Note to Psalms 79-89 — The comparison of the last eleven psalms of this Book (Psa. 79-89) with Isa. 5-10 is of the deepest interest. The subjects correspond very closely, though the order in which they are considered is different. This difference accords with the character respectively of the Books. Isaiah speaks as addressing, on God's part, the heart and conscience of the people; and the subjects in question are therefore treated in a way calculated to reach, as testimony, their hearts and consciences. The psalms, on the contrary, present the saints' meditations on them, or their actual experiences in the circumstances under consideration. Here, therefore, the subjects are reviewed in a more orderly and less fragmentary way than in the prophecy, where they are broken into parts and intermingled, with a view to reaching and remedying, were it possible, the state of the people.
The subjects in question are as follows: (1.) Israel as a vine brought out of Egypt. (2.) The Assyrian, the rod of Jehovah's anger, by whom Israel is laid waste, but who is met and destroyed by the Man of His right hand, the Son of man made strong for Himself. (3.) The glory, and Israel judged and delivered by it. (4.) Chastisement upon Israel for sin. (5.) Grace and mercy fulfilling covenant. The first three are more historical, and the two latter give a résumé of divine principles.
In the psalms these things are set forth, each subject by itself as a whole. The attack of the Assyrian, or northern power, comes first upon the scene in Psa. 79, an attack which results in the devastation of Jerusalem and Jacob. Psa. 80 follows, presenting the vine brought out of Egypt, but desolated by the boar out of the forest, as circumstantially related in the previous psalm. The closing verses (17-19) reveal the Son of man made strong to deliver. We have thus the first two subjects complete in these two psalms.
Turning to Isaiah, Israel's place and state as Jehovah's vineyard, but to be laid waste and trodden down, is first in the mind of the Spirit (Isa. 5:1-71Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. (Isaiah 5:1‑7)), followed by a long parenthesis of woes to the end of the chapter, continued in chaps. 8:21, 22, 9:8—10:4. These woes are the warnings of chastisement for sin, applied to conscience in view of Israel's state, and form Subject (4),' which will be considered subsequently.
The glory of the Lord is then revealed in Isa. 6 For Israel's responsibility, indeed that of man necessarily, is formed on the one hand by their original state as set up by God Himself, and on the other hand by the revelation of the glory in which He is to appear. This, which we have called 'Subject (3),' is what the Spirit next presents by the prophet as of prime importance for Israel.
Of this, that is, of the revelation of the glory, Psa. 81-83 treat exhaustively as regards its effect of judgment. In Psa. 81 we have the re-awakening of Israel's glory—the trumpet is blown at the new moon; but not without the declaration on Jehovah's pair of His judgment of their Ways. Then Psa. 82 describes the actual judicial arraignment among the gods, and God arises to judge the earth. This is followed, in Psa. 83, by the execution of judgment, or its declaration, on all the enemies found in the land, including Assyria.
Isaiah next proceeds to take up, in chapter 7., the presentation of Immanuel, the Virgin's Son, pledge and power of Israel's deliverance from the Assyrian oppressor. In the psalm (Psa. 80:17-1917Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. 18So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 19Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. (Psalm 80:17‑19)) He is seen as the Son of man wielding Jehovah's power and authority, the Deliverer of, and in connection with, Israel as the desolated vine. But Isaiah presents Him as the Security of blessing in view of the Assyrian invasion. In chapter 7. this divine Child was to be born after the desolation, then threatened, had come. (v. 16.) The next chapter (8:1-20) continues the subject, showing, by an emblematic child, that the captivity as regards Samaria, at least, was to take place at once. (v. 4.) Yet, however overwhelming the invasion, the land was Immanuel's (v. 8), and the confederacy of the nations should be broken in pieces. Chapter 10:5-34 shows us that this should be when the Lord had performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem (v. 12), and on behalf of a remnant that shall return. (vv. 20, 21. Cf. 7:3, Shear-jashub '; i.e. a remnant shall return.') This connects, moreover, with Jehovah's governmental chastisement of Israel for sin, for the Assyrian is the rod of Jehovah's anger; and in this final infliction in the latter day, after which He intervenes to destroy the oppressor, the indignation shall tease, and Mine anger in their destruction.' (v. 25. See vv. 26-34.)
As already noticed, this chastisement is precisely referred to in 5:8-30, and 8:21, 22, the latter passage carrying forward the threatening of the Assyrian invasion to the times of the crisis. (Cf. 5:30 and 8:22.) Chapters 9:8- 10:4 then continua the subject in immediate connection with chapter 5:25. (Cf. 9. vv. 12, 17, 21; 10:4.)
It is the sense in the godly remnant of what it is to be under this chastisement, when the land is darkened through the wrath of the Lord of hosts (Isa. 9:1919Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. (Isaiah 9:19)), that Psa. 88 sets forth. This is what we have here termed Subject (4).'
Between Psa. 83 and 88. there are four psalms which treat of the four special spheres of Jehovah's interests, as reviewed by the Spirit of Christ in the believing Remnant; viz., His tabernacles (Psa. 84), His land (Psa. 85), His godly servants (Psa. 86), His city Zion (Psa. 87). Discipline there may have been, and will be, as in Psa. 88, but in the Psalms the mind of the Spirit rests first upon the Anointed, the Son of man made strong for Jehovah. (Psa. 80 Cf. Psalm 2.) Then follow the three psalms (Psa. 81-83) that speak of Israel's renewed glory, and God among them in judgment; the four subsequent ones (Psa. 84-87) giving the four circles of Jehovah's interests in connection with Israel, as to which this glory is displayed. Israel's chastisement as under the law, and penalty of sin, is then given, as we have seen, in Psa. 88 Finally, the whole series of subjects is concluded in Psa. 89, which celebrates the loving-kindness of Jehovah, according to which the covenant with David is established (see verses 3, 4, 24, 28, 29, 36) in the Seed of David, the greater David, the Anointed. This is the subject of Isa. 9:1-71Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. 2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. 5For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:1‑7). The grace of His first coming is seen in verses 1, 2; then, in the following five verses, we have the zeal of the Lord of hosts establishing Him in power (a divine Person) upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom. (v. 7.)
Isaiah 1-10
(1) 5:1-7. The Vineyard.
(4) 5:8-30, 8:21, 22, 9:8—10:4. Chastisement for sin.
(3) 6. The glory, and Adonay in seraphic judgment.
(2) 7., 8. 1-20, 10:5-34. Immanuel and the Assyrian.
(5) 9:1-7. David's throne and kingdom established in the Son given in grace.
It will be noted that in the psalm the Son of man is connected immediately with the Vine, but, in Isaiah, Immanuel is in opposition to the Assyrian, and the land is His. In the last passage (10:5-34) the final inroad of the Assyrian is seen to be the consummation of divine chastisement for Israel's sins. (v. 25. Cf. Joel 2)