Psalms 128–138
Psalm cxxviii. Bat if the Lord’s blessing alone can keep or give success, they who fear the Lord can count upon it. And this is true. It does not exclude persecution, nor does it exclude discipline and the exercise of faith. But when Ave walk in the fear of God, we are in the path of peace even here. “Who is he that shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” It does not mean a prosperity which consists in gratifying our lusts, but in the peaceful enjoyment of divine favour here below. But there is one joy above all others, here spoken of as the then fruit of godliness — the seeing the Lord’s people, and the Lord’s habitation, in prosperity and peace, manifestly blessed of God. This, as regards this world, is the highest, most constant wish of the heart. Blessing shall come to us out of God’s dwelling-place, the place of faith on the earth, before the final temple of glory is built and Ave see blessing resting on it. The details arc, of course, Jewish, present outward blessings. This is the final blessing promised in the place of distress. And on this faith counts in the evil day and time of distress. Joyful to receive any
THE PSALMS. — PSALM (XXIX. 319
anticipation of it in the Church of Cod now, and in this detail it applies now, we know that the peace will be perfed when God shall have accomplished His counsels. We do look for it before, but we are
of it-then, for He wills the blessing of the Church. Zion is the place of faith. It is not the temple on Moriah, but where David placed the ark when he had
lit it hack. The Lord is owned there. So we; we have the blessing in the seat of grace in power; we shall have perfect rest.
Psalm exxix. The soul looks hack and sees God’s faithful dealings all along the mad — a blessed thought! How sweet it is to turn hack and see, while we were obliged to walk by faith, and it was as though He beheld not, the eye of the Lord has unceasingly waited on us and ordered all things! It is the effect of rity 1” be able to do this. It is true that he who could say, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of the life of my pilgrimage,” could also say, “The angel that redeemed me from all evil.” And it ;- blessed to see His faithfulness, even when we have failed, when our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God. Still, it is another thing when in the path of Cod through trials and difficulties (perhaps doubts and fears of success as to service and making good what was committed to us), we can trace i!i good hand of Cod all through. And here sorrow
and trial are looked at, the hostility of God’s enemiee against Cod’s people. Bu it was in vain. God, even if He had ohastised, had been faithful, and now had manifested His righteousness, faithful to His own ways and promises, the expectation He had raised, the trust He had called for. He had cut asunder the cords of the wicked. We may expect it. He will chastise if needed, though He does not afflict willingly; but He will make good the expectation of faith, He will deliver and bless; and the expectation of the proud shall be as the grass upon the housetop.
Psalm exxx. The last psalm considered the sorrow and suffering of those that are the Lord’s, and the pleasure of the wicked in their oppression. This refers to the chastisement and evil to which I have alluded above in commenting on it. The sorrows have their character to the soul, not in the oppression of the wicked, but in the consciousness of sin with God. The oppression is unrighteous, the pleasure of wickedness; but while, when God restores, we can see this, yet restoration is with God and in looking to His mercy, owning — and yet in spite of what we have deserved — and looking, with a heart which has the sense of its sin, to His deliverance. For here it is not forgiveness in the sense of justification, though allied to it, but of government. But it is the question of the Lord’s marking iniquity, not of oppression, though that were the outward rod that brought iniquity upon the soul from God’s hand. But the Lord is cried to. No turning, to gain release, to the oppressor; that is in character apostacy, and accepting the power of evil and making terms with it. The soul is in the depths, but it refers it in integrity to its sin, cries to the Lord in faith as one who forgives; waits for the Lord to come in when He is pleased, so
THE PSALMS. — PSALM CXXXL, (XXXII.!
as that the deliverance is righteous, and His favour too, and His word is trusted in. “Lot Israel hope in the Lord,” he concludes, and this glorifies His character as above evil and Himself good; and till deliverance has that character, it is nut looked for. With Him Is mercy and plenteous redemption j mercy to the faulty soul and plenteous redemption. Thus 1 here is truth in the inward parts, and God’s true character and His active power in complete deliverance are known. How far better than compromise with evil i
Psalm exxxl* gives us another character of the returning soul — the soul right with God. It is not speculative or haughty in mind, does not re; matters. It walks in meekness as a weaned child and waits for deliverance: it hopes in the Lord. But activity of mind as to what ought to be and managing matters, which are really in God’s hand, does not go together with true hoping in Him in lowlim heart. And this is often a great trial of faith when we see the power of evil.
Psalm exxxii. This psalm is important as showing the position which all these psalms of degrees occupy. We have, indeed, the house, as in Psalms exxii; and exxvii., the former of which seems to refer to the temple; yet I think hardly there as yet accepted and built of God, as Psalm exxvii. shows. The remnant were rejoiced at the thought of going to the house and Jerusalem, and we have it clothed with the thoughts of faith. lint the Lord had not vet built it. For all the songs of degrees are the expi-ession of the godly ones’ thoughts and feelings between their external restoration, when the sonr grape is ripening in the flower (Isaiah xviii.), and the full restoration to the Lord’s enjoyed blessings, their enemies being cut off by judgment. It is all Isaiah xviii., but with this we have Zion and David — the interference of power in grace, connecting the hearts of the remnant with Jehovah as a present thing, and giving the present testimony that His mercy endureth for ever. For David placed the ark on Mount Zion, and had this song first sung after the ark had been delivered from the Philistines, and brought up from the house of Obed-edom. Israel in responsibility had failed, and God had delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemies’ hand. Now, it was brought out, and sovereign grace, for His name’s sake (first by a prophet, and next properly by power in grace, by a king), acted in behalf of Israel, and gave a new link and ground of relationship in the ark on Mount Zion. This was not the temple, the place of settled peace and prosperity; but it was a link with God renewed to faith, David being the centre. David’s son, as the true Solomon, would give in time the full blessing; for David did not, after all, build the house. So the place of rest here is in the heart and in hope; what we have is the person on whom the blessing is founded. (Compare 2 Sam. vii. and 1 Chrou. xvii.) We have David brought before us as the great dispensational root and characteristic, consequently of the blessing, but the house is the subject, a dwelling-place for the mighty one of Jacob. Hence, also, it is not wilderness blessings. It is not, ‘• Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered;’’ and, “Return, “Lord, to the many- thousands of [srael.” (Numb. x. 3, 5, G.) It is “Arise, (> Jehovah, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy Btrength.” It is Zion which is God’s rest forever. This it is He has chosen; there He will make the horn of David to lmd. The person of David’s Son, royal grace in Zion, is thus what characterizes the blessing. Whatever house is built, David ami his trouble is remembered, mpt Solomon the typical son of David, and his house. In truth, Solomon’s faith was personally every way inferior, lie went to Gibeon, not to Zion; to the empty tabernacle, not to the ark until afterwards. David’s heart was on the house. It was all right. But God built his as He replied to him. It is the personal grace of Christ that is the centre of all, and the faith that, when the outward blessing was not yet there in peace, formed the true link with (Jed.
What a blessing for the remnant then, and this is in principle our case now, and especially in these latter days! His tabernacle and His footstool are more than the temple. Hence, in the Epistle to the Heb the tabernacle, never the temple, is taken as the figure and shadow of the blessings of faith, though not so the very image. Still Cod’s rest is desired, i.e., that Mr should rest, and so we worship in His h(
Let us Bee a little in what particulars this is broughl
out. The answer of Cod is in everything beyond the
There are three requests. The first is thai
Jehovah should arise into His rest, that Jehovah’- priests may he clothed with righteousness. This became them, it was the right desire. The righteous
Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright. How often had they been otherwise! The second is, that Jehovah’s favour and blessing- might be such that the saints might shout for joy. The third is, that for David’s sake Jehovah should not turn away the face of His anointed. As to David there is the positive promise, and the conditional one. The answer then comes. Zion will be His rest for evei He hath desired and chosen it; her priests will be clothed with salvation, her saints shout aloud for joy. There the horn of David will bud, his crown nourish on him — the true David and David’s Son, the Beloved. And now note the principles. The afflictions of faith are the true path of blessing. A rest for God is the desire of the new nature; for sin, disorder only has disturbed that rest, and note that rest which has its place in His relationship with His creatures, for in Himself He ever rests; but He must rest in holiness and love, in the state of the creatures, with whom He has to do, being according to His mind and love. This the heart desires. It is God’s rest, nor can the heart rest till then. But this is according to the wTay of His presence; in Israel covenant-promise and governmental glory; for us our Father’s house, God’s rest according to His own nature, holy and without blame before Him in love, and in glory. That it is in the Beloved, the true David, the Anointed, the Christ — this both secures and gives the true character of the blessedness in, with, and like Him. But note, that simplicity of faith, its proper energy, leaning not on the past which is ruined or to be forgotten, but on what is before us as its object and on only dependence, on divine leading as to it — simplicity of faith, wrought as it is by God, leads into the place of God’s desire and Cod’s election. David brought the ark to Zion, hut Zion God had chosen, bad desired for His habitation. This in us is identified with a new creature. made partakers of the divine nature. Tn this faith lives, and acts, and judges. It is in the saint a new nature, living on Christ as its object and food. And it learns and knows the place of God’s rest herein. For David and Zion are really identified each in its own way with one another. Thus our new nature. God’s desire, God’s election, God’s rest, and Christ Himself all coincide. But the place of Christ’s glory, which is Cod’s rest, where lie dwells, Cod owns as His for ever. “This is my rest.’’ And faith looks at all connected with it, priests and saints as Cod’s — “thy priests” and “thy saints.” But then He, taking Christ for the resting place of His glory, and contemplating the place of His dwelling and rest and habitation (i.e., for us, the Church which is His habitation, His tabernacle, His city holy Jerusalem) — He baying thus so associated Himself with her (comp. Eph. iii. 21; and Rev. xxi. 3), looks at the priests and saints as her priests and her saints, thus specially BhowingHis delight ill her. His identification with her. ilis priests are her priests, His saints her saints, as thai to which they belong. Then it is He sets up the glory of David’s born; the glory of the power, and rule of the Beloved; and this (while David is the foundation, His everlasting glory the result) is the subject of the Psalm Zion l’”i- us, the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem. This is His rest, His dwelling place forever, His desire.
what He has chosen. And if He fully glorifies His Anointed, as He will and must do, it is there He will do it. Though His name flourish in Himself (for His person must be the ground and centre of glory), yet its place is in the city of grace and glory. Her priests, her saints will have salvation and abundant joy. One cannot say her David or her Christ; that would be oxit of place. His dignity is our personal glory, but it dwells here as the place with which it is associated, and all the rest can be called hers. The glory is His, the place of it the chosen city of God — for us, the ( ‘liurch, the heavenly Jerusalem.
There, too (Psalm cxxxiii.), blessing and unity are, but here after the analogy of Aai-on; the lowest skirt of his garment partakes of the anointing of the head, and this one Spirit makes the unity according to which (Eph. iv. 3) they ought to dwell together. The blessing, too, was there. The abundant dew of Hermon, i.e., abundant as on Hermon, fell upon the mountain of Zion. This fellowship was rich in blessing from above, as the desired refreshing of abundant dew fell in the everlasting hills. For in Zion Jehovah had promised the blessing. The anointing of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, and the refreshing of goodness from on high in abundance, shall accompany the unity of Israel in Zion. How far more deeply true was it on the Church, when the anointing of the Holy Spirit and His full ministration of grace by the word revealing heavenly things enriched and gladdened the unity in Christ which that Spirit formed! Alas, where is it now 1 Yet it is our privilege.
THE PSALMS. — PSALM XX XIV. 32 t
These psalms of degrees close by a summons to bless Jehovah. (Ps. exxxiv.) There in the Banctuary they were to bless; on the other hand blessing is pronounced out of Zion upon him who 1ms gone through the sorrows and endured. It is Bielchisedec bles nly in
Jehovah’s sanctuary, and out of Zion where grace has set power to bless. It is the full crowning expression of the result of these psalms; the points, able to Mess .Jehovah in His own sanctuary, and the godly man blessed out of long desolate Zion — but, where Jehovah HOW dwells. The city over which Jesus could weey), dust Jehovah’s servants bail remembered, was now the seat of Jehovah’s sanctuary, and, what was more, of Jehovah’s presence. This will not bo fully ours till we are in our Father’s house. But then, though praise will surely go up unceasingly, we shall not have need to call on others to bless. “We are kings and priests, as, indeed, we bless now as such in spirit, and as more than that, as dear children, holy and beloved. It is in the holiest of all, where no Jewish priest could enter to bless even in figure, that we stand in reality, and bl< Him in whose presence and light tand there. Night we cannot say then, for “there shall be no night there;’’ now we praise in Spirit here, savin — ,” the night is far spent.” And as to our souls, the darkness passes, the true light now shines. But it is in the holiest we bless, in God’s own presence, and hence in heaven. We may well say He has set us in a wealthy place. And while on earth it will then be Jehovah the Creator who will bless out of the chosen place of grace in power, He who gives eternal life, and in whose knowledge it is possessed, blesses us as brought home into the possession of it, in the seat of the unclouded, knowledge of it, where what He is, as the power and source of it, is fully displayed. To knew thc Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is eternal life. The Father has life in Himself, and, in the Son, man here below has life. He was it with the Father before the world. We have it in Him, and there in that which that life is, and therefore enjoys, as a holy being enjoys holiness, a loving being love, we shall possess the divine fulness in God of that which we delight in. And it is the God of redeeming love, the Father and the Son, not simply the Creator of heaven and earth. Such is our place. “We enjoy it now by the Holy Ghost, but it is now but in earthen vessels. Still we are called to be “holy and without blame before Him in love,” and children with the Father, and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The accomplishment of promises in grace is much, the enjoyment of communion is more. The Psalms of degrees are the progress of Israel in the land, out of sorrow and through sorrow, to the full blessing in Zion, which forms the crowning result. Jehovah being there.
Psalm exxxv. gives the more general praise of Israel, not so much priestly praise, but then it consequently brings out the place of the people as such with God. They are in the courts of God, there as His people, praise Him, for He is good, and it is pleasant. We do praise Him as priests in the sanctuary. But we praise Him also as on earth in the sense of His goodness, ’ and praise is pleasant. His name is known; that is.
His revelation of Himself, so as to be known to us. But there is more: we sing, as we do all else, as the elect of Cod, holy and beloved — an immense privilege. It is not only that God is good, what He is in nature; but we are the special objects of His favour and it. This, when known, is an immense delight. As people of God we know it, and for ourselves as part of it, but, when personally brought home, it is of divine delight to be the peculiar treasure of God, and thai not as a national election but according to His own nature, the personal objects of His delight. It is known, it is evident, as of pure grace. It is what gives it its value. Faith recognizes it as true, rests in it. It is a doctrine of Scripture — the faith, but in relationship it is great delight. But we know withal that He is great, and though we know Him as Father, yet we do know Him, realize His presence, as exceeding great, and as supreme above all; and the heart delights in this. Our God is above all. It is more general for us than for all Israel who could speak of other gods, but the absoluteness and supremacy of God for the heart remains true. He is sovereign in His actings everywhere, a comfort when we have to traverse in weakness a world of wickedness. He disposes of everything. He has smitten the power of evil and brought out His people, and brought them into a heavenly inheritance whence the powers of darkness arc expelled. This is true for us now, as in Kphcsians iv. and Oolossians ii., though not for the possession of tin’ inheritance. And we reckon fully on the final result. And it is looked for presently, though no day Or hour be known. This as to Israel is broughl out here
Y in a remarkable passage. The original promise in which God appeared to Moses as taking lip Israel for ever in grace, His name of memorial for ever, is cited; and the prophetic declaration in Deuteronomy xxxii. of what He would do when Israel had wholly utterly failed — judge His people and repent Himself concerning His servants. The idols are nought. It is in the place of royal rest that praise is found, the Jerusalem where Jehovah dwells. And so for us, the Church and even the individual saint knows itself as the heavenly dwelling-place of God, the bride; and now we dwell in Him and He in us, as we know by the Spirit, and collectively too are buildcd together for an habitation of God through the Spirit; but it is as a new heavenly thing, as that which is heavenly, as that which remains.
Psalm exxxvi. celebrates a blessed principle in connection with Zion, the place of sovereign grace in power. Our having the place of praise and thanksgiving depends on this, that His mercy endures for ever. Ichabod had been written on Israel; the ark where the blood was to be placed on the day of atohemen, that Israel might have a place with God, was taken — as far as Israel went, lost. But God’s mercy endures for ever, and David, so soon as he sets the ark on Zion, establishes this song there, celebrating the alone Jehovah, the creator and wonder-doer of His people. His mercy does endure for ever for us. Christ and the Father’s love in every way secure our blessing and ourselves for it. But while glory awaits us, and He will confirm us to the end, we possess that in which He confirms us, even eternal life as His children. The
TUE PSALMS. — PSALM CXXXVII., (XXXVIII. 331
life we have and know it, the inheritance we have nothing of aa yet, but arc assured of and being kept for
it. And in this wilderness we can abundantly say, His mercy endureth for ever. But it is only along the road we say it, because we have eternal life. Only if a soul wanders from Him and is restored, it can say with special application, His mercy endures for ever.
Psalm exxxvii. There is a double application of
this to our souls. Nothing can make us forget the heavenly Jerusalem, the house where Cod and the Lamb are the temple, and where they dwell. All the glory of the world is nothing compared with that heavenly home. But the Church on earth, which will he it in glory, arrests our hearts; we see it desolate and her walls cast down, her children scattered or in captivity. But the saint’s heart is still there. The outward worldly glory of Babylon cannot efface the attachment and love of heart to the Church as God founded it on earth; and even the judgment of those who corrupted it is looked for with joy by the Christian. Hut of the individuals a Christian could not do that — it would be revenge — but of the whole power of evil.
Psalm exxxviii. Bu the enduring of Cod’s mercy for ever brings out a blej ed apprehension in the heart of many other truths, which make Cod’s character known, and His word precious as revealing it and as sure, BO thai the whole heart praises. And this is a very important element. Not will for
ing. not even thankfulness for that which we do desire, while the main current of the heart is elsewhere than with God; but such a learning of God as makes the whole heart praise Him, and this is always in circumstances which makes the whole heart want Him (as it will be with Israel in the latter day). This may be learnt gradually by emptying of self, or in times of deep trial when help fails, and thus self is broken up within. Hence, too, when God is thus known, He is praised in presence of all the pretentious power of this world, which seemed to make those that leaned upon it happy and enriched. We praise with the whole heart, we praise before the gods, all within; all without has given place to God known and revealed in His word. Lovingkindness and truth are the great traits in which He is known, just as grace (a fuller word) and truth came by Jesus Ghrist, who is the living Word. There they came, and we know their fulness and perfectness in Him; here they are learned by experience, and it is lovingkindness in nature and circumstances, not infinite and perfectgrace in itself. But God had here made good His word. His faithfulness had exalted itself, and taught the saint how right he was in trusting God when all seemed contrary. But this involved His goodness also in caring for us and persevering in His love in spite of failure. His word taught us to trust in Him, was in its nature a call to it, revealed His goodness to sinners to this effect, but called us to wait on Him to this effect, to trust Him though it set us in a lowly place, apparently far off from all our desires and left evil in power to try our faith. So it was with Christ and those who followed Him. — But there is another point. The saint led by this word, and guided in his thought8 by it, cried and was answered; and, before the public answer came forth by power, God strengthened with strength in his soul. How true this is of Chrisl even, and of the Christian! But this gives the assurance that all shall have to own the power which we have trusted in the time of darkness. We have had God’s mind, following Jesus, done God’s will (by power) before power came in to deliver and make that will good. But every knee shall how to Him to whom our knees have gladly bowed. But (hey shall praise and Mess His name (for those are looked at here) who own that power truly in that day. Thus the word revealed God as the object of trust, and there J lis faithfulness came to make good all that He had led the heart to trust in. The word gave both — revealed God ami gave that to hope in which it was fulfilled. This brought out another character of goodness. The Lord, high as He was, had respect to the lowly. He is too high to make a difference of man’s exaltation. If we look down from heaven, all is flat upon tin’ earth. But then’ are high and low here, and God thinks of the lowly. Trouble, too comes on the faithful, hut the goodness and the promise give (he issue according to the word. Nor is this quite all. (iod will perfect what concerns us, make good in blessing in and to us all that was in His heart, and which He had revealed in His word, in relationship ami communion with Himself. hrer all, through all difficulties, and, beyond all. His mercy endureth for ever.