JERUSALEM - THE JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH
[p. 85] JERUSALEM — THE JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH
There are two leading thoughts which predominate in this psalm: one is of the city, and the other, of the temple. We have a description of the city of the great King. “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King”. What is before me is the idea of a city. I do not propose to take up the second thought that we have in the psalm. “We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple”, etc.
The city and the temple are, I may say, associated, and come together under our notice; but I purpose to speak of the city, and that in connection with what has already come before us.
I was attempting to maintain that everything for God must of necessity be on the principle of resurrection. It does not want much argument to prove that, for the reason, simply, that death lies upon all. It is entirely impossible for God to ignore His own judgment. Death is His judgment upon man by reason of sin, and whatever God establishes in connection with man must be on the principle of resurrection. If you invalidate the truth of resurrection, you cut away the whole fabric of scripture. Scripture from beginning to end depends upon the truth of resurrection.
We have the fact of resurrection now in Christ. He is risen by the power of God; but the principle pervades Scripture from beginning to end, not simply the New Testament, but also the Old. Whatever God has established with man — and there is a great deal which He has established — is on the immutable [p. 86] foundation of righteousness, and, consequently, on the principle of resurrection, which is life out of death. That is true in regard of the millennium, and of the city spoken of here. Jerusalem becomes the joy of the whole earth in virtue of the setting aside of death, and that is, in a sense, the equivalent of resurrection. If we die we must be raised, but it is in the power of God so to set death aside, as that men do not die. When Christ appears the second time it is apart from sin altogether; He appears for salvation, that is, He comes in to set death and every enemy aside. In 1 Corinthians 15 we learn that after resurrection is brought to pass, death will be swallowed up of victory. It is on that principle, the setting aside of death, that we get the re-establishment of the earthly city, the joy of the whole earth.
Now I am not going to speak of the earthly city, but of what belongs to us, the Jerusalem above. I want, if possible, to shew you the moral connection of a city: what it implies in the eye of God. When you apprehend what a city is in God’s eye, it is a great matter for you. God does not care for the material beauty of a city, it is the moral elements which make it an object for God. In the future, Jerusalem will be fully for God because of the moral elements which will be found in it. Hagar, to which Jerusalem of the past answered, had to be cast out and her son. Hagar is what Jerusalem represented in the eye of God. Jerusalem has to be re-constituted, to have a different moral character in the eye of God; and it will be re-established, when death is swallowed up in victory, on the principle of resurrection, that is, morally of life out of death.
I would like to refer for a moment to the psalms preceding Psalm 48. First, in Psalm 45: 6 we have: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God,
[p. 87] thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows”. I do not think these verses need any kind of explanation. We get them quoted in Hebrews 1, and the reference is evidently to Christ, and that in resurrection. In Hebrews 1 we have Christ as become Man, and He has loved righteousness and hated wickedness, that is to say, there has been perfect discrimination between wickedness and righteousness, and God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows. It evidently speaks of Christ in incarnation and resurrection because He is said to be anointed above His fellows. The anointing with the oil of gladness, of necessity, points to resurrection and not only incarnation. The Lord had companions here in the twelve that companied with Him; but, strictly speaking, there was a great barrier between Him and them. They were under death, and Christ was the Prince of life. There was thus a barrier, though all looked on to the time when that barrier would be removed and they would be established as His companions, and we find that in John 20. In chapter 17 the Lord had said: “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”. Christ is anointed above His fellows, and it is thus plain that the psalm depends, not simply on incarnation, but on resurrection.
Psalm 46 speaks of the experience gained by those who, in a sense, are the companions of Christ. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”, etc. If you remember, the Lord referred to this psalm in saying to the disciples that if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed, they should say to this mountain, “Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea”, and it should be done. Here we have the experience, that is, the knowledge of God, gained in the time of trouble.
Psalm 47 is an appeal to the nations. It says, “O [p. 88] clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph”, etc.
In Psalm 48 you find the celebration of Jerusalem, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth”; it is the city of the great king; “God is known in her palaces for a refuge”. In Psalm 46 they had said, “God is our refuge”. Here it is, “God is known in her palaces for a refuge”. Now that brings us to the city. The psalm depicts what it will be in the future, a testimony to the whole earth; that will be a great joy, but the heavenly Jerusalem will be a still greater joy. The heavenly Jerusalem, the bride, the Lamb’s wife, comes down from God, out of heaven; it is not the city of the great King, but of the living God, and that is a greater idea than the city of the great King. Jerusalem upon earth is the city of the great King, and what marks it in the future is that God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
Now, it appears to me that, for God, a city is constituted by a covenant. The real value of a city in the eye of God is that is has been constituted by a covenant, and it is of no moral value beyond that. That principle is seen clearly in Galatians. It is said there, “Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother”. That expression alludes really to the covenant, answering to Sarah. The city is dependent upon the covenant for its character, as Ishmael was dependent upon Hagar. He could not escape being a bondman, because his mother was a bond-woman. He was not on the line of promise, and the free woman was not his mother. He had no part — looked at typically — in the promise, and describes the position of the Jew in the past. The children of the flesh were not the children of promise — they were the children of a legal covenant.
Jerusalem in the past was connected with the old covenant, and hence was in bondage with her children. It was constituted under the old covenant: that of [p. 89] works, and God had not yet set the power of death aside. What was seen was God taking up a people in the flesh, and putting them under a covenant which suited man in the flesh, the terms of which were spoken forth from Mount Sinai, to which man dared not draw near. The people were made to feel their distance. God gave them this covenant, which impressed its character on Jerusalem, just as Hagar did her position on Ishmael; and the child of the bond-woman could not be heir with the child of the free-woman. There was not then the setting aside of death, because God was dealing with man after the flesh, and that was not on the basis of resurrection. God had certain things to bring about, and it was essential that the true condition of man should be first demonstrated in the presence of the universe; and until there was the basis of righteousness, through resurrection, there could not be the establishment of what was of God. All that waited for Christ. It is important to see that the Jerusalem of the future is the same, not a different one. There is the identity of Jerusalem as there is of the temple. In Haggai it says, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”, chapter 2: 9. Jerusalem is Jerusalem, although it is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles; but the principle on which God re-establishes Jerusalem is that death is swallowed up in victory. Righteousness has come in, and God has been glorified in the removal of the judgment that lay upon man. Sin having been removed, God is able to dispossess death and to re-establish His relations with Jerusalem. She has got for the time a bill of divorce, but she will be brought back to Jehovah on the principle of resurrection. What will re-establish her morally in the future is the new covenant written in the hearts of God’s people, so that the city becomes a free city. It never has been free, but will be in the future, because her children will have real and experimental acquaintance [p. 90] with God; that is what I understand to be effected by the new covenant. “They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”.
It will be given to Israel to know God in the greatness of His mercy and in His love. I quite admit the difference between them and the church, but still I am inclined to think that God will be known of them in His loving-kindness and in His nature; in mercy and love. You get in the Old Testament the idea of God’s love to His people, and the love of God, in that day, will be known by His people. They will know in measure two blessed qualities of God which we know now, that God is rich in mercy, and that He loves His people; and because He loves them He has brought them into the inheritance prepared for them.
Jerusalem that is to be, will be the delight of God. “Beautiful for situation” is the language of the Spirit of God, and “it is the joy of the whole earth”, and why? Because of its moral character. The city is brought into freedom, the children of the city are in spiritual liberty, the new covenant is established, and God is known among her children; the city is the joy of God, and at the same time, the joy of the whole earth. God is declared to be the God of the whole earth, and Jerusalem is the testimony down here of His faithfulness, love and mercy. That will be known by the children of Jerusalem, and they will, in that day, be brought, in blessed liberty, into the knowledge of God. “All shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them”. They will have individual knowledge of God.
I pass on to the heavenly city, and will read a verse or two in Galatians 4: 22, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the [p. 91] other by a free woman.... So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free”.
What I want to make plain is this, that you have a double connection with Christ. A Christian has promise for father and a free woman for mother. That is the idea here, and you want both connections. It will be so too with the Jew in the future. The two principles are bound to go together, but my point for the moment is that you take your character from the mother, from the covenant, “Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother”. In this the apostle had in mind the idea of the covenant, though he does not speak expressly of it. Just as the old covenant was represented in the then Jerusalem, so the new covenant is represented in the Jerusalem above.
It is at the same time a great thing to apprehend that we have promise for father. Saints have to learn that they are the children of promise: the children of God’s purpose: that has to be accepted. You could not talk about this to unconverted people, it would be entirely out of place; but to Christians you are bound to speak in regard of the promise and purpose of God. If you are not the children of promise you are not the children of God. Every Christian would be prepared to admit that it was the Father that drew him to Christ in the sovereignty of love.
“Thou gav’st us, in eternal love,
To Him to bring us home to Thee”. (88:1)
We have to accept that in our souls.
But then, as the children of promise, we are begotten morally of the free-woman, that is, of the covenant. The covenant is the means of God’s teaching. Covenant is of the nature of a will: it is the indication of God’s disposition toward us. If I make a will I make a disposition of my property; but the disposition indicates my thought and feeling toward those to whom I leave my property. That is pretty much the idea of covenant, and, in order to make the covenant [p. 92] effective, there must be the death of the Testator. Death has come in in Christ, and God has been pleased in the covenant to make known His disposition toward us; and it is not simply that an inheritance is given to us, but that the inheritance makes plain the mind of God toward us, and therefore the covenant is the means of divine teaching in the ways of God.
The first thing with God, is to bring us into the kingdom, under His moral sway, and then to teach us. He teaches us by Christ and the nature of the teaching is described in the new covenant. I have been greatly interested in considering what the Lord said to His disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. The teaching of the covenant comes to us in the death of Christ.
As far as I understand it, the one thing in which God has to instruct His people is the knowledge of Himself, that is, in the knowledge and reality of His love. God commends His love to us. The Holy Spirit sheds God’s love abroad in the heart of the believer, but that is not the commendation of God’s love. God has commended His love in the death of Christ.
There are two things which are prominent in the death of Christ, namely, the declaration of righteousness and the commendation of love. That we learn from the Epistle to the Romans.
God is teaching His people, and Christ is the teacher. Mary sat at His feet hearing His word, conscious that He was the Revealer of God. He was declaring God, and, afterwards, He taught the disciples to pray; and that is what Christ is to us. He brings home to us in divine power, through His death, the reality of the love of God, and then, He teaches us to address God in holy liberty. No one has access to God except by the Spirit, who is the Spirit of God’s Son, “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father”. Christ is the teacher.
[p. 93] There are three things in regard to Christ that come out in the tenth and eleventh chapters of Luke.
(1) He is the Neighbour. (2) He is the Revealer. (3) He is the Teacher; and every one of us needs to have acquaintance with Christ in all three characters. He does not become the Revealer until He is known as the Neighbour; when our needs are met, then He leads us into the knowledge of God, and teaches us to approach in the power of the Holy Spirit. The effect of it is that you have come under the teaching of the new covenant and learnt God’s disposition towards you — the great principles in it being mercy and love. God will not be content until we are in heaven, for we are not going there simply for our own joy and delight, but for the satisfaction of God’s love; that is the disposition of God toward us.
There is the inheritance, for we inherit the kingdom, but that is inferior to the knowledge of love. Christ is bringing that home to the hearts of God’s people so that, being introduced into holy liberty they may “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free”. That is the privilege of the heavenly Jerusalem.
The two things, the covenant and the city, are so intimately connected that you can scarcely distinguish between them. The new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven, and it has the glory of God and the light of God; it is the expression of God Himself in the presence of the universe. We are the children of that city, because we are the children of the covenant, instructed by Christ Himself into the knowledge of divine love and mercy.
You get the idea of this witness to the universe in Ephesians 2: 7. What we ourselves have experience of is love and mercy; but what will God make the heavenly city to be to the universe? It will be the witness and expression of the exceeding riches of His grace in the ages to come.
[p. 94] The heavenly city comes down from God out of heaven. “From God” is a moral idea. It comes down from God because it is of God; it is morally worthy of God and sets forth what God has intended to set forth in Christ. If the earthly city is the joy of the whole earth, the heavenly city is the joy of the universe. Meantime we have come under the blessing of the new covenant, under divine teaching, and Christ is our teacher.
It would be a wonderful thing if saints were really so informed and instructed as to enable them to meditate upon the great reality of God’s disposition toward them. Love which works for its own end will not be content until it can rest in the full and eternal blessing of its objects, God’s people: that is what love is. There is love and mercy; I delight to keep the two thoughts together; and God will have us in His own habitation, so that we may come out from it to be the witness of His exceeding riches of grace in the presence of the universe.
Now this is intended to have its own effect on us now. As you get the knowledge of love you get liberty, and if you are not in liberty you are not in the full light of love. My child is not in bondage with me. It may be shy in the presence of others, but it is not shy in my presence, for it has the confidence of love. So with us. We have love and the liberty of love, and have to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
I delight in the thought of divine teaching. Christ is the teacher by the Spirit. He makes known to us God’s love without alloy, and, at the same time, teaches us to approach God in the blessed liberty of sonship. This is the teaching of Christ. I can understand the disciples saying, “Lord, teach us to pray”, and one can echo the thought. Christ teaches us to pray, for it is by the spirit of God’s Son that we are able to cry, “Abba, Father”.
[p. 95] If you want to be useful in the testimony there is one way to it: that is to be in the blessed liberty of love. We are a testimony for God in that way. The first essentiality is the liberty of love: standing fast in liberty. The Galatians were biting and devouring one another. They were not in love, nor in the liberty of it, and were a poor testimony.
May God lead us to understand the greatness of our place — the children of promise and of the free-woman. But there is the solemn statement in regard of the legalist — and there are plenty of them in the world today — “Cast out the bond-woman and her son”. God will reject the legalist because He will have nothing except the liberty of love.