by the Rev. Donald MacLean
“Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him; upon them that hope in His mercy.” (Ps. 33. 18). This was the language of the sweet Psalmist of Israel. Earlier in this Psalm, he had spoken of the Lord looking down from heaven and beholding all the sons of men. This eye was that of the all-seeing God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Lawgiver and the Judge of all men.
What the eye of the Lord sees as He views the earth, and especially in the generation in which we live, is men dead in trespasses and sins; men living according to the course of this present evil world: men at enmity with God and in rebellion against His majesty and power. Who can ever understand the depths of sin and rebellion which the eye of God sees abroad in the world today, and who can ever cease to wonder that He does not visit us with judgments of such a solemn nature that the world has never seen the like before?
But the Psalmist remembers not only the all-seeing eye of God but the eye of God’s everlasting love, and it is of that eye He speaks when He says, “Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him.” The eye of God’s love was upon them from eternity, for in the Psalm the Psalmist says, “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.” As His eye took in the lost and fallen condition of those whom He loved with an everlasting love, the thoughts of His heart were to save and to deliver them.
Therefore, the Psalmist says that the eye of the Lord is upon them “to deliver their soul from death,” and “to keep them alive in famine.” Thus the love of God was a love to deliver His people, to bring them nigh to Himself, to adopt them into His family and to make them His own inheritance. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His inheritance.” (Verse 12).
When the Lord was to deliver Jacob and his sons from the famine which was to come in Egypt, Joseph was sent before them. He was betrayed by his brethren; he was cast into prison; but after a course of suffering, he was exalted to the king’s right hand where he had charge of the store-houses of that land.
The love of God has provided the Joseph of the New Testament in the Person of the eternal Son of the Father in truth and love Whom he sent into the world to save His people from death and to keep their souls alive in famine.
In His coming into the world, the Son of God took to Himself a holy human nature, conceived in the womb of Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost and He, as the Joseph of the New Testament, set His face upon the course of suffering appointed for Him in order that He might satisfy the claims of the law and justice of God.
He became the man of sorrows Who was acquainted with grief; He drank the cup that the Father gave Him to drink — the cup which was filled with the death due to the sins of His people. That cup He drank in love to His Father’s glory and in love to the people for whom He came to
die. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John. 15:13). This was the great manifestation of the love of Christ, that He, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God — a divine sacrifice to satisfy the claims of law and Justice.
The blood that was then shed for the remission of sins can cleanse from all sin and makes the soul, washed in that fountain whiter than the snow. After He had cried on the Cross, “It is finished” and bowed His head, He gave His soul into the hands of His everlasting Father and left His body in the hands of His people, who laid it in the prison-house of the grave until the morning of His resurrection. From that prison-house, God the Father, raised the Joseph of the New Testament, “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins.” (Acts. 5:31). The Saviour now has the store-houses of grace and glory and, therefore, the Word of God tells us, “The Lord God is a sun and shield; He will give grace and glory.” (Ps. 84:11).
The sons of Jacob after their betrayal of Joseph had no further thought of him. They lived on as though Joseph had never been — as though Joseph was dead. That was the way God’s people were as they were by nature. They lived without God and without hope in the world. They had no thought of Christ; they had no thought of their need of Christ; they were satisfied with the world and its ways; they lived satisfying the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. They were even as others in their sins and iniquities.
But when the thoughts and counsels of God were to be accomplished, He called for famine in the land and the sons of Jacob began to be in need and this led them to go down to Egypt; this led them to the store-houses of Joseph. This, too, took place in the spiritual experience of God’s people. Did not the Lord call for a famine in the land of your soul when He, by His Spirit, awakened you to realise that you had sinned against Him, when he brought home to you the separation that your sins had made between you and your God, when you realised that you were a lost soul? You discovered then that as far as the world, its companions, its pleasures and ways were concerned, there was no bread of life there for you. God had called for a famine in the land of your soul to make you a poor and needy sinner, in need of the Joseph of the New Testament and in need of the store-houses that He possesses.
The brethren of Joseph had many experiences before they came to know Joseph but when Joseph made himself known to them, his language then was, “Come near unto me.” God’s people have many experiences before they were brought to the knowledge of the Saviour. They had many doubts
and fears, they had many tremblings of soul and often thought that they would never obtain salvation. But, in the day that Christ made Himself known to them through the Word of God and by the Spirit of God, His language to them was, “Come near unto Me” and they came near. “But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Eph. 2:13).
When Joseph kissed His brethren we read that “after that his brethren spoke with him.” And it was when you received the kiss of peace that you began to have fellowship with Christ such as you never had before. In that fellowship you realised that this Saviour had indeed “saved your soul from death.” Then you came to hope in His mercy and to have the true fear of God in your heart and to sing with the Psalmist, as he praised the Lord, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.” (Ps. 103. 3,4).
“Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him.” If His eye was upon you from eternity, if His eye was upon you in sending the New Testament Joseph to work out salvation for you, if His eye was upon you in sending the Holy Spirit to bring you to Christ, do you think that His eye is not upon you today? Has He not said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5).
Not only were the people of God to be delivered from death but they were to be preserved alive in famine. The famine that we have today is not so much a famine of bread but a famine of the Word of God. God is largely silent to this generation of yours and mine. But although we live in such a dark and desolate day and although there is such a famine of the Word of God in the generation in which we live, yet let us ever remember that the store-houses of the New Testament Joseph are as full as ever they were and He has promised to keep His people alive in famine. He will feed them; He will strengthen them; and He will advance them for evermore. He will bring them through every trial and temptation and He will at last present them before His Father with exceeding joy saying, “Behold I and the children which Thou has given Me.”
It is this precious Word of God which brings the bread of life to the soul which we are endeavouring to spread in Rhodesia, where the Lord has His own people as surely as in Holland and in Scotland. Was it not because the eye of the Lord was upon them from eternity that the Lord sent His Word and the gospel of His grace to the people of Rhodesia among whom we labour? As His promise is to keep them alive in famine and to keep them alive in the midst of the famine of the Word of God in this generation,
then let us continue our efforts to support the spreading of the Truth consistent with the mind of the New Testament Joseph.
The Committee in Scotland are very sorry to hear of the illness of Ds. Breevart. We hope that the Lord will be with him as the Shepherd of Israel Who leads His people at all times.
“Them also in a way to walk
that right is He did guide;
That they might to a city go
wherein they might abide.” Ps. 107:7.
We are also sorry to hear that Ds. Smits is not well. May the Lord be gracious in restoring him to health and strength once more. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” (Exodus 15:23).
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is indebted and greatly indebted to the people of Holland for their liberal and prayerful support of our Mission in Rhodesia and I am very glad to be here with my brother-minister, Mr Morrison, to express our sincere gratitude to you and to plead with you to continue as you have done, believing that the Lord has said, “So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void; But it shall accomplish that which I please; it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Is. 55:11).