1 (To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.) My El, my El, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

"Messiah the Prince," or High Priest, was "cut off," or covenanted, as the Spirit had revealed to Daniel. But before he died, he cried with a loud voice, in the words of Psal. 22:1, saying,

Aili, Aili, "My strength, my strength, why hast thou forsaken me!"

Before he had uttered this exclamation, the Holy Spirit, which had descended upon him from the Habitation of Light and Power, in the form of a dove, and rested upon him, from the time of his immersion in the Jordan, had been withdrawn. The Father-Spirit had evacuated the son of David's daughter, who is styled in the Songs of Zion,

"the Handmaid of Yahweh" (Psal. 116:16).

The Son was, therefore, left without strength or power, and consequently without God. Still he was suspended to the tree a living man; a man crucified through weakness (2 Cor. 13:4), and dying of his own volition in obedience to God.

But after the God-Power had forsaken him, and before he committed his life to the Father in breathing his last, there was an interval in which, after the example of Abraham at the typical confirmation of the covenant,

"a horror of great darkness fell upon him" (Gen. 15:12);

"for there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour."

In this darkness he cried aloud; and drank the bitterness of gall and vinegar; and again cried with a loud voice; and the deep sleep fell upon him from which he did not awake until the early dawn of the third day.

In this death-state the Son of David was prevailed against by the Little Horn of Daniel's Fourth Beast; and a prisoner of captivity. In this crisis he was neither God nor Spirit but as testified concerning him in Psa. 22:6,

"A worm and no man;"

poured out like water; bones all out of joint; heart like wax, melted in the midst of the bowels; strength dried up like a potsherd; tongue cleaving to the jaws; lying in the dust of death (verse 14, 15). But things were only to remain thus for a short space.

Eureka 1.2.

10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my El from my mother's belly.

Growth in knowledge - derived from the Spirit that guided him

When did this begin? There were stages in the development. The first was when the words of the angel to Mary were fulfilled.

"The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee; and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also shall that holy thing that shall be born of thee be called the Son of God."-(Luke 1:35.)

A child begotten of the Holy Spirit-that is, of God-was a very different child from one begotten of the will of the flesh. The difference was manifest in the fact that at no period did the child commit sin. An ordinary child, however well organized, would have gone astray before acquiring the experience necessary to give wisdom.

The brain brings nothing into the world but impulse. There is the latent capacity for wisdom, but no wisdom until the experience of evil imparts it. But this child had wisdom from the beginning: Wisdom was its starting point.

It grew in wisdom; it never sinned: at twelve it knew its Father and its mission and devoted himself to His work-a knowledge intuitively derived from the Spirit that guided him from his mother's womb; (Psalm 22:9-10; 71:6); for such a knowledge with such results at such an age would have been an impossibility with a merely human brain. At 30, the time had arrived to introduce him to Israel, and to bestow an increase of the power to which he owed his existence.

The Christadelphian, 1869

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

"Christ crucified"

It is to proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth is the "Christ the king of Israel," and, therefore, to proclaim "the things concerning the kingdom of God:" and (2nd) that this anointed king of Israel was crucified on account of the death reigning through Adam.

Popular theology only preaches the crucifixion; it says nothing about the Christship of the man crucified. And even the crucifixion it misunderstands and misrepresents. It gives it a pagan dress. It says it was the endurance of torment by the eternal God at the hands of the eternal God, that immortal souls might escape decreed eternal torment. It would not express the doctrine, perhaps, precisely in those terms, but that is what it amounts to. It is a perversion and mystification of the whole matter.

The death of Christ was the sustaining of the consequence of sin by a man who, though hereditarily partaking of it, being sinless, could survive the vindication of the law in a resurrection which would have been impossible with a sinner; and it was the provision, thus, of a name by the assumption of which (through faith and obedience) we (condemned and perishing children of Adam) acquire a title to life, otherwise beyond our reach.

But all this does not exclude, but rather renders inevitable, "the glory that shall be revealed." And as this glory to be revealed is the glory of the kingdom of God, the cross necessitates the kingdom instead of supplanting it.

The Christadelphian, March 1898

19 But be not thou far from me, O Yahweh: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

With God's help we can do wonders. We can surprise ourselves. We can surprise everyone.

Without God's help we can do absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing. We may APPEAR to be doing something on our own. We may appear to be conquering worlds, advancing frontiers, controlling millions, accumulating hoards -- but it is all vain and empty: merely a false gilding of the brief path to the grave.

How soon it is all over! -- and another corrupting corpse is hastily buried with hollow pomp and circumstance. But with God's help every simple, humble step of day-to-day life is being chiseled into eternal rock: stepping-stones ever upward to everlasting joy and usefulness and life, and glorious divine companionship.

Bro Growcott - Search Me O God

25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

ONLY the apostles heard the song that Christ sang in the upper room. But in the kingdom that rare privilege will be extended to others, whom Christ will acknowledge as his brethren. 1

Confirming a new Chief Musician

The thought of hearing the Lord in song inspires wonder, but, as the standard-bearer for the age, his ability with music and his affinity for song will provide the highest example of worshipping Yahweh in the beauty of holiness. The pattern of twenty-four which David and Asaph used when ordering the courses of singers will be employed by Christ in the spiritual organisation of the kingdom. 2

The whole system of temple worship will echo the arrangements of the past, only on a far grander scale than was ever seen in ancient times. The twenty-four elders who fall before the Lamb will recognise in him their master and their mentor.

When Christ takes the highest station, he will be the Great King and the High Priest, but there is every reason to believe that he will also be the Chief Musician. As the

"chiefest among ten thousand" 3

his will be the hand under which the choirs at the temple will be inspired to render their finest praise.

That the Lord is worthy of such an office is undoubted, and there is good cause for his influence to extend into the realm of song, not only as a singer himself, but as the conductor of the singers and the organiser of the songs. Why then should Christ become so involved in this aspect of the kingdom? It is because the kingdom age will be a time of new beginnings. Its advent will transform every part of life, and perhaps no part more so than music.

The music of the world has moved so far from divine ideals that it is but the expression of human pride. The tunes and lyrics, songs and rhythms of this present age echo the thinking of the flesh and not the thinking of the spirit. Under Christ's leadership, however, the music of this present world, both secular and sacred, will be removed. 4

It must all be swept away, for the ushering in of the kingdom age will re-establish the music which carries the seal of God's approval. All the institutions of the kingdom will become the benchmarks of excellence for the millennial age. Music will receive at last its proper context as being first the instrument of praise, and only thereafter a vehicle to express other thoughts and feelings, which even then should chime in harmony with God's ways.

Christ will be the champion of the change, for his is the standard to which everything and everyone will be conformed.

1 The promise of Messiah to do this (Psalm 22: 22) is quoted in the New Testament, where both his willingness to call them brethren, and his preparedness to sing in their midst, are declared (Hebrews 2: 11,12).

2 This is suggested by reference to the twenty-four elders in the Apocalypse. A closer examination of their work suggests that they are kings: "on their heads crowns of gold"; priests: "clothed in white raiment" (Revelation 4:4); and also singers: "having everyone of them harps" (5: 8).

3 The term "chiefest" (Song of Solomon 5:10) conveys the idea of being the standard bearer.

4 Revelation 18: 21,22

Bro Roger Lewis - The House of Asaph Ch 15