(Psa. 107, &C.)
We begin here a new sphere. Israel restored is the occasion of the display of all the characters of God's dealings with the world as to His righteousness and judgment; and, by the introduction of the personal history of Christ in His rejection and exaltation, of deeper principles of His dealings relative to the person of Jesus, as the center of all economy. It is Jewish, but Jewish as to circumstances which concern all mankind.
Thanks to Jehovah characterize its introduction proclaimed by restored Israel, and witness His mercy their well-known song in the end. Verses 2, 3 especially call for this praise in the circumstances of Israel. The psalm itself speaks of the restoration, and, though there was a similar deliverance from Egypt, that shall be nowise mentioned; for they shall not say The Lord liveth who brought them up out of the land of Egypt. “They wandered;” therefore verse 4 I take to be on their return in the latter day; they had been (ver. 10) sitting in darkness; “for he hath broken the gates of brass.” (Ver. 16.) So of their tossings on the sea. From verse 32 is what happens to them after they find their place in the land; and though they are then punished and brought low, yet all iniquity in result shall stop her month. Those who observe and understand these things will, in spite, and even through all the miseries of Israel, as ever, understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. But His dealings are a pattern of instruction for the children of men in these days; and they are called (ver. 31, 32) to execute this praise in Israel, in the assembly joining with them.
In Psa. 108 we have the full political arrangements under the glory of Christ. God is to be exalted; Messiah, as man, addresses God; and the Lord Himself with God making His glory as man the expression of what He is thereto subservient. The Lord among the peoples as chief of Israel for His mercy is above the heavens, and His truth above all seats and ways of authority or appearances which may pass through the heavens. He, even God, is to be exalted, that His beloved, the Messiah, Israel in Him, may be delivered; the right hand of God's power is to be manifested. Verse 7: God answers (Elohim) in His holiness from which He cannot depart—thus generally. Verse 10. Edom is singled out, long and specially hostile (see Obad. 1:1, 1, 3, 7); and Messiah in the name of Israel demands who will go out and bring him into Edom, the center of hostile power (so in many passages). Man's help is now vain; God will do it—God's immutable glory leaving all earthly appearances far behind, and producing its own upon the earth. Israel concludes, thus encouraged, “Through God we shall do valiantly.”
Having in Psa. 107 the providence, and in Psa. 108 the determined glory of God, we have now (Psa. 109; 110) the part of Christ respectively in rejection and heavenly glory, until His manifestation. In Psa. 109, as the poor man entirely and self-emptyingly dependent upon God; but therefore the prey of the treachery and wanton, but proud hostility of the Jews and those who lead them, who were guide to them who took Jesus. The Jews are manifestly noticed as verse 4 and Judas, but both headed up in the wicked man who shall be set over them—the representative of both the Jews and Judas; but after all, it was all the Lord's doing; and then let them curse, but “bless thou.” Verses 29-31 are faith's estimate as from the Lord's truth of the result.
Psa. 110 We have on this rejection of Messiah, the answer of Jehovah, and Christ recognized in the midst of all this suffering and rejection by His Spirit, even in the mouth of the most exalted of Israel, and of all Israel as Lord. David in Spirit calls him Lord.
Foes He had found plenty—the same as all; for His love they were His adversaries; but He was to sit at the right hand of Jehovah until His enemies were made His footstool. Hereafter the Lord world send the rod of His power out of Zion: He should rule, instead of suffer, among His enemies. His people should be willing, not in the day of His humiliation, but of His power. “The dew of thy youth” is, I apprehend, the progeny given Him in Israel instead of fathers in that day. Moreover, Jehovah both sworn He shall be a priest after the order of Melchizedec. He does not say He is on high—that was not Melchizedec’s place, but a royal priesthood of the Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, though the title of His life is not on high. Further, there is a day of Adonai's wrath as well as power. “He shall smite through kings in the day of his wrath.” He shall in that day judge also among the heathen which shall be His empire, powerful and decisive His judgment. He shall smite not only many, leaving there their carcasses, but the haughty head of a great country. I used to think this Antichrist; but it does not appear to me certain that this is not Gog, for he is exercising apparently his authority rather amongst the Jews than amongst the saints. We may inquire more of both, for both are true, but it is rather, I conceive, Antichrist. Verse 7: He shall be humbled, in dependence on the refreshings of God in the way: therefore shall He lift it up. The other had exalted it, and he shall be brought low. Such is the proposed glory of Messiah as such, as Jehovah's answer to His adversaries' betrayal and humiliation. One cannot exclude Antichrist without further inquiry, however.
The three psalms which follow are the joint Hallelujah upon these things.
In Psa. 111 Messiah leads the chorus, or instructs it rather, of the assembly of His people of the upright. The works of the Lord in providential power for the accomplishment of all the promises of His covenant are the theme—redemption for them, truth for Him—power and judgment. His covenant proved and established also, as commanded forever. It is holy glory proved in it—the fear of Him—the way of understanding despite of all the rebellions of man.
In Psa. 112 the difference of the character and results (as God's part previously) of these fearers of the Lord who delight (for the heart is active in these things) greatly in the Lord's commandments. Here now is the way even of earthly grandeur, but the desire of the wicked shall perish, the dealings of the Lord, the result and character of uprightness, and His fear in man being shown. The results break forth in praise in the chorus of those happy through it. Christ summons them in spirit, thus blessed at their head, to praise the name of Jehovah, the subject of the hallelujah in each; for none is like to Jehovah, the God of that people high above all the heathen and His glory above the heavens. All things in heaven and earth united under His possession, and specially blessing the poor and lowly Israel. This is Psa. 113 Note His name is to be praised to the end of the earth.
Psa. 109 and 110 having brought in the rejection of Messiah by the Jews and His exaltation to the right hand of Jehovah, and so judgment on Antichrist, or at least the head over a great country, on account of His humiliation (it may possibly mean, and more probably, Israel's after enemies, not Antichrist), then the relation of Jehovah and Israel and what is connected with it. Psa. 114 begins the application and effect of this to the earth—the effect of the presence of Israel's God. It recalls to the earth; to what happened when Israel was first delivered by Him. But Israel was now brought back to refer to God. Their souls were in communion with Him and their minds were so full of Jehovah Elohim that they say Him without mentioning Him. They know Him as their God and conceal His name as it were in a sort of secret triumph as belonging to themselves, and put forth only His works, until having stated them, the psalm calls upon them to triumph before Him, the God of Jacob. There is great beauty and natural power in the structure of this psalm. Of old time this was the case. Israel went out of Egypt; Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion. What happened? How did nature quail before Him, before this power in Israel, before Israel coming forth! What ailed the sea and the mountains? Tremble they now at the presence of Jehovah, the God of Jacob? What joy for Israel! It was the earth, for in Jacob He is in the earth, and when Jacob says Tremble, he still remembers that to him He was a God of grace. He turned the rock into a standing water.
Psa. 115 But though Israel may boast themselves triumphantly, turning to the earth when it looks on high, it can only say, He hath done what pleased Him. “Not to us, not to us, O Jehovah,” the expression not merely of humble consciousness but of righteous desire. “To thy name give glory;” but His name is identified, for He has identified it, with them: “for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake,” for thus His name was manifested towards Israel. If only truth, then must Israel have been rejected, for they had crucified their Messiah as well as broken their law, but the promises of Jehovah must not fail because man does; and therefore in His inscrutable wisdom He brings in by mercy the accomplishment of His truth, and when (instead of going about to establish their own righteousness, they stumble at the stumblingstone) they take mercy as their only and just hope, then the truth is re-established according to God's own promises and heart, and Jesus is owned as the way of it; for חֶסֶד and אֱמֶת came by Him and, though rejected, will be established with greater additional splendor and glory by Him. This then was now different—a ground for Israel, not the law. The law was given by Moses—that was their righteousness. But they had failed, utterly failed. Such is the ground Israel rests on then, and the question can really be raised between God in Jacob and the heathen acting in scornful despite of their old sorrows and present abasement, saying, Where is He? The answer is of faith. Though Jesus may not yet be publicly manifested, yet by the Spirit of Christ in the midst of them, “our God is in the heavens,” and as to all the prosperity of the Gentiles and their abasement, they say, as Jesus on the non-repentance of Israel, “He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” The heathen idols are nothing (compare Isaiah from chapter 50, where the question is raised and the humiliation of Christ also brought in) and so they that trust in them. Then the Spirit of Christ thereon turns and addresses itself to Israel, “O Israel, trust in Jehovah,” and asserts also the mercy—He is their helper; and then the promise of millennial blessing from verse 14; but Jewish and earthly then opened. Verses 17, 18 are full of blessing, but blessing for Israel on earth.
As in Psa. 115, the Spirit of Christ entered into the confidence of Israel on the footing to them of mercy, so in Psa. 116 into the sorrows in sympathy. Then as mercy was to them merely, it begins “to us;” here being their sorrows, it begins at once, “I love the Lord,” though in answer to a cry, for He cried for them (i.e., in the world); and was just the One that did, taking their sorrows. Present salvation was the point, when only faith in the Lord could enable him to speak—such was the persecution. Death so wrought in him (not θάνατος where this is quoted, as the portion of the remnant partaking of the sufferings of Christ; but νέκρωσις) but here still referring to the Jews' portion. “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living,” which the Lord as amongst the Jews sought, “if it had been possible;” but it was not, “for sin was in the world.” The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die—a man must be born again. But the apostle uses it in the energy of the Spirit, when the sufferings of Christ abounded in him, always bearing about, &c. And after all, if even bitter things were reserved for them, the hairs of their head were all numbered. Satan could do nothing unpermitted (and thus for glory and sowing precious seed of faith, showing them there was a better resurrection, so that with us men could be baptized for the dead), for precious in the sight of the Lord was the death of His saints. He did not lightly permit it. Oh for faith to go straight on in this confidence, not fearing them which can kill the body! And if we have to say, “All men are liars,” still speaking because we believe, because we trust in the living God, we shall soon say with Paul, “Thou hast loosed my bands.” “I am thy servant” (not to their enemies). He hath delivered us from so great a death, and will (though life was despaired of), for precious in the sight of Jehovah was the death of His chosen one. Specially will this be manifested in the latter day for the remnant; in the land of the living will they walk before the Lord. The flesh of the elect will be saved; for their sakes the terrible days will be shortened, and the vows of the Lord will be paid in the presence of His people (i.e., the Spirit of Christ in and as the Head of the people, whom when thus persecuted He calls “me” in like manner). “In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee” —for it is addressed as a present thing— “O Jerusalem.” The union between the Church and Christ, and the Jewish remnant and Christ, is different: we being as His body above, and therefore in a heavenly manner being one spirit; the other, as their Head and standing for them in present blessing and manifested, yet still completely taking their cause as His own, and in His Spirit entirely one with them; and therefore in this sense the erased passage alluded to and the Apostle Paul's quotation, I believe, has its force; the latter however was during life, and so with the remnant. Light is here also shown in the glory out of the remnant of Jacob. As dew, the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, a more general expression (John baptized could do that), and the outpouring of the Spirit. (See 2 Cor. 6:9; Psa. 44:22; Rom. 8:36; 1 Cor. 15:31.) The practical connection of the then Jewish remnant with those of the latter day and those with Christ, may be further searched out, for it clears up many things; in this also Matt. 24 is involved. We do not attach sufficient importance to the remnant in this character. The Lord looks at it especially.
We must remark that Psa. 116 is a psalm of thanksgiving, and, on the principle recognized above. He does not love the Lord as under the law but as first loved—as for deliverance because heard when judgment and evil were upon his soul. Christ leads this thanksgiving or return of heart to Jehovah, saying, our God is merciful. (Ver. 5.) It is the thanksgiving cry for deliverance producing love: and love, a voice of praise and thanksgiving in remembrance of their estate. The vows are now to be paid, and they can be paid in the midst of Jerusalem, for the deliverance is wrought. (See Psa. 42:3, 4, and the psalms there.) Then they are under the sorrow. Here the Spirit of Christ puts Himself in the place of deliverance. Then it was the people we have heard, and Christ the object as King. Here He Himself leads, as a matter too of individual joy to His people. “I love Jehovah.” This makes the position quite different. Ever near and a matter of affection and intimacy because of what was wrought, and Christ intimate with Jehovah in union, but as helped, and the people having put Himself in their place, His hand laid on both. This makes this last Psalm (116) more blessed. It is His own Spirit rejoicing in the deliverance as one of the people, and so saying “our God.” The Apostle Paul quotes both these passages (2 Corinthians and Rom. 8). There is an analogous exercise of the Spirit in us. We may look at Christ as taking us as united to Himself, and so presenting us before God; and then in the highest perfection and place before Him, and also as in us looking up toward Him and saying “our.” The Spirit realizes our union, and then all is liberty and joy because for us accomplished. The Spirit realizes our position and looks up to Him alone there, saying “our;” and here is the difference of the remnant there. Now, or in the apostolic days, when we speak of union, we speak of glory, and perfection, and rest; whereas in the suffering we are substitutes for Christ in the world, though it be only by union we can go through; and we say, as it is written, “I believed,” &c.— “we also” (and therefore adds positive resurrection de facto as to the direct testimony; whereas He says, “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living,” and the bands are loosed—the power is shown. (2 Cor. 1.) Whereas the sufferings being before them as their portion before they find Christ, He comes down as it were, and enters into them, and says, “I;” and thus, while there is a strong connection, there is a real difference. The moment it was a mere fact, and Christ looked at as an object, it could be taken up directly, as it is written, “for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are appointed” —this was common to both.
In Psa. 117 and 118 the results are fully brought out.
In Psa. 117 we have all the nations called into the blessing and praise of Israel's deliverance. It is still the mercy and truth of Jehovah. Jerusalem having now been made a center, they are called around; the possession of blessing in mercy begets the spirit of blessing. Though once forbidding to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, because they rejected mercy, filling up their sins, for wrath was come upon them, εἰς τέλος. Now they had tasted mercy, and they can say to the nations, Praise the Lord, for He is merciful to us. Here note, too, the greatness of the mercy is felt and first put; for so Israel comes in, brought in under mercy, and then the truth (they being morally restored) is proved to have endured and been forever. They could not find it under their lie, yet their lie had abounded to the enduring glory of His truth: under mercy they had come into this. How deep is the wisdom of God The next Psalm (118) takes up mercy as enduring forever—not merely the sense of the present greatness of it. But when they saw how God's truth had abided in spite of their sin, they see the incomparable patience of God—His own character celebrated in them as of mercy forever. Israel, Aaron, and all may now say, His mercy endureth forever. As the Lord's going before or amongst the people had been announced to the earth in Psa. 115, so here we have the fellowship of Christ with the national, especial sorrows of Israel in that day, and thus bringing Jehovah to be with them. (Ver. 4, 5, 7.) All the nations had gathered together against Jerusalem, but Christ was there with them in His heart in the trouble. With Him Jehovah could be, for He trusted in Him and in His name He destroyed them. The adversary was sore to make Him fall, but Jehovah was with Him. Lastly, Jehovah had chastened Him sore, but He had not given Him over unto death. There were the three points (and so known in an individual soul), the nations around compassing Him, the adversary thrusting sore, and, lastly, the real secret deepest in sorrow, yet the key to all deliverance in it—Jehovah had chastened Him sore. Ver. 14-17 is the triumph against the adversary, because the Lord must be exalted, trusting in Jehovah's name, of which this is still the celebration. Jehovah's name must be exalted above all these things. Verse 17 is Jewish confidence clearly. This psalm is a remarkable summary of the identification of Jesus and all the circumstances of the Jews in the latter day; and then, in verse 19, Christ's victory through trust in Jehovah in all circumstances opens to Him the gates of righteousness (now this more deeply true, even in the resurrection).