The contents and connection of the first four books of the Psalms
The fourth book is not so markedly separated from the third, as the preceding three from one another; and specially the third from the first two, because the third, while prophetically announcing the blessing, describes a state of things which leaves the expectation of divine interference to bring in the blessing in full play. The first had given the great principles of the position of the Jewish remnant in connection with the history of Christ; in the second, they are viewed as outside Jerusalem; the third turns to the condition of Israel as a nation restored to their land, but not yet in the full blessing of Jehovah; the fourth, as I have said, completes this by the coming of Messiah. This connects the nation and Christ, as well as the nation and Jehovah. Thus the book is introduced with the nation’s connection with Jehovah, looking to His returning and finally blessing them, that His beauty may be upon them. The second psalm of the book shows Christ’s connection with the nation as man in this world; the third psalm (Psa. 92) gives, in prophetic celebration, the great result, into the whole establishment of which the Psalms 93-100 enter; then some deeply-interesting details as to Christ (Psa. 101-102), while the general result, as displaying Jehovah’s ways, is treated in the praises of Psalms 103-104 as to Israel and the earth; Jehovah’s dealings from the beginning, and Israel’s ways, on the contrary, with Him, in Psalms 105-106, which close the book.