THE KING
[p. 255] THE KING
I have in mind to speak about the King. The King of the Old Testament is the Lord Jesus. The relation of the King to the soul is recognised in Mary’s reference, “They have taken away my Lord”. John 20:13. Kingship has reference to rule. It has a very great place in Scripture and it is important that it should be understood in one’s soul now in view of the fact that kings and thrones are disappearing from this world. Within the lifetime of most of us here some of the most renowned monarchies have disappeared. The idea of government according to God is fast disappearing from this world, whereas in Revelation we are told that there is a throne in heaven. No convulsions in the affairs of this world can interfere with that throne. In our passage we read “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever”. Psalm 45:6. For the moment it is a throne of grace, presently the Lord Jesus will take up the thrones of this world and will rule in judging the world in righteousness. The believer is to know the Lord Jesus as the One that is made Lord and Christ in heaven; as submitting to Christ we receive the Holy Spirit, and so are in the kingdom of God, and we say, “There is ... one Lord Jesus Christ”. As we thus regard Him, He becomes increasingly attractive to us, so that in time we, like the Psalmist, begin to compose something touching the King.
The psalm is the result of an experience of the king. The writer had evidently been acquainted with David. David represents in the Old Testament the divine idea of a king, but the roots of kingship extend far back in Old Testament times. Melchizedek represents kingship in the mind of God. His name signifies peace. He was king of righteousness. God had such [p. 256] a king in days in which men like Nimrod ruled. We know nothing of Melchizedek’s personal history; we are concerned with the fact that he was king of righteousness; he was king of Salem, which is king of peace, and in addition he was priest of the most high God. We have thus set out at the beginning the divine thought of kingship, a thought which is fully seen in the millennial day when the true Melchizedek, the Lord Jesus, will reign and exercise the priesthood of the most high God. He will exercise sympathy towards the universe in that day. If we compare such a King with the kings of this world, we can readily discern the difference. What God had before Him was that men should be in such a kingdom.
My thought is to show how this was realised in David. God begins a line of thought by setting out what was in His mind, and then we have the way traced out by which God reaches His thought. We have the golden thread of this in Matthew, reaching through forty-two generations from Abraham to the Lord Jesus Christ. The book begins with the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham, and we find when David is reached, he is called the king. Hence we have the full thought of kingship traced to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King. That was ever in the mind of God.
In Melchizedek’s day there were nine kings at war, five on the one side and four on the other. Melchizedek had nothing to do with that fray; he stood aside. He comes out with blessing, so that we have the divine thought of kingship. Hence God has set out His thought in Melchizedek.
Then He brings in other types of the Lord Jesus to bring out His full thought. Joseph is the next type of kingship. He must be of peculiar interest to the young here as well as to the old. As a lad of seventeen he was occupied in caring for his father’s flock. He is a son of Rachel. Indeed, the record of [p. 257] the Spirit would indicate that he was in the capacity of a junior, being the youngest but one of Jacob’s sons; for the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah were older. It is well that young men and women should understand what it is to be in subjection to older ones. Even our Lord Himself at the age of twelve recognised advantage in eldership, for when in the temple at twelve years old He was hearing and asking questions, and He retired in subjection to His parents.
But Joseph discerns the evil discourse of his brothers. We can understand it. The mothers alas, were not such as would produce good discourse, so that their discourses were evil. Zilpah and Bilhah were just handmaids to their mistresses and could not impart the liberty and dignity that belonged to sons. We Christians who are in the light of the assembly recognise our heavenly mother, so that we are children of the free woman, for “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is mother of us all”. Galatians 4:26. Joseph was born of Rachel, and he brought back to his father in the liberty of a son the report of his brothers’ discourse.
The King of our chapter loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, and so Joseph hated the evil discourse of his brethren. Jacob loved Joseph above all his sons and made him a vest of many colours. We have thus our Lord Jesus Christ beautifully typified; God distinguished Him above all others. As we look at the boy of seventeen invested in this coat he becomes an attraction to us.
The gospels bring the Lord before us in this light, so that as we read them with anointed eyes we see the King in His beauty and we begin to compose something about Him; like the Psalmist we say, “My heart is inditing a good matter; I speak of the things which I have made touching the king” Psalm 45:1. And so Joseph at this tender age speaks to his brethren, he contemplates himself with them in the field binding [p. 258] the sheaves — corn was primarily the great feature of his service. He says, “My sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf” Genesis 37:7. And they refused his testimony, like the Jews, who say, “We will not have this man to reign over us”. Luke 19:14. They preferred Caesar to Christ, and yet He was the bread from heaven coming down from God.
Then Joseph says, “The sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me”. Genesis 37:9. All creatorial light and rule are to be made subject to Christ. What a wonderful sight in that day in a boy of seventeen! It is written for us that we might recognise the Lord as the true King. It says of Jacob, that while he rebuked his son, yet he observed the saying; in later years he proved to his pleasure the truth of the dream when he was brought to Egypt to his son and saw all his glory.
The next type of kingship is Judah. In Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49 we are told that he prevailed above his brethren; he stands not as a type of Christ beloved of the Father, but as prevailing above His brethren. Romans brings out this great feature of Christ. It is the moral greatness of Christ, so that the delivered one in Romans says, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Romans 7:25. I bow down to Him and take account of His moral greatness.
He is pre-eminent in my heart, and I thus readily accord Him that place, for He is able; hence it says, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be”. Genesis 49:10. Hence we have the sceptre and lawgiver. These are with Judah, so that the people of God are gathered in obedience. As we are thus in submission to the Lord He becomes a gathering centre. If we do not thus gather we are not rightly gathered. As we recognise the sceptre in His hands and accept Him [p. 259] as the lawgiver, we are delivered from lawlessness we are in accord with this psalm, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre”. Psalm 45:6. We recognise our King as our God, and say to him in the language of the Psalmist, “Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore, God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows”. Psalm 45:7.
That makes room for the next type, which is seen in Moses. Moses acquired a place in the affections of the people. It says that he was king in Jeshurun, which means I understand, upright people. All such accord the place of king to Christ, they give a reason for according Him that place. They say, “Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob”. Deuteronomy 33:4. We have thus a code of laws enacted for us.
1 Corinthians represents this code, and every spiritual person, as the epistle says, recognises it as “the commandments of the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 14: 37. We do not regard it as an irksome or unjust law. Every intelligent Christian in the world recognises 1 Corinthians as an inheritance, and our love for Christ is proved by our keeping such a law. It is that which governs us as gathered together; it is that which regulates our conduct. They are not laws that lead us into bondage but into liberty; as we love Christ we value this epistle. The apostle says, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha”. 1 Corinthians 16:22. The epistles are intended for those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. It says of Moses that he was king when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. What answers to this in the New Testament is the saints gathered together acknowledging Christ as Lord. His rights are fully accorded to Him, so that we have the Lord’s day and the Lord’s Supper.
David represents the divine thought reached as in [p. 260] Matthew; he is the one man called “the king”. That intimates to us what a place David held in Matthew’s testimony. Indeed, David gives an account of the king himself in 2 Samuel 23: 1. We have in this verse David’s own estimate of kingship- This conception of kingship has full expression in Christ, and you can understand the psalm in the light of it. The write had the true King in his mind, but David in a remarkable way typified Him, so that when he was anointed he was in the midst of his brethren. The prophet passed over one after another of the sons of Jesse, and Samuel had to inquire, “Are here all thy children?” 1 Samuel 16:11, and Jesse has to say, “There yet remaineth the youngest and, behold he keepeth the sheep” 1 Samuel 16:11. You see how David qualified for this great office, and so as he comes into the house, Jehovah says, “This is he” 1 Samuel 16:12. It should bow our hearts to Christ.
The Holy Spirit says, “He was ruddy”. 1 Samuel 16:12. There was evidence of freshness of life there, as the bride in the Canticles says, “He is ruddy”, Song of Songs 5:10 and the Holy Spirit says further that he was lovely-eyed and of beautiful appearance. We are coming in close touch with Christ. The Holy Spirit calls attention to his peculiar features as God’s anointed. There was in Christ the vigour of life and the lovely eye, or countenance, and then the beautiful general appearance of His Person.
The prophet anoints David in the midst of his brethren. Here in Psalm 45 the Psalmist speaks of the personal beauty of Christ: “Thou art fairer than the sons of men” Psalm 45:2; he is detained in the presence of the King. In God’s King all the features I have outlined appear and they enter into this psalm. God says. “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” Psalm 2:6. Nothing can shake this. We recognise it. “My king”, God says. The believer may well say, “My King, and my God” Psalm 84:3.