AN OUTLINE OF THE MASCHIL PSALMS - PSALM 74 (9), 78 (10), 88 (11), 142 (12)
AN OUTLINE OF THE MASCHIL PSALMS - PSALM 74 (9), 78 (10), 88 (11), 142 (12)
Psalm 74; Psalm 78; Psalm 88; Psalm 89; Psalm 142
CAC The first psalm, Psalm 74, that we read has remarkable reference to the assembly — “Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed to be the portion of thine inheritance” (verse 2), “Everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed” (verse 3), “Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly” (verse 4), “And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers. They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground” (verses 6, 7).
This is a psalm that brings out in the most striking way the desolation of God’s assembly, God’s sanctuary. We have to feel it; we are living in days when the language is as appropriate as it ever could be in Israel. It is a great point of spiritual progress when we realise the present state of ruin, looking at things in a spiritual way. In an outward way it is not a state of ruin; there are magnificent buildings, beautiful services, large congregations; but if we are to take account of things spiritually we are surrounded with a most dreadful state of desolation. The christian profession today has the name of [p. 516] God and of Christ attached to and connected with it, but what about the spiritual element? If we gather up from Holy Scripture the spiritual elements connected with God’s assembly, His temple, His sanctuary, we learn the holiness of these things as set up at the beginning. If we get a spiritual estimate of God’s assembly, temple and sanctuary, we shall see that the present state of things exactly answers to this psalm. The holy things are profaned; the service of God is profaned, it is carried on for the pleasure of man in a way that commends itself to men and all the beautiful spiritual ornamentations are broken down — “They break down its carved work” — things were set up with beautiful ornamentation. God’s assembly is here and all the things spoken of have their place, but in the hands of men they have been profaned and their holy character lost. Where is the holiness? It has often been pointed out that we get the adversary within and the enemy without. There have been destructive influences operating against the assembly from without, but the most deadly influences are from within. Think of how the assembly was ornamented at the beginning with all the gifts in the distribution of the Spirit, gifts of an ascended Christ; and then all the fruitful activities of spiritual affections in the saints. What a beauty of holiness, what a fervency of love there was! The assembly was full of spiritual beauty and ornamentation, but the enemy went to work to break it down, and instead of spiritual elements material elements were set up. So in the christian profession today every part of the truth is imitated and put in a material, instead of a spiritual, form. People talk of a church; they mean a material building. There is no such thought in Scripture. It is always an assembly of living persons. The whole spiritual beauty of the thought of the assembly is destroyed, broken down; and bricks and stones are looked at as a church. The Lord’s supper in its simplicity and beauty is God’s means of convening the assembly, but instead of the saints coming together in the beauty of the assembly it has disappeared publicly. The enemy’s effort has been to introduce natural and material elements instead of spiritual. If we could get hold of the fact that God’s house is spiritual, and all the elements are spiritual, it would be the greatest help to us, and we should see how that which is spiritual has been profaned and destroyed in the public profession. I think the divine remedy and refuge is brought out very beautifully in these [p. 517] psalms. We have to watch that we are cultivating what is spiritual and discarding those things that have led to the state of christendom. I remember saying long ago to J.B.S. that I had found in my heart the germ of every kind of corruption and departure; we have to learn that. If we give place to it, it will destroy every spiritual element, and obliterate all the spiritual beauty that attaches to God’s assembly. We have not to look at what others are doing, but we must guard against all these elements that have come out publicly in christendom, for they are in each of our hearts naturally.
I think we have to learn according to Psalm 78 how God falls back on His own sovereignty when everything publicly is a failure amongst His people: in sovereign mercy He secures everything from His own side. Psalm 78 is a parable: “I will open my mouth in a parable” (verse 2); it answers exactly to Matthew 13 where it is quoted. It is very remarkable that the Spirit of God has linked this psalm with Matthew 13, where the Lord expounds the parable of the sower and then gives the similitudes of the kingdom. First from verse 24 the parable of the good seed being sown and the enemy coming and sowing darnel amongst the wheat; and then in verse 31 another parable of the grain of mustard seed “which a man took and sowed in his field; which is less indeed than all seeds, but when it is grown is greater than herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and roost in its branches”. Then the next verse is the parable of the leaven, “which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it had been all leavened”. And then there is a parenthesis (verses 34, 35): “All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, so that that should be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the world’s foundation”. At this point the Lord brings in Psalm 78, and after that He speaks of the treasure and the pearl. The psalm is an Old Testament parable; it shows how everything goes to the bad in the hands of men. The divine testimony and the law as committed to men only result in departure and unfaithfulness; and when that is fully manifested the Lord awakes and takes things in hand, and He starts everything from Zion (verses 65 - 68). He has a chosen place and a chosen Man, and everything works out from the divine side in connection with sovereign mercy and the integrity [p. 518] and skilfulness of Christ (verse 72). At that point you can turn from the history of departure.
We see the history of departure in Matthew 13. It begins with the enemy sowing darnel; and then there is the mustard seed; that is what is of God taking an unnatural place in the world and becoming a shelter for wicked spirits; finally the whole is leavened — it is a picture of the enemy’s work. God begins and then the enemy works till the whole is leavened. This is exactly what is going on now; darnel has been sown, and the christian profession has taken this extraordinary place in the world as a great and imposing thing when it was never intended to be anything but small; and there is the corrupting influence of the woman who puts in leaven until the whole is leavened. After this there are the treasure, the pearl and the good fish. This comes in on the line of mount Zion and David, the principle of sovereign mercy.
I think Psalm 78 is connected with God’s testimony: “He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children” (verse 5). It is a question of God’s testimony. Now we all admit that in the matter of individual blessing it must be sovereign mercy, but when it is a question of God’s testimony it must be sovereign mercy, too. It all works out in connection with Christ, so at the end of this psalm we get a chosen place and a chosen Man; it is a question of the integrity of His heart and the skilfulness of His hands. Christ is, like David, feeding the people of God according to the integrity of His heart. Do you think He would fail to feed them with every divine food that God has provided? He has such integrity of heart in connection with divine feeding. You may find servants who keep back some food and do not serve out the whole truth, but that would never be so with Christ. If we put ourselves into His hands we shall be well fed and guided. Our security is to be fed according to the integrity of His heart and guided by the skilfulness of His hands; we cannot make a creed or doctrine that would afford security.
It is a great comfort to me to think that whatever has been for God in relation to His testimony has been the product of sovereign mercy, and because of that it will never fail — there is something there. We might get discouraged if we look at the first similitudes of Matthew 13, the enemy’s work bringing in [p. 519] bad material, and in result things taking public shape and becoming leavened. But the Lord says, ‘I will tell you something else; there is a treasure and a pearl’. How full of instruction these great principles are!
In verse 65 we had a striking figure of God’s intervention, “Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep” — there has been something like that in the history of the church. The Lord has awakened to show His own hand and His way of working. And He is showing the result of His intervention, that everything that abides and has value is the product of His sovereign mercy which has been secured in a risen Christ, and nothing can invalidate that. Mount Zion refers to that, to what is secured in a risen Christ. God has had to disown everything that had been the result of human failure, but, if He disowns that, there is something else that He chooses — mount Zion. It is our privilege to move on the line of what is of God, and in that way we shall find resource and strength. We are not called to put the confusion right or to accommodate ourselves to it, but to go on with what is of God.
Rem We get guidance in Psalm 32 also.
CAC That brings out the great principles of God’s favour and leading. He will never fail to give His people spiritual guidance when they want it. People think many are ready for it who do not get it. I do not believe that there are any souls prepared for divine leading who do not get it; when a soul is ready it surely will get it.
In Psalm 88 we get a more personal exercise; it is the most hopeless psalm in the book. J.N.D. said that at one time it was the only scripture that was any help to him because he saw that someone had been as low as that before him. It was the only part of scripture that tallied with his experience, and if any man had been as low there was help for him. Psalm 88 is the Old Testament Romans 7, it is the experience of utter weakness in oneself; the man in it is as good as dead. It is a solemn experience and instruction, but in principle we need it in the last days. We need to know, not only the public breakdown as in Psalm 74, but that in regard to God we are as complete a mass of weakness as if we were dead. We are looking at it in connection with the testimony, and we have to learn that in ourselves we have the weakness of death; it is not wilfulness here but the weakness of death. It is learned in the presence of God.
[p. 520] Psalm 88 and Psalm 89 are like Romans 7 and 8. There is a learning of utter weakness in Psalm 88 to prepare us to appreciate Psalm 89: “I will sing of the loving-kindness of Jehovah for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness from generation to generation. For I said, Loving-kindness shall be built up for ever; in the very heavens wilt thou establish thy faithfulness”. The whole of this psalm is built up on loving-kindness and faithfulness: each are mentioned seven times in the psalm. If you have learned your utter weakness in Psalm 88 you come to loving-kindness and faithfulness in God. What a stay to the heart to learn these things as divine instruction! We have all to take up these exercises and God brings us to it. That is why we have church difficulties. Every exercised person who has faced church difficulties has learnt his utter weakness; nothing would discover our weakness to us like assembly exercises or difficulties. It is God’s way that we should learn our weakness in order that we should fall back on what is established in heaven — God’s faithfulness and loving-kindness.
Ques Is it the individual or the company learning it?
CAC I think we have, every one, to learn it individually. Paul’s thorn for the flesh brought death on him, and it is on that basis that God can show His power. If there is a bit of activity of what belongs to me it excludes divine power. We all like to be strong on that line, but God brings in power by reducing us to the weakness of death, and then He opens out His loving-kindness and faithfulness, and shows how He has laid help on One who is mighty. “Then thou spakest in vision of thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon a mighty one” (verse 19). Now we learn God’s covenant with Christ — God has made His covenant with David — Christ is the subject of the covenant and anointing, and He is One who is mighty; there is no weakness to interfere with the carrying out of divine pleasure in Christ. There are certain engagements on God’s part with reference to Christ that cannot be interfered with or invalidated. For instance the kingdom is secured to Christ by covenant; God has said, “Ask of me, and I will give thee nations for an inheritance, and for thy possession the ends of the earth”, Psalm 2: 8. The kingdom is secured to Christ, the divine pledge is given, “Sit at my right hand, until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet”, Psalm 110: 1. Then the priesthood is secured: “Jehovah hath sworn, and will not [p. 521] repent, Thou art priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec”. All is secured to Christ. What a comfort to see that Christ is anointed with the holy oil and is mighty! Nothing committed to Him can ever fail, it will be carried through. What a comfort in the presence of the gross and shameful failure that marks the Christian profession to be able to fall back on such a covenant! Christ came here to do the will of God when the whole sacrificial system had failed. He came to do the work and could say, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. All this makes God’s loving-kindness and faithfulness as secured in Christ very precious to the heart. We are able to retire from all the breakdown of the Christian profession in which we are involved and responsible; we can retire from our utter weakness into the region of the Spirit and of God’s loving-kindness and faithfulness, and of the ability of Christ to give effect to the whole pleasure of God. What a resource in these last days! This is great instruction for us.
This will be the provision for the remnant of Israel in a coming day; they will have to take up these lessons in the tribulation in presence of the antichrist and the beast, in far more terrible conditions than we do. We have to learn them now in our conditions, which in the last days will become worse, but what a resource to fall back on!
The last Maschil psalm is Psalm 142. It shows the extreme point to which any faithful saint can be reduced; he is left without any companion, and no man cares for his soul. But Jehovah is his refuge. This exactly corresponds with Paul’s experience in 2 Timothy: “no man stood with me”. It contemplates the very worst conditions there could be; it is conceivable that things might be so bad that we might have to stand alone. It was the Lord’s portion: “they all forsook him”. This psalm contemplates the direst distress in which a faithful saint could be found; but the Lord has pledged Himself to the assembly that we shall never have to walk alone. 2 Timothy is the pledge; we are told to “withdraw from iniquity” and separate from vessels to dishonour and to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. There is a divine pledge to us that we shall never be reduced to walking alone. There will always be those following righteousness, faith, love, peace, and calling on the Lord out of a pure heart.