AN OUTLINE OF THE MASCHIL PSALMS - PSALM 32 (1)
[p. 479] AN OUTLINE OF THE MASCHIL PSALMS - [p. 481] PSALM 32 (1)
CAC The thought in our minds in this series of meetings is that we learn from Scripture that God intends to have a company on the earth in these last days marked by wisdom. They are spoken of in Daniel (chapters 11 and 12) as “the wise” — the Maschilim; and it was suggested that the Maschil Psalms, the Psalms of instruction, would have a special place with those who are spoken of as the wise or instructed ones. It must be manifest to any exercised soul that we are in the last days, in that period of the church’s history which corresponds with the period in Daniel (chapters 11 and 12) which relates to Israel; so it is of all importance that we should be wise, instructed.
The first of these is Psalm 32, and that gives us the knowledge of God as brought to us in the glad tidings. We have the blessedness of knowing our sins forgiven, sin covered, all guile removed, a purged conscience, the Spirit given — God made known as a Justifier, Deliverer, Director and Spring of joy. That is in substance what the gospel brings to us. This psalm is a gospel psalm, it brings to us the blessings of the new covenant as known in the gospel and enjoyed by the Spirit — that is the first great instruction that God would impart to us.
It is well for us always to remember that the saints are the subjects of divine instruction. There is no deeper blessing in the new covenant order of things than, “They shall be all taught of God”; the Lord Himself quotes this. It does not mean merely to be instructed in Scripture. One might take a class of boys and girls and teach them the Scriptures and expound their meaning; that is very blessed, but that is not the instruction we have before us in these ‘maschil’ or ‘instruction’ psalms; they bring out that in which God would have us instructed. In them the soul is learning God and Christ through many deep soul exercises. We must each go through these deep exercises; we cannot learn only from a book. It is obvious to anyone reading the Psalms that there is not one that does not involve a great deal of exercise in learning [p. 482] it. The Psalms are a wonderful part of Scripture, there is so much soul-history in them. We should not go to the Psalms for doctrine, but for soul experiences and to see how God is learnt.
Psalm 32 is the way we arrive at the knowledge of God as He will be known by Israel in the new covenant. It opens the subject of forgiveness and non-imputation of sin; the rest of the psalm follows on the knowledge of this. We can confidently say that this is an experience that the Lord never had. He is brought before us in many of the earlier psalms, and it is in view of what He is as presented there in His beauty and perfection that the soul has any due sense of sin.
We must remember that the numbering of the Psalms is inspired, so they are in divine order; they are not like the chapters of the Bible, which are man’s arrangement, or like a hymn-book where the hymns may be in any order. We read for instance, “It is written in the second psalm”. We cannot transpose the psalms.
Now Psalm 32 comes in after a wonderful unfolding of the Person of Christ, morally, personally and sacrificially; and also of His death, His resurrection, His ascension and glory. Such an experience as that of Psalm 32 follows upon knowing Christ as unfolded in the previous psalms.
The first book of Psalms, that is, Psalm 1 - Psalm 41, is a most wonderful part of Scripture. It is full of the Man of God’s good pleasure, God’s Anointed; it begins with the blessedness of that Man and ends with the same One set before God’s face for ever. Think of such Psalms as Psalm 1, Psalm 2, Psalm 8, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 24. They present the Christ of God, the Son of God. If He comes in we cannot be astonished that there is forgiveness for sinful men. His coming in liberated the heart of God; all the love and grace of forgiveness was in God’s heart. He had made Himself known as forgiving iniquity as “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth”, but His heart was not set free until Christ came and the work was accomplished. God introduces His anointed Son in Psalm 2, “Thou art my Son”. Then He is the Son of man in Psalm 8, the One who can make Jehovah’s Name excellent in all the earth, and all is put under His feet. In Psalm 16 we see His moral perfections as walking here before God, separate from the idolatrous world, and making those who love God, the excellent of the earth, His companions. What [p. 483] an unfolding is Psalm 22 of the work of Christ! And as the result of that work God’s name is declared to the brethren, and there is singing in the midst of the assembly. As we have Christ before us, and His work and resurrection, we can understand how the heart of God is free to come out in new covenant character. He is free to teach us in spite of all we have been and still are. He can unfold Christ to us and the result of His coming in. Psalm 32 is one of the most blessed unfoldings of it in the Old Testament.
In the Psalms we have the inward feelings of Christ, His feelings and experiences. We do not find that so much in the gospels; there we find rather His words and acts. It is a great thing to read the Psalms so as to find Christ there. They are more read by believers universally than any other part of Scripture, but it is usually to get comfort, and only what they feel applies to them is picked out. They are welcome to get what comfort they can, but it is better to look in the Psalms for Christ and His experiences. We get deliverance that way, for we are occupied with another Person and forget self, and these are happy moments. C.H.M. called that the highest stage of Christian experience. We need to cultivate it; it is quite possible to be occupied with Christ and with the Father’s thoughts about Him.
As the Spirit of God has introduced in the Psalms the incarnation, the death, resurrection, ascension and coming again of Christ, we are entitled to bring all that into the Psalms and to read them in the light of what subsists in the Spirit’s day. That is, instead of reading them in the light of Old Testament piety, we may read them in the light of the present position of Christ, begotten in time, filling up His allotted pathway here, going through death, risen, ascended and coming again. The greatest instruction that God could give us is in the coming in of Christ; and He would also instruct us in the results for us.
Psalm 32 is the basis, the foundation of the Maschil psalms. Without it we would be afraid to look at some of them. God would start every soul with the light of how He has brought in Christ, and of all He has substantiated in Him. We may take up all, even the deepest, soul-anguish, in the light of that. In the history of souls, even of those breaking bread, it is often more like a thousand exercises and coming to Christ at the end, but that is not the divine way. The divine way is to begin [p. 484] with Christ and have all the exercises in the light of Him. It makes all the difference between bondage and liberty. Christ was in the mind of God when Adam was made; he was “the figure of him that was to come”. Adam was made like Christ, not Christ like Adam.
In Psalm 32 we find a man under the pressure of God’s hand day and night. God is seeking to make him own what he is and what he has done, and He will not let him go until he owns the truth. The longer he holds out the worse for him. He goes through all the exercises of verses 3 and 4, bones waxing old, groaning all the day long, moisture turned into the drought of summer. What a great depth of exercise, and all to make the man confess he has sinned! God cannot bless the unrepentant sinner. It is most important not to miss that, for the preaching of the gospel without repentance gives poor converts, without moral foundation in their souls. Repentance is a great blessing from God, one of the greatest blessings of the gospel — “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name”. God affords man an opportunity of taking a right place before Him. One man found no place for repentance, but God gives us every opportunity. It is the work of God wrought by these exercises: He brings the subjects of His grace to repentance, and when there is repentance there is the blessedness of verse 1. In its application to us, this implies that we have the Spirit. It is most instructive, because it brings in the knowledge of God as known in the Spirit, forgiveness, non-imputation of sin, and all guile taken from our spirits. You have not to make the least pretence to be anything but what you are: the worse you are the more you glorify divine grace. The Pharisee is very lively in us all; he is always there.
This psalm is the basis of Romans 1 to 5; it leads to blessedness. Romans 4 and 5 answer to this; indeed it is quoted there. Then you are so assured of God’s attitude to you and so in the blessedness of it that it leads to prayer (verse 6). The forgiven man is a godly man. We see the true godly One, the holy One, in Psalm 16, but the forgiven man is godly, too; he has acquired the character of Christ. I am a forgiven sinner and, as having the Spirit, I have acquired the character of Christ by pure grace.
For the praying man there is wonderful salvation. Whatever pressure there may be, there is a compassing about with songs [p. 485] of deliverance. The godly man has an outlet — prayer. All the power of Satan cannot get over a praying man: the old hymn says, ‘Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees’. If there is godliness with us, it is in the Holy Spirit, not fleshly. Here there is a praying man who finds God it is a time when God can be found, He does not hide Himself. “Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation”. Prayer is a great safeguard. A man in blessedness, who has the Spirit and is godly, who has the character of Christ, will not ask for things to consume them on his own lusts. If I have the Spirit and am patterned after Christ, I must be true to what I am. When God sees a praying man, He says, as it were, ‘That is Christ’. Every true prayer is in the Spirit. There is such a thing as a cry of misery, but true prayer is from a godly person. You may feel you will pray, and when exercised you discover you cannot, and you realise it was something not worth being prayed about. This Psalm would make us wise ones, ‘maschilim’; they have a great place in Daniel 11 and 12. Here we see them in the making.
Verses 8 and 9 are connected with spiritual movements. One in the blessedness of the Spirit, who is godly, prayerful, and who knows songs of deliverance, can count on spiritual leading with regard to spiritual movements. This is not exactly guidance in everyday matters, as for example where I should spend my holidays. We are not to be unintelligent like horses and mules; we often have to be constrained into the path of spiritual blessedness. Perhaps we do not seek the knowledge of God and have to be put on a sick bed; that is constraint. The bit and bridle are not God’s pleasure, but we must be broken in, be made subject to God. The One who said, “I delight to do thy will”, was absolutely subject. A man employed to train valuable dogs was asked, ‘When do you consider a dog thoroughly trained?’ He answered, ‘When I am out with the dog and a rabbit runs across the path, if the dog looks at me first, he is thoroughly trained’. That is the point: the dog is thoroughly subdued and catches the master’s eye first, and does not move until he catches it. But what good is it for the eye to be upon me if I am not looking to catch it? I must be broken first and then look to God for guidance. If we are subdued to the will of God we escape all the sorrows of the bit and bridle. That kind of discipline is not desired of God; it supposes there is an active will not in harmony with God’s, and it has to be restrained by outward things. That is not God’s thought of instruction, but He might use it to prevent my doing something wrong. For instance, I might break my leg; that is providential and divine preservation, but it is not in itself instruction. Sons get discipline, but these are horses and mules, and we are warned not to be like them.
This psalm is a good start in the school of divine instruction.