A millennial psalm it clearly is, and brings before us Israel lost in wonder, as they behold the development of God’s counsels, and the display of His wisdom in thus exalting the Son of Man. “Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent (or glorious) is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens.” The heaven of heavens cannot contain God, as Solomon at a later date declared, yet God deigns to make this small globe—earth—the theater for the display of His wisdom and power; and man, whose normal sphere is earth, He will place in the person of the Christ over all created things, the hierarchy of heaven included. In connection with this two points are specially brought up, viz., the principle on which God acts, and the great manifestation of it.
The principle on which He acts is this: He uses instruments, humanly speaking, inadequate to affect His mighty purposes in creation. Thus His wisdom and power are both displayed. Were He to act directly, in the greatness of His might, without the agency of any creature, all would behold His power, but His wisdom might not be developed. But He acts in wisdom as well as in power; for, taking up the feeblest creatures, and adapting them as instruments for the work that He has in hand, He thereby shows His knowledge of the suitability of the instrument, and His power in rightly making use of it. This He has done, and will do. The Psalm (2) speaks of the principle on which He acts; and the little children in the temple at Jerusalem were an illustration of it (Matt. 21:1616And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? (Matthew 21:16)). The feeblest Creatures He can and does use to affect His purpose of stilling the enemy and the avenger. “Our Lord,” the remnant will say, acts thus; and the thoughts of their hearts have been prophetically announced, that souls, till the day of Christ’s glory arrives, may be led to trust in God. Then the principle enunciated will receive its full and final manifestation by the Son of Man, as set over the works of God’s hands, destroying all God’s enemies.
This leads to the second point. Comparing man, as a creature, with the orbs of heaven, his insignificance and weakness become apparent; and the Psalmist might well say, “What is man (Enoch, mortal man), that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man (Adam), that thou visitest him? And thou hast made him a little lower than gods (i.e., angels) and with glory and majesty thou crownest him.” To whom these words are to be applied Heb. 2:88Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. (Hebrews 2:8) makes plain, pointing out, at the same time, how far the Psalm has yet received its fulfillment. The moon and the stars appointed to rule by night (Psa. 136:99The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever. (Psalm 136:9)) are far greater than man—the lowest in rank of God’s intelligent creatures—yet the Son of Man is to appear someday, set over all things, the director and ruler throughout the universe. Made lower than the angels, He will be seen placed above them. Their relation to man now, 2 Peter 2:1111Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. (2 Peter 2:11) sets forth; their present service to the saints Heb. 1:1414Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Hebrews 1:14) makes plain, and their former ministrations to the man Jesus Christ the evangelists recount (Matt. 4:1111Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. (Matthew 4:11), Mark 1:1313And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. (Mark 1:13), Luke 22:4343And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. (Luke 22:43)). God’s servants they have ever been and will be. Their status never alters. Ministering spirits they are (Psa. 103:20, 2120Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. 21Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. (Psalm 103:20‑21)) and will be, doing God’s commandments now, and executioners of His judgments by and by (Matt. 13:41-4941The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 44Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 45Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. 47Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: 48Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. 49So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, (Matthew 13:41‑49)). Man’s status, however, in the person of Christ does alter-and, through. Him, that of all God’s heavenly saints—for the better; for the future habitable world, we learn (Heb. 2:55For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. (Hebrews 2:5)), is not put under angels, but under man; and the One who is to have the chief place in that economy, appointed thereto by God, is His own well-beloved Son, the Son of Man likewise, who, as man on earth, received the ministrations of angels, but as Son of Man in power and glory, will send them forth as His messengers to do His bidding. As vet these counsels of God are unfulfilled; but the fact of the Lord Jesus Christ having been crowned with glory and honor, points Him out as the subject of this Psalm, and therefore the destined ruler of the universe.
Thus, as we read it, we learn what will be the thoughts of the godly remnant of the Jews on beholding the development before the world of the divine counsels about Christ, and we must surely own how different is God’s written word from everything else. To read the thoughts of men’s hearts when they are not expressed is the prerogative of God alone; and when the Lord did it, His disciples confessed that He must have come from God (John 16:19-3119Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? 20Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. 21A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. 22And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. 23And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. 26At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. 28I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 29His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. 31Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? (John 16:19‑31)). Here, however, we have the thoughts that will arise in His people’s hearts revealed ages beforehand: None could do this but He who forms the heart and knows the end from the beginning. What Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Jews would do to Christ and His people, Psa. 2 beforehand announced; and the disciples, in Acts 4:24-2824And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. (Acts 4:24‑28), bore witness to the accuracy of that prophetic word. What this Psalm expresses will, in like manner, in its appointed time, be made good.
Reading Heb. 2 we are assured of this, being made acquainted by it with that which God has been pleased to communicate to us about the present position and glory of His Son, as well as the great gap in time between verses 6 and 7 of the Psalm. Writing for the earthly people the Psalmist enumerates the living creatures on earth, in air, and sea, as subjected to the sway of the Son of Man. Instructing heavenly saints, the Apostle acquaints us with the breadth of meaning, which lay concealed in those words. Angels elect and apostate, men lost and saved, saints above and saints on earth, all are to be under Christ’s rule, as well as all living creatures and all created things. The joy of God’s heavenly saints at this, the feelings of the elect angels at the mention of it, as well as that of all living creatures in heaven or earth, and under the earth, and the expression of the earthly people at beholding it, the word has beforehand announced (Rev. 5, Psa. 95-98) What a place, then, in the universe has God assigned to Him, who received the ministration of angels in the wilderness when an hungered, and the support of an angel in the garden when in the agony!
But we have mere particulars about the Lord Jesus Christ, and His fulfillment of this Psalm, than what Hebrews supplies; for both 1 Cor. 15 and Eph. 1 refer to it, the former telling of the gradual accomplishment of God’s mind about His Son, the latter of our special interest in it. The gradual accomplishment we say, for whilst 1 Cor. 15 declares the purpose for which He is to reign, viz., to put all enemies under His feet, and develops the order in which that will be effected, death being the last enemy whose power He will annul, Rev. 20, which reveals to us the exact duration of His millennial reign, acquaints us also with this fact, that not till after the close of His thousand years rule will Death and Hades be cast into the lake of fire. That done, He will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, God’s purpose having been affected by the Son of Man, viz., the subjugation of all His enemies. Nothing then will escape His eye, or remain independent of His scepter; and all that has held man captive the Lord will overthrow, who, as man, visited different regions of His extensive dominions; for in Hades, as well as on earth and in heaven, can the path of the Son of Man he traced (Eph. 4:9-109(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:9‑10)). On earth, where Adam was head, in other parts of the universe, where Adam’s authority was unknown, will the Lord’s power be felt, and God, by Him, be glorified. God will set Him over the work of His hands. But this, be it observed, is not mere exaltation above all created things, but the subjection of all things to Him, who was made a little lower than the angels, nothing being left that is not put under Christ, except Him by the fiat of whose will all this is to be affected. To resist the Lord Jesus, therefore, must end in complete discomfiture. And since men, as creatures, will exist forever, sooner or later they must be subject to the lowly Son of Man, for God’s purposes about Him will be fulfilled, however long they may be of accomplishment. Viewing, then, the world’s opposition to God and to His Christ in the light furnished by the prophetic announcement of the divine plans, what can we say of it, how describe it, but as folly and madness in their intensest form, not to speak of the rebellious spirit it displays, and the mutinous character of its acts? Nothing can defeat the establishment of God’s purpose; no power arrayed against the Lord can succeed; for the binding of Satan at the commencement of the millennium by angelic agency, and his final doom at the end of it, as well as the Lord’s victory over death (Rev. 20:11And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. (Revelation 20:1)), tell us of powers greater than that of man, which must finally succumb to Christ.
When the Lord God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden as head upon earth, He brought to him all the animals for His creature to name, standing by as it were as a listener, to hear what the man, endowed by Him with intelligence, would call each one as it passed before him in review, thus manifesting His delight and satisfaction in the head which He had placed over that creation. With what delight, then, will he behold the Son of His love set over all the works of His hands! For Satan there is nothing in store but judgment final and everlasting. Not so for man, if he will hearken to God’s message (2 Cor. 5:20, 2120Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:20‑21)). Shall souls have their part forever with Satan or wish Christ? That is the question for those yet unconverted. The portion appointed for the devil Matt. 25:4141Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (Matthew 25:41) plainly sets forth. God’s counsels about Christ, and those who believe on Him, in Eph. 1:9-149Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:9‑14) have been revealed. What they were once who shall be with Christ forever, Eph. 2 in no dubious language declares, thus pointing out the class, viewed morally, from which the Lord’s “fellows” are drawn, and answering at once the question of a sin-convicted soul, can I ever hope to be with Him in whom all things are to be headed up, both things on earth and things in heaven?
As Messiah, King of the Jews, the Lord was crucified. Israel’s King was rejected and cast out of the world, to return when He shall have received a dominion co-extensive only with the universe, and before whom, as their Lord and Judge, Pilate, Herod, and Caiaphas must one day stand. “Your King,” said Pilate, addressing the Jews, king of a territory very circumscribed and insignificant in comparison with that empire of whose Head he was a servant and representative. But a dominion more extensive than that of the Caesars, and more enduring than that of any earthly dynasty, will be His who stood at that bar of judgment, and was sent therefrom to the cross. For a thousand years will He reign, and reign ‘too forever, even forever and ever. How blessed will those be then, and are now, who have obtained in him a full, a rich, and an enduring inheritance!
( Concluded from page 38.)
It is not the Lord’s way to restore to man that which he has forfeited through failure, unless He restores it in a different character. We find this whether in the case of an individual or a nation.
For instance, one who has fed upon the sweet manna turns back again in heart to Egypt, desiring the flesh-pots and food of the Land of Bondage, thus leaving the manna which it loathes. But the soul in such a state finds no sense of rest. Surfeited with Egypt’s food, he comes to himself. His spiritual tastes are once more revived; he is again convinced that “Bread from Heaven” alone can satisfy his hunger, and he returns to the manna. Still he will now find that he is not, as it were, on the same ground as before his failure. There is some difference since his restoration from what his experience was—before that cause. Not that the heart and love of God are changed to him; but he does not, as it were, retrace his steps to the first hour of failure, and go on from the point at which his eye, being off Christ, turned to something of the world with a desire after it. But it learns God and itself in a new character, and this order that God may be exalted and self-humbled.
It is a solemn thought, I can never regain what I have lost! How important, therefore, to treasure the present character of blessing while it is mine.
But here grace comes in and abounds for the soul. In keeping with God’s dispensational dealings from the very first, I learn that He never restores the ruined thing, but brings in a new, or a better. I also learn that He creates in my soul the necessity which my very failure has produced the occasion for a new and more blessed manifestation of what He is in Himself than before.
His resources are inexhaustible. He is God and not man. My repeated failure only serving, as in the case of Israel’s history, to bring to light what God is, and that for me!
Someone has remarked, that after the children of Israel despised the manna, its taste was never the same again. At first it was like “wafers made with honey,” and afterward like “fresh oil.” (Ex. 16, Num. 11)
I would just remark here what it was that preceded this notice of the change in the taste of the manna, in Num. 11:55We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: (Numbers 11:5). “We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.” Was it not a dangerous retrospect? I do not believe we can be thus engaged, even for a moment, unless self-judgment is promptly exercised, without suffering from it. It should be ever “forgetting those things which are behind.” If we allow our desires to go back to the domains of our old taskmaster, we too shall be led to imagine that the food we there sought after was eaten “freely,” being blinded to the recollection of the vexation of spirit and cruel bondage that the prince of that land laid upon us, while we earned it.
Let us not tarry at such an occupation, or we shall loathe the manna. “The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,” and “we are not ignorant of his devices.” Lot’s wife only “looked back.” We are on slippery places, while our eyes look not right on, and our eyelids straight before US, unto Jesus, who is in the glory.
1872.