The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Second Journey of the Lord: Nazareth - Cave at Bethabara (First Feeding of the People) - Mountain of Prayer - Walking on the Sea of Galilee (Peter's test of faith) - By ship to Genneseret in the bay with the same name
- Chapter 158 -
David's Psalm 47.
We catch up with the shipmates just as they were reading David's Psalms; seeing us, they get up from the ground to greet us, with their skipper coming up to Me, saying: "You alone could help us out of a tight spot! Towards evening last night several Pharisees and Scribes came to us, demanding a crossing towards Zebulun and Chorazin, but we refused on account of not being our own lords, but servants on the ship; and that now on a pre-Sabbath we were busy with reading the Psalters. Whereupon a young Scribe asked for the Psalters and opened it at Psalm 47, reading:
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1. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. 2. For the Lord Most High is awe inspiring; he is great King over all the earth. 3. He shall subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. 4. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob. whom he loved. Selah. 5. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. 6. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises unto our king, sing praises. 7. For God is the King of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding. 8. God reigneth over the nations; God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. 9. The princes among the people are gathered together as a nation before the God of Abraham; since God is greatly elevated among the shields on earth!'
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After he read this Psalm, he asked with gravity: "Do you understand this Psalm!" - And we had to unfortunately answer in the negative. In spite of breaking our heads over it since morning, we know no more than yesterday. We thought of You a thousand times. You could if it pleases you, shed us some light on it."
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Say I: "Behold the little maiden on My hand! Ask her, - she shall give you the proper light over it!"
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Say the skipper: "This maiden might hardly count fourteen summers Wherefrom is she going to take Solomon's wisdom?"
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Say I: "Yes, indeed! Not only Solomon's wisdom, but the wisdom of the wise of the Earth; and yet much above that dwells in her pure heart! Up till now, no man has managed to gaze beyond the stars; but ask her, and she shall proclaim it unto you! She carries the legendary 'wise men's stone' in her apron; wherefore she shall be able to unravel the short, yet portentous Psalm to you. Give it a try, and convince yourself."
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Says the skipper to his bosuns: "She really does look awfully clever! But she also has a truly angelically beautiful appearance, which does not augur for her wisdom too much! For it has been my experience that the most beautiful maidens are also the most stupid, something that is natural. The most beautiful children are also made into the most spoilt and conceited ones, and hence learn nothing or very little. But with a less beautiful child one does not usually fuss about too much. One easily punishes same for every indiscretion, and the child becomes humble and unassuming; it listens, is tolerant and learns much therewith. But we shall see what this celestially beautiful maiden can give us about this Psalm."
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After which the skipper turns to Jarah and asks her, and she replies with an endearing expression: "Dear friends, it's not as if I had ever learnt it in order to know it like a Scribe, but I feel it in a most living form within me; - what David's prophetic spirit predicted several hundred years ago has now been fulfilled before our eyes in a most telling manner. This you too should have discerned on the first try!
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Did you not yourselves see how He, of Whom David speaks, and Who now dwells physically among us, walked upon the sea as if it were dry land; and do you not see how He has in a few days, just through His word healed thousands from all kinds of sickness? The blind received their sight, the deaf their hearing, the leprous were cleansed, the lame and crooked made straight! And behold this mountain in front of us; how much one night has changed it! Who is able to move mountains and raise the sea from its bed? Who is He Whom all angels and elements obey?! Behold, here He stands before us physically; this one David meant!
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This one we are to clap with our hands, with works of true love of neighbour, and shout unto Him withe the pre voice of truth, without deception, without guile or craftiness! For let him beware who would encounter Him with the unclean shout of the lie! For notwithstanding His charm and gentleness towards the righteous, He is equally awe-inspiring to those who bear the lie, craftiness and deception their hearts, as it is also written: 'Terrible it is to fall into the hands of God; for God is a King almighty over the whole earth; no man hideth before him in any place!'
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He is here, to make, through His doctrine, all the nations to step among us, in order to partake of our salvation; and the people by whom are meant the children of the world, are put beneath our feet as judgement! For us alone has He made inheritors of eternal life; for we indeed are His inheritance! It is He of Whom Jacob spoke: 'Oh Lord, You alone are my glory!' And recognizing this in his heart, Jacob became a favourite of God, - a favourite of Him Who tarries among us here!
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But He shall not tarry among us for long, but soon ascend to His eternal heavens, namely with the merry voice of eternal truth, through which He has created a new earth and a new heaven for all eternities of eternities. And He is and shall be the Lord, and the bright sound of His trumpet, which is the word spoken to us, shall proclaim such to all Creation upon and in the earth, and upon and above all stars, spiritually and materially.
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To this one we are then, according to David's challenge, sing praises; for this one is our God and our sole King eternally!
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Since we know Who He is however, we are to praise Him with a pure and wise heart, and not the way of the hypocritical Pharisees, who draw close to a false Jehovah with their lips, but close their heart before this living Jehovah, distancing themselves from Him.
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He is not however just our God and King, but also of all the heathen upon the entire Earth; for He alone sits above all men, and above all of endless Creation; upon the eternal throne of His unlimited power and glory. Before Him all the princes of the Earth must assemble, as their nations before them; for He is the sole God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He alone is raised up by Himself above all, as also above all the shields of the mighty of this our wide Earth!
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That He came to us is an incomprehensible grace even to the angels! But He did not come unannounced; for all the prophets prophesied of Him. But many of the prophecies could not be comprehended by the people, on account of their hardness of heart. Now however He Himself has come of Whom the prophets had prophesied, and He Himself reveals Himself to all men of good will.
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But to those who have a wicked and haughty heart He cannot be other than terrible! For malice has, for all time, the almighty eternal righteousness as an inexorable Judge over itself! Just as a pair of good and sensitive scales shall register a discernible weight if just one hair is added on one side, just so there cannot persist, before Him Who is here, an ever so small falsehood, perversion, malice, unrighteousness and any other baseness of heart! Hence He has to be terrible to every sinner in whose breast there dwells a hard, obstinate and wicked heart. - Do you now understand Psalm No. 47 of David?"