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Majestic Sweetness sits enthroned

Upon the Saviour’s brow;

His head with radiant glories crowned

His lips with grace o’erflow.   (Samuel Stennet)

 

There is no doubt that the sense of “MAJESTY” has all but disappeared from our present society. The spirit of a casual world is all around us, expressed in areas of dress, deportment and language. This is a fixed attitude of a world which as Jude reminds us in v.8 “despises dominions and speaks evil of dignitaries”. As believers in the Lord Jesus we hear the Holy Spirit say to us in Romans ch.12 v2 “Be not conformed to the world”, the world here being the organised system in opposition to God. A number of words in both Old and New Testaments are translated “Majesty” and are used to convey such ideas as magnificence, splendour, glory, beauty, honour and greatness. Whatever degree of majesty may have been seen in earthly courts, must fade before “the glory of His majesty”. Job was instructed by God about this majesty, and was asked a number of questions in ch.38, “canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion, canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee, here we are”? These marvels of nature all witness to the greatness and majesty of our God. When Isaiah saw it he cried, “Woe is me”. When John saw it, “he fell at His feet as dead”. It blinded Saul of Tarsus and laid him on the ground. As believers we cannot excuse our failure to acknowledge the majesty of deity by saying we live in the day of grace and God is our Father and we are His children. In our delight in the lowliness of the Lamb of God, we cannot forget His loftiness as the Lord of Glory. We cannot confuse the joy of intimacy with the brashness of familiarity. A great deal has happened since the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. Peter expressed on the day of Pentecost, “God has made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ”. Of course we delight in the sweet and precious name of Jesus, but when with unshod feet we draw near to His majesty, let us not forget to glorify Him by ascribing His Lordly title and exalted ministry. We dare not allow the casualness which marks our society to intrude into our thinking, and then find we are expressing it in our lives.

 

E. Taylor