AN OUTLINE OF THE MASCHIL PSALMS - PSALM 42 (2) AND 44 (3)
AN OUTLINE OF THE MASCHIL PSALMS - PSALM 42 (2) AND 44 (3)
CAC We were looking last week at Psalm 32, which is the first of the psalms designated by the Spirit of God as being instruction, Maschil meaning instruction. We were seeing that Psalm 32 is the basis of all divine instruction; that is, the knowledge of God, sins forgiven, not imputed, and the soul in the blessedness which is the result of the presence of the Spirit. Such a soul is marked by godliness and dependence; he is characteristically like Christ. Divine deliverance comes in for him in answer to prayer, and there is direction spiritually, giving the idea of how he is to move in relation to God. This psalm seems to cover the great principle of the soul’s relations with God. God is known as Justifier, known in forgiveness, known as Reconciler, Resource and Director of His people. This is the great fundamental knowledge for those whom God has called in grace; it seems the first element of divine instruction. If our souls are not established in this way in the knowledge of God we cannot go on to be instructed ones. God’s purpose is to have instructed persons; we have come under His instruction; it belongs to new covenant conditions, “They shall be all taught of God”. And we have come under the instruction of Christ, “if ye have heard him and been instructed in him”. It is not what we have read in books, or that we have a certain measure of scriptural information, but God’s people have been divinely instructed.
One can see what a difference it makes to begin with the knowledge of God as seen in Psalm 32. In going through even deep and complicated exercises we have a stay, an anchorage in our souls. Psalm 42 indicates deep exercise, but the soul has such a knowledge of God as to confide in Him and to thirst for Him;, the soul finds its resource in the knowledge [p. 487] of God. Now we are put to the test. If God gives the knowledge of Himself He puts it to the test; the trial of faith is very precious to God. God likes to put to the test what we have found in Himself, to test whether we have such a knowledge of Himself that we can go on even if deprived of privileges that we have enjoyed.
I think the second book of Psalms shows that though the people are disinherited and driven out, yet they find God to be sufficient. God Himself becomes the portion of a disinherited people.
We come to this — how much do we know God when we are tested? There is an exercise that the soul has to go through in order to get every element of disquietude stilled in the soul. There may be a great many elements of disquietude even where there is peace of conscience. Psalm 32 would establish us in peace of conscience; every moral question settled and God known as an available resource. It is one thing to know God as a resource — we should all admit that — but have we really got the living God? That is very experimental. This exercise has to be faced as to whether we have found such a satisfaction in God that all disquietude of soul is quelled. In Psalm 42 you read of a man who can remember how he went to the house of God with the festive multitude, and the voice of joy and praise. In matters of privilege you can go on with meetings and with the festive character of what obtains in the house of God; you can have spiritual pleasure in that, but John and Paul both lost this privilege. Have you enough to go on with even if you lost it? I do not think any of us could say that we have not had some disquietude of soul when tested in this way.
John’s ministry deals with the state of heart that requires to be satisfied in the knowledge of God, so thirst is spoken of. I suppose the living water in John 4 would be the Spirit as bringing the knowledge of God into the soul as complete satisfaction. The knowledge of God in the power of the Spirit is enough to go on with, even if outward privileges fail. In Psalm 42 we have not only the festive multitude — the house of God is properly filled with the festive multitude, for we ought not to come together mournfully — but we have also the reducing exercise connected with Jordan, the Hermons and mount Mizar. I have thought of the exercise of this Psalm in connection with Paul’s exercise in 2 Corinthians. We get the blessedness of the gospel in chapters 3 and 4, but then we see [p. 488] every kind of pressure brought in on the vessel to put to the test whether the blessed good which he ministered was enough to carry him through. He finds that God is enough.
Ques Does that exercise give spiritual increase?
CAC Yes. It is very interesting. There is first the ministry of the gospel, and then we get a tide of discipline brought in on the minister. Then we get the ministry of reconciliation, and then another tide of discipline; the vessel is made to be a witness of the power of what he ministers. It is the living witness of a man who can go through any pressure. There were all kinds of abnormal circumstances and he can go through them in the power of his own ministry; that is divine instruction.
Ques What is the land of the Jordan?
CAC Paul speaks of death working in us; there is nothing so reducing as death. It is the great reducer; it brings down everything that belongs to us naturally. Paul speaks of being always delivered to death; that is the land of the Jordan. “Always delivered unto death ... that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh”, 2 Corinthians 4: 11. It is all practical reduction. If God makes Himself known in grace and goodness, there is a necessity for reducing, that is Jordan. Hermon is a rugged place; we get rugged circumstances to face. Paul had a good many, all kinds of sharp difficulties. Mount Mizar is a little hill; that is where we are reduced. Paul came to it when he had a thorn for the flesh. All this is the reducing line.
The question in this psalm is whether we have an intense desire to prove what the blessed God can be to us in the presence of all these circumstances which are so reducing naturally. Someone has said that the Lord has set us together in local assemblies for the reduction of the flesh. The thought has come to me sometimes that if I could have the consciousness of the presence of God and His love I could go through anything; that seems incontrovertible. We find in verse 5 the confidence of the soul that there is every kind of salvation in God’s countenance, “I shall yet praise him, for the health of his countenance” — the footnote is ‘salvations’, that is, there is every kind of salvation in God’s countenance. God shines on me; whether it is in the land of Jordan, or the Hermons, or mount Mizar, God is sufficient. Paul said, “My God shall ...
supply all your need”; he was not referring to temporal needs. There was a company at Philippi set for the testimony of God; they were standing shoulder to shoulder with Paul in the defence of the glad tidings. God would be the same whatever the conditions. Paul had found Him sufficient, and he tells the Philippians they would prove it, too. It is not merely temporal needs. “This shall turn out for me to salvation”; that is like the exercise of this psalm. In this psalm you see a man on the way to it, but Paul had it. One great gain of the Psalms is that they show the way to things, but if you want to come to the things themselves you have to go to the New Testament.
Rem Paul had the sentence of death in himself so as not to trust in himself.
CAC Yes, he had his portion in God though all outward conditions had failed him. In prison Paul had no privileges of meetings, he was deprived of the fellowship of the brethren, he did not go with the festive multitude.
Psalm 44 is very important, because it is not exactly individual but describes the condition of the people of God. The instruction is that we are not in days when God is publicly supporting His people. If we look for signs of public support we shall not find them; so the psalmist goes back to what God did for the fathers, answering for us to what God did in the times of the apostles, the victorious power of God in the apostles. But now the psalmist says, “But thou hast cast off”. We are objects of contempt in every way to the adversary. Are we content to take up this exercise? It is a church exercise. Or do we want to be publicly supported and accredited? That is not at all the line that God is on. He has given us up like sheep for the slaughter; that is the outward position. Some people say they have wonderful things, speak with tongues, heal the sick, or are publicly accredited by God. We have to say that we have nothing of the kind. We find in Psalm 44 a people not getting any outward support from God, they are objects of derision, their adversaries regard them with positive contempt, and yet they say, “All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely against thy covenant: Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy path”. That is the position publicly. Are we going to hold to what is of God, even though there is no outward indication that God is with us? People say, ‘Where is your God? You see very little fruit, you do not do anything, there is no sign that God is with you’. People are so ready to say, ‘Where is your God?’ But if we want to be instructed ones we have to go on without being publicly accredited. We do not want that, we are not to look for public intervention, we are to expect to be given up as sheep for the slaughter. Publicly God does not interfere and we let people do as they like with us. Many an earnest soul would like to be publicly accredited, to have conversions every day; but it is too late for any company to be signalised or made important in any public way.
Romans 8 shows that all these things do not separate us from the love of Christ. Is the love of Christ enough? Are we content as to the public position to be in derision, contempt, and reproach, but to have compensation in the love of Christ, so that we would rather be in reproach than anything else? The distinction of Philadelphia is “to know that I have loved thee”. Our great distinction is to be loved by Christ. We can go on with the remembrance, “yet have we not forgotten thee” — that is the Supper. The Lord commits Himself to us every first day of the week and pledges the fidelity of His love. Is that enough? Are we content to be in public reproach but compensated by the love of Christ? If that is so, it seems to me we shall get a full compensation according to Psalm 45.
We have to remember that Psalm 44 brings in an abnormal condition of things. It is not a day of victory but of public defeat; we got out in defeat publicly. It is what the Lord did, He went out publicly in defeat.
‘Through weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown’. (24:2)
The Lord says to Philadelphia, “Thou hast a little strength”.
Nothing could be more blessed than to be so governed by all this divine instruction that the Spirit of God can make us Christ-centred. We see in Psalm 45 a Christ-centred soul; there is not a word in the psalm that is self-centred. It is all what Christ is, what He will be, and what the assembly is to Him. What a wealth! I do not think it is a wealth that could be known if we had not accepted the instruction of Psalm 44. What is set forth in the next Psalm is so great that it fills the heart; and, instead of the psalmist thirsting, his heart is now [p. 491] welling forth with good matter. We have all the privilege of being composers; we ought to compose something as touching the King. It is a great thing to compose a psalm, although it is good to sing what others have composed!