The birth of the King announced in Psa. 2, we have next to trace His footsteps as He walked upon earth as a man. Power to be exercised by Him as God’s King seems only natural and right, but a position of lowly dependencies one which man would never have assigned to him. Yet this was the place He took when upon earth, who will one day rule all nations with a rod of iron, for He was to show, what Adam had failed to exhibit-the proper character and position of the lowest in rank of God’s intelligent creatures, called by Him, man.
Perfect God and perfect man, whatever be the relative position He occupies, in it He is perfect. As Son of God He would not return to the glory, which He had with the Father before the world was, without His full consent and action (John 17:1); for the relationship of Son involves subjection to the Father. Perfect man, though He could say, as God, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I raise it up;” when He entered the grave He did not exert His power to rise from it, but God raised Him from the dead. Power over death He had manifested when on earth, yet, He was raised up from it by the glory of the Father. As man, then, on earth, He entered fully into his place, and acted throughout as befits the creature. And this we have traced out to us in the Word, not only in those books which recount His history, but in the Psalms and Prophets, which mark out beforehand the road appointed Him to traverse. Amongst the Psalms which describe Him upon earth, Psa. 16 must be included. Twice in the Acts do we find it quoted (2:25-28; 13:35), and both times it is expressly applied to Christ. Peter, taking up the question of David’s authorship, points out that he wrote not of himself, but of another. The Psalm is a Psalm of David, but the hope it expresses belongs to a person very different from the youngest son of Jesse. David’s sepulcher, existing at that day, proved he did not write of himself. “He is both dead and buried,” is all that the apostle could say of him. He died, was buried, and is risen, is the testimony which he bore to Christ. “David speaketh concerning Him” is the language of the Spirit by Peter; with reference to His own words by David. At Antioch, in Pisidia, Paul, addressing a mixed company of Jews and Greeks, and anticipating the objection that might be raised against the Messiahship of Jesus, because He had died, quoted this Psalm, to show that His resurrection was predicted. David saw corruption, but He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Thus, at Jerusalem, and again at Antioch, it was clearly shown that Psa. 16 had reference to another than the writer, even to David’s Son, who is also David’s Lord.
Glancing over it, we may see that only one speaker is introduced throughout it. In Psa. 2 we had three, here we have but one, so he, whose hope it expresses at the close, is the same whose dependence it declares at the beginning; for, whilst part of the Psalm any saint might take up, whose walk was conformed to the standard it describes, One only has ever been upon earth, who could apply it all to Himself. Enoch and Elijah can tell of a road to heaven, which passes not through the gates of death, but none of God’s saints, who have entered death, have passed through it without their bodies being subjected to corruption. For observe, the Psalm speaks not of the state and portion of the unclothed spirit, but of the re-union of body and soul after each should go to their respective places, the former to the grave, the latter to hell, or hades, (Sheol). Death, however, is here only in prospect, the walk which preceded it being the subject of the Spirit’s description.
Like a lake whose surface is unruffled by the least breath of any disturbing element, reflecting the very color and calmness of the heavens above it, disclosing, too, beauties in its depths, a bright shining object, at once attractive and soothing, such is the character of our blessed Lord and Master, as brought out to us in this Psalm, in which we mark no trace of the opposition that He met with from men, nor of the unevenness of the road over which He journeyed. With one exception (v. 4,) there is nothing here to intimate the presence on earth of a will, which did not, like His, bow to that of God. It is one, as He walked with God, whose footsteps we have here delineated, and just what we meet with elsewhere in the Word, so useful to us who are often so dull of comprehension, we have but one aspect of the Lord’s work upon earth given to us in this Psalm to contemplate. The full picture, with every feature in harmony, we get in the Gospels, whilst different aspects of His life are brought before us in the Old Testament Scriptures. The principle of His walk, the character of His service, the treatment He experienced, the grace and gentleness which He manifested; all these, blended together in the Gospels, are described particularly and separately by the Prophets who lived before the cross. So, whilst noting His perfection throughout, we may study for our profit the different features of His character, who is both God and man, our Saviour and our Lord.
(To be continued.)