Psalm L
1 The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken.
And called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence:
A fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may
judge his people.
5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice.
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against
thee.
I am God, even thy God.
8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices,
Or thy burnt oiferings, to have been continually before me.
9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field
are mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the
fulness thereof.
13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High!
15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: 1 will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me.
16 But unto the wicked God saith,
What hast thou to do to declare my statutes,
Or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and easiest my words behind thee.
18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him. And hast been partaker with adulterers.
19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own
mother’s son.
21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence;
Thou though test that I was always such an one as thyself: But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.
22 Now consider this, ye that forget God,
Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
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158 PSALM L. — THE PRINCIPLES OF JUDGMENT.
23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me:
And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
‘’El, Elohim, Jehovah, has spoken/“* So reads the Hebrew. Arrived at the end — having sung of the elect’s cry, the response to their cry in the Mighty One’s appearing, the Mighty One’s protection, the throne on which he sits, the city where his glory abides, and himself in the glory — having also sung that melancholy dirge over those who have no portion in this lot of Theme and the righteous — the Psalmist is led by the Spirit to strike his harp to one other strain of a kindred nature. He here sets forth the principles of judgment that guide the decision of the King “who sits on the throne of his holiness,” and reigns from “out of Zion.”
It is the day of Rom. i. 18. The heavens are not silent now; angels come with the God of heaven. The glory of the Lord, and the gathering of the saints around him (see 2 Thess. ii. 4), those who over the sacrifice have entered into covenant with him, being celebrated in ver. 1-6, and the solemn *S’eZa/i-pause having given us time to fix our eye upon the scene, the Lord suddenly speaks, reasoning with men as to their wrong ideas of the way of salvation (ver. 7-15). Then follows their sinful practice (ver. 16-22). In ver. 22d the word Si is emphatic — “Consider this, I beseech you, ye who forget God,” Man treats God as if he were a being to be ministered unto, instead of a gracious, sovereign benefactor. Man acts in the view of God as if the holy God were such a one as himself. But the end comes. None shall enter into glory, none be shewn “the salvation of God,” i. e., his glorious completed redemption (such as Paul spoke of, Rom. xiii. 1 1, and Peter, 1 Pet. i. 5) at the Lord’s Appearing, excepting the man who “orders his conversation aright;” that is, who regulates his life by such rule as ver. 5; in other words, by gospel-rule — who prepares his way according to the preparation revealed to him by the Lord. The man who would so do must begin
* Coming to judge, he appears as in Rev. xix. with all his names. “El,” the Mighty God; “Elohim,” God, the object of worship and fear; “Jehovah,” he who has made himself known to Israel and his people, as having all being and perfection.
at the altar (ver. 5), and there “sacrifice,” or, “offer praise,” even as ver. 14 also declared. He must begin by owning Jehovah’s benefits to us sinners, responding to the song of the angels at Bethlehem over a Saviour born, and answering to the Saviour’s cry, “It is finished” by his soul’s glad acceptance of that finished work. This is the “ordering of the conversation” — and to declare this is the object of this Psalm. It sets forth, at the lips of the Righteous Judge himself. The principles that shall guide the judgment of the Righteous One at the gathering of the Saints.