Read through the eighteenth Psalm as the words of the Lord Jesus. It is an inspired description of the awful conflict of the powers of darkness against the Son of man, when he tasted death for every man. Have you ever wondered why there were not given to us in the four Gospels more intimate glimpses of the human heart-throbs of Jesus? Have you wished that you might enter somewhat into the meaning of Gethsemane, rather than to have him go into the garden alone? Read in the eighteenth and other Messianic Psalms the human heart-throbs of the Son of man. “I love thee, O Jehovah, my strength. Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. I will call upon Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from mine enemies. The cords of death compassed me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came upon me.” HIS Secret of Victory Read on in the Psalm the description of this conflict with the supernatural powers of evil, and find in it the secret of our Lord’s victory over them. _He did not count upon any strength in himself. He looked to another._ He was a man, and if there was to be any strength in him for victory over that supernatural enemy, that strength must come from another. The secret of our Lord’s victory was just this: “I will put my trust in him.” The Holy Spirit made no mistake in his selection of Old Testament passages when he wished to show that it behooved this Saviour of ours “in all things to be made like unto his brethren,” and that “in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Heb. 2:17, 18). Jesus lived the Victorious Life, not because he was God, but because he was perfect man; he lived as God planned that man should live. In a very true sense (though the statement would need certain qualification), our Lord took to himself no more advantage in the matter of winning victory over temptations than have we, his brethren. Why He Emptied Himself But _he_ was _God_. Yes, all the fulness of the Godhead was in him, or he could not have made atonement for the sins of his brethren. But remember that Christ Jesus emptied himself. This does not mean that he ceased in any sense to be God. But there was something that he had as God, in glory with the Father, that he did not have as the God-man living here on earth. He was rich up there; he was poor down here (2 Cor. 8:9). Of what did Jesus empty himself? He emptied himself of the glory that he had with the Father before the world was. The full meaning of that none of us can fathom. But here again there is a very practical application to our everyday living of this profound doctrine of the humiliation of our Lord: