The Psalms: A Brief Outline
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Table of Contents
The Psalms: a Brief Outline
The book of the Psalms has been called the heart of the Bible. It expresses sentiments produced by the Spirit of Christ, whether of prayer, sorrow, confession or praise in the hearts of God’s people, in which the ways of God are developed and become known with their blessed results to the faithful.
The book is distinctly prophetic in character, the period covered by the language of the Psalms extending from the rejection of Christ (Psa. 2) to the hallelujahs consequent on the establishment of the kingdom. The Psalms never go on into the millennium, but only up to it. Prophecy will not be needed when that time has arrived.
The writers do not merely relate what others did and felt but express what was passing through their own souls. And yet their language is not simply what they felt but that of the Spirit of Christ that spoke in them, as taking part in the afflictions, the grief and the joys of God’s people in every phase of their experience. This accounts for Christ’s being found throughout the Psalms. Some, like Psalm 22, refer exclusively to Him. In others, though the language is that of the remnant of His people, Christ takes His place with them, making their sufferings His sufferings and their sorrows His sorrows. In no part of Scripture is the inner life of the Lord Jesus disclosed as in the Psalms. Sometimes the heading of a psalm tells us the occasion on which the psalm was written, but it does not hinder the Spirit of God from leading the psalmist to utter things that would be fully accomplished in Christ alone. As David said, “The Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me.”
David’s experience could not have caused him to compose Psalm 22. But being a prophet, it was clearly the Spirit of Christ that was in him that furnished words which would be uttered by Christ on the cross. We have in it a plain instance of a prophetic psalm, and doubtless the spirit of prophecy runs throughout the Psalms.
The piety that the Psalms breathe is always edifying, and the deep confidence in God expressed in them under trial and sorrow has cheered the heart of God’s saints at all times. But the Psalms are not a book of Christian experience. What Christian could take up as his own language the statement, “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones” (Psa. 137:9)? Such an appeal is only intelligible in regard to a future day, when, apostasy being universal and opposition to God open and avowed, the destruction of His enemies is the only way of deliverance for His people.
The Psalms apply directly to souls under the law. The Christian’s relationship with the Father is not — cannot be — introduced in the psalms, and we live out of that relationship practically if we live under the law as those in the Psalms. As Paul said, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.” However, like those in the Psalms, our right path is ever one of obedience and confiding dependence.
Unless the difference of the spirit of the Psalms from that of Christianity be observed, the full light of redemption and of the place of the Christian in Christ is not seen and the reader is apt to be detained in a legal state. His progress is hindered, and he does not understand the Psalms nor enter into the gracious sympathies of Christ in their true application. When the attitude of the Jews at the time the Lord was here is remembered and their bitter opposition to their Messiah, then light is thrown upon their feelings when, under tribulation, their eyes will be opened to see that it was indeed their Messiah that they crucified. Into all their sorrows Christ enters, and He suffers in sympathy with them. The true place and bearing of the Psalms must be seen before they can be rightly interpreted. The writers were not Christians and could not express Christian experience, though their piety, confidence in God and the spirit of praise may often put a Christian to shame.
A striking characteristic of the Psalms is that all through them the power of evil is rampant. Even when God is praised and He gives songs of hallelujahs to His people, evil is there. It supposes all the evil to be in power unto the end. It is the power of good in the midst of evil, and not the reign of good. It is analogous to our present position. The Lord says, “I have overcome the world,” yet still the world goes on, and we have the power of Christ in the midst of it.
In the Psalms the godly remnant is often distinguished from the rest of the people. The sins of the people would morally hinder the remnant from having confidence in God in their distresses. Yet God alone can deliver them, and to Him they must look in integrity of heart. So in seeking deliverance the distresses are laid before God, while at the same time both sins are confessed and integrity of heart is pleaded. Christ, having come into their circumstances and having made atonement, can lead them, in spite of their sins and about their sins, to God.
In the Hebrew Bible the 150 psalms are grouped into 5 distinct sections or books. Each book has its own scope and marked conclusion. Within each book related psalms are grouped together as a series. This outline highlights each series by marking it with three asterisks ( ============================= ). Often a series begins with some great truth or historical fact presented as to Christ or the remnant or both. Then the psalms that follow express the feelings and sentiments of the remnant in connection with that truth or fact.
The titles, which appear above the individual psalms, are a part of the inspired Word and should be read and studied along with each psalm.
Book 1: Psalms 1-41
Overview. In the first book both the remnant and Christ are rejected, but the remnant is not cast out of Jerusalem. While still together in the city and sanctuary, the godly remnant is seen as distinct from the wicked among the Jews. (In Book 2 the remnant is cast out of the city and is severed from the wicked.)
We have more the personal history of Christ in this first book than in any of the rest. He was going in and out with the remnant, while it was yet associated with Jerusalem.
It is only the Jews (two tribes) in this book and not all of Israel. The ten tribes do not come in till the third book. The remnant includes the children of Israel who came up with the two tribes at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. So in Luke 12 we find Anna who was of the tribe of Asher and Elizabeth who was of the daughters of Aaron.
The light of resurrection dawns for the faithful in this book, Christ having gone through death into fullness of joy at God’s right hand.
Divine Names. As the people are still owned of God, the covenant name of Jehovah predominates.
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Psalms 12 are part of a series of psalms that ends with Psalm 8, but they are distinct in themselves and give the general idea of the whole book.
Psalm 1, like Isaiah 4048, takes up the question of Jehovah and idols, the remnant’s obedience to the law and trust in Jehovah. The “wicked” are the ungodly Jews. In Psalm 2, like Isaiah 4957, Christ takes the place of Israel as Jehovah’s servant, and the remnant is distinguished by their reception of Christ. In these portions it is only a remnant of the people whom God would recognize, and they end with the blessing of this remnant and with the declaration, “There is no peace . . . unto the wicked” (Isa. 48:22; 57:21).
In Psalm 1 it is the description of the remnant’s character, and so we have them meditating in the law of Jehovah. In Psalm 2 it is Christ, and we have the nation rejecting Him.
Is it the crucifixion in Psalm 2? No, we are really in the last days. Peter quotes its beginning (Acts 4) and applies it to Israel for their rejection of Christ, but in the Old Testament, church-time is dropped out. Thus from verse 4 the psalm leaps over all the time from the crucifixion to the millennium. In verse 4 we have the Adonai (the Lord) sitting in the heavens. He shall laugh at them and have them in derision.
We see the same principle in Luke 4 where the Lord quotes Isaiah 61:12. He stops in the middle of the verse, because the end is vengeance at the second coming. In John 1, Nathanael owns the Lord as Son of God and King of Israel, according to His Messianic (Psalm 2) glory, and the Lord says, “Thou shalt see greater things than these.” In the last verse He takes the glory of the Son of Man, according to Psalm 8. John 1:51 should be, “Henceforth ye shall see,” for the moment Christ was on earth, there was an adequate object for heaven to open upon; the angels ascend and descend upon the Son of Man.
Paul in Ephesians 1, 1 Corinthians 15 and Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 8 to show that He as “Son of Man” is set over all things which God has made. “Son of Man” is a wider title than “Christ.” In Matthew 16 the Lord tells His disciples not to say He is “The Christ,” for He was about to suffer as “Son of Man.” (See Luke 9:20-22.)
What is the difference between Jehovah and Adonai? Adonai is lordship. Jehovah is perpetuity — the One who was and is and is to come — the originator and the fulfiller of the promises. Jehovah is the covenant name with Israel.
After the preface to the whole book in Psalms 12, we have in Psalms 38 the position of the godly remnant in their different exercises of sorrow and suffering while the Messiah is rejected.
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In Psalms 37 you see the godly remnant in three distinguishing characters or positions: confidence, personal righteousness and guilt, though obeying the Word all the time.
In Psalm 3 you get confidence in God through all their trials.
In Psalm 4 you have personal righteousness, so that they can appeal to God as the God of my righteousness. In Psalm 5 you get the confidence of blessing through Jehovah’s righteousness for the righteous.
In Psalm 6 you have guilt and so deprecating God’s anger, “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger,” for they know they deserve it. Sins are not acknowledged and confessed until Psalm 25, after atonement has come in and laid the ground for it in Psalm 22.
In Psalm 7 he looks for His judgment falling on the wicked.
Psalm 8 closes the series with the Son of Man set over all the works of God’s hands. It is the language of the now-delivered remnant.
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In Psalms 9-10 we have the historical statements of the circumstances of the remnant in the last days in the land. We find the judgment of the heathen and God known in Israel by the judgment He executes. In Psalm 10 we have the description of the wicked: “He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places.” The wicked man is the character of Antichrist. Sometimes in the Psalms it is plural, and sometimes it is characteristic, and sometimes it rises up to Antichrist personally. In Psalm 10:18 it is characteristic.
Psalms 11-15 give the thoughts and feelings of the remnant when in the circumstances of Psalms 9-10.
Psalm 11 takes up what the righteous remnant is to do when the power of evil is dominant in Emmanuel’s land.
Psalm 12. Jehovah loves righteousness; this is the general basis of the godly man’s confidence and walk. While not insensible to the evil, the godly ones can present the matter to the Lord.
In Psalm 13 the righteous is reduced to the lowest point of distress as far as evil from men goes. It is as if God has entirely forgotten him.
In Psalm 14 we have the atheist. Here the evil has reached its climax in God’s sight.
Psalm 15 is the character of the righteous and describes who the person is who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord when the Lord shall have established the seat of His righteous power in Zion.
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In Psalms 16-17 we have the two great principles that characterize the remnant: confidence and personal righteousness. Here we have Christ Himself. The distinction between this series and the previous one is that in this series we have the connection of Christ Himself with the remnant.
Psalm 16 is Christ’s confidence in God as man: “In Thee do I put My trust.” The psalm closes with the fruit of trust, the enjoyment of God Himself: “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
“Hades” in Psalm 16 means anything out of this world. In Greek it means “unseen.” Heaven was not revealed until Christ went there, though the existence of the soul after death was known. David says of his child, “I shall go to him.” It is he and the separate soul together. Samuel says to Saul, “Tomorrow shalt thou . . . be with me,” but as to where they went, all was unknown, invisible and dark. They did not know where they went. The thief on the cross first threw light upon it. Christ revealed the happy state in which he should be with Him: “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” In Psalm 16:10 we see that the soul and the body go to different and distinct places until the resurrection.
Psalm 17 is personal righteousness, and it ends with the fruit of righteousness in being like Him: “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” Christians are like Him now (1 John 4:17); also they shall be when they see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). They have both.
In Psalm 17 we see the world given to the wicked. It is the principle brought out and answered in the account of the rich man and Lazarus. “Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”
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Psalm 18. The sufferings of the Messiah are the central ground of all the history of Israel from Egypt to the glory of the millennium. His death is the ground for God’s dealings in grace with them; they were delivered from Egypt on the ground of Christ’s sufferings. The Passover and the Red Sea were figures of it, and this principle is true of every saved soul from Abel downwards. No doubt, when David wrote the psalm, he was feeling it all in his own circumstances, but this is, as we have seen, a common principle in prophecy, and especially so in the Psalms.
This psalm especially celebrates Jehovah Himself, the Deliverer, and still declares the speaker’s dependence on Him. This is the thesis of the psalm. It then, as is the usual form of the Psalms, goes through all the circumstances that lead the soul up to what is celebrated in the first verse or verses. In verses 4-5, Christ is seen, the sorrows of death compassing Him and the floods of ungodly men besetting Him. In verse 6 you have the cry to Jehovah. Then in verses 7-16 you get Israel delivered from Egypt and brought through the Red Sea through Messiah’s sufferings, though doubtless these are spoken of in a mysterious form.
In verses 17-27 we have Christ as God’s Israel, perfect in trial, and the value of this toward the remnant’s godliness. Then from verse 28 to the end is the coming in of power in deliverance to Christ and through Him to Israel in the last days. In verse 43 He is the Head of the heathen, so that we get to the millennium. In verse 44 all come and submit —yield feigned obedience. They tell lies; it is power subduing, but not faith.
In verse 20 the language is only true essentially of Christ, and yet from the last verse we know it is David who speaks, as in 2 Samuel 22:1 where we find the occasion on which the psalm was composed.
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Psalm 19 takes up two testimonies of God: His works in creation and His Word (the “law [or, doctrine] of Jehovah”). Creation is a witness to God, but as sin has come in and marred the earth, we have only the heavens mentioned as declaring the glory of God. The law is a witness to Jehovah.
Psalm 20. We have the third testimony of God in Christ, who is God’s witness in the day of His distress, the object of the remnant’s sympathy as the dependent One and the object of their trust as the exalted King.
Psalm 21. We have an exalted Christ. Thus we have had the testimony of creation, of the law and of Israel, and now the testimony of Christ completes all the testimonies of God.
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Up till now we have men against Him in His sufferings, but in Psalm 22 we have God judging sin in His Person in atonement. Consequently we have no judgment on man, but a tide of blessing flowing out, first to the remnant, then to all Israel, then to the ends of the earth and last to those born in the millennium. In verse 22 you have John 20 when Christ declares His Father’s name to His brethren. In verse 25 you have Him praising in the great congregation of Israel.
Psalm 23. The result of Psalm 22 is that the sheep are taken care of. Can we look upon Christ here as one of the sheep? No, but He goes before them in the path of dependence and confidence in Jehovah, and thus He puts Himself among them. But the psalm speaks of the remnant, though Christ entered into their place of dependence, taking Jehovah as His Shepherd.
In Psalm 24 we have Christ taking His place of glory in the temple on earth and owned there as Jehovah.
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In Psalms 25-39, Christ having made atonement, we have the state and feelings of the remnant in respect of this work and its results, which have been brought out in Psalms 2224.
Psalms 25-26. Israel can confess their sins, because atonement has been made. Here it is the general truth of their sinfulness. In Psalm 51 it is the confession of blood-guiltiness, owning their guilt in the rejection and death of Christ. It is not that they know atonement for their deliverance and peace; this will not be till they see Him and look upon Him whom they have pierced. But they can confess sins, because atonement has been made, without the personal comfort resulting from the fact of its application to themselves being known.
Psalm 27 says, Whom should such a one fear? Whatever the distress, Jehovah is his shield, who will judge the wicked according to their deeds, as in Psalm 28. Hence the challenge in Psalm 29 to the sons of the mighty to own Jehovah, as everyone in the temple says, Glory!
Psalm 30 celebrates deliverance; if weeping comes for the night, there is joy in the morning. Yet for this, Messiah died (Psalm 31). Thus only could transgression be forgiven, sin be covered, and true blessedness come (Psalm 32). Thus alone could the righteous exult in Jehovah, as in Psalm 33, its companion psalm. Psalm 34 rises to a strain yet higher and sustained “at all times.”
Psalms 35-38 contemplate the way and power of evil judicially and the path of the righteous, as well as a just sense of their sins confessed.
Psalm 39 owns that it is their chastening, though man walks in a vain show.
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Psalm 40 is Christ Himself in the most distinct way. It is taken up in Hebrews 10. Here it is not the fact of His sufferings in atonement that is before us, but the counsel and will of God which He has accomplished therein. It is not the same view of the sufferings as Psalm 22, but it takes in a wider range and shows the root of it all in the eternal counsels: “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.”
In Psalm 41 we have, “Blessed is he that understandeth the poor” (JND), in contrast with the pretensions of the proud. Christ takes this place of the poor and needy in Psalm 40:17. Christ is really the poor man here, but not exclusively. In Psalm 41, blessed is the one who recognizes those in such a state. In Amos 2:6 the judgment falls upon Israel because of their conduct toward the poor. Zechariah 11 takes this up definitely, and Christ takes up the poor of the flock. It is our place. I don’t know how far we realize it, though we have hymns written for the poor of the flock. It is just what it ought to be with us. Verse 9 is true of Christ. It speaks practically of Judas, but not only of him, for in the Psalms we are in the last days; so in verse 1 it is not only Christ, but all the poor of the flock.
The book begins in Psalm 1 with, “Blessed is the man . . . [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord,” and ends in Psalm 41 with, “Blessed is he that understandeth the poor” (JND). These two things characterize Israel, and they are blessed in doing it. In Psalm 1 we have the blessing in loving God and in Psalm 41 the blessing of loving one’s neighbor.
Book 2: Psalms 42-72
Overview. The remnant is viewed as driven out of Jerusalem and the city given up to wickedness. In the end of the book their rest is anticipated and prophetically viewed under Messiah as Son of David. We have their condition as driven out in the first part and at the end their rest under Messiah. It is Christ who restores them to lost covenant blessing and relationship to Jehovah. The godly remnant is severed from the multitude with whom they used to pass along to the house of God. They are stricken with sorrow and ask God to do them justice against an ungodly nation.
Christ takes this place with them of being cast out, and this gives to them the true place of hope for them. In this way the first two books are somewhat distinguishable from the last three. In the first two books Christ is more personally among the Jews; in the last three it is more national and historical.
Divine Names. As the remnant is seen as cast out of Jerusalem, “God” (Elohim) is the name used by the remnant instead of the covenant name “Jehovah,” except where the psalm speaks of the future and then we find Jehovah. The faithful are cast more entirely on what God is in His own nature and character, when they can no longer approach where Jehovah has put His name; the Antichrist prevails there.
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Psalm 42. We may notice a beautiful progress in these psalms. In Psalm 42 the remnant first says in verse 5, “I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance,” and at the end of the psalm, “I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance.” The light of God’s countenance shining upon him makes his own face shine.
May we not apply parts of this psalm to Christ? Only by analogy, and then it would apply only to the last days of His ministry out of Jerusalem, when He left Judea and went away again beyond Jordan where John at first baptized (John 10:40; 11:54; 12:36). We do not have His sufferings here; we had that in Psalm 22. It is the remnant cast out. “I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God” (vs. 4).
Psalm 43. The remnant in this psalm is in the midst of hostile Israel.
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Psalm 44 is the cry of Israel that is in the remnant when cast out.
Psalm 45. The Spirit introduces the Messiah coming in glory and power, taking the throne in judgment.
Psalm 46. Consequently, the remnant says now that Messiah is come, “God is our refuge and strength.” He whom they had looked at abstractedly as God is become their covenant God, and they can say, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” God is in the midst of her, and He is Jehovah of hosts.
Psalm 47. Messiah being come and as Jehovah becoming their refuge, they look for the bright results of God’s glory on the earth in subduing the nations under them.
Psalm 48 is Zion set up now, and it becomes the praise of all the earth. The kings that assembled together against her are troubled and haste away.
Notice a beautiful progress in this psalm. In Psalm 42 they remember, when cast out of Jerusalem, how they used to go “to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.” In this psalm they are there. In Psalm 43:3 they cry, “O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles.” Now they say in Psalm 48:9, “We have thought of Thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of Thy temple.” Again in Psalm 44:1 they say, “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old.” Now in Psalm 48:8 their language is, “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.”
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Psalm 49. This psalm is a kind of divine commentary on it all, showing that men have been set up and put down just as God pleases. Human power cannot redeem from death; the pride of this world is nothing. This psalm gives us the putting down of man; death lays hold of all that he is in honor.
What is the meaning of verse 8, “The redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever ” ? It means that man cannot redeem from death. He must “give it up as a bad job,” as we say, and there is an end of it — “it ceaseth forever.”
Do we get resurrection in verse 15? The preservation is left vague here. The immediate hope would be of preserving life, but it would meet those that might be slain with the fullest and securest hope.
But does not God, in redeeming the soul from the power of the grave, imply resurrection? No, you may redeem by hindering from death or by bringing up from it. The saint is preserved on earth; it is not heaven.
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Psalm 50. God summons all the people to judgment when He comes. The remnant accepts God’s chastening, but looks for victory.
Psalm 51. Here we have the remnant taking upon itself the sin of the nation in rejecting Christ and putting Him to death. It is the confession of blood-guiltiness. The godly one cries “from the end of the earth” (and it is mainly for his soul and the king’s life).
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Psalms 52-67 contain general principles expressed by the remnant consequent upon the circumstances in which they are found in Psalm 51.
In Psalm 52 the cry is with enlarging expectation.
In Psalm 53 the praise and blessing and soul-satisfaction rise, though he is still an outcast from the sanctuary.
Psalm 54 spreads before God the deadly craft and evil of that day, but the godly one is sure of God’s intervention; then in Psalm 55, the outburst of praise, long silent in Zion.
Psalm 56 expresses the confidence of the righteous in God and His Word, and in Psalm 57 he finds God as a refuge until the evil is past and God’s glory is displayed.
In Psalms 58-59 the remnant look to God to establish His government by judging the wicked and making it known that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth.
In Psalm 60 the remnant owns that God, though He has cast them off for their iniquities, is their only hope.
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Psalms 6168. In this series the godly remnant is seen suffering under the Antichrist during the great tribulation. Toward the end we see that they are getting out of their difficulties.
Psalm 61. The outcast, though overwhelmed, looks to God as his Rock to save from the surrounding floods.
Psalm 62 expresses the confidence that looks to God alone and rests in Him, waiting for His deliverance, and in Psalm 63 the godly one longs after God in a dry and thirsty land.
Psalm 64 describes the wicked and the judgment that will overtake them, leading to the fear of God and the joy of the righteous in the Lord.
In Psalm 65 they are going to Zion and praise is waiting for their God there. In Psalm 66 they are let in and they begin to praise.
In Psalm 67 blessing stretches out to everyone else, though here it is prophetic only.
In Psalm 68 Christ is ascended and is going to dwell among them as Jehovah. Paul stops halfway when quoting verse 18 in Ephesians 4. We have gifts for the rebellious (Israel) also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. In verses 24-29 we find that their processions are restored. The people are really established.
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In Psalm 69 we have the sufferings of the Lord as the foundation of all blessing. They are Christ’s sorrows from the beginning to the end of His glory.
“Then I restored that which I took not away” (vs. 4) is Christ taking the place of others! We should all have been lost if Christ had not taken these words into His own mouth. Verse 5 is Christ as the High Priest, confessing the sins of the people on the day of atonement. He is taking the remnant’s place.
Do we have the atonement here? This psalm does not take up that view of the sufferings. We have had that in Psalm 22. But though we have not the atonement here, we get that which made atonement, and the psalm ends with the glory and blessing of Israel.
In Psalm 70 you get back from the glory of Israel to the poor man.
In Psalm 71 it is the poor man still.
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In Psalm 72 we have Christ as Son of David in His Solomon character, looked at in His reign of glory.
What is the force of verse 15? “Prayer also shall be made for him continually.” They are aspirations; the whole psalm is prophetic. Psalm 8 goes out wider, for there Christ is Son of Man. Here He is Son of David, and so the psalm ends: When David’s Son reigns in glory, David’s prayers are ended.
Why is “Son of Jesse” added? Because Christ was David’s Son after the flesh.
Book 3: Psalms 73-89
Overview. We have the deliverance and restoration of Israel (the whole nation) and God’s ways toward them as such. At the close Jerusalem is the center of His blessing and government. The sanctuary is prominent.
The general interests of Israel are in view in connection with the house of David. The house of David is distinct from Israel. Israel had failed in responsibility, and Israel, as Israel, was gone before David’s time. In the opening of 1 Samuel we see that the priesthood, which was the relationship between the people and God, had utterly failed. The ark of the covenant had fallen into the hands of the Philistines, and “Ichabod” (“the glory is departed”) was the sentence pronounced upon the people. Then we have prophecy, which is a sovereign way of God’s intervention to recall to relationship with Himself. The history of David is grace working in power in a sovereign way to bring in blessing and to renew God’s connection with Israel, resting now on the faithfulness of the house of David.
In this book we have less personal connection with Christ and more of the general ways of God going out to all people. Having failed in responsibility, Israel is now the object of divine goodness, but such only as are of “a pure heart.” All jealous and hostile nations come under judgment.
Divine Names. The divine names of Elohim and Jehovah are more mingled.
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Psalm 73. We find at once in this third book the less personal connection of the godly remnant with Christ: “Truly God is good to Israel.” The saint is perplexed at the prosperity of the wicked. The body of the people is in unbelief. We know from Isaiah 18 that the people will be brought back to their land in unbelief. In verse 4 the Lord keeps aloof, not acknowledging them. Then the beasts of the earth and the fowls of heaven possess them. It is the inroad of the nations, but in verse 7 the Lord owns them and the remnant inherits Mount Zion. When Israel is owned, you find in the prophets that the Assyrian is the enemy, and when Israel is disowned, it is the beast, as Nebuchadnezzar.
Psalm 74 complains of the hostile desolation of the sanctuary when rebuilt in the land. All public Jewish worship is laid low. The inquiry “How long?” is a technical term in the Psalms and the prophets; in those who say it, it is a proof of faith. They know Jehovah will not give up His people. In the trouble faith cries, “How long?” because it knows there must be an end. You find it in Isaiah 6: “Then said I, Lord, how long?” In Luke 18:8 the Lord says, “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Such will be the condition into which the testimony will have fallen that there will be scarcely any among the remnant with courage to say, “How long?” “Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long” (vs. 9). But these psalms are written to prevent faith failing.
We have the Assyrian coming up to Jerusalem in this psalm. He comes up twice; the first time he takes Jerusalem, and the second time he finds the Lord there. You will find both in Isaiah. In chapter 28 the Assyrian takes the city, and in chapter 29 he finds the Lord there.
Psalm 75. The Messiah is introduced as speaking, though the psalm commences with the remnant. The judgments of God introduce Messiah to the kingdom. He is introduced as delivering the remnant out of the difficulty. He receives the congregation. Then righteous judgment will be executed.
Psalm 76. By the intervention of Jehovah we get the deliverance from the assembled kings, which we read of in Isaiah 29.
Psalm 77 gives us the working of faith in this time of trouble. See verses 9-10.
In Psalm 78 the remnant look back over all the history of Israel and how sovereign grace was brought in by David and Mount Zion, which gives the principle of God’s grace delivering by power when both Israel and Judah had totally failed in responsibility.
Psalm 79 is the cry of the remnant in Israel when under the power of the hostile nations in the last days.
Psalm 80 is a striking example of how their minds go back to Israel of old in the wilderness. In verse 2 the three tribes, Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, were nearest the ark, and when the camp moved these tribes were immediately next to the ark, behind the tabernacle, and the sanctuary went immediately before them on the march of the camp.
Have we any scripture to say when the ten tribes will return? No, Ezekiel 37 defines the circumstances of Israel’s return, but not the time. In Ezekiel we have Judah and Israel his companions as one stick, distinguished from the whole house of Israel in the other stick. At the Lord’s first coming Simeon and Anna of the tribe of Asher are among the godly remnant waiting for redemption in Israel (Luke 2).
How far do the remnant know Christ as the “Man of Thy right hand” (vs. 17)? I cannot tell. It is all for them, but probably, as is the case with us, it will differ according to the measure of spiritual intelligence in each one.
As a matter of revelation, the only things not in the Old Testament are the church and the heavenly priesthood of Christ.
The cry of the psalm is occasioned by the great distress of Israel (vss. 12-13). You must remember that Babylon and Assyria in the last days are against one another. Antichrist is the imperial Roman beast’s lieutenant in Judea. Assyria resists the beast, and all nations come up. Gog is the Assyrian of the last days, the territory now occupied by Russia. We have in Ezekiel the “Prince of Rosh” (translated “chief prince”), “Meshech and Tubal.”
Psalm 81 celebrates the coming in of God. The new (not full) moon is the symbol of Israel’s reappearing on the scene. It is their restoration before the day of atonement, not their full blessing.
In Leviticus 23, which records the seven feasts, there is a long interval after the Passover and the feast of Pentecost, when there is no feast at all. In the seventh month, which gives us complete fulfilled time, we find the feast of trumpets followed by the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles, which last brings in the millennium.
In this psalm, then, we have Israel coming again on the scene. They had failed when redeemed out of Egypt of old. Still they would appear again to reflect the light of Jehovah’s countenance.
Psalm 82 is the Messiah judging among the authorities of the world. He judges among the gods of Israel and then the world. He inherits all nations.
Psalm 83. The last conspiracy is judged in Idumea; the Assyrian joins it, and then men know that Jehovah is “Most High over all the earth.”
Melchisedec gave Him this title, when he was His priest upon earth. It is not a title of proper relationship. He was the “Almighty” with the fathers and “Jehovah” with Israel; He is the “Father” with us. He will be the “Most High over all the earth” in the millennium. Up to this psalm, save when looking back or looking forward, the cry of the people is addressed to God, as not being in possession of covenant blessings.
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Psalm 84. As the result of verse 18 in the previous psalm, we see them in this psalm going to Jerusalem to worship. “Assur,” mentioned in verse 8 of the last psalm, is destroyed, and so they can come into Jerusalem again.
Psalm 85. In these psalms we are in a time of war and deliverance. Still the deliverance they celebrate is prophetic, for after all they are ushered into, in spirit they say, “Show us Thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us Thy salvation.” They are back in the land and yet are looking for full deliverance, prophetically.
In Psalm 86 the psalmist triumphs in Jehovah and is looking for Jehovah in the midst of his troubles.
In Psalm 87 he boasts in Zion in contrast with all the other places of man’s pride. God’s people are born there. Doubtless verse 6 refers to Christ Himself.
Is this the millennium? No. The millennium is prophesied of, but you never get it come in the Psalms, nor yet in Daniel. Prophecy is not needed when we are in the blessing!
Psalm 88. The remnant is in the depth of conviction of sin under the law.
Psalm 89 takes up God’s mercies, and we find Christ comes in and that these mercies all center in Him (vs. 19). “Then Thou spakest in vision to Thy holy one” — same word as that translated “mercies” in verse 1. In verse 18 the “Holy One” is really Jehovah and another word altogether.
It is here the cutting off of David’s house on the ground of failure under responsibility, and then the taking it up again in Christ. When Messiah came He ought to have been received, and so He would have established David’s house, but He was rejected, and the house of David was judged. But here it is set up in Christ, the center of God’s mercy, and so in the Acts we have Christ in resurrection as “the sure mercies of David.”
Book 4: Psalms 90-106
Overview. In this book the eternity of Elohim, Israel’s Adonai, is seen to have been at all times their dwelling-place. In Psalm 91 Messiah takes His place with Israel, and in Psalms 94-100 Jehovah comes into the world to establish the kingdom in glory and divine order. It is the introduction of the First-begotten (as found in Hebrews 1) into the earth, announced by the cry of the remnant. We might say “The Only-Begotten in Connection With Israel” is the heading of this book.
Divine Names. Along with the covenant name of Jehovah, we find the Most High and the Almighty — names which connect the people with the millennial accomplishment of the promises made to Abraham, delivering the people by judgment from the oppression of the heathen and destroying the wicked.
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Psalm 90 is Israel’s connection with Jehovah from the beginning as being their dwelling-place from of old (Ex. 15) and looking to His return with the word of faith, “How long?”
In Psalm 91 we have all the titles of God in the Old Testament. We never find a distinctive Christian feeling—a child’s feeling — in the psalms, except so far as we partake of Christ’s sufferings, and then in this we get Christian feeling. You never get God as the Father in the Psalms. The church is found in Christ only, in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 50, “Who is he that shall condemn me?” applies to Christ. In Romans 8 the same language is applied to the church.
In this psalm the Messiah is taking His place, with Israel, of trust in Jehovah. The former psalm goes back to Jehovah, Moses’s God; this goes back to the Almighty, Abraham’s God. If you know the secret place of the “Most High” as your dwelling-place, you will have the full place of blessing in abiding under the shadow of the “Almighty,” Abraham’s God. In verse 2 Messiah says, “I will say of Jehovah He is My God.” Thus He leads Israel to dwell where in their unfaithfulness they had never dwelt before. In verse 9 Israel speaks, addressing Messiah. In verse 14 Jehovah Himself speaks of Him as the One who has set His love upon Him. It is a very interesting psalm in this way.
Psalm 92 is Jehovah taking His place as Most High with the righteous, and it is a good thing to give thanks.
Psalm 93 states the grand and blessed results. Jehovah reigns and is set in His place.
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Psalm 94 is the cry of the remnant in Israel for vengeance, and in verse 20 they ask, Is Jehovah’s throne to be in fellowship with the throne of the beast and of antichrist?
In Psalms 95-100 we have the details of the coming in of the Only-begotten into the world, coming as Jehovah from heaven and at length taking His place between the cherubim and calling up the world to worship Him there.
In Psalm 95 the remnant summons Israel, while it is called “today,” to come and worship. If they do not, they cannot when judgment has come.
Psalm 96. The nations are summoned to repent. It is the preaching of the everlasting gospel of Revelation 14:6-7.
Psalm 97. He Himself is actually coming.
Psalm 98. He has come and showed Himself and has overcome His enemies.
Psalm 99. He is great in Zion and sitting between the cherubim.
Psalm 100. The Gentiles are summoned to come up and worship. In Psalm 96 “Go-im” (the heathen) become “Ammim” (people belonging to God). These psalms are the everlasting gospel in Revelation 14.
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Psalm 101 describes the principles on which Messiah will govern the house and the land during the millennium.
Psalm 102 is one of the most remarkable of the psalms; it presents Christ in a way divinely admirable and affecting. It raises the question that if the temple be rebuilt and Israel be restored, what about Messiah, for He has been cut off ? The answer is that He is Jehovah who made the heavens. “Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.” It is the most beautiful psalm in the book. He is eternal in being, and His days have no end. It is more than in verse 12. There Messiah says, “Thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever.” Here Jehovah says to Him, “Thou art the same.” No creature is that. He is and was — the Existing One. First, He was before all things, and He is after all things have ended, and He is always the same, the eternal “Now.” And second, “Thy years shall have no end”: That is in relation to time. The answer of Jehovah begins at verse 25.
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Psalm 103. Messiah praises Jehovah, who forgives sins and heals in Israel. The Lord took this up in title when He healed the paralytic in the gospel and said, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.”
Psalm 104. Messiah praises Jehovah in creation.
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Psalm 105. He offers thanksgiving to Jehovah, and He calls on the seed of Abraham and Jacob to remember how He is making good His covenant in His dealings of old in their favor and in faithfulness toward them.
Psalm 106 is praises to the Lord for His patience toward them in all their failure, “for His mercy endureth forever.”
Book 5: Psalms 107-150
Overview. This book gives the general results of the government of God and a moral review of God’s ways. It includes the restoration of Israel (the whole nation) amid dangers and difficulties, the exaltation of Messiah to God’s right hand till His enemies are made His footstool, God’s ways with Israel, and their whole condition and the principles on which they stand with God, His law being written in their hearts. It ends with full and continued praise after the destruction of their enemies, in which they have part with God. It gives an affecting series of songs of degrees, followed after due interval by an ever-swelling chorus of hallelujahs, universal and lasting while earth endures.
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Psalm 107, verses 13, give the general character of the book. It is the song of the redeemed, as such, recounting all the vicissitudes of their return, and how in it all, mercy has triumphed over judgment. This testimony to Jehovah’s mercy enduring forever connects them in principle with the ark when it was brought back by David after “Ichabod” had been written on the people, for there it was that Israel first sang, “His mercy endureth forever.” Though they are the redeemed and brought back in this psalm, they are still in trouble, and in verse 39 they are brought low, even after being in the land. As in Isaiah 18:2, ambassadors sent by sea to bring them back to their land, but in verse 5 they are all cut down, and in verse 7 the Lord gathers them and establishes them in blessing.
Psalm 108. God is in the land and claims it as His own. See verse 8.
In Psalm 109 we have Judas, the son of perdition, but running on into the plural and thus a type of the apostate Jews in the end.
Psalm 110. Christ is exalted. He is seated at Jehovah’s right hand until His enemies are made His footstool. He must be there to deliver them.
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Psalm 111. The works of Jehovah are celebrated. This and the two following psalms go together as a hallelujah in reference to Jehovah’s ways with Israel in their deliverance. Each psalm begins with, “Hallelujah.”
Psalm 112 is the character of those who are to be blessed on the earth. The fear of the Lord is that which characterizes them especially.
Psalm 113 goes back a little to His mercy. Jehovah is to be exalted. It takes up the poor and the barren woman. In delivering power He comes in when man has failed altogether. These psalms are not occupied with facts but with moral principles.
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Psalm 114. What is the meaning of the earth trembling and the sea fleeing? It is the same power as of old in the deliverance of Israel, as it says in Deuteronomy 32:36, “The Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.”
Psalm 115 is praises to His name (in contrast with idols) for their deliverance from death. The dead praise not the Lord (they say), but we do.
Psalm 116 is the cry in the depth of distress to Jehovah and he is heard. He will pay his vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people. The effect of the trouble was to drive him to Jehovah, and the deliverance calls forth his praise.
Psalm 117. The title they have to call upon all nations to join in praising Jehovah is that His merciful kindness is great toward them and the truth of the Lord in His faithfulness to Israel, who has fulfilled all His promises toward them, “endureth forever.”
Psalm 118 brings out in a remarkable way the whole dealings of God with Israel on the ground of His mercy. In verses 10-12 we have the power of man against the godly, in verse 13 the adversary, and in verse 18 he sees himself the subject of the chastening of Jehovah. Verse 22 is what Christ quoted of Himself; it is His rejection. Verse 25 is the hosannah that the children cried in the temple; verse 26 is what the Lord told the Jews — that until they said that, they should never see Him again. In verse 24 is the true Sabbath for Israel. The night is past with them, so they can say, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” The psalm is summed up with, “His mercy endureth forever.” It is a summary of all that is going on then until the millennial day.
Do we have the sufferings of Christ in verse 18? No doubt Christ entered into it, but the chastening was upon Israel.
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Psalm 119 is writing the law upon their hearts according to the promise of the new covenant.
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Psalms 120-134 are a series of fifteen “songs of degrees,” or steps in Israel’s restoration, not yet fulfilled. I doubt not that they depict the process that goes on until they get to the full blessing of unity in Psalm 133. They represent Israel as in the land, but all opposition not as yet removed.
The series begins with, “In my distress I cried unto the Lord,” and it ends with, “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” and their praising Jehovah in the temple.
In Psalm 120 the deceitful foe is discerned.
In Psalm 121 Jehovah is looked to for help; in Psalm 122 Christ’s Spirit kindles their joy in worship. Then in Psalm 123 their eyes are devotedly lifted up to Jehovah; in Psalm 124 the snare is broken, and they bless Him. In Psalm 125 they confide in Jehovah, peace on Israel; in Psalm 126 joy is reaped after sowing in tears, by Christ above all.
Psalm 127 is for Solomon, contrasting the house and the city of the rest of God with the Babel-building that preceded and looking for a blessed posterity. The blessing of those who fear Jehovah duly ensues in Psalm 128 and their many afflictions can now, in Psalm 129, be calmly remembered with the assurance of shame to all that hate Zion. Then Psalm 130 tells how forgiveness with Jehovah taught them to fear Him, to wait for Him and to hope; in Psalm 131 the moral effect goes forth in subjection of heart, deepening that hope.
Psalm 132 is a plea for the Lord to remember David and all his afflictions. In verse 8 we have a contrast with Numbers 10. There Jehovah arose to scatter Israel’s enemies, and then He returned to the many thousands in Israel, but now the enemies are scattered, and the prayer is that Jehovah with the ark of His strength shall arise and take His rest in Israel. In verse 14 Jehovah says, “This is My rest forever.” It is the restoration of the ark of the covenant to its resting-place and the promises of Jehovah in answer to the supplication of His servant.
In each point you find the answer is greater than the request. In verse 8 it is, “Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest.” In verses 13-14 the Lord has “desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” Then in verse 9 the prayer is, “Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let Thy saints shout for joy.” Then comes the answer, “I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.” In verse 10 we have the prayer, “For Thy servant David’s sake turn not away the face of Thine anointed.” Then the answer comes, “There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.”
Psalm 133 points us to the beauteous dwelling in unity that results in the power of the Spirit, honoring a greater than Aaron in the blessing — life forevermore.
Psalm 134 ends this series with blessing rising up, even at night, and Jehovah blesses out of Zion, king and priest being here together in it.
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Psalm 135 is praise to Jehovah. We have His name here in connection with Israel and in contrast with idols. In verse 13, Exodus 3:15 is quoted, where we have Jehovah, the name He takes to stand by Israel forever. Verse 14 is a quotation from Deuteronomy 32:36 in the prophetic song of Moses, when He has unfolded to them their picture as apostate. Then, when they should be helpless and hopeless in themselves, Jehovah would judge His people and would repent Himself concerning His servants.
These two verses (vss. 13-14) give us the first deliverance and purpose of God and the judgment and ways of God in the last days, which afford the key to the interpretation of the Psalms.
Psalm 136 takes up these things much in the same manner, but with the addition of mercy enduring forever with each statement — the lesson we are learning here.
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Psalm 137. We have had the Assyrian; now we get Babylon which we have not had before. Babylon lasts on in prophecy to the beast. We have Edom too, the old rival of Israel. Obadiah prophesies largely of Edom’s judgment, for its perpetual hatred to Israel. When Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem captive, Edom stood in the way to cut them off lest any of them should escape. The Roman beast is Babylon in the end. Assyria is the enemy when Israel is owned as God’s people, and Babylon when Israel is not owned.
Psalm 138. In spite of all this the remnant praises God in spirit, though in the presence of the power of Babylon. We have God’s Word and the cry of faith in this psalm — the same principle as in Hebrews 4, where we have the Word of God laying bare the heart and the conscience and the Priest on high, so that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. In Luke 10 we have Mary hearing Christ’s words, and in chapter 11 the disciples say, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The Word of God and prayer are the two channels of communication between God and man.
Psalm 139. The Spirit of God is here searching out the heart, and faith looks to God’s creation, although with Israel they are restored in the flesh. At first he cannot get out of God’s hand and cannot stand before Him in the searching out of flesh, but afterwards he sees he is God’s handiwork and that he is His creation and now he can ask to be searched out. The principles of the new creation are here without revealing it. Verse 16, in principle, applies to the church, but there is no direct allusion to it.
What are the lower parts of the earth? His mother’s womb. It is curious how in the Old Testament they speak of their mother’s womb as the earth. As we read in Job, “Wilt Thou bring me into dust again?” And in Ecclesiastes 3:20, “All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” Man comes out of the dust of death really, and returns there again.
In the close of the psalm we have brought out God’s thoughts and purposes of grace toward Israel.
In Psalm 140 he finds himself in the presence of the evil man and is looking for deliverance and counts on Jehovah. In these psalms it is always the remnant and sometimes a positive promise about Christ.
Psalm 141 is looking for deliverance, but asking to be kept, both as to heart and lips, in the midst of distress. He is crying to the Lord in the place of testimony in the midst of judgment and trials.
Psalm 142 has a special character. “I cried unto the Lord with my voice”: not merely with the heart, but an expression of it with his voice. He cries openly to God and makes confession of Jehovah in his supplications as his refuge and his portion in the land of the living.
Psalm 143. They are fully in the distress, but still crying and praying for deliverance.
The Assyrian is destroyed after the man of sin. Western Europe is the territory of the beast, and Russia is the territory of Gog or Assyria. The Lord has come in these psalms and destroyed the beast and the false prophet (the man of sin), and then the Assyrian comes up again and finds the Lord there, and the Lord Himself destroys him in Idumea. Isaiah 24 and Isaiah 63 are the same time. We find it distinctly stated in Micah 5:5, “This man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land.”
Who is the King of the North in Daniel 11? He is the Assyrian. He shall “plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas [and] the glorious holy mountain” —between the Mediterranean and Jerusalem. Gog and Magog in Revelation refer to all the nations; they come up on the breadth of the whole earth.
Isaiah 30:33 and Isaiah 57:9 are the only places in that prophet which refer to the Antichrist. We have the Assyrian in Isaiah; we have the Gentile beasts in Daniel, and Assyria only comes in to complete the scene in Daniel 11. In Isaiah 30:32 the decreed rod of God (not “grounded staff ” ) falls upon the Assyrian.
Psalm 144. Three times we have the question, “What is man?” raised in Scripture. Job asks it in a complaining, haughty spirit, “How long wilt Thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?” (Job 7:19). In other words, Why should He make so much of him, following him up in every detail of his life to persecute him? Here, on the contrary, the psalmist says, What is man, so wicked as he is, that the Lord should think so much of him and not cut him off directly? Why should he be spared and the Lord be so patient with these wicked people? Then, in Psalm 8 the question is raised, Why is he so exalted? It is answered by Him making His own Son a man and setting Him in glory as man, over all the works of His hands.
Psalm 145. We have here the communication between Christ and His people during the millennium, celebrating Jehovah’s praise. It is “I” and “they.” “And men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts: and I will declare Thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness.”
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The concluding psalms form what is called the “great Hallel.”
Psalm 146. Here we have God, the Creator, who has executed judgment and delivered His people.
Psalm 147. His mercy and goodness are celebrated in building up Jerusalem.
Psalm 148. The angels are called upon to join the praises of Jehovah until praise goes out to all creation.
Psalm 149. The call is to Israel to praise.
Are we in the millennium in these psalms? No, it is still the spirit of prophecy (see vs. 6). The praises of God are in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hands — evil is still present.
Psalm 150 is the general closing summons to praise Jehovah.
This pamphlet is based on an 1868 reading meeting, augmented by comments taken from other sources such as Brief Hints on the Psalms by W. Kelly, the Synopsis by J. N. Darby and the Concise Bible Dictionary.