Divine Images, part 7: cup (part one)

Part One 

When you sit down to eat, whether the table is nicely set or not there is generally always a cup of some kind.  We can go a while without food but we cannot go long without water; which explains why cups can sometimes be found in every room of the house.  

The cup is ordinarily used to refer to your portion.  Here are some things to consider next time you reach for your cup.  

First, remember that “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup (Psalm 16:5).”   You may remember that when land was divided up among the tribes there was one tribe that was in a sense left out.  They didn’t get an inheritance of land.  Every other tribe had their portion.  Some larger than others, but all of them had their piece of it - except the Levites.  Their inheritance was God.   No land… but God.

Here - in this Messianic psalm - Jesus, our Great Priest, says to God, “you are my portion, you are my cup.”   When I read portion I think of meal time.  You sit down at the table and each person in the family is given their portion.  Some meals are better than others, and some in the family get more than others.  Some may want more and others want less.  We try to teach our children to be satisfied with their portion.  There are times when we have sat down at the table, and though none of us have probably ever had to go without we have all had times we were less than thrilled by our portion.  But it did its job.  We ate and were satisfied. Other times we have come to the table and it’s like a great feast.  And again we ate and were satisfied, but this time there was pleasure in it.  We all understand the concept of a portion.  But there is a broader sense in which we should understand the word.  Our portion is whatever God has given us: this body, this job, this home, this family, this health, this set of circumstances.  All of it.

When Jesus says that God is His portion and cup He is referring both to what He has and to what He has chosen.  

A. First, He has God.  Like the levites, his portion and cup is not land, but God.   No man fulfilled that like Jesus because unlike even the levites He had no place to lay his head.  But He did have God.  Jesus was and is God’s only begotten son.  God is His father.  He and the Father and the Spirit are One.  He is God’s and God is His.  Between the persons of the Godhead there is communion and fellowship beyond anything we will ever understand.  Truly then Jesus can say of God, “I am His and He is mine”.  Remember this Jesus was with God and was God.  The Bible says the same was in the beginning with God.  Jesus says, “and now O Father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which i had with thee before the world was (John 17).”  Proverbs 8 says, “the LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before the works of old.  I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the ear was… when he prepared the heavens I was there… Then I was with him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him.” 

Consider how your children are yours.  They come from you.  They are of your flesh.   They belong to you.  And with that belonging there is something precious and lasting.  Nothing will alter that.  Of course, in a fallen world family ties can be broken - but even in a fallen world there is something about the family that surpasses all other ties.  There are bonds here that are stronger than any other bonds.  There is a sense of debt and obligation.  Ordinarily speaking there is nothing parents will not do for their children.  This is but a shadow of the precious bond between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The bond between the persons of the godhead is divine.  It is not earthly; and it is certainly not marred by sin.  It is a tie that cannot be broken.  There is infinite satisfaction between the persons of the godhead.  In the truest sense Jesus belongs to the Father and the Father belongs to Him.  Before the world was made He was with God and God was His God.  When He came into the world He was still with God and God was still His God.  And this is what is so remarkable and staggering about the incarnation: that the Son of God left the glories of heaven, left that perfect bliss of fellowship with the Father and the Spirit to take on flesh and dwell among us.   Here things were not so stable.  Now in this fallen sinful world He had a portion much like we do.  He had parents in this world.  He had a home; and then when he began His ministry no place to lay His head.  He knew what it was to suffer, to be hungry, to be weary, to be loved and praised and then hated, betrayed and mocked.  So he had his portion here - but he had God.  And that is what mattered.  Not what men did or said, not what was on his plate at meal time, not the weather, not where he would sleep but that He had God, and that God was His.  

To a certain extent you can say the same.  Though you are a creature, though you were not with God in the beginning, though you are not holy, harmless and undefiled, by faith you are in Christ.  Which simply means that what He said you can say.  In Christ, you can say God is your portion and cup.  You have God.  “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever (Psalm 73:26).” “Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep thy words (Psalm 119:57).”  “I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living (Psalm 142:5).”   “The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name (Jeremiah 51:19).”   “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him (Lamentations 3:24).”

B. Second, He has chosen God.  Often we are coveting because we wish we had what another man had.  We haven’t been given a choice like this one, but suppose you could have anything.  You could own what you wanted, go where you wanted.  Suppose you could have nations and worlds.  In a sense, Jesus made his choice.  He knew what was in men, he knew what was in the world, he knew the universe like you can never possibly know it, he took it all in with perfect understanding but He chose God because God is better.  He knew this better than I do, and better than you do.  We say heaven will be wonderful, but Jesus knew it.  We say that God is lovely and worthy and wonderful but Jesus knew.  He knew the excellencies that are in God. He knew the majesty of God.  He knew Him, and He loved Him.  God satisfied Him.  There was delight between them: such joy, such happiness, such perfect unspeakable bliss and gladness.  And so without hesitation or deliberation the Lord Jesus chose God as His portion.  Not the world, not worlds, not heavens, but God.  

Have you made that choice?  Can you say that you have chosen God?  Were Satan to come offering you the world would you refuse him because you have better than the world?  Take a minute to meditate on this.  Have you honestly assessed the situation, taken it all in, counted the cost (concerning the sufferings it will entail, the losses you will incur, the friends you will lose, the enemies you will make, the jobs you won’t have) and said, “still, God is my portion and my cup?”  Can you say that you are willing to let those things go, willing to let go of worldly pleasures, willing to let go of family and friends and safety and health and comfort and ease, but unwilling to let go of God?  Can you say that if you could have just one thing - not two or three but one - that you would choose God?  Can you say that in this world you can bear the loss of  all things (anything), but you cannot bear the loss of God?  God in His mercy has given you that choice.  He has put you in the church, he has offered you the gospel of the glory of Christ, He has revealed Himself to you so that you can choose.  Do you choose God?  Charles Spurgeon said, “The lord is our portion and this is incomparably moe than if we had heaven and earth; for all the earth is but as a point compared with the vastness of the heavens, and the heavens themselves are but a point compared with God.”

Second, remember that your cup runneth over (Psalm 23:5).  You have met those who cup is always half empty.  Yours runneth over!  Why?  Because you have God.  You can say of Jesus - that Friend that sticks closer than a brother - “I am His and He is mine.”  You will one day appear with Him in glory; but for now "to live is Christ."  The Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you (Galatians 2) is with you to the end of the age.  No wonder if your cup is not merely full but running over.  He not only satisfies, He is our exceeding joy.  “And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).”  

Third, remember that “the Lord’s portion is his people (Deuteronomy 32:9).”  You may wonder how that can be.  I certainly do.  Do you not find yourself sometimes (like the hymn writer) standing amazed wondering how He could love you a sinner condemned unclean?  Today I have been singing along with George Beverly Shea, “Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise, for it was grace that bought my liberty;  I do not know just why He came to love me so, He looked beyond my fault and saw my need; I shall forever lift my eyes to Calvary to view the cross where Jesus died for me; How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul.”  The truth is, if you have been saved you were once dead in trespasses and sins… "but God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us (Ephesians 2:4).”  Sometimes the weak believer isn’t sure what to make of himself, but he knows what to make of Jesus.  He finds Him wonderful and worthy and lovely.  He loves Him… but where did that love come from?  It was God who first loved you.

Part 2 is coming.   

* The section on Psalm 16 is borrowed from portions of a sermon on Psalm 16 which I preached in November of 2020.