It is not sin alone that characterises our world. Misery goes in hand with sin. And hence, as the preceding Psalm set before us One who was holy in the midst of a world lying in wickedness, though breathing its air, walking on its highway, handling its objects, and conversing with its inhabitants, so this Psalm exhibits One who is happy, truly happy, not withstanding a world of broken cisterns around him,and the sights borne to his ear on early breeze.
This happy one is "the Man of Sorrows" - no other than He! For Peter, in Acts 2:31, declares, "David speaks concerning Him!"
This happy One (followed in all ages by his chosen ones) walks through many a varied scene, and at every step expresses satisfaction and perfect contentment with the Father's arrangements. In verses 1,2, he tells, with complacent delight, into whose hands it is he has committed his all: "you are my Lord" - my soul has said this with all its strength.
And "My goodness is not over you;" whatever is good or blessed in my lot makes no pretensions to add anything to your blessedness, to overshadow you; nor do I allow the bliss I enjoy to supersede Him who blesses me.
And does not every member of his body respond to all this! Who of them does not reply, "My Lord and my God" You are the very bower of bliss under which I sit. We are blessed in you; but you need not us to bless you!"
Satisfied with his Father as God, and Lord, and Guardian, he is equally so with the sphere within which he must move: "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." None on earth seem to Him so pleasant and honourable as the saints. See Psalm 8:1.
And no less is He pleased with his separation from all idols and idolatry (v3 and v4). Does not every member of his body respond, Amen! gladly recognising their own company as the circle within which is "all their delight." But how instructive and wonderful it is to find, in verse 5, such entire contentedness with the Lord's doings, and such a recognition of his will. For it was enemies that brought him many a bitter draught to drink, the vinegar and the gall, it was "not an enemy", but far worse, a perfidious friend, that plunged the dagger into his heart; and yet in all this he sees the Lord giving him his cup and portion.
No less remarkable is it to hear, in verse 6, the Man of Sorrows tell that his lines have fallen to him in pleasant places! He that had nowhere to lay his head, how happy is He! What a calm contentment sits upon his pensive brow! Earth and hell are unable to destroy his blessed lot. He has (v7) found communion with his Father, when others sleep - in the retired valleys and hills of Galilee's, on the Mount of Olives, in the wilderness.
The presence and care of his Father is a fund of enjoyment in itself (v8). All may be scattered and leave him alone; bu yet he is not alone, for the Father is with him.
Such joys as these still gladden every believer's soul, even as they did refresh the "Author and Finisher of our Faith." He drank of these brooks by the way, "therefore was his heart glad."
That he might endure to the end, and as man endure he tasted of needful draughts in his sore undertaking' and his draughts of refreshment were of the kind which we have seen above. We, too, can taste the same, and we need the same.
Nor less do we need what follows in v9, secure confidence in prospect of death, and v10, the hope of blessed resurrection. Our Head laid his flesh in the Joseph's sepulchre, expecting the future result, a speedy resurrection. His soul was not to be left long separate form his body, out of paradise it was soon to come, and on the third day to rejoin its body before corruption could begin.
But we too, his members, are as sure of a return of our souls from paradise to join our bodies on the Resurrection Morn, when "this corruptible shall put on incorruption." And thus to the Head and members shall their full satisfaction be realised, and that forever.
He and they shall tread the path of life, and enter into "fulness of joy, pleasures for evermore," - the blessedness of the eternal kingdom.
Such are the riches of this Psalm that some have been led to think the obscure title, "Michtam" has been prefixed to it on account of its golden stores. For the word is used of the hold of Ophir (Psalm 45:10) and might be a derivative from that root. But as there are five other Psalms with this title (56, 57, 58, 59, 60) whose subject matter is various, but which all end in a tone of triumph, it has been suggested that the Septuagint may be nearly right in their title "A Psalm to be hung up or inscribed on a pillar to commemorate victory."
It is, however, more likely that the term Michtam, like Maschil, is a term whose meaning we may have lost and may only recover when the ransomed house of Israel returns home with songs. Meanwhile, the subject matter of this Psalm is very clearly - The Righteous One's satisfaction with his lot.
Monday, 11 November 2013
Friday, 8 November 2013
Psalm 15 - The dweller in the Holy Hill of God.
We heard of a righteous generation in Psalm 14, and here is one of them as a representative of the whole. None can be said to have fulfilled the conditions, or come up to the character sketched here, except Christ, if viewed in its strictness. Although every member of His body lays claim to His imputed obedience and exhibits a goodly specimen of the effect of this imputation in producing personal holiness.
We consider this Psalm as descriptive or our Head in His personal holiness, and of his members as made holy by Him.
It is one thing to state how holiness is attained, and quite another to assert that perfect holiness is possessed. When you describe a worshipper in the Holy Hill as one who is holy, you do not on that account maintain that his holiness was self-derived, or that it was his primary qualification.
Far less do you assert that holiness of character stands in the place of the blood that cleanses the conscience. there are several links in the golden chain, and my pointing to one of these does in no way interfere with my conviction of the necessity of the rest.
If I find it said of our Lord:
"It is Christ that died; yes, rather that is risen again!
Who is even at the right hand of God. Who also makes intercession for us,"
I may take up one feature of this Redeemer, and may say, "He who saves us is One who is risen again;" but by so saying I do not deny, but rather necessarily include, the assertion, that He died first of all.
So also if I say, "He who is saved is one who has holiness" I do not by saying this deny that the man has first of all been made clean by the blood: on the contrary, I imply that as a thing of course, necessarily preceding the other. Again if I say, "that Priest has washed his hands and feet in the laver."
I do not deny, but, on the contrary, necessarily imply, that first of all he was at the Altar, and touched the blood there. Or, once more, if I read 1 Tim 1:5,
"Now the end of the commandment is charity,
Out of a pure heart,
And out of a good conscience,
And out of faith unfeigned."
I may fix on the middle clause and say, the love, or charity, aimed at by the law, is the product of a "good conscience." But do I, on account of that statement, at all deny that "faith unfeigned" is needful in order to arrive at a good conscience?
It is even thus with our Psalm when received as stating what belongs to the members of Christ. It tells of their "pure heart;" but then that pure heart came from "a good conscience;" and that good conscience was the effect of "unfeigned faith" in the blood.
It is, however, only our Head that can fully realise the character given here. "Holiness to the Lord" is on our High Priest's mitre, while we, as inferior priests, go forward in his steps, to dwell in the Tabernacle.
The question is asked, v1: who shall dwell? abide, be a guest forever, in the palace of our King and God? Verse 2 tells the outward purity required, and the inward guilelessness. Verse 3, the purity of word; verse 4 company; verse 5, disinterested and self-denied love to His neighbours; verse 5, uprightness, if He once promise he will not "exchange" his promise for anything more convenient to himself, and will not fail to show the heart of a brother in everyday transactions.
These are signs of a renewed nature, very rare in our world, and such as manifest the man to be, "though in the world, yet not of the world." In verse 4, we have the key to the difference between such a one and the man of earth. "He honored those who fear the Lord;" his heart lies in the company of those who fear Jehovah; and if so, then he himself prefers Jehovah's company to all besides. He is one who has fellowship with God.
But we must not fail to notice the "Tabernacle" and the "Holy Hill," where this man's dwelling shall be forever. The Tabernacle of Moses, which, in David's days, was pitched on the slopes of Zion Hill is the type of greater things.
In that figure we see God in the cloud of glory over the mercy seat, dwelling with men, and the Priest entering in on the atonement day to His presence. All this was typical of what is now before us in clearer light.
The redeemed go in with the blood of the Redeemer through the torn veil, for the atonement day is now, to Him who is in heaven.
And when the Lord returns, and the Tabernacle of God is with men, when Christ, the true mercy seat is here - then shall we go to that Tabernacle, and see Him, on that Holy Hill, where his presence shall be manifested. We see more of this in Psalm 24.
But on that day none shall ascend that Hill or approach that Tabernacle who are not sanctified. On this point Revelation 21:27 corresponds with our Psalm - into New Jerusalem "there shall in no wise enter anything that defiles or make a lie." Over its gate is written "without holiness no man shall see God."
Here then we have before us a description of The dweller in the Holy Hill of God.
We consider this Psalm as descriptive or our Head in His personal holiness, and of his members as made holy by Him.
It is one thing to state how holiness is attained, and quite another to assert that perfect holiness is possessed. When you describe a worshipper in the Holy Hill as one who is holy, you do not on that account maintain that his holiness was self-derived, or that it was his primary qualification.
Far less do you assert that holiness of character stands in the place of the blood that cleanses the conscience. there are several links in the golden chain, and my pointing to one of these does in no way interfere with my conviction of the necessity of the rest.
If I find it said of our Lord:
"It is Christ that died; yes, rather that is risen again!
Who is even at the right hand of God. Who also makes intercession for us,"
I may take up one feature of this Redeemer, and may say, "He who saves us is One who is risen again;" but by so saying I do not deny, but rather necessarily include, the assertion, that He died first of all.
So also if I say, "He who is saved is one who has holiness" I do not by saying this deny that the man has first of all been made clean by the blood: on the contrary, I imply that as a thing of course, necessarily preceding the other. Again if I say, "that Priest has washed his hands and feet in the laver."
I do not deny, but, on the contrary, necessarily imply, that first of all he was at the Altar, and touched the blood there. Or, once more, if I read 1 Tim 1:5,
"Now the end of the commandment is charity,
Out of a pure heart,
And out of a good conscience,
And out of faith unfeigned."
I may fix on the middle clause and say, the love, or charity, aimed at by the law, is the product of a "good conscience." But do I, on account of that statement, at all deny that "faith unfeigned" is needful in order to arrive at a good conscience?
It is even thus with our Psalm when received as stating what belongs to the members of Christ. It tells of their "pure heart;" but then that pure heart came from "a good conscience;" and that good conscience was the effect of "unfeigned faith" in the blood.
It is, however, only our Head that can fully realise the character given here. "Holiness to the Lord" is on our High Priest's mitre, while we, as inferior priests, go forward in his steps, to dwell in the Tabernacle.
The question is asked, v1: who shall dwell? abide, be a guest forever, in the palace of our King and God? Verse 2 tells the outward purity required, and the inward guilelessness. Verse 3, the purity of word; verse 4 company; verse 5, disinterested and self-denied love to His neighbours; verse 5, uprightness, if He once promise he will not "exchange" his promise for anything more convenient to himself, and will not fail to show the heart of a brother in everyday transactions.
These are signs of a renewed nature, very rare in our world, and such as manifest the man to be, "though in the world, yet not of the world." In verse 4, we have the key to the difference between such a one and the man of earth. "He honored those who fear the Lord;" his heart lies in the company of those who fear Jehovah; and if so, then he himself prefers Jehovah's company to all besides. He is one who has fellowship with God.
But we must not fail to notice the "Tabernacle" and the "Holy Hill," where this man's dwelling shall be forever. The Tabernacle of Moses, which, in David's days, was pitched on the slopes of Zion Hill is the type of greater things.
In that figure we see God in the cloud of glory over the mercy seat, dwelling with men, and the Priest entering in on the atonement day to His presence. All this was typical of what is now before us in clearer light.
The redeemed go in with the blood of the Redeemer through the torn veil, for the atonement day is now, to Him who is in heaven.
And when the Lord returns, and the Tabernacle of God is with men, when Christ, the true mercy seat is here - then shall we go to that Tabernacle, and see Him, on that Holy Hill, where his presence shall be manifested. We see more of this in Psalm 24.
But on that day none shall ascend that Hill or approach that Tabernacle who are not sanctified. On this point Revelation 21:27 corresponds with our Psalm - into New Jerusalem "there shall in no wise enter anything that defiles or make a lie." Over its gate is written "without holiness no man shall see God."
Here then we have before us a description of The dweller in the Holy Hill of God.
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Psalm 14 - The Righteous One's view of earth, and its prospects.
As we read these verses, we seem to pass from gloom to deeper gloom; and when v7 suggests a remedy, it is as if a "speak of light had been struck out from solid darkness." David wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but we know not when. It may have been in his wilderness days when Judah seemed nearly as indifferent to Jehovah as the Gentiles.
Hengestenberg considers it's title "Upon Mahalath" to mean "Upon the sickness", the moral sore and sickness described in the Psalm. A instrument may be intended, used for melancholy subjects. Gesenius has found an Ethiopic root signifying "to sing."
Messiah is the speaker far more than David. Though David could call the sheep of the house of Israel "my people" as being given him by the Lord, yet it is Messiah who tends to speak this way. He is the shepherd whose voice we recognise here, saying "they eat up MY people" (v4).
It is He who describes our world's condition - Oh, how unlike the heaven He had left! But amid the flood, He describes the waters receding. He sees the overflow of the ungodly (v5) and from where the grand deliverance will come (v7). Deliverance will appear on Zion's walls. "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22).
From Israel comes the Saviour, born at Bethlehem, but crucified, rising, ascending at Jerusalem. Out of Israel too comes life from the dead to the world, when the Redeemer returns again, for "Behold darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people. But, the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising£ (Isaiah 55:2,3)
Let us then read this Psalm as our Lord's report on the state of the earth and its multitudes.
Hengestenberg considers it's title "Upon Mahalath" to mean "Upon the sickness", the moral sore and sickness described in the Psalm. A instrument may be intended, used for melancholy subjects. Gesenius has found an Ethiopic root signifying "to sing."
Messiah is the speaker far more than David. Though David could call the sheep of the house of Israel "my people" as being given him by the Lord, yet it is Messiah who tends to speak this way. He is the shepherd whose voice we recognise here, saying "they eat up MY people" (v4).
It is He who describes our world's condition - Oh, how unlike the heaven He had left! But amid the flood, He describes the waters receding. He sees the overflow of the ungodly (v5) and from where the grand deliverance will come (v7). Deliverance will appear on Zion's walls. "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22).
From Israel comes the Saviour, born at Bethlehem, but crucified, rising, ascending at Jerusalem. Out of Israel too comes life from the dead to the world, when the Redeemer returns again, for "Behold darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people. But, the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising£ (Isaiah 55:2,3)
Let us then read this Psalm as our Lord's report on the state of the earth and its multitudes.
- v1. O Father, they are denying that you have any being. The whole earth is replenished with fools who say in their heart; there is no God. They are corrupt. They are doing abominable things. There is none who does good.
- v2. O sons of men, the cry of earth's wickedness came up to heaven. The Lord looked down to see if there were any who understood and sought after God.
- v3. Alas! It is altogether according to the cry. They are all gone astray. They have all become filthy. None do good. NO, NOT ONE.
- v4. Yet they do not see their folly. Who has bewitched them? Have they no knowledge that theyeat up my people and do not call on Jehovah?
- v5. But their damnation does not sleep. On the very spot where their folly has been wrought I see them trembling. Terror overtakes them; for God is among the generation of the righteous.
- v6. Where now is your mouth with which you said: who is the Lord that we hsould serve Him? Is this not the peopel who you despised? You cast shame on the counsel of the poor, because he made the Lord his refuge. You scorned the policy of those who made the Lord their wisdom; but the Lord has now laught you to scorn.
- v7. O let the day dawn and the shadows flee away. Come quickly, year of my redeemed! Isaiah 58:4.
"Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad. At the Lord's bringing back the captivity of His people."
Let the time come when earth shall hear Israel's shouts of joy at the opening of their prison, at the termination of their exile, at the restoration of their long-lost prosperity, at the return of their Shepherd to dwell among them.
For when the earth shall hear that shout of joy, it shall be a token that now the time has arrived for the full accomplishment of that promise to Abraham: in your seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
Thus, does the true Righteous One survey the world lying in wickedness and turn his eye toward the dawn of day, every member sympathising with the Head. We may describe the Psalm as a setting forth of - The Righteous One's view of earth, and its prospects.
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Psalm 13 - The Righteous One's, Lord, how long?
When David wandered in Judea, and mused on the long-deferred promise of the Throne of Israel, he might use these words first of all.
When he saw no sign of Saul's dominion ending, and no appearance of the Seed of the Woman, he was in such circumstances as fitted him to be the instrument of the Holy Spirit in writing for all after-times words which might express the feelings of melancholy weariness.
The Son of David came in the fulness of time. He passed through many nights of darkness. Sometimes the very shades of death bent over Him. "My souls is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." Could He not most fitly take up v4, as He carried his cross along the Via Dolorosa? Who better could appeal:
"Consider, hear me, O Lord my God (Eli! Eli!)
Make my eyes glisten with joy
Lest I sleep in death
Lest my enemy says: I have prevailed against him.
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved."
High Priests, Govenors, Scribes, Pharisees, Herodians, Saducees, common priests and common people, were all on the eve of shouting triunph if He did not rise from the grave. A burst of joy from hell would respond to their derision if He failed to arise and failed to show himself to be the King of kings.
But not our Head only, every member of his body also, has found cause often to utter such complaints and fears.
A believer in darkness.
A believer under temptation.
A believer under the pressure of some continued trial.
A believer spending wearisom nights lying awak.
Each may find appropriate language here to express his feelings to God.
All the more because it is associated with the Saviour's darkness and so assures us of sympathy.
We take up the harp which He used in Galilee and Gethsemane; and touching its strings, do we not recall to our Head the remembrance of "the days of his flesh?"
How glorious too, for the Church to join with her Head in the prospect of v5:
"But as for me, I have trusted in your mercy" etc.
Leaning on the Father's love amid these sorrowful appeals He was sure, and in him they are sure, of a day of glory dawning - joy coming in the morning.
Verse 6 anticipates not only His own resurrction, but the resurrection of the saints also, and the glory of teh kingdom:
"I will sing to the Lord, for He has dealt bountifully with me."
Glory much more abounds. Joy has set in instead of sorrow in full tide. Fruition more than realising the most "ample propositions that hope made" to the weary soul. And this is teh belssed issue of what Calvin would perhpas have called How Lord, and which we may call, The Righteous One's, Lord, how long?
When he saw no sign of Saul's dominion ending, and no appearance of the Seed of the Woman, he was in such circumstances as fitted him to be the instrument of the Holy Spirit in writing for all after-times words which might express the feelings of melancholy weariness.
The Son of David came in the fulness of time. He passed through many nights of darkness. Sometimes the very shades of death bent over Him. "My souls is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." Could He not most fitly take up v4, as He carried his cross along the Via Dolorosa? Who better could appeal:
"Consider, hear me, O Lord my God (Eli! Eli!)
Make my eyes glisten with joy
Lest I sleep in death
Lest my enemy says: I have prevailed against him.
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved."
High Priests, Govenors, Scribes, Pharisees, Herodians, Saducees, common priests and common people, were all on the eve of shouting triunph if He did not rise from the grave. A burst of joy from hell would respond to their derision if He failed to arise and failed to show himself to be the King of kings.
But not our Head only, every member of his body also, has found cause often to utter such complaints and fears.
A believer in darkness.
A believer under temptation.
A believer under the pressure of some continued trial.
A believer spending wearisom nights lying awak.
Each may find appropriate language here to express his feelings to God.
All the more because it is associated with the Saviour's darkness and so assures us of sympathy.
We take up the harp which He used in Galilee and Gethsemane; and touching its strings, do we not recall to our Head the remembrance of "the days of his flesh?"
How glorious too, for the Church to join with her Head in the prospect of v5:
"But as for me, I have trusted in your mercy" etc.
Leaning on the Father's love amid these sorrowful appeals He was sure, and in him they are sure, of a day of glory dawning - joy coming in the morning.
Verse 6 anticipates not only His own resurrction, but the resurrection of the saints also, and the glory of teh kingdom:
"I will sing to the Lord, for He has dealt bountifully with me."
Glory much more abounds. Joy has set in instead of sorrow in full tide. Fruition more than realising the most "ample propositions that hope made" to the weary soul. And this is teh belssed issue of what Calvin would perhpas have called How Lord, and which we may call, The Righteous One's, Lord, how long?
Tuesday, 5 November 2013
Psalm 12 - The Righteous One's consoling assurance that the Lord's word, though mocked at, shall not fail.
A Psalm for all ages, as well as for David's time. Elijah could sing it. Jeremiah could sing it. And never was there a time when this Psalm was more appropriate than in our day. Though written by David and handed over to his Chief Musician to be played by the fingers of a Levite whose heart could sigh in sympathy with its strains of sad foreboding and present gloom, it is at the same time a Psalm for the last days.
The Lord is called to arise for the godly are perishing. You see a little band gathered under the floating banner of their King who had promised to come to their aid in due time. One after another sinks down, wearied and worn, while the remaining few, at each occurrence, cry to their King -
"Help, Lord!" (v1)
This is the cry that ascends from the saints, as one after another of their number is successively gathered to the tomb; while "I will arise" (v4) is the response that faintly reaches their ear.
Help Lord! is their cry as they witness the increase of bold infidelity (v2) and hear such mutterings of boastful pride as these:
"Through our tongues we are strong. Our lips are with us. Who is lord over us?" (v2-3)
The power of human talent and the grandeur of man's intellect are boasted of; while v2 shows that these same persons flatter each other into deceitful peace and are living without regard for the holy law of love.
Meanwhile the remnant who sigh in secret to the Lord - a remnant hated and often in danger (v5) are sustained by the sure word of promise. They tell their hope and faith in v6, when they describe Jehovah's words:
"The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."
"The wicked walk on every side, vileness is held in honour by the sons of men."
This is descriptive of Adam's race in the latter days. How like the times of which Peter speaks when he says men shall "speak great swelling words of vanity" (2 Peter 2:18) and boldly ask "where is the promise of his coming" (3:4). How descriptive too of the consolation of the saints: for Peter tells us that this shall be their comfort - "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise" (v9) and "according to his promise" they shall continue looking for the renewed heavens and the renewed earth (v13). They know that the words of the Lord are pure words. They cannot fail.
Some features of this scene are found in all the conflicts that have risen between the Woman's seed and the Serpent's. At the same time, the times when David was persecuted even though he was the anointed King where comparable to those before the coming of the Son of Man.
The flatterers of Saul hated David's person and David's principles. They could not fail to try to cast contempt on the Lord's words about him and his seed. Such also were the days of the True David, our Lord, when He appeared in our world as The Lord's Anointed.
We can easily see how the proud Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees might be characterised by v2,3. And not less how, on such an occasion as the Baptist's death, Jesus could use v1. Let us follow the Baptist's disciples who have just buried their master. They walk along in silent sadness; for a witness to the truth has perished.They seek out Jesus (Matt 14:12) and tell Him all that the foes of God have done. Jesus hears and sympathises; and may we not imagine the whole company of disciples, with the master as chief musician, sitting down in a solitary place (v13) and making it echo with the plaintive cry -
"Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases" etc.
The church's eye, anointed with eye-salve, has ever since been able to discern in the world resemblance to the same state of things; and never more than now. Hence David and David's Son, and the seed of David's Son, have ever found the strain of this song fitted to express what the world made them feel.
Horsley entitles it, "Of free thinkers; their cunning audacity, and final excision." But this is only one aspect of it. It is rather, The Righteous One's consoling assurance that the Lord's word, though mocked at, shall not fail.
The Lord is called to arise for the godly are perishing. You see a little band gathered under the floating banner of their King who had promised to come to their aid in due time. One after another sinks down, wearied and worn, while the remaining few, at each occurrence, cry to their King -
"Help, Lord!" (v1)
This is the cry that ascends from the saints, as one after another of their number is successively gathered to the tomb; while "I will arise" (v4) is the response that faintly reaches their ear.
Help Lord! is their cry as they witness the increase of bold infidelity (v2) and hear such mutterings of boastful pride as these:
"Through our tongues we are strong. Our lips are with us. Who is lord over us?" (v2-3)
The power of human talent and the grandeur of man's intellect are boasted of; while v2 shows that these same persons flatter each other into deceitful peace and are living without regard for the holy law of love.
Meanwhile the remnant who sigh in secret to the Lord - a remnant hated and often in danger (v5) are sustained by the sure word of promise. They tell their hope and faith in v6, when they describe Jehovah's words:
"The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."
- All He has spoken about the Woman's Seed from the beginning...
- All He has spoken of Him in whom all nations shall be blessed...
- All He has spoken of David and David's Seed...
- All is sure, all shall come to pass.
"The wicked walk on every side, vileness is held in honour by the sons of men."
This is descriptive of Adam's race in the latter days. How like the times of which Peter speaks when he says men shall "speak great swelling words of vanity" (2 Peter 2:18) and boldly ask "where is the promise of his coming" (3:4). How descriptive too of the consolation of the saints: for Peter tells us that this shall be their comfort - "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise" (v9) and "according to his promise" they shall continue looking for the renewed heavens and the renewed earth (v13). They know that the words of the Lord are pure words. They cannot fail.
Some features of this scene are found in all the conflicts that have risen between the Woman's seed and the Serpent's. At the same time, the times when David was persecuted even though he was the anointed King where comparable to those before the coming of the Son of Man.
The flatterers of Saul hated David's person and David's principles. They could not fail to try to cast contempt on the Lord's words about him and his seed. Such also were the days of the True David, our Lord, when He appeared in our world as The Lord's Anointed.
We can easily see how the proud Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees might be characterised by v2,3. And not less how, on such an occasion as the Baptist's death, Jesus could use v1. Let us follow the Baptist's disciples who have just buried their master. They walk along in silent sadness; for a witness to the truth has perished.They seek out Jesus (Matt 14:12) and tell Him all that the foes of God have done. Jesus hears and sympathises; and may we not imagine the whole company of disciples, with the master as chief musician, sitting down in a solitary place (v13) and making it echo with the plaintive cry -
"Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases" etc.
The church's eye, anointed with eye-salve, has ever since been able to discern in the world resemblance to the same state of things; and never more than now. Hence David and David's Son, and the seed of David's Son, have ever found the strain of this song fitted to express what the world made them feel.
Horsley entitles it, "Of free thinkers; their cunning audacity, and final excision." But this is only one aspect of it. It is rather, The Righteous One's consoling assurance that the Lord's word, though mocked at, shall not fail.
Monday, 4 November 2013
Psalm 11 - The Righteous One's faith under apparent disaster.
The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are said to have been so engrossed with the conflict that neither party perceived the convulsion of nature that shook the ground -
"An earthquake reeled unheedingly away,
None felt stern nature rocking at his feet."
From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb. They believe, and therefore, make no haste; no, they can scarcely be said to feel earth's convulsions as other men, because their eager hope presses forward to the issue at the advent of the Lord.
"In the Lord I have put my trust:
what do you say to my soul
Flee, sparrows, to your hill."
(Sneeringly referring to Zion. Horsley)
They have taken up their position, and who shall ever drive them from it? They refer to a two-fold ground of alarm presented to their thoughts by the foe.
"For, lo, the wicked bend their bow,
They place their arrow upon the string
To shoot privately at the upright in heart
For the foundations are destroyed
What can the righteous do?"
The enemy may thus array his terror, as if the Lord's host were a partridge on the mountains (1 Sam 26:20). There is a sneer at Mount Zion, in v1, it has been suggested; but the words may as well mean, they have their secure rest, their Zoar mountain (Gen 19:17), on which they shall stand and see the rain of snares, fire and brimstone on these men of Sodom (v6); their Judean mountain, where they shall be safe when the abomination of desolat8ion appears (Matt 24:16). It is this - the Lord himself. Though all the pillars of social and religious order were destroyed, still
"The Lord is in his holy temple;
The Lord's throne is in heaven!"
The enemy has not reached up to this fortress; he has not shaken this sure defence. "Shall pillars be brangled because of the swarms of flies upon them?" (Leighton) On the other hand, the Lord is preparing to make a sortie on behalf of his own. He is surveying in preparation for this burst of judgement.
"His eyes behold"
Even more he is in the position of one who contracts his eyebrows and fixes his eyelids in order to discern accurately the mark he aims at:
"His eyelids try the children of men
The Lord tries the righteous."
And the result is interposition on behalf on his own; for in the trial he discovers the difference between the principles of the two hostile parties, and now makes it known.
"The wicked and he who loves violence his soul hates
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone.
And a horrible tempest (a wrath-wind) shall be the portion of their cup."
All that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah shall be realised at the Lord's appearing in flaming fire (2 Thess 1:8). At the very time, perhaps when men imagine they have got the righteous in their snares, the Lord comes and his net is spread over them; he snare suddenly starts up (Luke 21:35) and they are taken; caught unexpectedly in a net whose meshes they can never break; seized by the hands of the living God, and doomed to the vengeance of eternal fire as the portion of their cup.
It is the measured, just and due amount of wrath for their sins; for it is called a cup-portion. This comes from the character of Jehovah -
"For righteous is the Lord; he loves righteousness
His face beholds the upright"
His righteousness will visit the ungodly with Sodom-doom; and on the other hand to look with favour on his Abrahams at Mamre, and no longer hide himself as in Psalm 10:4. It is somewhat remarkable that in v7 the Hebrew uses the plural for "his face". Critics are content to call this "Their face" by the plurality of God; and to say it may express perfection or greatness in Him of whom it is used. But, if we admit a reference to Trinity in Genesis 1:26, who not here also?
The face of the Godhead - God head in all its fulness - each person of the Godhead - shall give a look of delighted approval.
"With a face full of paternal affection he beholds them in the midst of their sorrows, until, welcomed by mercy to the glory from which he excludes the wicked, they behold that face which has always beheld them" (Horne)
Our Lord might sing this Psalm at Bethany on occasions such as Luke 13:31,32 when they came and said "get away for Herod will kill you". And he has left it for us that we may use it, as no doubt David used it when it was first given to the church dangerous times. Dr Allix would apply it especially to the church after she fled into the wilderness comparing v2 with Rev 13:14. It applies with almost equal fulness to all these cases, and yet also to an individual believer's case when tempted, like that good man who said, "Sirs, it is a great thing to believe that there is a God!"
It exhibits to us - The Righteous One's faith under apparent disaster.
"An earthquake reeled unheedingly away,
None felt stern nature rocking at his feet."
From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb. They believe, and therefore, make no haste; no, they can scarcely be said to feel earth's convulsions as other men, because their eager hope presses forward to the issue at the advent of the Lord.
"In the Lord I have put my trust:
what do you say to my soul
Flee, sparrows, to your hill."
(Sneeringly referring to Zion. Horsley)
They have taken up their position, and who shall ever drive them from it? They refer to a two-fold ground of alarm presented to their thoughts by the foe.
"For, lo, the wicked bend their bow,
They place their arrow upon the string
To shoot privately at the upright in heart
For the foundations are destroyed
What can the righteous do?"
The enemy may thus array his terror, as if the Lord's host were a partridge on the mountains (1 Sam 26:20). There is a sneer at Mount Zion, in v1, it has been suggested; but the words may as well mean, they have their secure rest, their Zoar mountain (Gen 19:17), on which they shall stand and see the rain of snares, fire and brimstone on these men of Sodom (v6); their Judean mountain, where they shall be safe when the abomination of desolat8ion appears (Matt 24:16). It is this - the Lord himself. Though all the pillars of social and religious order were destroyed, still
"The Lord is in his holy temple;
The Lord's throne is in heaven!"
The enemy has not reached up to this fortress; he has not shaken this sure defence. "Shall pillars be brangled because of the swarms of flies upon them?" (Leighton) On the other hand, the Lord is preparing to make a sortie on behalf of his own. He is surveying in preparation for this burst of judgement.
"His eyes behold"
Even more he is in the position of one who contracts his eyebrows and fixes his eyelids in order to discern accurately the mark he aims at:
"His eyelids try the children of men
The Lord tries the righteous."
And the result is interposition on behalf on his own; for in the trial he discovers the difference between the principles of the two hostile parties, and now makes it known.
"The wicked and he who loves violence his soul hates
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone.
And a horrible tempest (a wrath-wind) shall be the portion of their cup."
All that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah shall be realised at the Lord's appearing in flaming fire (2 Thess 1:8). At the very time, perhaps when men imagine they have got the righteous in their snares, the Lord comes and his net is spread over them; he snare suddenly starts up (Luke 21:35) and they are taken; caught unexpectedly in a net whose meshes they can never break; seized by the hands of the living God, and doomed to the vengeance of eternal fire as the portion of their cup.
It is the measured, just and due amount of wrath for their sins; for it is called a cup-portion. This comes from the character of Jehovah -
"For righteous is the Lord; he loves righteousness
His face beholds the upright"
His righteousness will visit the ungodly with Sodom-doom; and on the other hand to look with favour on his Abrahams at Mamre, and no longer hide himself as in Psalm 10:4. It is somewhat remarkable that in v7 the Hebrew uses the plural for "his face". Critics are content to call this "Their face" by the plurality of God; and to say it may express perfection or greatness in Him of whom it is used. But, if we admit a reference to Trinity in Genesis 1:26, who not here also?
The face of the Godhead - God head in all its fulness - each person of the Godhead - shall give a look of delighted approval.
"With a face full of paternal affection he beholds them in the midst of their sorrows, until, welcomed by mercy to the glory from which he excludes the wicked, they behold that face which has always beheld them" (Horne)
Our Lord might sing this Psalm at Bethany on occasions such as Luke 13:31,32 when they came and said "get away for Herod will kill you". And he has left it for us that we may use it, as no doubt David used it when it was first given to the church dangerous times. Dr Allix would apply it especially to the church after she fled into the wilderness comparing v2 with Rev 13:14. It applies with almost equal fulness to all these cases, and yet also to an individual believer's case when tempted, like that good man who said, "Sirs, it is a great thing to believe that there is a God!"
It exhibits to us - The Righteous One's faith under apparent disaster.
Friday, 1 November 2013
Psalm 10 - The Righteous One detailing earth's wickedness in anticipation of earth's deliverance
There is much that is prophetic in this Psalm towards its close - the gloom of the present turning the eye forward in search of o the coming day-spring. In v16 faith is seen in its strength, singing as if already in possession of anticipated victory and deliverance, "The Lord is king for ever and ever: the heathen have perished out of his land!"
Such confidence and faith must appear to the world strange and unaccountable. It is like what his fellow-citizens may be supposed to have felt (if the story is true) toward the man of whom it is recorded that his powers of vision were so extraordinary that he could distinctly see the fleet of the Carthaginians entering the harbour of Carthage, while he stood at Lilybaeum, in Sicily. A man seeing across an oceans and able to tell objects so far off, he could feast his vision on what others did not see. Even so does faith now stand at Lilybaeum and see the long tossed fleet entering safely the desired haven, enjoying the bliss of that still distant day, as if it had already come.
It is a Psalm for "times of trouble" (v1) like the preceding. In it we again hear the cry, "Arise" addressed to the Lord, as in the preceding. Here too man is felt as the oppressor. So much does it resemble the previous that the Septuagint reckoned it a continuation. There is however an obvious difference. The ninth dwells on the ruin of the ungodly, and the tenth upon their guilt.
Both Psalms are in some measure alphabetic but in an irregular manner. Perhaps this was intended to teach us not to lay too much stress upon this type of composition. God occasionally employs all the various ways in which men are wont to express their thoughts, and by which they are wont to aid the memory in retaining them.
Three parties are presented to our view in succession. god - the wicked - the righteous.
Then a v16 and onward the scene suddenly changes. God has come near, the arm of the wicked is broken. In the Hebrew, the first clause is a prayer, "break the arm of the wicked and evil man" and the next seems to be the response to that prayer. "yes it shall be broken" "and you shall seek out his wickedness and find none."
His extirpation shall be complete (Jer 1:20). The Lord is King! He has heard the desire of the humble. He has judged the fatherless and oppressed. He has acted to then as Othniel and Gideon and Samson and other judges of Israel did when they brought down the foe and set things to right in the land.
Our Master, in the days of his flesh, might see all that is here described verified before him. He saw the buyers and sellers making gain in the courts of the Temple and probably fulfilled Zech 11:5 "Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich" even as it is said, v3: "whoever makes gain blesses God for it, and yet despises Jehovah."
In the Sadducees he saw before him men of whom it might be said: there is no God in their thoughts (v4). Their ways were firm (v5). They feared no adversity, saying (as the Prayer-book version graphically renders v6), "Tush! I shall never be cast down." The Pharisees and Scribes and Elders furnished abundant exemplification of "mischief is under his tongue" (v7) - the storehouse, or cellar, that seemed to lie under their tongue ever providing their lips with plans and suggestions of evil.
Their lying in wait, as a lion in his covert, most vividly paints the plots entered into against Christ, and against his disciples afterwards. At the same time, "the servant is not above the master," - the members of Christ have ever met with the same treatment, and found the world lying in the same wickedness.
Any member of Christ can use this Psalm who feels earth's unholiness and atheism, and who is at all like Lot in Sodom, "his righteous soul vexed from day to day by their unlawful deeds." It will be well fitted for those who are on earth when Antichrist practises and prospers before his final overthrow.
In short, it is so comprehensive, that whether used by Christ or his people, whether in the days of the First Coming or the days that precede and usher in the Second it may be said to be - The Righteous detailing earth's wickedness in anticipation of earth's deliverance.
Such confidence and faith must appear to the world strange and unaccountable. It is like what his fellow-citizens may be supposed to have felt (if the story is true) toward the man of whom it is recorded that his powers of vision were so extraordinary that he could distinctly see the fleet of the Carthaginians entering the harbour of Carthage, while he stood at Lilybaeum, in Sicily. A man seeing across an oceans and able to tell objects so far off, he could feast his vision on what others did not see. Even so does faith now stand at Lilybaeum and see the long tossed fleet entering safely the desired haven, enjoying the bliss of that still distant day, as if it had already come.
It is a Psalm for "times of trouble" (v1) like the preceding. In it we again hear the cry, "Arise" addressed to the Lord, as in the preceding. Here too man is felt as the oppressor. So much does it resemble the previous that the Septuagint reckoned it a continuation. There is however an obvious difference. The ninth dwells on the ruin of the ungodly, and the tenth upon their guilt.
Both Psalms are in some measure alphabetic but in an irregular manner. Perhaps this was intended to teach us not to lay too much stress upon this type of composition. God occasionally employs all the various ways in which men are wont to express their thoughts, and by which they are wont to aid the memory in retaining them.
Three parties are presented to our view in succession. god - the wicked - the righteous.
- God (v1), is seen standing far off, covering his eyes from the painful sight, being of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
- The wicked (v2-11) seen in all their ungodliness and unprincipled selfishness, practising evil as if no eye regarded.
- The righteous (v12-14) calling God's attention to these scenes and raising the cry for interposition.
Then a v16 and onward the scene suddenly changes. God has come near, the arm of the wicked is broken. In the Hebrew, the first clause is a prayer, "break the arm of the wicked and evil man" and the next seems to be the response to that prayer. "yes it shall be broken" "and you shall seek out his wickedness and find none."
His extirpation shall be complete (Jer 1:20). The Lord is King! He has heard the desire of the humble. He has judged the fatherless and oppressed. He has acted to then as Othniel and Gideon and Samson and other judges of Israel did when they brought down the foe and set things to right in the land.
Our Master, in the days of his flesh, might see all that is here described verified before him. He saw the buyers and sellers making gain in the courts of the Temple and probably fulfilled Zech 11:5 "Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich" even as it is said, v3: "whoever makes gain blesses God for it, and yet despises Jehovah."
In the Sadducees he saw before him men of whom it might be said: there is no God in their thoughts (v4). Their ways were firm (v5). They feared no adversity, saying (as the Prayer-book version graphically renders v6), "Tush! I shall never be cast down." The Pharisees and Scribes and Elders furnished abundant exemplification of "mischief is under his tongue" (v7) - the storehouse, or cellar, that seemed to lie under their tongue ever providing their lips with plans and suggestions of evil.
Their lying in wait, as a lion in his covert, most vividly paints the plots entered into against Christ, and against his disciples afterwards. At the same time, "the servant is not above the master," - the members of Christ have ever met with the same treatment, and found the world lying in the same wickedness.
Any member of Christ can use this Psalm who feels earth's unholiness and atheism, and who is at all like Lot in Sodom, "his righteous soul vexed from day to day by their unlawful deeds." It will be well fitted for those who are on earth when Antichrist practises and prospers before his final overthrow.
In short, it is so comprehensive, that whether used by Christ or his people, whether in the days of the First Coming or the days that precede and usher in the Second it may be said to be - The Righteous detailing earth's wickedness in anticipation of earth's deliverance.
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