I will read this once again. This time, I will read it with the more literal translation that we have been making in these days.
The Lord saith unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet.The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Zion:
Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.Thy people are freewill offerings in the day of Thy power,
In the beauty of holiness, out of the womb of the dawn;
Thy young men are unto Thee as the dew.The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent:
Thou art a priest for ever
After the order of Melchizedek.The Lord at Thy right hand
Hath struck through kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations;
He will fill the places with dead bodies;
He hath struck through the head over a great country.He will drink of the brook in the way:
Therefore will He lift up the head.
Just a word of prayer together.
O Father, as we come once again, and now for the last time in these days, to this psalm, we want to confess and recognize again before Thee that without Thee we can do nothing. Whether in speaking or hearing, Lord, apart from Thee there will be nothing of eternal value, nothing that will go through into the building of Zion, unless Thou art present.
Thou art the enabling power and grace of speaker and hearer alike. Lord, how glad we are that Thou hast not left us to our own resources, but hast made provision for us in the anointing which is upon our Head, the Lord Jesus.
We thank Thee that that anointing includes every redeemed one, and we thank Thee for the portion of the anointing for both speaker and hearer alike. Into that we stand by faith this morning.
Wilt Thou make this last time together a time of meeting with Thyself in Thy Word? Wilt Thou take Thy Word and write it, Lord, indelibly upon our hearts? Wilt Thou release something of Thyself, Lord, so that in our lives Thy Word becomes flesh and blood?
O Father, hear us as together we commit this last time to Thee, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I want this morning to take the last and fifth lesson from Psalm 110. Last night, I spoke about our responsibility to be a freewill offering. We said quite a lot about the need for our being freewill offerings in the day of His power, in the day of His army, in the day of His wealth—the day which is this age.
If we really want to see the Lord sending forth the rod of His strength out of Zion and ruling in the midst of His enemies, then we have to be freewill offerings.
But now I want to come to the fifth lesson, which I have entitled: Our Responsibility: The Need to Know and Experience the Power of His Resurrection.
I am going to dwell for a while on verse 3, the last part of it: “Out of the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth.” And then verse 7: “He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore will He lift up the head.”
Most people, like myself, when they first read this psalm, are thrilled about the first verse or two but very confused about the last verses. What on earth has the womb of the morning and the dew of youth to do with striking through kings in the day of His wrath, judging the nations, filling the places with dead bodies, and striking through the head over the whole earth?
What has it got to do with it? And what is this sudden, strange little last verse: “He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore will He lift up the head”?
The Hebrew literally says, “Out of the womb of the dawn.” It has something to do with the beginning of a new day.
The old version reads, “Thou hast the dew of Thy youth.” Most people think that means the Lord Jesus has the dew of His youth. But in the Hebrew, the word translated “youth” is plural. It is not the Lord Jesus, but the youth—the young people, those born out of the womb of the dawn—who are to Him a refreshment.
These people, who are the freewill offering and have given themselves wholly to the Lord, are like the dew to the Lord. They are ever fresh, ever renewed, ever experiencing life. Because of that, they are a satisfaction and a joy to the Lord.
He finds nothing faded about them, nothing jaded, nothing weary, nothing old. They are not bringing the old world over into the new, the old nature into the new, the old creation into the new. They are fresh. They are new. They are as dew to Him.
It is all to do with a new day, a new life, a new beginning, and a new creation. Out of the womb of the dawn—the dew of Thy young people.
The emphasis in this psalm is not merely on the necessity of being born again, though that is taken for granted. The emphasis is upon growing up in order to take your place in the army of God, in the household of God, and in the work of the Lord.
Therefore, it is not babes that we have here, but youth: young, strong men and young, strong women who are in the power of God in the day of His power. They are not only freewill offerings, but they have understood the significance of their new birth.
A new day has dawned with the Lord Jesus. He is the Morning Star. He is the herald of a new day that, for the believer, has already begun. It is not a new day that is one day going to happen. It has started with Him: a new creation, a new beginning, and a new power.
That is why Scripture speaks of the Lord Jesus as the new man.
Put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
—Ephesians 4:22-24
Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
—Romans 13:14
And have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
—Colossians 3:10-11
This new man is Christ. This new man is what we have put on when we have been born of God. We are to live in the new man.
In Him there are none of the old divisions, none of the old social order, none of the old factions, none of those things that become a middle wall of partition. It has all been abolished, and Christ is everything and in everyone.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God.
—2 Corinthians 5:17-18
In this new creation, all things are of God. There is no place for an Ishmael, only an Isaac. It is all from God. It has its origin in God. Its life comes from God. Its power comes from God. Its resources come from God. Everything is found in Him.
If you have been born of God, it is a new day for you. The old day has gone forever. One day the day of the Lord will come publicly to the whole earth, but you and I are the firstfruits of it. We are those for whom that day has already dawned.
We are living in the good of the age to come. We have tasted of the powers of the age to come. We do not wait for eternal life; we are experiencing eternal life.
This is part of the meaning of the baptism we had earlier this morning. It is a testimony that an old creation has been put away in the Lord Jesus and a new creation has come in Him; that an old nature has been crucified with Him and a new nature is ours in Him; that an old day has passed away forever and a new day has dawned for us.
But here is our problem: we may have been born of God, yet so rarely do we experience as we ought the new life and new power that are ours.
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death.
—Philippians 3:10
The key to everything is to know the Lord and to know the power of His resurrection.
We can talk about Psalm 110, the absolute victory of the ascended and glorified Christ, the building of Zion, the purpose of God, the rod of His strength, and reigning with Christ. But unless you and I experience the power of His resurrection, it will forever remain glorious, objective truth.
Paul prayed that the eyes of our hearts might be enlightened, that we might know the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe.
What the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.
—Ephesians 1:19-20
It must become more than doctrine. It must become something that is ours in the Lord. We are to know the same power in our lives, in our old nature, and in our circumstances—the power that raised Christ from the dead.
And you did He make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins.
—Ephesians 2:1
Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places.
—Ephesians 2:5-6
Made alive together with Christ, out of the womb of the dawn. It is not merely that we can sing about a new day, a new life, and a new power. We have been made alive together with Christ.
Is Christ alive? Yes, He is alive. He is as alive as He has ever been. There is not a vestige of death about the Lord Jesus, not a spot of death upon Him. He is alive, vibrant with the very life of God—with eternal life.
And we have been made alive together with Him, raised up together with Him, and made to sit together with Him in heavenly places. The very life which is His is ours; the very power which is His is ours. By the Spirit of God, this life is ours.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
—1 Peter 1:3
I have a living hope. It is a new day that I am in, and so are you. It is a new creation, a new beginning, a new life, and a new power. We have been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Life has incredible power. Take a little dried-up seed and let it fall into a crevice in a great mountain boulder. When water and light come to it, it germinates. Its little roots go down, and its little shoot comes up.
You might say, “You silly little thing, do you think you are going to live here? Do you think you can overcome this great rock?” But that little seed has life in it, and the boulder has not.
The seed says, in effect, “I have life in me. I am obeying the law of my life.” Go back in a few years, and you will see that whole boulder split open and a tree grown up.
How did it happen? It happened because the little seed obeyed the law of its life. There was power in that life to overcome its problems, its difficulties, and everything that was against it.
Many of you have circumstances as hard as that rock, as heavy as that rock, and as impossible as that rock. But if you and I learn to trust the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, there is not a single problem that the life of the Lord Jesus cannot overcome.
I have a life in me which was born at Bethlehem, went through Jordan, lived an impossible life of ministry, went through Gethsemane, came to the cross, offered Himself upon the cross, went down into death, and burst forth in resurrection. That life is in me.
Do you mean to tell me that the problems I face are greater than those faced by the Lord Jesus? Never. Thank God, I have a life in me which has overcome things far greater than I will ever face.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
—Romans 8:2
Have you ever tried to deal with the law of sin and death? You cannot love somebody. You have jealousy, envy, covetousness, factiousness, or an opinionated spirit. You try to deal with it directly, and it is like an air cushion: you push it down here, and it comes up there.
The more you try to stop coveting, the more covetous you become. The more you try to be loving, the more irritated you become. The more you try to live the Christian life, the more impossible, in the end, the whole thing becomes.
But you do not get free from the law of sin and death by dealing with it directly. You get free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
I have often sat on a jumbo jet and wondered how it could ever get off the ground. Four hundred people, luggage, food, crew, and all that weight—how can it overcome the law of gravity?
Then it goes down the runway, and suddenly it takes off. A superior law has taken over from the law of gravity. It has not fought with gravity; another law has taken over.
When the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus dwells in us unhindered and unlimited, when He has the keys to all the rooms of our lives, when He is allowed to be Lord, then the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death.
This is true of church meetings too. We know the wrangles: “I think,” “I feel,” “I know.” Before we know where we are, we are all fighting. You will never get anywhere with so many “I”s.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus lifts us above opinions, viewpoints, differences of temperament, and differences of background, while we all look to the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
It is an altogether new day. It is not the old day of men’s opinions, men’s conceptions, and attempts to find common ground. It is His mind, His will, and His way. We are prepared to bow to one another and lay down our lives for one another.
This is the key to the building up of Zion. It is the key to our being built together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord, and being built together as a habitation of God in the Spirit.
The key is not merely a conception of truth, New Testament patterns, or New Testament order. What we need is the organic—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Again and again people talk about the organic, but then they organize the organic. The tragedy of church history is not that people have never seen the body of Christ. Again and again, at the beginning of movements of the Spirit, God’s people saw something. But there was a missing link between what they saw and its realization.
So they tried to set it up, structure it, and establish ranks. What began with life ended as a hard system. When life recedes, you are left with a system.
The body of Christ is nothing if it is not a heavenly reality. Of course, the church is on earth; we have our feet on earth and are built together in locality. But the church of God, the Zion of God, the house of God, and the body of the Lord Jesus is a heavenly reality.
It is joined to its Head at the right hand of God the Father by the Holy Spirit. It is governed from heaven, energized from heaven, and resourced from heaven. Its wisdom and knowledge are supernatural.
The great impact upon this world comes when the body of the Lord Jesus truly functions. Look at the Book of Acts: it turned the world upside down. There was no heavy-handed institutionalism. It was organic—a relationship with the Lord and a relationship with one another, a matter of life in the Spirit.
If we are to know the power of His resurrection, we must know something of the fellowship of His sufferings. These two things are linked together.
There is no way to know the power of His endless life unless you know what it is to die daily. Unless you know what it is to be led into the valley, you will never know the power of God’s right hand.
If you want to go up, you must go down. If you want to be whole, you must be broken. If you want to be strong, you must be weak. If you want a harvest, you must fall into the ground and die.
This is not the world’s way. The world’s way is to fight for what you want and strive to get where you want. God’s way is always that you go down in order to go up.
Do not get a dreary mentality about the cross: “I must be nothing, nothing, nothing.” God does not want you to be nothing. He wants you to be something—not something in yourself, but something in Himself.
The Lord Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. He never spoke of His death without coupling it with His resurrection.
Paul did not say, “That I may know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings, and the power of His resurrection.” He put it the other way around: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
You can never bear the fellowship of His sufferings if you do not know the power of His resurrection.
Dew comes so quietly. You never see it come, and you never hear it come. Who has ever heard the dew fall? No one. It comes quietly.
When we know the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, when we know what it is to be made alive, raised, and seated together with Christ, we become a quiet, regular refreshment to the Lord.
Are you a refreshment to the Lord? If I asked whether the Lord is a refreshment to you, I know you would say yes. Every time the Lord comes to us, we are refreshed and renewed. But are you a refreshment to Him?
Not by your knowledge, though He wants you to know the Word. Not by your zeal, though He wants you to be zealous. It is by being a freewill offering in the power of His endless life.
Apart from the power of His resurrection, every one of us will fail. But when we know what it is to be out of the womb of the dawn, we become as dew to the Lord. We have His life, His nature, His power, and His resources; and we bring them back to Him. He sees Himself in us.
You can bring all your degrees, qualifications, knowledge, activity, and work for the Lord, and it will not refresh Him. But when you bring something of Himself, He is immediately delighted.
He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.
—Colossians 1:18
There can be no testimony, service, or ministry without such refreshing.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings as eagles;
They shall run, and not be weary;
They shall walk, and not faint.
—Isaiah 40:30-31
Then we shall become dew to the Lord.
“He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore will He lift up the head.” This speaks of the Lord Jesus. He drank of the brook of His Father’s life all the way from Bethlehem to Calvary.
At no point did He fail to draw from the life of His Father. Everything He did was from the Father. It was the Father in Him who spoke and worked.
The way to Zion is not a broad, flat motorway upon which we travel with comfort and speed. It is winding and tortuous. It goes up to mountain passes and down into deep, dark valleys. But wherever the highway to Zion leads, there is always the brook in the way.
Find the brook. Do not faint. Do not give up. You may look at the crags above you, the heights to be climbed, the dark valleys through which you must go, or the desert scenery around you. But find the brook. It is there.
If you learn to drink from it, drink from it, and drink from it, you will lift up your head in the way.
The Lord Jesus drank of the Spirit. In New Testament terms, He made sure that nothing came out of Himself, but that everything came out of God.
The only way you and I will travel the highway to Zion, know Zion built up, and see the purpose of God fulfilled is when we do everything out of Christ. It has to be Him.
To sum up all that has been ministered concerning our Lord Jesus and Psalm 110, I want to bring you back to Psalm 87.
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee,
O city of God.The Lord will count, when He writeth up the peoples,
This one was born there.They that sing as well as they that dance shall say,
All my springs are in Thee.
—Psalm 87:1-3, 6-7
What is the meaning of this mysterious word, “Out of the womb of the dawn”? What is the meaning of the dew of Thy youth and the brook in the way?
It is simply this: we have got to discover that all our fresh springs are in Him.
May God do that for you and for me. May we learn what it is to discover that God has given us everything in the Lord Jesus.
And yet I may take it one step further: everything in the Lord Jesus is in one another. I have not got it all. You have not got it all. But He, being so great, is found in each one of us in different ways.
Our Lord said, speaking about the time of the end and the distress that will come upon the earth:
When these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh.
—Luke 21:28
You and I will never be able to lift up our heads in those days unless we learn to drink of the brook in the way.
Lord, we come to Thee, and we bring our cry to Thee: that Thou wilt seal Thy Word to us in these conference days.
Grant, Lord, that what we cannot retain in our memory and mind may be retained in our spirit, and may be brought into revelation and light when we need it.
O Father, how glad we are for any word spoken in the power of Thy Holy Spirit, though in human weakness. We know it is the Word that goes forth out of Thy mouth that cannot return unto Thee void or empty, but will accomplish that to which it has been sent.
We pray individually, and we pray corporately, that Thou wilt cause Thy Word to bear much fruit in all our lives and in our life together—in every fellowship represented here this morning, and in all those places where there is some building of Zion, some understanding of Zion, and where the foundation is clear.
O Lord, wilt Thou work, we pray. And, O Father, we shall give to Thee all the praise and all the glory, in and through our Lord Jesus. Amen.