The next group of Psalms has the common character of testimony, culminating in Psa. 22, which however, as expressing the expiatory sufferings of our Lord and their results may be viewed apart. Here again after the introduction of Psa. 19 the Messiah is prominent.
Psalm 19
It is inscribed “to the chief musician: a psalm of David.” “The heavens [are] telling the glory of God, and the expanse [is] showing the work of His hands. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. No speech and no words—their voice is not heard. To all the earth their line is gone forth, and their speech unto the end of the world: in them hath He set a tent for the sun; and He [is] a bridegroom going forth from his chamber; He rejoiceth as a mighty man to run the race. From the end of the heavens [is] His going forth, and His circuit unto their ends, and there is nothing hidden from its heat” (ver. 1-7). It is the witness of creation, especially of what is heavenly, and therefore universal. The heavens, with the day, the night, and the sun, bear their testimony for God to all mankind. Here we may note the beautiful propriety of the apostle's citation in Rom. 10 for sovereign indiscriminate mercy in the gospel; as of our Lord in Matt. 5:4545That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) when enjoining grace to the worst independently of desert and in contradistinction from legal injunctions. Here therefore “God” only is spoken of. Man is in view.
But there is another testimony to the greater value and more restricted character, of the law of Jehovah, which is set out in the rest of this striking psalm. “The law of Jehovah [is] upright, restoring the soul; the testimony of Jehovah [is] true, making wise the simple. The precepts of Jehovah [are] right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of Jehovah [is] pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of Jehovah [is] clean, standing forever; the judgments of Jehovah [are] truth, they are righteous altogether, to be desired more than gold, yea, than much fine gold, and sweeter than honey and the dropping of the honey-comb. Moreover by them is Thy servant warned, in keeping them [is] great reward. Errors, who discerneth? Cleanse me from hidden [ones]; moreover from presumptuous [ones] keep back Thy servant: let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and be clean from great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before Thee, O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer” (ver. 8-15). Here not the work of God is in question, but His word Who has covenant with His people on earth. It is the godly man's estimate of what was divinely given to act on the conscience. Its excellent powers are confessed, not only in its intrinsic qualities but as expressive of God's nature and authority, and hence above all pleasant and prized. There is needed admonition, God's people being what and where they are, and serving Him withal. Hence one cannot discern his wanderings, but desires cleansing, and entreats to be kept from what is presumptuous, feeling that secret snares unjudged expose to great transgression, and that what is acceptable to God in word and heart is above all to be cultivated. But if He be Rock and Redeemer, why distrust?
Psalm 20
This, again, is the personal Witness for the God-fearing Jew, Messiah in the day of trouble. “To the chief musician, a psalm of David.” “Jehovah hear thee in the day of trouble: the name of the God of Jacob set Thee up on high; may He send Thee help from the sanctuary and sustain Thee from Zion; remember all Thine offerings and accept Thy burnt sacrifices (Selah); grant Thee according to Thy heart and fulfill all Thy counsels. We rejoice in Thy salvation, and in the name of our God set up a banner: Jehovah fulfill all Thy petitions” (ver. 1-6). It is not Messiah as Jewish unbelief and carnality conceived, but Messiah in the day of distress. How could it be otherwise if He were found in an ungodly people? But He is ever, whatever come, the faithful Witness: and God takes care to have those who see Him thus and love Him the more for it; whose heart is drawn to Him because He is so unworthily hated and despised. Hence the outburst of confidence which closes the psalm. “Now I know that Jehovah saveth His anointed [Messiah]: He answereth Him from the heavens of His holiness with the might of the salvation of His right hand. Some of chariots, some of horses, but we of the name of Jehovah our God make mention. They have bowed and fallen, but we have risen and keep ourselves upright. Save, Jehovah: may the King answer in the day we call “ (ver. 7-10). Thus the godly remnant in the latter-day trouble see Christ as their object and hope, where the ungodly are to fall under the deceit of the enemy and a willful king after their heart, son of perdition for himself and them. In the Messiah that disdains not but enters into Jacob's trouble they discern the Anointed of Jehovah, appreciate His piety God-ward as well as His desires and counsels which embrace them as His own. Hence their assurance of His triumph as identified with Jehovah's name and glory, and of the King's hearing them. They were learning the secret of His person.
Psalm 21
Here we have the answer to their desires, perhaps we may add to His also, as far as they could enter in. It too is “To the chief musician, a psalm of David.” “The king rejoiceth in Thy strength, Jehovah, and in Thy salvation how exceedingly doth He exult! Thou hast given Him His heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of His lips. Selah. For Thou hast met Him with the blessings of goodness; Thou hast set a crown of pure gold on His head. He asked life of Thee: Thou gavest [it] Him—length of days forever and ever. Great [is] His glory in Thy salvation: majesty and honor Thou puttest on Him. For Thou gavest Him blessings forever; Thou makest Him glad with joy by Thy countenance. For the King trusteth in Jehovah; and through the mercy of the most High He is not moved” (ver. 1-8).
As it was into their trouble the remnant saw the Messiah enter, and therefore prayed that He might be heard of Jehovah, so now in the Spirit of prophecy they behold in His deliverance and exaltation the answer to their petitions as to His. Indeed they see more—that Jehovah had not only heard and given, but gone beyond, and of Himself anticipated with the blessings of goodness, and, if He with death before Him asked life, gave length of days forever and ever. We may observe how completely Messianic all is, and bounded by Jewish hopes: not at all the far deeper truth of His eternal glory that dawned through the clouds of His rejection on those who so feebly followed to the cross and learned all better in the light of His heavenly place and of His person. This is our portion, and therefore should we be the last to slight and the first to understand the very distinct relations of the godly remnant of Jews who are to succeed us and take up His testimony for the earth when we shall have passed to heaven. It is the confusion of the earthly and the heavenly, of Jewish expectation in the Christian, that hinders our intelligence of either. Thus the enemy wrought from the beginning, first to hinder, then to darken and corrupt, the church; as all recovery, for such as by grace discern God's mind to do His will, is by seeing in Christ the key to all, for He is the Head of the church in the heavenly places, as surely as He is Messiah of Israel and Son of man to rule all nations. Distinguishing things that differ (and the difference is immense) is the secret of learning by the word and Spirit of God.
So we see that the second part of the psalm anticipates Messiah's proper action on His earthly foes. “Thy hand shall find out all Thine enemies; Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee. Thou shalt make them as a furnace of fire at the time of Thy presence; Jehovah shall swallow them up in His anger, and the fire shall devour them; their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth and their seed from among the sons of men. For they stretched out evil over Thee, they devised a wicked device, they could not accomplish [it]. For Thou makest them to turn their back (lit., shoulder), when Thou preparest Thy bow-strings against their face. Be exalted, Jehovah, in Thine own strength; we will sing and celebrate Thy power” (ver. 9-14).
Thus the opposition and enmity of those who would not have Him to reign over them are met by their overthrow and destruction before all; and Jehovah and His Anointed are identified, not more in public exaltation, than in the fire that devours their enemies. Messiah's sufferings at the hands of men bring sure and unsparing judgments on them, as surely as His glories follow His sufferings, though, none of Israel understood but the godly who merged in the church and rose to higher hopes and better blessings by the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. So there will be godly ones to understand in the latter day after those who now compose the church are translated to meet the Lord. For when the heavenly counsels are fulfilled, at least virtually, the question of a godly people for the earth has to be solved; and these are the souls who will take up and make good the Jewish aspirations in that day, that the Lord may have not only His blessed associates on high, but hearts to welcome Him on earth for long eclipsed Zion.