"What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." [Psa 116:12-13]
Today, we will look again at the above passage: there is still yet one beautiful jewel for us to dig from out of this verse, so that we might behold with awe at the way it shines and glows in the light of Christ’s glory. For this, we turn our attention particularly to the phrase, “I will take the cup of salvation.” What is this cup, how may we take it, and why?
We would do well to remember Jesus’ words in the garden of Gethsemane, which means “oil press.” Luke writes,
“And when he was at the place, He said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” [Lk 22:40-44]
It was there in the garden, in the “oil press” as it were, where Jesus was pressed as an olive, where His soul began to be crushed by The Father’s very own hand, and where The Holy Spirit, that precious “golden oil” [Zech 4:12] began to issue forth from the heart of Christ. It was there where the fulness of what He had to endure was revealed to Him, where the waves and billows began to crash against His soul, so that He uttered to His friends and disciples, “my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.” [Mt 26:38] But even though Jesus was being subjected to much torment, He never gave up; in fact, when faced with the reality of this situation and the torment of being forsaken by God upon the cross, He did not give up or relax but “being in agony He prayed more earnestly.” The Greek word for “being in agony,” can also mean to struggle for victory; and so it was, that Jesus, unlike Hagar who sat a bow’s shot away from her child, saying, “let me not see the death of the child,” Jesus sat a stone’s cast away that He might struggle in prayer to obtain glorious victory for us, and for His disciples who were sitting nearby. It is written truthfully in the book of Hebrews regarding us, that “ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin,” but the glorious truth of the matter, is that Christ did resist – even unto blood; for in that garden Jesus resisted and found victory over anxiety, over fear, over discouragement, over all sinful attitudes and feelings and, “for the joy being set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,” [Gen 21:6, Heb 12:2, 4] and He so struggled there against sin that “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
There in the garden, our precious Lord did strive with zeal and passion unto victory. This was always His attitude. Before this moment, but not so far removed, Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour[?]: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name…” [Jn 12:27-28] We can see that it was never in Jesus’ thoughts or desires to flee from this battle; it was not His desire in any wise to avoid that which The Father had for Him, for He said, “nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done.” Jesus was willing to drink the cup The Father had given Him. And praise God for this, for this is the cup that was destined for us, who were enemies of God and wicked sinners, but that which Christ gladly drank for us, His beloved bride and inheritance. It is written, regarding this cup, in the Psalms, saying,
“For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” [Psa 75:6-8]
That dreadful cup, whose dark wine swirled in God’s hand, ever ready to be dumped upon our heads (for the wrath of God abode upon us [Jn 3:36]), was always destined for “the wicked of the earth;” and as Paul says, “and such were some of you.” But thanks be to God, for we “are washed, but [we] are sanctified, but [we] are justified in the name of The Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” [1 Cor 6:11] Yes, a thousand praises be to our God and His Son Jesus, for we have been gloriously saved; for Christ our King and Messiah has drunk every last drop of that cup, leaving it bone dry; so that we might “take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord,” so that we might lift up that dreadful chalice and show our Father its emptiness, thus gaining His mercy for the sake of what Jesus has done for us in drinking it. So then, let us take the cup of salvation and call upon His name, seeking to obtain His mercy in Jesus Christ; for our God “taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” [Psa 147:11]
Bright And Morning Star 