This week in the morning revival we come to a very interesting topic in the book of Psalms, Christ’s Eternal and Unchanging Existence in His Resurrection. I was particularly impressed with the person and the practice of our Lord Jesus Christ when He was on earth, as prophesied and typified in Psa. 102:7, “I watch, and I am like a lone sparrow on a housetop.”
The Lord Jesus spent much time with the Father, alone, to minister to the Father and care for His interest, and he was a “lonely man”, not understood by people around Him. He did all this for God’s economy, for the fulfillment of God’s purpose!
Christ was afflicted and He suffered for God’s house
Psalm 102 is the prayer of an afflicted one, one who was suffering. The psalmist was a godly man, and he was suffering because of the destruction and devastation of Zion with the temple and the holy city.
He was just like Jeremiah who lamented over the destruction of the city and the temple of God. The psalmist was almost fainting, inwardly suffering, praying to God and pouring out his complaint (not in the sense of “complaining to God” but in the sense of lamenting over the miserable situation of God’s people and God’s house).
Christ was this afflicted One – He suffered all throughout His life and His suffering culminated in His death. He died not only for our redemption but also to bring in the church, God’s house.
Just as the psalmist was afflicted for God’s house and God’s city, so the Lord Jesus suffered and was afflicted for God’s house and God’s city.
His suffering and death produced the church, and the church as God’s house eventually becomes God’s city! We need to see the Christ’s sufferings and His death were not only for our redemption but even more, for God’s house and God’s city.
Christ was like a lone sparrow on a rooftop
Christ was devoured by the zeal for God’s house, and He did everything to please God and bring in God’s kingdom. But in His human living, whom could the Lord Jesus talk to? Who would understand Him? His brothers didn’t, neither did His mother (even though she pondered all these things in her heart), neither did the disciples.
The Lord couldn’t open His heart to anyone to share His desire, His zeal for God’s house (John 2:17; Psa. 69:9). He likened Himself to a sparrow who, though usually is in groups, is alone now on a rooftop.
As a lone sparrow, Christ spend much time in prayer and watching with the Father, caring for God’s interest and God’s house. What do you think He prayed about? Do you think the Lord Jesus prayed about Him still being single, about His business, about His welfare, or about Him being physically unattractive?
No, the Lord didn’t care about Himself but He cared for God’s interest, the desire of God’s heart. In His loneliness – in the sense that He couldn’t open the depths of His being to any human being – Christ spent much time with God and took God as His companion!
Christ spent much time with the Father
With the Lord, at times, there was a very deep loneliness – in the sense that no one on earth could understand Him. Only the Father could be His companion and only God the Father understood Him fully. In many occasions, the Lord would allow nothing and no one to distract Him from having a private time with the Father.
In Matt. 14 He sent the crowds away and spent time with God. In Luke 12 He prayed and continued all night in the prayer of God. Once Christ began to pray, he couldn’t stop for the whole night! This One is in us today!
Sometimes the Lord’s ministers, His servants, need to know Christ in this kind of loneliness – no one (not even our close friends, relatives, and spouse) understands or knows what’s deep in our being from God. What is in the depths of our being is known only by God.
In this kind of situation we experience the Lord as a root out of a dry ground, one whose being is anchored in God, and we will spend much time in secret with the Lord. The Lord understands us, and as we care for His interest we spend more and more time with Him – private time, time set aside, to watch, pray, and be infused with all that He is!
Lord, draw us to spend much time with You. Save us from trying to find understanding and appreciation merely from men. May we take You as our source, our anchor in a sure place, and as the One who understands us. Lord, strengthen our personal, intimate, and private time with God. Cause us to really open to You and tell You everything, so that we may allow You to infuse us with Your heart’s desire, Your economy, and Your feelings!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from the Life-study of the Psalms (msg. 37), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 17.
- Recommended reading: areas in which the Lord Spirit may operate to apply the resurrection life in us;
- Hymns on this topic:
# Draw me, dear Lord! Draw me today! From anything else, dear Lord, draw me away!
# If the path I travel / Lead me to the cross, / If the way Thou choosest / Lead to pain and loss, / Let the compensation / Daily, hourly, be / Shadowless communion, / Blessed Lord, with Thee.
# Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. - Picture source: a lone sparrow on a housetop.
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