(Concluded from page 115)
But we have more still to hear. “In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” It is not merely “I will praise thee,” nor yet “in the congregation,” but, “In the midst of the congregation.” The apostle Paul quotes this scripture in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and we find its spirit fulfilled in the little company gathered on that day (John 20), “the assembly.” The Lord is at once found in the midst of them, not reproving them for their just proved cowardice, unbelief, and unfaithfulness, to say nothing of lack of love for His person and suffering for His name. I say not that He had not His dealings with one or another; but He brings them at once into the highest relation and best blessings by His sacrifice. With more than one of them we know He dealt: but this did not hinder or postpone His grace at all.
“In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” Think, beloved friends, for a moment what the praise of Christ was in such an hour, what His feelings must have been, when emerging from the darkness from the dust of death, from the abandonment of God! He alone could rightly estimate the immensity of it all, who having suffered once for sins now rests in the hard-won victory. Then it was that He bore our sins; then He who knew no sin was made sin. Risen from the dead, He is bearing sins no more; He is praising, and not alone, but “in the midst of the congregation.”
Let me add another word; there is a day coming when this earth shall be filled no more with groans but with hallelujahs; the day hastens when everyone born shall join in the chorus of blessing, when heaven and earth shall be filled with joy and glory; but never will come a day when such praise will burst forth as that which He began that day. It is not that they who praise with Him, being brought into such association of blessing, will ever lose it—they never will; but if it began with Him then, it will be theirs forever, but it is theirs only with Him in their midst: and the psalm before us proves it the more strikingly because it was written expressly with a view to the earthly people. The praise of the resurrection-day is peculiar, being Christ’s praise in the midst of the congregation, that is, of His brethren.
And who could declare it as He? and when could even He have declared it as when raised from the dead by the Father’s glory after having been brought into the dust of death for sin? None but He could feel to the uttermost what it was to be forsaken of God and not heard when He cried; but now, heard from the horns of the unicorns. He enters as the risen man into the light and glory of God shining forever on the accepted sacrifice of Himself; and declares to His brethren the name (now we can say) of His Father and their Father, of His God and their God; and there and thus, in the midst of the church now set free forever by and in Him, He sings praises. Oh! what praises were Christ’s, delivered now at length and from so great a death! But are they not our praises too? And is it not in “our midst” that He sings them? What a character does not this communion imprint on the church’s worship! The praise of Christ, after sin was judged as it never can be again, and He who was crucified in weakness lives by the power of God, gives the just and only full idea of what becomes God’s assembly.
Are these your thoughts, brethren beloved of the Lord? Is this the standard by which you try your hearts and lips when you present your spiritual sacrifices to your God and Father? Be assured, He values none compared with those of the risen Christ, who deigns to be the leader of such as cleave to Him in this the day of His still continued rejection, though He be, as we know, glorified on high.
Truly His is in the highest sense a new song. Alone He has thus suffered; not alone does He praise, but in the full chorus of the consciously redeemed. How wondrous that it is not here merely “in” the congregation but “in the midst” of it that He thus sings! In the day of His power it will not be so for “the great congregation.” Not that His praises will be lacking in that day; not that high and low will not praise in the earth when all Jehovah’s works shall praise Him and all His saints shall bless Him. Still it remains true that there is a revealed association on His part with those who are now being called and gathered since His resurrection, which exceeds in depth anything said of those who follow in that bright and blessed day. Not to the great congregation is He said to declare His God and Father’s name. In it indeed will His praise of Jehovah be, but not in its midst as on the resurrection-day for those who have not seen and yet have believed. Compare verses 22, etc. with 25,—etc. For what is said of that jubilee for Israel and the earth would still be true if He praised alone on His ground and all others on theirs. Neither does He call them His brethren as now, however He may pay His vows (in itself another distinctive mark) before those that fear Jehovah, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Him Lord to God’s glory, even to the ends of the world and throughout all kindreds of the nations.
Is not all this grace indeed to us who deserve nothing less, even the true grace of God wherein we stand? May we appreciate the counsels and the ways of the God of all grace who has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus? To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen! May our praises then abound; but may they be Christ’s praises in our midst, who deigns to be where two or three are gathered to His name! He is not absent if we are called, in aught to vindicate the truth or holiness of God: is He when we gather to worship His and our God and Father? By Him therefore let us offer sacrifice of praise continually, that is, fruit of lips confessing His name.
This is followed by a call to others founded on the resurrection of the suffering Messiah. “Ye that fear Jehovah, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Jacob. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard” (vers. 23, 24). This was at least anticipated, we may note in passing, in those words which the Lord uttered before departing, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” The public answer to His cry was when God raised Him from the dead.
Thus we find Messiah no longer suffering but heard, His God and Father’s name declared to His brethren, and Himself in the midst of the church praising; and then a call to everyone who fears Jehovah to praise Him, on the ground of atonement. For by the cross of Christ the whole question of sin and sins before God and for the believer was settled forever.
But there is a new scene in the verses that follow, which may help to bring out more distinctly what I have already endeavored to explain. Here the Messiah says, “My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation.” Thus “the great congregation” is distinguished from “the congregation” in ver. 22. There it is clearly the assembly surrounding Him when risen from the dead; whereas in ver. 25 we read, “My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation.” Remark that it is not in the midst of them. There is no such association with Christ spoken of Observe in John 20 (which has already furnished us with the illustration, and indeed fulfillment, of His name declared to His brethren, and the congregation in the midst of which He praises), that there also we have what answers to “the great congregation.” For Thomas came eight days after and exclaims to the Lord, when convicted of his unbelief, “My Lord and my God.” Not a word is hinted here about “My Father and your Father, my God and your God.” There is no longer the association of Christ with the disciples traced here, but another confession which grace will draw out from “the great congregation” as from Thomas, when they too repent, and confess their long despised and rejected Messiah. They too will then say, “My Lord and my God.” It is most true, the striking type of what Israel will know and confess in that day. (Compare Zech. 12).
How wide will be the praise! But it is not association with Christ, it is not the praising in the midst of the congregation. There is no such blessedness of fellowship with Him. Of Christ in that day it is said, “I will pay my vows before them that fear him.” Could anything more strikingly show that this is on Jewish ground? And still further it is not only what is said which distinguishes them from those in ver. 22, but what is not said. Thus there is not a hint of declaring the name of His Father and God here; nor are they here called His brethren. There will be a blessed people, but as a people round Him who is at once the reigning Messiah and Jehovah their God. Even He praises and pays vows in that day.
There had been Christ’s praise in the midst of the assembly of His brethren when He rose from among the dead, their Leader; and there followed also a suited testimony of God to those who feared Him (compare Acts 10:3535But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Acts 10:35)), as well as to all the seed of Jacob or Israel. The day when grace assembles the children of God is also a day of good news to every creature, Jew or Gentile, that they may believe. But now it is more than testimony. Messiah’s praises are of Jehovah in the great congregation; Messiah pays His vows before them that fear Him. There is the sure and open accomplishment of all promises. Now every prophecy of coming glory for the earth and the nations is being fulfilled. Accordingly the “meek shall eat and be satisfied, they shall praise Jehovah that seek him: your heart shall live forever.” “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto Jehovah: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is Jehovah’s: and he is the governor among the nations” (vers. 27, 28). Not a word of this was given in the former connection. Henceforth it is not merely calling on all the ends of the earth to remember, but they shall remember. It will not be the gospel of grace as now, nor the church, but the kingdom in its display of power. All therefore shall turn to Jehovah, as we are here assured, “and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.” It is no longer a question of the Christian place (this was given us in ver. 22) when the testimony goes out in ver. 23, the ground of faith being laid in ver. 24. After that (vers. 25-31) comes what supposes and characterizes the millennial days. It is when Christ asks (Psa. 2) and gets the earth, that He is in the “great congregation.”
Now on the contrary His is a “little flock,” and everything great among men is opposed to God. By-and-by it will not be so; but Christ will have “the great congregation,” and be Himself the governor of all nations. Then “all they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship, all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him.” Then is a day of confessed dependence, though of the richest blessing, for “none can keep alive his own soul.” He is the life and strength of all, as He is the exalted of all. “A seed shall serve him: it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.” The old Christ-rejecting generation will be gone, but the returned remnant, after undergoing judgment and consumption, shall be a holy seed and a new stock. “They shall come and shall declare his righteousness [weaned now at length from all conceit of their own] unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this” (vers. 29-31). It is neither heaven nor eternity, nor is it the present evil age, but the bright and holy age to come, when the Lord Jehovah is blessed and blesses, the God of Israel who only doeth wondrous things; and in that day His glorious name is blessed forever, and the whole earth is filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. W. K.
“Whom heaven must indeed receive until times of restitution of all things of which God spake by [the] mouth of his holy prophets since time began.”