We know from Acts 2 That this psalm is the language of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is essentially a psalm connected with the path of a dependent man through this world. To us it is indeed a wonderful privilege to be put into the same path, and in our little measure to be called upon to have some of the same experiences which the blessed Lord, as a man, down here upon earth, passed through. Now it is a great thing to bear in mind that we never find the Lord Jesus acting other than in obedience to His Father. He never did a single thing for Himself. His was a life of ceaseless activity. He was always doing good, yet never doing anything for Himself.
We might think that sometimes He might legitimately have done something for Himself—in the temptation, for instance. The Lord passed through the temptation of the enemy as a dependent man. He would not move out of the path of dependence. He does not swerve from that path, even though He was in need in this case, because He had not a word from His Father. He would rather suffer hunger, and wait until God's time to be fed.
If He had not gone through His path in this way, He could not have been our example. If by His Godhead power He had made the stones into bread, He would not have been an example to us, because, of course, we could not exercise the same power.
The beautiful thing is, that the Lord Jesus, as a man, in going through this world, found all His springs in God, and thus expressed His dependence.
The youngest saint may learn something from the dependence of the Lord Jesus Christ upon God. The Lord had all His strength in God. Is it not a great thing? Oh, the blessedness of depending upon God, like the Lord Jesus Christ, in a world like this!
This psalm is expressive of the Lord's experiences all through His journey here. In other psalms we get the utterances of the Lord in eventful moments of His life.
In Psalm 22, for instance, we get some wonderful utterances of our Lord. We can here learn what we could not get from the gospels, and that is what was in the mind of the Lord in those hours of suffering and silence upon the cross. We have the record of but seven little sentences that fell from His lips; but what was passing in His heart at that moment of unutterable sorrow and weakness? He tells us Himself. He says, as it were, "If God has forsaken Me, I have not forsaken Him." His whole trust in that moment was in God. He was then suffering that which it would have taken us an eternity in the lake of fire to endure. No creature could possibly pass through that and survive. Yet the Lord rises again, and rises in the power of an endless life.
What passed through the mind of the Lord in that midnight hour in the garden, when we are told, He was "sore amazed"? (Mark 14:3333And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; (Mark 14:33).) The word is "affrighted," as in chapter 16:5. He had the cross with all its horrors before Him. He looked for some to take compassion, but found none. The most intimate of His disciples were fast asleep. What was He passing through at that time? I believe Psalm 102 gives the answer. Hebrews 1 furnishes the divine interpretation of this psalm. It says in Psalm 102:2323He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days. (Psalm 102:23), "He weakened My strength in the way; He shortened My days." He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. Messiah was "cut off," as we find in Dan. 9:2626And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26), margin. He who had all the promises was cut off in the midst of His days, without receiving what as Messiah He had every right to.
The answer to His cry is in verse 24, where, in the middle of the verse, we now get another speaker. Jehovah answers Him: "Thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end." What an answer to one who was there in anguish of spirit.
But, as I said, Psalm 22 and 102, and other psalms, give us the experiences of the Lord Jesus Christ at certain eventful moments of His history; while Psalm 16 describes the pathway of the Lord Jesus from the beginning to the end.
This psalm was true of the Lord in all the experiences He had to pass through. He was relying upon God, no matter what the trials and difficulties might be. As a man He looks to God, and finds His strength and comfort in Him. Is that impossible to us? No, it is the very thing we are called to do. Because we find that we are as weak as water, there is all the more need for dependence. We need never be afraid of our weakness. What we may be afraid of is our imaginary strength. The moment we think we have got anything, then it is that we break down. But it is true blessedness to have our hearts and eyes continually turning toward God.
But you may say, How am I going to get through all today? The way to get on is to cry, "Preserve me, O God." Well, you may say, We cannot keep upon our knees all the daylong; how can we go on in that way? It is that attitude of heart toward God that turns toward Him and says, I cannot get on without Thee. It is a continual turning of the heart to Him, and finding that you cannot get on without Him.
When you think of the Lord in Luke's Gospel, He is there presented as the Son of man. You get the human side of the Lord, and so you find Him frequently in prayer Himself; and He presses the necessity of prayer upon His disciples. You will find that prayer has a prominent place in Luke. It is in the Gospel of Luke that Christ says to His disciples that men ought always to pray and not to faint; and many other passages there are which refer to prayer. The Lord, as a dependent man, is found there continually in prayer. His trust was in God at all times. Well, if the soul is thus, what can shake it?
It would be well worth your while to go through the Psalms, and mark with your pencil the word "trust." The blessedness of trusting in the Lord! It is a word that is continually appearing right through. People very often speak about trusting in the Lord. But at the very first difficulty they throw themselves upon their own resources. But how different it was with the Lord. He went through all in peace and restfulness of heart, and it was because He put His trust in What the Lord Jesus had in this world is as real for us as God. it was for Him, and we can say this confidently and reverently. Do we know the blessedness of the Lord being the portion of our inheritance, and of our cup? I have often heard people say, I have none but the Almighty to look to. Well, dear friends, how much has the soul got who has only the Lord to look to? He has everything. It is a wonderful thing to see the Lord going through the world in calmness of spirit, owing to His having confidence in God.
There is nothing in the world for the Christian. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Is there a single thing there that can help you, that can forward you in your Christian course? If you have God, how thoroughly it makes you independent of the world! All the trials and sorrows that you have on the way should only serve to make you put your confidence in God.
Suppose a Christian has had a trial, and it is now all over; what has the trial left behind? what has been the effect of the trial upon him? Has it merely left a wound? Why, it ought to have left a big blessing behind it! We ought to have learned something about God that we never knew before; we ought to have gained by the trial, and to have proved what God is to us in it.
The Lord can speak of His path, and say, "The lines are fallen unto Me in pleasant places." In what sense could that be said? The Lord passed through trial and suffering here; what then could have made His lines pleasant? This is the secret-God was enough for His heart, Jehovah was His portion, His inheritance, and His cup. The Lord was during His whole journey moving, as it were, against a strong tide. He was never chafed in spirit, always calm, always dependent, and finding in God His resources. "I will bless the LORD [Jehovah], who hath given Me counsel." If you turn to Isa. 50:44The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. (Isaiah 50:4), you will see the way in which He got counsel. The Lord Himself is speaking: "The Lord GOD hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned." His ear was open; He was ready to receive instruction. "The Lord GOD hath opened Mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting." There was the ear open! He was always ready to hear what Jehovah said. He got instruction and counsel from Jehovah. The hidden springs—the reins.
Where is that in us which answers to this? It is, I believe, what we get in the Old and New Testament—meditation. It is, I might say, like chewing the cud in animals. We read of meditation in the Psalms. It means that we are to go over things. It is not always hearing n e w truth. There may be a kind of attraction in learning n e w truth; but the thing that feeds the soul is its getting its portion from God—going oftentimes over what you have had before. The Lord could thus speak and say that His reins got instruction in the night seasons. It is a blessed thing.
I knew a dear saint of God who is now with the Lord. She used to say that she always suffered a great loss when she slept the whole night through. She said, I like to repeat the words of that hymn, "The Man of sorrows." You know there is a great difference in knowing a thing by heart, and in knowing a thing in the heart by meditation.
"I have set the LORD [Jehovah] always before Me." This gives quietness and peace; and, as we have said, the Lord Jesus was never put out by circumstances; and at the end of His journey He could say, "My peace I give unto you." It was the peace that possessed His own heart, even when things disappointed Him. He was in perfect peace; He was never put out by these things. Why not? Because He always looked up. Take that remarkable scene in Matthew 11. He sees nothing but rejection. The children of the world would have nothing of God, and nothing but rejection was before Him. He could say, "I have labored in vain." It looked as if His mission was a failure; and yet He could say, "I thank Thee, O Father." Perfect submission to His Father's will; and let the circumstances be what they might, He was calm, and had peace amid them all. If it was according to the Father's will, He was happy and content. In
Luke we get, "Jesus rejoiced in spirit."
In verse 9 of this Psalm, and this is referred to in Acts 2, we read, "Therefore My heart is glad." When is it and of what is it said that the Lord was glad? Turn to Acts 2, and hear the connection; it is very wonderful: "Therefore did My heart rejoice, and My tongue was glad; moreover also My flesh shall rest in hope."
When you think that the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, had certain promises made to Him—that as Messiah He had been promised length of days, even life for evermore, as well as royal estate and dominion, a n d many other things—what must it have been to Him to see nothing but the cross before Him here? Did He not value the promises made by God to Him? He did; yet He will wait God's time for their fulfillment.
In the end of Daniel 9 you read that the Messiah shall be cut off, and shall have nothing. Yes. Instead of having the kingdom, He gets the cross; instead of having royal dominion, He is despised and cast out. What a strange fulfillment! (Do you say, a breakdown in the promises of God?) There was no breakdown, beloved friends. The Lord was lifted up as the Messiah, and cast down (Psalm 102:1010Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. (Psalm 102:10)). Did He not feel it? Do you mean to say that it had not cost the Lord something to be cut off? He did feel it. But what was the effect? It cast Him more upon God. Was not that a blessed thing? He can say, "Therefore My heart is glad." He says, as it were, "I have only to wait, for the promises are sure."
That is where our will comes in. We are expecting things to turn out in a certain way, and instead of their turning out in the way we expect, they turn out differently; and we do not know what to do. How different from the Lord! The Lord is content to wait until He gets the fulfillment of those promises to Himself, upon the sure and solid ground of resurrection. Are you willing to wait God's time? Can you not say, "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight"?
If death comes in, still the promises of God are sure. In the case of Abraham, after he had waited long years for that son to be a joy to him in fulfillment of the promises, God said to him one day, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering." Now the question is, What can Abraham do? God had said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." But what did Abraham do? He rose up early in the morning. He said, If I slay and burn him, God is able to raise him up. He might not see how, yet he knew that God was able to raise him up again. Would you be able thus to leave things you most value in God's hands? Well now, here was Isaac; and God says, "Offer him." It was on the third day that Abraham reached the appointed place. It was when the full period of death had elapsed that he got him back in a figure. But do you look beyond the grave? What a grand thing it is to know that the promises of God in Christ are Yea and Amen. What a blessed thing it is that we shall have in that day all these things in resurrection. Then can we truly say, "In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
May the Lord add His blessing to the word.