The connection between these two verses, as rendered in our English version, is confessedly obscure. The Lord, in His pathway through this world, taking as He ever did, in the perfection of His life of faith as man, the place of entire dependence and ‘obedience, says, “ O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not unto thee;” and then the next verse proceeds, “But to the saints,” etc., as if it meant, “My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints,” etc. Some years since a well-known servant of the Lord made a suggestion which, to most minds, cleared up the difficulty, besides throwing a flood of light upon the mind of the Spirit of Christ. Instead of reading, “But to the saints,” etc., he pointed out, that to bring out the sense it might be thus taken, “I have said to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, In them is all my delight.” This makes the parallelism also complete: “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord.... but I have said to the saints.” And the spiritual mind will instantly perceive the beauty of the passage as thus explained. There is first the lowliness of our blessed Lord as man; and secondly, there is His identification with, and delight in, the saints on the earth.
While, however, many were feasting on this precious unfolding of the Word, it was said, by one who claims to have a large knowledge of the original, that the structure of the Hebrew made this rendering impossible. But, on turning to the Revised Version, we find it thus given: “I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: I have no good beyond thee.” As for (or “unto” in the margin) “the saints that are in the earth, they are the excellent in whom is all my delight.” Thus, learning contradicts learning, and justifies the explanation of one who was not without learning, but who used it only as a servant in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord’s heart, then, was upon the saints. It was in them He had ‘His delight; and this He showed when He identified Himself with the poor remnant who went out to be baptized of John. (Matthew 3). He Himself was also baptized; and it was then, on His going up out of the water, that the heavens were opened, and, together with the Spirit of God descending upon Him, there was a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight.” He found His delight in the saints, and the Father found His delight in Him. It is surely a lovely scene; and we may learn that the heart of God can only flow out to His people through Christ, and that they can only meet the heart of God in the heart of Christ.
E. D.