July 28 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"...showing himself through the lattice" (Song 2:9 KJV).

Devotional

Our Lord does not care to conceal himself from his saints. He remembers that all your loveliness is through him, that all your grace is in him, and that all your happiness is from him. Therefore, he delights to afford you every means and occasion to increase your knowledge of him, and to perfect your resemblance to him.

This is a clearer and more glorious discovery of Christ because it is Christ's manifesting himself in his revealed Word. The doctrines, precepts, and promises of his Word can be likened to "the lattice" of his house through which our Lord Jesus shows himself when you come to study his Word, not as a self-sufficient teacher, but as a sincere and humble learner, deeply conscious how little you really know, and thirsting to know more of God in Jesus.

When our Lord Jesus shows himself through these "lattices"—perhaps by some type, or prophecy, or doctrine, or command—then you are instructed, sanctified, and blessed. So many readers of the Bible suffer loss because they do not search it for Christ. Many study it in order to increase their knowledge of numerous peripheral things, but how few search it for Jesus! And yet in knowing Jesus the pavilion of all spiritual mystery is unlocked. To know and fear God is the beginning of all knowledge. The living God is only truly known as revealed in the only Mediator, Jesus. Therefore he who is experientially acquainted with Jesus, holds in his hand the key that unlocks the vast treasury of God's revealed mind and heart.

Oh, dear reader, search for Christ in the lattice of the Word! Its types foreshadow him. Its prophecies unfold him. Its doctrines teach him. Its precepts speak of him. Its promises lead to him. Rejoice in the Word, but only as the wise men rejoiced in the star, as it led them to Christ. Our Lord Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" (John 5:39). The Word of Christ is precious, but nothing more precious than Christ himself and his formation of the soul. Do not rest in the Word, but look through the Word to Christ.

O blessed Lord, I would sincerely open this box of precious ointment—your own Word—that the fragrance of your grace and of your Name might revive me. It is your Word, and not man's word, that can meet my need and satisfy my soul. Man can only direct me towards you; your Word brings me to you. Your servants can at best but bring you in your gospel to my heart; but your Spirit of truth brings you through the gospel into my heart. Oh, show yourself to me in the gospel "lattice" of your Word, and I shall rejoice as one that has found great treasure—in finding you.

Break thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
as thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
throughout the sacred page I seek thee, Lord,
my spirit pants for thee, O living Word.

(Mary A. Lathbury, 1877 [st. 1, line 3 alt.])

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.