PSALM 20. The faithful here recognize the trials of the Messiah and they address Him as the One whom Jehovah will hear and deliver.
Psalm 21. We have here the faithful remnant rejoicing in the Messiah and addressing Jehovah in the first part, concerning all that He has passed through and how He has been delivered. In the second part there is rejoicing in His overcoming His enemies, and they praise the King accordingly, but in the last verse, in their joy, they own the King or the Messiah as Jehovah.
Psalm 22. This psalm, as well as Psalm 16, gives us wholly the exercises of the Messiah, only here He is passing through the atoning sufferings on the cross. He is forsaken of God on account of this. The first 21 verses apply to these sufferings. But in the middle of verse 21, He has the consciousness that these sufferings are over and have been accepted by God. His thoughts then turn to those He calls His brethren, and He leads them in their praises. The great congregation will be when He comes into the kingdom, and all nations will be brought in to worship.
Psalm 23. This psalm is the Messiah in resurrection leading His people on through the wilderness to the glory that awaits them on account of redemption being accomplished, He, as the Great Shepherd of Hebrews 13:2020Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (Hebrews 13:20), is bringing many sons to glory according to Hebrews 2:1010For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10).
Psalm 24. We have here the earth claimed by the godly as belonging to Jehovah, and the question as to who could enter into Jehovah’s holy hill—His earthly kingdom. It was those He had been leading in the previous psalm —those who had been redeemed. Those who had followed the lying vanities of that which had been introduced by the antichrist, would have no place there. Then the question is raised, Who is this King of glory? He is then owned as Jehovah. That which had been denied Him when He was here in lowliness, is now ascribed to Him.
Psalms 25 and 26 are associated together in confession of sins and the pleading of integrity, in the midst of the increasing unbelief in the people around, Psalm 25. Here is the first time that we have the confession of sins on the part of those whose hearts God had touched, while they were surrounded by the unbelieving nation, They now realize that the secret of the Lord is with those that fear Him, and that the meek He would guide in judgment (v. 9). They feel desolate and afflicted in the midst of all those who are proving to be their enemies. They ask for forgiveness and have the confidence that Israel will be delivered.
Psalm 26. Jehovah is asked to search and to try him in his innermost thoughts and feelings. The only way to approach His altar is to walk in His truth, which was the opposite of the way of the congregation as a whole, His desire at the altar was to publish with a voice of thanksgiving all the wondrous works of Jehovah. He now feels that his feet now stand in a place where there is no slipping, where he can bless Jehovah.
Errata
BIBLE TALKS. Sept. 11-page 84, col. 1, lines 26-28. “they engaged the services of a rainmaker, but after two hours of futile attempts he was let go.” This should read, “after two years of futile attempts...”
ML-11/13/1960