Psalm 139:23-24; Nothing But the Blood (Robert Lowry, 1876).

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in Psalm 71. My attention was drawn to the correspondence between Psalm 71:1-4a and 31:1-3a. (Psalm 71 is part of a two-Psalms set (Psalms 70-71), and Psalm 71 provides Holy Ghost commentary on its mother Psalm–Psalm 31.)

However, as I awoke this morning, singing Nothing But the Blood, and knelt in worship singing Psalm 139:23-24, I kept thinking about Jesus’ love for His Church.

Along the still waters, I reflected on His love for His Church. The value of anything is measured by the price one is willing to pay for it. The Son spied a “treasure hid in a field … and for joy thereof [went] and selleth all that he [had to buy] that field” (Matthew 13:44). The “treasure” is the Church, the “field is the world” (Matthew 13:11, 38). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his ony begotten Son” (John 3:16). His Church is the “pearl of great price” that when He found He “sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:46). Nothing is more dear to a man than “his own blood,” especially the blood of his own son: God “purchased (the church) with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Thus is the measure of Christ’s love for His bride (John 3:29).

In the valley, kneeling in the shadow of His Cross, I thought about the bond created in travail. Jesus’ travail on the Cross created a bond between Him and all His children, like that of a mother and her child. The ultimate price is life, but add to that the suffering He endured in the parting of it. He presented HIs body to us in death that we might present ours to Him as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).

At the table, we discussed the indifference, disregard, and disdain with which many regard the Church and how that affects Him. He spoke to me of Ephesus and the leaving of her first love (Revelation 2:4). He talked to me of His enduring love, that He could never be indifferent toward His Bride. I sang, “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23a).

Love Him, love His church.

He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Goodness and mercy followed us into the harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏