This Psalm applies the deliverance, in His Person, to Israel. Here we have the voice of the Remnant according to the Spirit of Christ in the latter day.
It seems to me that not only, as heretofore remarked, sins are not confessed, till this Psalm, after Psa. 22, but, what is perhaps the secret of this, the tone of the Psalms changes from what preceded. It is far more personal and experimental, the outgoings of the heart itself to God; previously more dispensational. There is the same general condition of the Remnant, but before that Psalm it looks at that condition and what belongs to the righteous Remnant—the place they were in, in its various aspects, and what they needed from, and God met them in; and they were the faithful ones who thus cried to Him and whom He regarded, and then largely Christ entering into these sorrows and making atonement, closing with His entering into the Temple in glory, with the character of those who should have a part with Him. It is the whole scene, which involves the personal feelings, and Christ Himself, but from this Psalm we have the individual opening out his heart to God as to himself. Christ had done this, but that is another thing and belongs to the ground of their position. Previously the appeal, though to mercy, is always on account of integrity; this, note, is much more intimate, and this is the effect of personal confession which brings, for ourselves, to God. After this Psalm, to the end of the Book, we have only Psa. 40 which speaks of Christ. Psa. 41 is the poor man's place, which He pronounced blessed and entered into, but here looked at as that of the godly, repentant Remnant whom He went before, though in Him the baptism of repentance was only fulfilling righteousness, still taking His place with them. In Psalm 40 though in the place of trial, He is simply perfectly accomplishing God's will, Himself individually a witness in the great congregation, and taking the place, as we know, of the former sacrifices.
In Psa. 1 to 24, we have Christ constantly—a whole series of dispensational relationships. First, God's counsels in Psa. 2 as introductory—Son of God, king in Zion to whom the kings of the earth are to be subject; Psa. 8, as Son of Man over all things; Psa. 16 and 17 trusting, even to death, and righteous, and their respective consequences in glory and joy; Psa. 18, a suffering Christ—the Center of all God's ways with Israel from Egypt to the millennium. After Psa. 19, the witness of Creation and Law, the suffering Messiah on earth exalted and judging His adversaries, Psa. 20 and 21; atonement the ground of blessing, from the first Remnant to those born in the millennium, Psa. 22; Psa. 23 is so far Christ as that, though not a sheep, He had this path, going before them in it. But the Remnant is here—it is in Psa. 14 also, verses 3-5—but here He is at their head as the King of Glory, the Lord of Hosts entering into His temple. Psa. 1-8 are a general preface—the Remnant, and Christ rejected and taking the place of Son of Man; Psa. 9 enters on latter-day Jewish ground, and the experience of the Remnant in it; Christ, Psa. 16 and 17, having a resurrection place, and at God's right hand in hope—"the joy set before him"; Psa. 18 His sufferings, the groundwork of God's dealings with Israel. Then the testimony and atonement, as we have seen, and finally the especial care of Jehovah over the sheep, in the path in which Christ trod, and then His taking His place in glory in the Temple. Psa. 23 and 24 are supplementary, showing what is to happen in the last day, and are consequent on atonement.
But there is more—Psa. 25-28 give this experience, and as in Psa. 16 and 17, besides the confession of sin, we have trust and righteousness or integrity; then confidence, and the demand not to be shut up in one class with the wicked; but from Psa. 24 we have Jehovah Himself distinctly brought before us, and the acknowledgment of what He is as a resource. With this comes forgiveness, promise, and warning. This character of the Psalms goes on to the end of Psa. 37; in Psa. 38 and 39 we have governmental wrath; Psa. 40 the Spirit of Christ entering into it, but going much farther, coming to accomplish all the counsels of God. But evils “encompass” Him, as well as iniquities “are upon" Him. He is the poor and needy One as well as Substitute for all Jewish sacrifices, and (Psa. 41) blessed is He who understands the poor. But this returns to confidence in Jehovah. But we have clearly Christ both in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and in the sorrows and sufferings of the Remnant.
In this Psalm we have Christ as Aaron, as intercessional Priest, confessing Israel's sins in that day of trouble, that tenth day of atonement, as His sins, when they are in their trouble with their enemies.
7. Here first we have the confession of sin; before, it is the suffering, godly Remnant in their various exercises of heart, or Christ. This makes this Psalm, after the full glorifying of Psa. 24, of a very marked character. It begins a new series of thought.