The Third Book

The third book begins with Psa. 73. It does not follow the second chronologically. Besides some great general principles, the two first books give us, in connection with the work of the Spirit of Christ, sentiments suitable to the two periods of the troubles of the Jews. That is to say, before the full manifestation of the iniquity of the wicked one, or Antichrist, and afterward, during the three years and a half of his reign. During this latter period (that of the unequaled tribulation) which follows the setting up of the abomination of desolation in the holy place, the faithful are driven out of Jerusalem. The second book supplies the sentiments wrought by the Spirit of Christ in the remnant, during this second period, and the last Psalm in it gives a brief exposition of Millennial blessing. The third book, then, necessarily goes back again, and contemplates the same periods of time, but in a more general point of view. All Israel is before the eye (looked at only in the faithful ones); the people historically, and God's relations with them as such, the contrast between the heathen and the people, the havoc made by the heathen in the holy city, are constantly spoken of. In Psa. 73 we have in general the faithful Israelite's exercise of heart, with respect to the circumstances of the last days. Apparently, faithfulness was of no use; and he was ready to say with the wicked, that God was no longer mindful of the ways of men, and took no notice of them; for the ungodly prospered. But on going into the sanctuary of God, the, faithful perceived what the end of the ungodly would be. When the Lord awakes, all their glory shall vanish. The thought of offending against the generation of God's children, was the first check; for through grace there is always something that keeps the heart of the faithful, however ignorant he may be, if he is upright; afterward he saw the real truth of their case. No doubt the judgment to be executed at the end is in view here, and explains everything. But all the faithful go through a similar exercise. Meanwhile, God is their strength. Observe, it is Jehovah who had been the confidence of the faithful; His attributes, as God, inspired this confidence. The relationship was not yet formed, but to the heart of the faithful, it was Jehovah who was their God.
Psa. 74 is the complaint of the faithful Israelite, with respect to the havoc made in the sanctuary; and with the thoughts of Jewish faith, he reminds God. of the congregation which He had redeemed, the Mount Zion wherein He had dwelt, the God who had been their king of old, and had manifested His power in their behalf. It is a touching appeal to God, uniting His cause to that of His people.
In Psa. 75 faith has reached the point at which the people acknowledge that the name of the Lord is near unto His people, and in a certain sense, unto the world also, to act towards it in accordance with that name. To faith, His works declare it (not necessarily at the moment). In the 2nd verse, Christ replies, He is going to take the kingdom as the Messiah. It is a Psalm of thanksgiving by the remnant, celebrating the intentions of Messiah. Its form has particular force, in that the Messiah declares prophetically the counsels that He gives to the proud, with a view to the judgment. From the 2nd verse He speaks in His own person. This Psalm gives a, very distinct character to the connection between faith and God, who is very far from the thoughts of the proud, although faith sees Him ready to execute judgment. The exhortation that follows, to the worldly, is always the testimony of God, but is specially recalled to them by the Messiah before the execution of the judgment. This makes clear that which is said at the end of Psa. 2.
In Psa. 76 God is known in Judah, and His name is great in Israel. He dwells in Zion, where He has broken the bow and the strength of the enemy. For He has arisen to judgment and to help all the meek of the earth.
In Psa. 77 the remembrance of God in the day of distress had troubled the faithful, for God appeared entirely to have forgotten. Can the Lord cast off forever? No;-such a thought springs only from man's infirmity. Faith will remember what God has been unto His people. His way is in the sanctuary, always there, even when His path is through the deep waters, where man cannot trace his footsteps. In these Psalms the ways of God between Israel and God are maintained according to His former relations when He brought them up out of Egypt.
Psa. 78 recapitulates all the dealings of God with them, proving the folly and unbelief of the people; and laying particular stress on their having limited the Holy One of Israel. The history of the people, and of their dealings, is traced as far as when in the days of Eli, God delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand; thus forsaking Shiloh, where His altar and His tabernacle were placed. At this period, in fact, all Israel's hope was lost, if the people and their responsibility were alone considered. Their sin was so great that God allowed the ark of the covenant to fall into the hands of the Philistines; vindicating, however, there His own glory: But at the height of His people's distress, the Lord awakes and smites His enemies; for they were the enemies of God as well as of Israel. But He rejects the natural heir-that is to say, the one to whom the birthright, the goodly land, and the double portion, belonged. He 'chose (for it was now electing grace, since all was lost) the tribe of Judah; He chose Zion, He chose David, to maintain the blessing of His people. This bringing in of grace when all is lost, and God comes in to deliver for His own name's sake, and from love to His people, is all-important for the faith of the Israelites in the latter day, as well as for our instruction in His ways. The patience of God, even unto the. end, meeting with the unbelief and unfaithfulness of His people; and at length His intervention according to His purposes of grace, when, on the ground of responsibility, He had given up His people. We see the people pass from the extremity of distress to the all-powerful intervention of God in grace; failure on the ground of their responsibility, and even of judgment executed in consequence of their fall, to the results of God's election and sovereign grace.
Psa. 79 rehearses' before God the capture of Jerusalem in the last days, and calls on God to interpose for His name's sake in behalf of His people, to compassionate them and their sufferings, and to pour out the cup of His wrath upon the heathen who had devoured Jacob. In all these Psalms, we find faith in the relationship between God and His. people in spite of all circumstances; and faith also in His intervention on their behalf, whatever their condition may be. It was Jehovah whom the heathen reproached when they said " Where is their God?" When there is faith in the relation that exists between Him and His people, distress and the power of the enemy are a prevailing plea with God.
Psa. 80 takes up the same subject with respect to the people in general, building on the former relationship of God to them; faith drawing from thence its knowledge of God, and entreating the Shepherd of Israel, who led Joseph like a flock, and who dwelt between the cherubims, to shine forth as He had done in the wilderness. Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, were the three tribes nearest to the Ark and the Cloud, in the camp of Israel. Israel, now faithful, acknowledge the hand of God in their misery. Can God be deaf to their cry? It was He who had planted the people. Could He give them up to the boar out of the wood? A revelation of the deepest import is then given. The Spirit of God directs the faith of the people towards the Son of man, whom God had made strong for the accomplishment of all his purposes. Through Him, Israel would no more go back; being quickened, they would call upon His name. They cast themselves upon God. If He cause His face to shine, Israel shall be saved. These Psalms contain much instruction for every heart, with respect to trust in God in the deepest distress. But they can only be interpreted with reference to the circumstances of Israel in the last days.
Psa. 81 is remarkable in this point of view. It speaks of the feast of the new moon, a sign of the renewal of God's favor towards Israel; their being recalled by God to the enjoyment of His blessing. The people appear again on the scene, although not yet in full blessing. But the doctrine taught here (giving an answer to the faith which pleaded the blessing formerly bestowed on the people, and their connection with the Lord) is that Israel had forfeited all this by their unfaithfulness. God had blessed them, assuring them, if they were obedient, of all kinds of blessing. But they would not hearken to His voice. If they would have hearkened to it, all their enemies should have been confounded, and the people should have enjoyed the best of earthly blessings. If all this failed it was their own fault.
In Psa. 82 God is the judge among the authorities of the earth. Alas! the rulers of His people were wicked like all the rest (John 8). Although they were called elohim (gods) as was the case under the law, they should all die like men. God was to arise and judge the earth and inherit all nations. This is a very distinct revelation of the great fact, that God resumes the authority which He had committed to man in order to judge the unjust judges.
Psa. 83 reveals to us the last confederacy of the nations (those which encompass the land of Canaan with Assyria) against Israel; and the judgment of God is invoked upon them, in order that the name of Jehovah may be known as the Most High, over all the earth. It appears by the prophecies, that the nations will capture and plunder Jerusalem. Afterward, at the end, it will be again attacked; and on this occasion the Lord will defend Zion and destroy His enemies. This Psalm apparently speaks of the latter event.
Psa. 84 In this fine Psalm, the spirit of which applies with yet more precious force to our Christian career, we have the joy which the faithful Israelite feels in once more going up to Jerusalem to enjoy the ordinances of God (although we may see in it a moral sense for the Israelite also). The Israelite is not yet there; but the thought renewed in all its strength, of the blessings connected with it. The altar of his God is to him what its nest is to the swallow, and its house to the sparrow (this is the meaning, I doubt not), and if God has found a resting-place for the birds, there is as surely one for His people. A touching argument, which gives so much the more force to the remembrance of the Lord's position. In this Psalm, the name and the title of the Lord of hosts, the King and the God of Israel, reappears in all its significance. There are here two kinds of blessing for the faithful. He who dwells in the house of such a God as this has only to praise Him; but to find strength in God for the way that leads. to it, and to have this way in their heart, is also a blessing that characterizes the faithful, though they have not yet reached the house of God. The valley of tears; through which they are passing, becomes to them a springing well; rain from heaven fills it with water. They go from strength to I strength until they appear before God in Zion. The heart that is thus occupied with the way, is then filled by the Spirit with the joy of having to do with God, Jehovah of Hosts. But this is not all, for that which now inspires him with confidence and joy in the expression of his desires, is the thought that God looks upon the face of His anointed (of Christ, the Lord). The Jehovah of hosts is the God of Jacob. Blessed is the man that trusts in Him!
In Psa. 85, we find a very distinct expression of the sentiments which faith produces when the people, although returned, are not yet enjoying the peace and blessing promised to Israel. The fact of the people's return is laid hold of by faith as the fulfillment of the ancient promises; such as, Lev. 26, Deut. 32, and many others; and this faith addresses itself to Jehovah- the covenant name, and not simply to God. But the people are not yet in the enjoyment of all the blessings which the Lord bestows upon His earthly people, and faith awaits His answer. Upon this, the great principles of God's dealings are announced. The reconciliation (through the intervention of sovereign grace) of mercy and truth, of righteousness and peace, which were. otherwise incompatible; for the rejection of Israel would have been righteousness. Truth springs out of the earth, for all the promises of God are accomplished, and " he who sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth;" and the righteousness of God can look down from heaven in blessing upon His people and upon His earth. For the Lord gives that which is good, and the earth is blessed (compare the end of Hosea Righteousness goes before Him, and directs the people in His ways. It is evidently the millennial state. In the Psalms that follow, to the end of this book, we have Christ connected in a peculiar manner with the circumstances and interests of the people, in order that they may enjoy this millennial blessing.
In Psa. 86 we have the meek one who acknowledges Jehovah and all his rights, even over the nations, and who seeks to unite all his faculties in the praises of Jehovah. He knows God through faith in his goodness. Having gone down to the lowest parts of the earth, he makes use of the deliverance of his soul by Jehovah, to confirm his faith, in the presence of all the power of the enemies that assembled themselves against him. Jehovah, the God of mercy, would save the son of His handmaid. But it is Jehovah, the God of the Jews, who is here celebrated.
Psa. 87 God has founded His city in the holy mountains. It is called "His foundation." Zion is then celebrated as the most glorious of the cities. She fears not comparison with Egypt or Babylon, her oppressors. She can speak of her great men. In writing up the people, Jehovah Himself numbers Christ, His son, among those who are born in Zion, the beloved city.
In Psa. 88 we find the profound source of all these blessings; it is that Christ, according to His infinite grace, enters into the deepest miseries of His people. His soul passes through all that the people had deserved, and that as God sees it. Yet it is not exactly expiation here, and subjection to the wrath due to sin according to the nature of God, Jehovah. It appears to me to be rather his governmental wrath, to which Israel, as a people, were subject, under the weight of which they were lying, about which they troubled themselves little, and still trouble themselves little, although outwardly experiencing a portion of its bitterness. But the soul of Jesus entered into it according to the full power which this wrath of God would have on one who felt it as Jesus could feel it (see Deut. 32:20,22). Lev. 26 gives rather the outward sufferings. Christ was pure from all those things which brought these sufferings upon them. He looked only to Jehovah, as we see in the Psalms. But He bore upon His heart all the misery and all the sorrows of the people.
Psa. 89 is, up to a certain point, in contrast with the preceding Psalm; but, founded on the sure mercies of David, it celebrates all that Jehovah is in power, in righteousness, and in faithfulness. The people who know Him shall rejoice in His name. He is the glory of their strength. Now, David and his seed were the depositary of the promises, and the instrument of their fulfillment. His children should be chastised, if needful, but the blessing should never be taken away. The immutable faithfulness of God was concerned in this. Faith reckoned on this faithfulness, and found in the distress of the people and the ruin of David's family, an occasion to call upon God, who had given the promises, and had even sworn to accomplish them. He could not leave the crown of David in the dust. The humiliation of Christ, the meek one; His connection in the mind of God with Zion, the elect city; the sufferings which the soul of Christ went through in grace, bearing in his heart before God the burden of His people's sin; the sure promises of the Lord (perfect and glorious in all His ways, and whose people Israel were), which were given to the seed of David; such were the grounds upon which, by faith, the people's hopes were founded. That which the Lord Himself is, was the foundation. Since the celebration of His name, prophetically, in Psa. 83, it is the name of Jehovah that gives its force and its thoughts to faith. Christ, as we have seen in the four last Psalms, was the means by which this name could be manifested in blessing. Through Him, righteousness and peace were united, God was fully glorified, and this people, for whom Christ had stood before Jehovah, under the weight of their burden, could now he blessed. The connection between the 1st verse of this Psalm and the 19th, is striking with respect to Christ's being the depositary of all blessing. The word "mercies" (v. 1), is the same as "holy one" (v. 19). All these mercies center in this depositary of mercy.
This Psalm closes the third book.