Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
I've been thinking about the historic Wesley's Chapel in London, which we saw some years ago. And there is a jeweled window, so beautiful in a glory of color and art that many come from miles to see it.
And on the glass are the words from Psalms 139:9,10, "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." -- "If I had wings" he was saying.
You know, man has always wanted wings, always wanted to fly, always envied the birds, wanted to get away from it all. -- As we were watching the countdown for astronaut Glenn, someone said, "Well, he can at least get away from it for a while, I envy him!
"I'd sure like to get away from it all for a little while myself!" -- So many people feel confined and discontented with the "here," and they think surely there's something easier and brighter in the "there."
It was that way with David, the wonderful, praiseful Psalmist! The day came when he cried, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest."(Ps.55:6). He thought that wings would just lift him above all his troubles here.
Always we feel that there's something better just over the hill, a glorious liberty and a freedom somewhere else. One can write about this day in which we live, they can write the word "wings" over this day. For now man flies everywhere, and now with wings, man even flies around the world through space circling the world above the very birds whose realm he always did envy.
Tennyson wrote these words:
For I dipped into the future,
Far as human eye could see,
Saw a vision of the world,
And all the wonder that should be.
Saw the heavens filled with commerce,
Argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight
Dropping down with costly bales.
Heard the heavens filled with shouting
And there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies,
Grappling in the central blue.
Till the war drum throbbed no longer
And the battle flags were furled
In the parliament of man,
The federation of the world.
-- Well, surely he looked forward at something which he truly must have seen in the eyes of the spirit!
It has been in my day that a flying machine heavier than air raised above the ground and folks thought that was so very wonderful! Some of you remember the Wright brothers over the dunes of North Carolina, and how shocked the world was because it just remained in the air for about 12 seconds!
This seemed so impossible at that time that a reporter of a New York newspaper lost his job, because he wrote this up, and they said it was such a fantastic story. Then came the time when the Lonely Eagle flew the Atlantic alone.
This was all just the beginning, for not only are there wings over every sky today, but man has challenged the sky and gone soaring far above the eagle, hurtling through space in a strange craft which scorns wings now.
But I am not thinking of this kind of wings, but wings only as a symbol of the wings that God gives His children, wings that all of us can have if we will use them.
Wings that are so often born out of weights, when we're weary with the strain of it all and we fly to God for the rest He's promised, and relief that only God can give.
An acquaintance of mine has this little poem tacked above her sink:
Lord of all pots and pans and things,
Since I've no time to be a saint
By doing lovely things.
Or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the dawn light,
Or storming Heaven's gates,
Make me a saint,
By getting meals and
Washing up the plates.
-- And this always reminds me of the beautiful Verse in the Psalms:
"Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold."(Ps.68:13) -- Now what brings such a miraculous change to the Psalmist David? Well, he knew the secret.
He knew just how to mount up with wings as a dove! In Psalm 3:1,5,6 he seems to echo the cry, "Let me get away from it all," when he said, "Lord, how are they increased that trouble me. Many are they that rise up against me.
"I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me." -- There is the secret! "The Lord sustained me!" Then he continues, "I will not be afraid of ten thousand of people, that have set themselves against me round about."
The Lord sustained David and his weights had been changed to wings. There isn't a truer Scripture in God's Word than this, that "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles." (Isa.40:31). Putting this in the simplest of words,
The one that flies to the Word of God and there meditates and seeks the presence of the Lord, and waits in prayer until God touches his soul, truly mounts up and up to realms of peace and rest, and are truly, as this Verse says, "sustained by the Lord."
There's a sort of devilish gravitation in this old world, that daily strives to pull us down from the noblest and best, and the Word of God tells us here that there is an upward pull that'll lift us right up to the very heart of God.
"They that wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as the eagle, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." This is just practical everyday religion, that if you will go apart by yourself and take your Bible,
Quietly read and wait upon the Lord and talk to Him, and wait for Him to speak to your heart, soon you will find that you can run and not fall, and walk and not faint, and all the needed strength will be available, if you'll give God a chance.
But first you must mount up to the heart of God! There are those that try to run about, to walk in their own strength, running feverishly in the power of the flesh, hoping that they will somehow mount up.
But they put the feet before the wings! That is, they run around trying to do good things for the Lord without first getting into the Spirit of the Lord so that His work can be done in His spirit!
But the feet in this Verse come long after the mounting up on wings! What chance would health have if you never cared for your body! What chance would the glories of nature have if you never paused to watch them!
What chance does your soul have if you never take a few moments to have fellowship with God in your hurried life? If you never give Him a chance to talk to your heart and never take time to live in His Word and know His Will?
Wait on the Lord, He'll renew your strength and your spirit, for He's still on the Throne and prayer will change things.