THE REFILLED CUP

THE REFILLED CUP 

"I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of Jehovah" Psa. 116:13

This song stands distinguished from the previous one by the persistent personal note which runs through it. It is a song of praise for deliverance from great and almost overwhelming griefs. Thus, in the series constituting the Hanel, it is the song of the DELIVERED rather than that in any sense of the DELIVERER. In other words, it can hardly be called Messianic, except as it EXPRESSES THE PRAISE OF ONE EMANCIPATED by Messiah's work. DELIVERED FROM DEATH, FROM TEARS, FROM WEAKNESS, the soul asks: "What shall I render unto Jehovah, for all His benefits toward me?" Here is the answer. The cup of salvation is the CUP OF BLESSING, which is given to the soul. Let the soul take it and drink it, but let him remember that the very partaking is in itself of the nature of a PLEDGE OF LOYALTY; it is the OATH OF ALLEGIANCE in which he calls upon the Name of Jehovah. When the disciples joined in this song, their Lord had already taken a cup from the Passover Board, and given it to them to drink, declaring it to be "My blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins." If He, joined them in that song, and it is most probable that He would do so, He sang as the One Who, by entering into all the experience of their desolation, Himself being sinless, was able to FILL THE CUP WITH BLESSING for them. Within a very little while after this singing, He, in Gethsemane, spoke of a cup and, in complete surrender to His Father's will, consented to drink it. That was the cup of sor­rows, of bitterness, of cursing. Having emptied it, HE FILLED IT WITH JOY, WITH SWEETNESS, WITH BLESSING. When we take that cup let us never forget the cost at which He so filled it for us.