The second collection of the Psalms begins here and closes with Psa. 72 It is characterized by the prevalence of “Elohim,” as the first by that of “Jehovah “: not of course that Jehovah is absent from Book II. or that Elohim is lacking in Book I., for both occur where they are required in these books; but that the predominance of each divine term appears as just stated. Of this a comparison of Psa. 14 with Psa. 53 is a striking illustration to the sober enquirer. Yet in Psa. 14 “God” is used thrice appropriately; in Psa. 53 it is uniformly and with no less propriety “God,” and in no case Jehovah.
The reason underlying this difference is not the superficial assumption of two authors thus distinguished, which Psa. 14 dissipates as mere windy talk, but that the second book contemplates the Jews as driven from Jerusalem, and the house of God then in possession of His enemies both Gentile and Jewish. Those whose cry to Him is given in these psalms of book II. are no longer in the enjoyment of the ordinary privileges of the covenant through the apostacy of Jewish as well as the oppression of Gentile foes. Hence they are cast on the Unfailing faithfulness, mercy, and goodness of God. Thereby a deepening work goes on in their souls, as they learn more of what God is intrinsically when His outward blessings are cut off and the worst evil seems to prosper; and this most painfully to them, in the circumcised still in Jerusalem, under the man of sin seating himself as God in the temple of God.
Hence we may notice that the sons of Korah appear first in the inscriptions, though there are many of David, that most fertile of singers and with the most varied experience expressed in his songs; and Asaph is not wanting, though abundant in book 3 where a few psalms for the sons of Korah come in before the end. It suffices here to recall the awful crisis in Israel's history when Korah's sons were saved so as by fire. Compare Num. 16 with Num. 26:11. Mercy that day gloried against judgment, as it will in the future when the power of evil appears so overwhelming that judgment might appear the sole possible issue. If testimony fails to Jehovah for the present, God cannot cease to be God and infinitely good; and who more suited to sing than the delivered sons of the rebellious Levite? So it was in a measure in David's time, when most clouded; so it will be in days to come, when all things come out definitively and fatally for man on earth, before the Man of Peace reigns over it publicly in power.
In harmony with this peculiarity even Messiah is acknowledged in this book as “God,” and His throne as forever and ever, Psa. 45:7 (6); yet the same psalm both before and after fully shows His manhood, and consequently both blessing and anointing by God. This may be a difficulty to an unbeliever; it is the essential truth of His person to every Christian's heart. But as a whole it is a clear anticipation of His Messianic victories and reign, yet suitably to the book of which it forms a part. So Most High occurs in Psa. 46; for His supremacy is before the heart at that fearful time when “God” is the sole refuge, no matter what the desolations, no matter how the nations rage. In the psalm following Most High is coupled not with El, but with Jehovah, and this a call to all the peoples, though “God” is still the prevailing term.
So it is even in the touching psalm of Messiah's sufferings (69): He begins with “God” and ends with “God,” though Jehovah occurs with the usual fitness. It is even so in the closing psalm “of Solomon,” the beautiful melody for the millennial day, when “the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” Christ had sorrows set forth in Psa. 69, no less than in Psa. 22 which is the characteristic psalm of His sufferings suitable for book 1. As Christians we are entitled to enter into His mind in both; but it ought to need no argument to prove that the latter has a closer application to ourselves (especially in vers. 22-24, A. and R. Vv.); whereas Psa. 69 passes by our present blessing, and anticipates the judgment of His foes and God's saving Zion and building the cities of Judah, when heaven and earth praise Jehovah, the seas and everything that moved.) therein. The death and the resurrection of Christ do not appear in this book; but in Psa. 68 is His exaltation on high that He might dwell among the rebellious: what grace to them what glory His!
Psalm 42
“To the chief musician. Instruction. For the sons of Korah. As the hart longeth after the brooks of water, so my soul longeth after thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been food for me by day and by night, whilst they say unto me all the day, Where [is] thy God? These things I remember and pour out my soul within me, how I passed with the crowd, and went on with them to the house of God, with the voice of singing and praise, a festive multitude. Why art thou cast down, my soul, and disquieted within me? Wait for God, for I shall yet praise him [for] the help [or, health, lit. salvations] of his countenance. My God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore do I remember thee from the land of the Jordan and the Hermons, from mount Mizar. Deep calleth to deep at the noise of thy cataracts; all thy breakers and thy rollers are gone over me. By day Jehovah will command his lovingkindness, and by night his song shall be with me, a prayer unto the God of my life! I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of mine enemy? With a sword in my hones mine oppressors have reproached me, when they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Wait for God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God” (vers. 1-12).
Psalm 43
“Judge me, O God, and plead my cause with an ungodly nation; from a man of deceit and iniquity deliver me. For thou art the God of my refuge; why hast thou cast me off? Why do I walk mourning under the oppression of the enemy? Send out thy light and thy truth: they shall lead me, they shall bring me unto the mountain of thy holiness and unto thy tabernacles. And I will go unto the altar of God, unto God the gladness of my joy; and I will give thanks unto thee on the harp, O God, my God. Why art thou cast down, my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Wait for God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance, and my God” (vers. 1-5).
These are clearly companion psalms, and so under one title. The prophetic aspect is the remnant cast out or fled: compare with Matt. 24:15 et seqq., Mark 13:14 &c., Joel 2:17. The historic occasion was when David and his faithful following abandoned Jerusalem under Absalom's conspiracy. The closing days of our Lord had in the highest degree this character, though modified by other considerations; for what sorrows had not He, the Holy One of God? Yet the former of the twain is more general and looks at Gentile enemies as much as or more than any; whereas the force of the later psalm is the complaint against the Jews as “an ungodly nation.” Professedly holy (in the sense here of piety from being the object of divine mercy), they had none; they were now goi lo-chasid. How true, yet how bitter, that the driven out godly ones should so speak to God of the chosen people! And so in fact it will be. The one psalm without the other could not adequately express the grief of the remnant at this juncture, when the Antichrist sets up the abomination of desolation in the sanctuary, instigated and protected the Beast (or Emperor of the Western powers). See Rev. 13 The thirst here is to drink once more of the waters, whence the abominable amalgam of Gentile self-will and Jewish apostacy had driven them out; so they confidently expect from God Who cannot deny Himself, and loves His people.
Psalm 44
“To the chief musician. For the sons of Korah. Instruction. O God, with our ears have we heard, our fathers have declared unto us the work thou didst work in their days, in the days of old. Thou by thy hand didst drive out the Gentiles, and plant them; thou didst evil to nations, and didst spread them out. For not with their sword did they inherit the land, nor did their arm deliver them; but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst pleasure in them. Thou [art] he, my King, O God; command deliverances [lit. salvations] for Jacob. By thee will we push down our adversaries; in thy name will we tread under foot them that rise up against us. For not in my bow will I trust, and my sword shall not save me. For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and those that hate us thou hast put to shame. In God have we praised all the day, and we will give thanks to thy name forever. Selah.”
“But thou hast cast off and put unto shame and goest not forth with our hosts. Thou had made us turn back from the adversary, and those that hate us have spoiled for themselves. Thou givest us as sheep [for] food, and among the Gentiles hast Thou scattered us. Thou sellest thy people for naught [lit. without wealth], and hast not increased by their price. Thou settest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to those that are around us. Thou settest us a by-word among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the nations. All the day my shame [is] before me, and the confusion of my face hath covered me, for the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth, because of the enemy and avenger. All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, and we have not been false in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, nor hath our step declined from thy path, that thou hast broken us in the place of dragons [or, jackals] and hast covered us with death-shadow. If we have forgotten the name of our God and have stretched out our hands to a strange god, will not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. For because of thee are we killed all the day; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake: why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast not off forever. For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth to the earth. Arise, a help unto us, and redeem us because of thy mercy” (vers.. 1-27).
From their now outcast condition, which they knew to be just, they cry to God, Who had done all the good their fathers had ever experienced; and God abides the same, he is their God.