderful and touching that the King on His throne is the same One who died on the altar; and that is the basis of our being made suitable to take up the service of praise to the blessed God. And so Jesus died on the altar to secure the service of praise to God. You say, we shall live eternally to praise God and the Lord Jesus for His dying for us. Yes, and you would love to go forth and proclaim Him as the glorious Saviour of sinners. Isaiah was immediately ready to be sent; he answers the Divine call, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, here am I send me. And he said Go". And what a presentation of Christ as the suffering Lamb of God he gives us later in chapter 53! None could preach Christ like the one who had seen the King in His glory.

Other passages are found throughout the Old Testament which speak of God being the Object of His people's praise and worship, and you come to Malachi's final testimony by God about His people and the nations too: "For from the rising of the sun even unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oblation: for my name shall be great among the nations, saith Jehovah of hosts", chapter 1: 11; and then in verse 14, God says, "for I am a great King".

And so you come to the New Testament, where the great King Himself appears and presents Himself to His people in Matthew's gospel -- only to be rejected and put to death. He rides to Jerusalem in that triumphal procession as the King of Israel on the ass according to prophecy with the crowds singing and

shouting aloud -- "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest". But that very crowd cries out aloud again a week later to Pilate, "We have no king but Caesar"; and then they cry again "away with him, crucify him, crucify him". And so the King dies on the altar, dear brethren, and, as I said before, His death is the very basis for securing the praise of God. And so the disciples are left in the end of Luke's gospel in the temple blessing and praising God.

Now Paul comes on to our view as the model worshipper with his heart steeped in the sense of the greatness of Christ as the great King. And how he breaks out in his doxologies of praise and worship in his epistles! In Romans he praises God as a Creator in His creatorial majesty and supremacy; then, as in His unsearchable judgements and untraceable ways ... "For of him, and through him, and for him are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen", Romans 11:35, 36. Also in chapter 9 and verse 4, how his heart is towards his kinsmen in the flesh "whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and law-giving, and the service, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as according to flesh is the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen". Afterwards at the end of the epistle he rises, as he touches on "the revelation of the mystery, as to which silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has now made manifest ... according to commandment of the eternal God ... the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen", Romans 16:25 - 27.

Then in Timothy, Paul renders praise and glory to

Jesus as "the King of the ages" in chapter 1, and in chapter 6 to "the blessed and only Ruler ... the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship; who only has immortality". So as one who sees the King in His majesty and glory, with these doxologies filling his heart, in true praise and worship, he could also testify of Him as the glorious Saviour of men, and as the Mediator of God and of men. And what a preacher Paul was of the One Who had died on the altar, but who is now in glory in heaven! Christ in glory filled his soul and equipped him to speak of the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God. Then he would tell us that "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first". The glory of God shining in the face of a Man in heaven becomes the motive power of the model preacher, who is ever ready to speak of the glorious Saviour of sinners. But it is Paul the worshipper who is the best preacher. And so I commend this to everyone who wants to preach Christ, that you start from the inside view of Christ in glory. And so we need to go into the holiest often, right into the presence of God where Jesus is, and that glorious sight of the Man in the glory fills you and prompts you into praise and worship.

How we need to become accustomed to the holiest; that is our home and there you cannot but break out in holy doxology in the praise of the God Who has come within our range. We do not know Him in the Deity, but we do know Him as revealed in Christ. The One Who is from eternity to eternity, God over all blessed forever, has been made fully known -- God manifested in flesh. But we know Him too as

our Father -- the great King of the Ages has come into the sphere of time. And who can honour the King like His sons? Even where He said in Malachi I am a great King, He said, "a son honoureth his father". As in sonship, it is our great privilege to utter praise and worship and glory to God our Father according to the fullest thoughts of love in His heart. And we then worship in spirit and truth. God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. The Father seeketh such as His worshippers; He is not exactly seeking worship, but persons who are thus filled with Him who can worship Him in the beauty of holiness.

But the praise of God in its spiritual character and fulness can only be properly carried out in the sphere of God's own choosing and appointment, which requires the collective side of the truth. Christ Himself is spoken of in Psalm 22 as saying, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee", verse 22. God has a position here on earth where He has set His name, it is in the midst of those who compose His house. Paul begins with this idea in Corinthians before he comes to the truth of the body of Christ. He starts with God's building; it is simply what the saints are in God's sight. Paul says in verse 9 of chapter 3 of the first epistle, "Ye are God's husbandry. God's building". The foundation has been laid, which is Jesus Christ; but God's building is here in this world and no one can challenge it. The Holy Spirit has come to earth and set up this wonderful building for God -- a habitation of God in the Spirit. And so Paul says to the Corinthians, "Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in

you?" A glorious fact; let us get hold of this truly in our souls, dear brethren.

The Corinthians needed this challenge -- "Do ye not know?" and so we want to take it to heart, that even if some do not know it, the fact remains that the saints are God's temple and the Spirit of God dwells in us. But every true believer in our Lord Jesus who has the Spirit, forms part of this building; the living and conscious knowledge of it in our souls is vital to us in these days. You see, God has set us apart from everything in this world for Himself, for His dwelling, for His very shrine, where He wants to be with us all the time -- what a great honour and privilege! And it is a fixed position, divinely appointed and set up, for the service of God where the service of song and praise and worship by His beloved people is to be carried on in the power of the Spirit.

We need not be afraid of the word position. The position we are now in is for the pleasure of God and where He would receive the praise and worship of His willing people. "But thou art holy, thou who dwellest amid the praises of Israel". We are all to have part in this service of praise; it is God's thought that we should rise to it. If you say, I don't feel equal to it, it may be that you are confusing it with the idea of the calling of God and the fellowship. I do not suppose any of us has as yet fully answered to God's call and to the fellowship. He has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I cannot say I have answered fully to that call. But we are in the fellowship if we are. It is a question of our being in it consciously, and if we are really in it, we would enjoy it, which is God's desire for us in calling us to it. It is a matter of practical experience

in the enjoyment of it. And so, as we are God's building as a result of what He has done, let us be in it consciously and fully and thus rise to the service of praise and worship. And in so doing together we experience in the fullest sense what it is to be in the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then we are also the body of Christ and form part of God's house; it is the same company in both. And so we need Paul to help us in these matters. He says in 1 Corinthians 10:17, that we being many are one loaf, one body, for we all partake of that one loaf. Then according to verse 18, which speaks of our eating of the sacrifices -- which is the Lord's supper -- we are in communion with the altar. What a wonderful thing that is! that as in one body we are knit in the closest possible partnership together and with the altar, and hence in the closest possible fellowship with the blessed One Who suffered on the altar. The Spirit of God would make us increasingly conscious of this wonderful position in which we are to find our full occupation with the blessed Lord Jesus who becomes the absorbing Object of all our hearts. This is the King Who died on the altar to secure the praise of God abidingly. The Holy Spirit has baptised us into the one body, and we are said to have been given to drink of one Spirit; so that this new position in which we are thus to be held together by the One Spirit should demand our whole and constant attention all the time. What motive power it becomes for complete and entire separation from everything, especially that which merely bears the name of Christ in the ecclesiastical systems around us. We would do what we can for every Christian and seek to help him into what belongs to him, for he in

fact belongs to the whole position, and we want to see everyone fully in the enjoyment of his place in it, in taking up his privileges and functioning according to the mind of God for him in the service of praise in the assembly.

Finally, we would become increasingly concerned too as to the great matter of the House of God here on earth and our conduct in it. Everything is living there, for it is the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and base of the truth. If you claim to be in the body and stop there, you will fall short of the thought and concern of God about you. The house of God is the pillar and base of the truth; and we must not fall short of the whole position. The fellowship of God's Son involves being under Him and under His authority, for He is Son over God's house, whose house are we -- Hebrews 3 -- and that in love and freedom. And if you simply rest on the fact of your being in the body without going on to the house, you are not fully in the truth, only partly, for it is the base of the truth. The One Who is the great King of the ages dwells there, and our conduct in the house must be in keeping with Him. On the public side a full testimony to represent the King according to what He is as known -- manifested in flesh -- with all the features of the house of God as in the first epistle to Timothy. The great centre where God dwells and where He is to be known through the saints who form part -- marvellous grace -- of the assembly of the living God. And in the inner side we dwell with the King Himself, the blessed God as known in Jesus. We don't know Him in Deity, as I said before, but as revealed in Christ. We thus abide in God and He in us, and he that abides in God,

John says in his epistle, abides in love. For we know Him as Father, and as sons we can honour Him intelligently and in the affection of sons, and therefore freely and joyfully praise and adore Him. Peter and John too have their own doxologies, and the Revelation abounds with them where the Elders join in the service of praise and worship to the great God, the King of the ages.

May the Lord greatly help us, dear brethren, in these great matters of the praise and worship of God, for His Name's sake!

Croydon -- 9th December, 1961, G. R. Cowell, Address, Haddad Books, Divine Provision, 11: 29 - 38