Who Is Like the Lord Our God?

Who Is Like the Lord Our God?

“Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who looks deep down to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes—with the princes of His people. He grants the barren woman a home, like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!” Ps. 113:5-9.

God has decided that everything that is high shall be crushed and everything that is great shall be cast down. All of Satan’s deception will collapse. If it is beautiful on the outside so that it blinds those who are willing to be deceived, it will still be cast down; its rottenness will be revealed and Satan’s ugly nature will be exposed. In the midst of this rottenness it is a great consolation to know that all this has already been judged and that the sentence will one day be carried out. At the same time our sufferings increase because we are aware that the many dearly purchased souls’ greatest pleasure is their greatest folly. People’s entire life is one long representation of being something they are not, one great illusion that has gained such a foothold among men that they live in this deception as if it were reality. People pride themselves in revealing their foolishness which they consider to be something of value in order to exalt themselves to be something which they can never be.

Seen in the light of God’s Word and in His Spirit, everything that is great will become small, and that which people call small will become great. We find that which is small in great things and great things in that which is small. Satan’s lust to rule, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven,” has completely dominated mankind since the Fall. However, God in His grace has always taken care of those who were affected by it. He has been the caring Father of the oppressed. He has loved and blessed those who have cared for the lowly and the poor; but He has punished those who have subdued them. The psalmist asks: Who is like God, who dwells on high? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:28 that God has chosen the base things, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. God passes by the things that are great and puffed up in order to help the helpless and the lowly—those who are as they are. Who is like the Lord? He stands at the right hand of the poor. Ps. 109:31. Those who should stand at the right hand of the poor in the assemblies stand at the right hand of those who are great, at the right hand of the leaders. There is no glory to be had from standing at the right hand of the poor. Oh, how people like to be a head taller than the people in the assembly and belong to the “leadership” who deign to be condescending to one or the other of the lowly ones who might by chance cross their path! This terrible, spiritual pride is found in our assemblies. Almost everyone wants to be something, and if they are not something they will exert every effort to become something. “Higher up!” is the heart’s cry. Above the stars of heaven! Who is like the Lord who looks down to the lowly places, who raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy out of the dung heap!

Everything in God’s kingdom appears to be insignificant. God, in His grace, has made it so in order to remove Satan’s poison in man, this poison that leads man upward! Now God is leading us down, down, downward! However, many people take Satan’s principle with them into the work in God’s kingdom. All vanity is being crushed in this work, the true work in God’s kingdom. It begins in lowliness, like a mustard seed that is smaller than all other seeds. And people say, “Can anything come of it?” They overlook that which is lowly and pronounce on that which is great, but if they are not faithful in little things, they will never obtain that which is greater. This is the very reason for so many unfruitful Christian lives. They despise the lowly work that is before them—the lowly person who is to be served. Who has believed our report? He grew up like a root out of dry ground; He possessed neither comeliness nor glory; and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. Isa. 53:1-2. It is hard for that which is great to descend to that which is low and begin with something that has no form. Who would want to do that? There is no glory, no “atmosphere,” nothing to see, and only scorn from those who want to be something. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46), that old, poor town in Galilee? Impossible! Go down to Gaza; this way is deserted. This is what the angel said to Philip. Acts 8:26. “What am I to do there? Wouldn’t it be better to go to Caesarea with its large population, good opportunities, and large collections?” This lowly mustard seed that is to triumph over man’s greatness, this root out of dry ground—it deserves all the honor because it crushes that which is great in the world, because that which is lowly before God and proceeds from Him crushes all that is great in man. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel . . . .” Micah 5:2. God always chooses that which is nothing to be something, so that that which is something shall not be anything. Paul rightly says: Associate with the humble. Rom. 12:16.

In his greatness, man ignores that which is lowly. Many people want to win those who are great, but who wants to win those who are small? Many people think that if only they could win him, it would be glorious; he has a nice appearance, he is rich and capable; he has great influence, etc. This external radiance causes people to dream. But that lowly person down there, nothing will become of him; he has no form so that people could desire him. Who is like the Lord? He grants the barren woman a home like a joyful mother of children. Who goes to help those who are barren and small so they can rejoice when they bear fruit in God’s kingdom? The one who wants to be great must be the servant of all. Who wants to serve the lowliest among the lowly in order to help him up so he can be something? The aim with serving is that the others can be something. The others’ progress becomes the servant’s joy.

David, that beautiful example of Jesus Christ, stayed in the cave of Adullam. 1 Sam. 22:1. Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was oppressed by debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him, and he became their captain. David was forced out into the wilderness by that power-hungry Saul. He became captain over all those who were in need, oppressed by debt, and discontented. Also in these days those who are in need gather together. They are not permitted to mature unhindered in the church of God because a few power-mad tyrants exercise authority. They are in need because they do not have the opportunity to go in and out and find pasture. The bad shepherds eat up the best pastures or rent them out to others. In the church everyone must have the opportunity to develop and grow according to the gift that God has given. This gift usually begins like a mustard seed, and when it is permitted to grow and develop it will become great. For example, one brother has been endowed with the gift of being an evangelist, another as a teacher, a third as a shepherd. However, when an appointed or self-appointed lord in the church is to be evangelist, teacher, and shepherd, etc., then those who should have an opportunity to develop are brushed aside and crushed in their development so that they become spiritual dwarfs. And when this lord himself cannot appear, he has to import a replacement because his small, cowed dwarfs do not possess a sufficient presence to parade before people. Therefore they have to rent others. Ezekiel says, “Is it too little that you have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture . . . ?” Ezek. 34:18. And what they don’t eat up themselves, they give to others to eat up, so that the poor, dried-up, and crippled sheep are left only to fill the benches and give in the collection. Nevertheless, the Lord knows how to judge between the fat and the lean sheep (v. 20), and those who are like the Lord will do the same. The person who serves so that others might be something will always be something to those who become something. No one will become smaller because he makes others great; only fools sit in high places, while the rich sit in a lowly place. Eccl. 10:6. On the contrary, the one who serves others so that they become great will be the greatest of all. The one who helps others up will bind them to himself with love; the one who rules over them uses authority over them; they are called their benefactors, as Jesus says in Luke 22:25. Jesus warns His disciples against becoming like that. Unfortunately, many believers are so ignorant that they want to have someone who can make them into slaves and devour the best pastures, because in the course of time these believers have become so spiritually tyrannized that they are only used to this state, flocking together to choose their leader, or someone like him who can be everything for them instead of they (as members of Christ’s body) complementing each other and growing in and through each other according to the mutual help that the one can give to the other. They are truly in need; some are even in such ignorance that a life in bondage to people has made them utterly dull and indifferent.

They were oppressed by debt. Those who sense they are indebted to everyone but do not have an opportunity to pay off their debt, are the ones who are oppressed by debt. “Owe no one anything except to love one another . . . .” Rom. 13:8. However, the greatest love, yes, even the only love can only be expressed in the church. For no one has greater love than this: that he lays his life down for his friends. For if we, in brotherly love, love all men, then all our love is still loving the church, which is the body of Christ; for all outward work is for the church, the body. Everyone who is hindered in this work is oppressed by debt. There is something that burdens such a person; it weighs on him and oppresses him; it must necessarily find expression in the exercise of love if he is not to be totally oppressed and end up in dull indifference, thinking that life cannot be otherwise.

They were discontented. They were discontented with sin and self-life and Satan’s power in all its variations. They were discontented because they were in need and oppressed by debt. Such people gathered around David out there in the wilderness. There were no fat pastures, no favor of man; there they were surrounded by enemies, by traitors, by Satan’s ambassadors. But God was there. Opportunities to be something in the eyes of the world were not great.

In 1 Samuel 22:7 we find that Saul compares his situations with David’s. He says to his men, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?” This is what they say who, like Saul, have been disobedient to the Lord but are left with a little bit of the glory. They point at the lowly and dry root, saying, “It is useless, but here you have opportunity to work; here is a good field of labor, a good pasture; here are vineyards over which I can appoint you. Here you can be a chairman of the feast committee; you can lead the youth work and the work with children. But what does the son of Jesse have to offer you?” Let us repeat what Jesus said: Kings rule over their people, and those who exercise authority over them are called their benefactors; but this must not be so in your midst. The greatest among you shall be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. “Yet I am among you as the One who serves.” Luke 22:25-27. God could use David and his men. David’s men were mighty men who were enraged in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. 2 Sam. 17:8. David’s mighty men are praised in 2 Samuel 23:8, ff. One of them killed eight hundred men, and another fought until his hand was weary and stuck to the sword. But David himself was like ten thousand, and about the Son of David, the Root out of dry ground, it is written that He was Chief among ten thousand. S. of Sol. 5:10. It did not look promising for David and his men, but God used them. The one who is in need, oppressed by debt, and discontented does not know what fear is. He has nothing to lose but everything to gain when he goes into battle. He presses into God’s kingdom with violence, which is the right of the poor, and gets what he needs in order to defeat the powers of darkness that keep his brothers in bondage under the yoke. Because such people know what need, debt, and discontentment are, they make haste to help their acquaintances so they can also be helped out of their need, pay their debt, and swing the sword against the enemy.

We need such David troops in these days against everything that resists the cause of God’s kingdom. The result of David’s battle was that his son had peace. The fathers owe it to their children not only to gather for them but also to fight for them and fortify a firm position for them.