It was an important question put by Philip to the eunuch, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” And the eunuch's answer was not less solemn, “How can I except some man should guide me?” It was an acknowledgment of incompetency to understand without a teacher, a quasi-confession of the great fact, whatever may be the vain boasting of human learning, that the unassisted mind of man is totally inadequate to apprehend the truth of God.
The truth is the declaration of God's will and power, first as Creator and Ruler, then of His mind, yea of Himself; the Son being the expression of it when He became flesh. But this makes known the truth about man— “without strength.” God has used human words, and His wisdom has shaped them to convey His meaning. We recognize the vehicle, it is our common speech. The words are of every-day use and employed about earthly things. God has used them for heavenly things, and this use exalts human language to the highest place among earthly gifts. Was not language formed for this purpose specially, that man might know and be a channel for the truth?
But none can understand the divine things spoken of save as guided by the great and only teacher—the Holy Spirit. This was the eunuch's difficulty; Philip was the Spirit's chosen instrument for teaching him.
A great part of the Bible is a record of facts, but not merely a record. And because it is more than a narrative of facts, the history is momentous and all-important. For each event has an import only revealed in the light of Christ. Everything in that book is in connection with Him, “and without Him was not anything made that was made.” By His Spirit He preached to the disobedient in the days of Noah. He is the Anointed King of Israel, and the Head of the church; and these comprise His rejection and exaltation, His sufferings and glory. Spiritual things are contained therein to be discerned only by the spiritual. As mere history, the record is most interesting, and the natural mind can in some degree appreciate it—save where infidelity and the base corruption of the world have vitiated. its perceptive power. A man whose mind has not been thus degraded. will, though unconverted, admit the historical accuracy of the Bible, and in measure may apprehend the righteous government of God in Israel; if educated in the literature of the world, he may speak glowingly of the beauties of Hebrew poetry, of the fervor and sublimity of the prophetic writings; but he has no capacity to go beyond the mere letter. Not even the believer, though the babe has an unction from the holy One to know all things, can reach the hidden but intended meaning and instruction to be conveyed in the least fact or circumstance by his own unaided mind, but only as he is taught of God; and no one is savingly taught of God without being born of God. As born of God he can receive instruction, but there must also be the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Not everywhere does the full meaning of the written word lie wholly on the surface (save the glad tidings to the lost, where he that runs may read). The eye must be opened by grace to see beneath. It may be only a simple relation of an apparently unimportant event; but in every circumstance there is an earthly vessel containing a heavenly truth. Our discernment of it is another matter, but the portraiture of divine truth in human frames is characteristic of God's book, and is very observable in the Old Testament. Let us never forget that it is God's relation of events on the earth which are overruled by Him, and written not because it was history, but because it is intended to convey to the church the treasures of His wisdom and grace. The whole together is the revelation of God's thoughts about Christ, and we need like the eunuch some one to guide us. In short, to understand the divine word we need a divine Teacher.
This is nowhere felt more than in reading the Psalms. Their great theme is the First-Begotten, the rejected King in conflict with the enemy; first suffering, then conquering; suffering because He would be joined to the godly remnant of Israel, who also are victors at the end because they are joined to Him. We have the psalms of David, of Asaph, and of others, written no doubt at various times, but all arranged in divine order, as well as each one inspired by the Holy Spirit, to set forth the experiences of Him who went through them all as a man here below.
A human application of them has led saints in this period of grace to take the sword and go armed into battle; not seeing the Lord's meaning when He said, if a man had no sword let him sell his garment and buy one. The disciples misunderstood and foolishly boasted of having two swords. Was not the Lord's meaning plain when He said, “It is enough?” If our warfare were with flesh and blood, would two swords be enough? Nay, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Not the material sword to resist the world, but an intimation that the sword of the world would be unsheathed against them, a warning from the Lord that they would have to meet the world's fiercest enmity. Peter failed to see, and in the garden used the sword of which he boasted against the high priest's servant. The Lord then spoke plainer, “Put up thy sword,” and at once healed the servant's ear. Thus He rebuked by word and deed the fleshly impulse of Peter. Alas! how many saints notwithstanding the teaching of the Lord have followed not His teaching but Peter's example. And we are all exposed to the danger, the folly of going down to Egypt for help, of trusting in an arm of flesh.
Righteous judgment upon the wicked, the enemy, and ultimate deliverance and triumph of the godly, is the burden of the Psalms. The godly, however, pass through great suffering before the day of triumph comes. While they wait for their victory, another and different warfare is now waged, it is carried on with different weapons. In rebuking Peter the Lord was disclosing a new principle, which was henceforward, during the day of grace, to guide the spirit and mark the conduct of those who bear His name. In the Psalms the sword is not “put up"; it is invoked and held over the head of all enemies, and this according to the will and purpose of God. While waiting, the Psalms record the exercises of a godly man suffering from the power of the wicked, and patiently enduring till the day of triumph. To these sufferers it was never said, “that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt. 5:39). And again, “they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Matt. 26:52). Their warfare is with flesh and blood. Mingled with their cries of distress are the words of unwavering faith and confidence in God while calling upon Him to take vengeance upon the oppressor, which is not the Spirit of grace teaching us to love our enemies, save the pious expressions of dependence upon God, and the assurance of His mercy, and of ultimate deliverance, which saints of God can use at all times. We feel that the Psalmist is not on Christian ground. The invocation of judgment is not Christian prayer, and to rejoice in the destruction of human enemies is not Christian feeling. The Psalms contemplate an aspect of God towards the ungodly different from that which is being declared in the gospel, now that He is not judging, but calling sinners to repentance and saving all who believe. “For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” Almost the latest words of the Lord upon the cross give the character of this current time, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Stephen, the first martyr, if his be not the first Christian death, echoes with his dying breath the prayer of his Lord and Master, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Grace and love are the characteristics of saints now, such as we do not find in the Psalms. It is clear then that, while we can legitimately and profitably use largely the words of piety and faith found in them, as a whole the psalms are not expressions of Christian standing or of our proper hope. They are for the special use of another family of God, whose proper experiences will be in harmony with the dealings of God when He is judging the earth, as ours are, or should be now, in this day of sovereign grace, during which He is not judging, but calling out a heavenly people.
“Blessed is the man.” This MAN all through the Psalms is ever foremost in the mind of the Holy Spirit. He, though joined with the godly remnant in all their sorrows and afflictions, Who supplies them with words of true confession and of prayer suited to their circumstances, yet stands apart from them in the purity of His life, in the absolute holiness of His Person. And the wonderful truth seen in the Psalms is the place He took in His perfect integrity in the midst of a remnant, who, though morally separate from the ungodly of the nation, yet in themselves were obnoxious to divine judgments. We may say—Who is He?—not that we are ignorant of Him, but in wonder that this Perfect Man could and would identify Himself with a sinful, though sorrowing and repentant remnant. He is the perfect, but meek and lowly, Man of Nazareth.
When He at His baptism entered publicly into relationship with them, John the Baptist seemed surprised. “Comest Thou to me?” Taught of God the Baptist knew that He was no mere man; but not till He came up out of the water, and the Holy Spirit like a dove was seen descending from heaven and abiding upon Him, did John know that “The same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” Then John owned Him to be the Son of God. By His baptism, He before God, and in the sight of Israel, associated Himself with those who went into the Jordan confessing their sins. No wonder that the Baptist was astonished at His taking such a place and choosing such companions. But He came to take this place. “Suffer it to be so now” —an answer which, while pointing to the righteous necessity of His being there, expresses His grace and His humiliation, but withal the consciousness of His own dignity.
“Now,” it was the hoar when Israel's Messiah appeared among them, the first public step for their re-establishment in the earth according to the counsels of God in righteousness. This their special blessing is now delayed because Israel rejected Him, and a yet greater purpose is being carried out, which being fulfilled, Israel will come again to the front, and Jehovah will make a short work in righteousness.
But there is more than grace in Christ their Messiah thus joining Himself with sinners confessing their sins in the waters of the Jordan. “For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Divine justice could not otherwise be vindicated. In grace He had to take their place and to bear their judgment. To be a propitiation for the sin of the world, to meet the case of the outcast Gentile, did not necessitate His association with those who were baptized in the Jordan confessing their sins. To Israel it was necessary, for they had broken the law whose claims could not be set aside; the judgment must take its course. And if judgment upon the guilty had been the only question, there would have been no need for the advent of Christ. Judgment like the deluge upon the antediluvians would have swept them all away. But there was a prior question; there were promises which were before the law and could be no more set aside than the law. If Israel alone had to pay the penalty of the broken law, who could inherit the promises? On the other hand, if they were put in possession of the promised blessings, ignoring the law, what becomes of the judgments and righteous character of God? God provided a MAN Who could reconcile, and has reconciled the claims of promise and of law; Who even as to His human birth and genealogy was the only One Who could legally and righteously occupy the place of representative. He is the rightful heir of David's throne, and the king was the governmental link between God and Israel. He only could morally and divinely bear the penalty and judgment of God's law, but Who also could win back the forfeited promises, and establish them in a better form and on fuller ground than before appeared, or was possible. To do this was the counsel of mercy and peace; but the way of doing it was in fulfilling all righteousness, not merely submitting to the claims of a broken law, but establishing the truth of God. He who represented Israel (the remnant) went into their position, even into the Jordan, subsequently took their infirmities and bore their diseases (Matt. 8 compared with Isa. 53), and ultimately bore their stripes and their sins in His own body on the tree, that through Him all their promised blessings might be assured, while at the same time God was taking vengeance upon them for their iniquity and rebellion. To cast down after lifting up their king (as it were, God breaking the kingly link between Himself and Israel) was judicial dealing on the nation. He the rightful King was cast down, and cut off from His inheritance as Son of David (for a time); under the righteous government of God He had nothing, though the Heir of all things.
He who suffered all this alone fills up the ideal of the blessed Man of the first Psalm; yet for higher reasons enjoyed none of the promised stability and blessedness—in fact, none in more marked contrast.