“MASCHIL” OR “GIVING INSTRUCTION”

Psalm 32, and 142

These two psalms bring before us the end of all God's ways with us, the object of all His instruction; that is, that we might come to know Him, that we might come to the knowledge of God. He takes us up and instructs us, in order that we might find our joy in all that God is. That is the end of all His ways with us, it is the object of His instruction. If we think of the scripture in 1 Corinthians 15, where we come to the final solution of all His ways, we see, “then shall the Son also himself be subject ... that God may be all in all”. So that we see that whether we think of His ways with us now, or His ways publicly and finally in the future, both are to the one end, that we might know God, that He might be all in all to us.

Now one word as to these psalms, these Maschil psalms; these are the first and the last, but there are thirteen such psalms; they are all entitled Maschil, that is, ‘to give instruction’ - and the instruction is in the knowledge of God. They cover the instruction that the ‘wise’ - the Maschilim - in Daniel 11 have been brought into; they cover the wisdom in which they will instruct the people of God in that coming terrible day of Jacob's trouble, the “great tribulation”, Matt 24: 21. But these psalms give us the detail of their wisdom and the way God brought them into it. God never leaves Himself without such as can instruct His people in any given circumstances; He will instruct them and teach them in His ways with them, so that they may be capable of helping and instructing others in like circumstances. So with the Maschilim: they will have so come under God's instruction for themselves that He will be able to use them for the help and instruction and comfort of His people in the day of great tribulation. God will see to it that there are those ready and capable of instructing His people then, of ministering to them the knowledge of God.

These psalms give us what God will instruct His people in then. I suggest that they cover the whole of the instruction of the Maschilim, that they show their preparation by God that they may turn the many to righteousness and instruct the many in that coming day. If things go to the bad in man's hand, God takes occasion by that very fact to show His care and His provision for His people. It is a blessed reality to our souls to find through the very difficulty of our circumstances what God can be for and to us. God has given us great light, beloved brethren, and He would bring us into the blessed reality of what the light tells us of. The light, I need hardly say, is all centred in Christ, and what makes it good to us is the work of the Spirit in us; He brings us into the good of Christ.

Now the first Maschil psalm is 32; it begins at the end, as in fact all psalms do; and the end is that God should be known as the rejoicing of His people. He would have His people to rejoice in Him. The last Maschil psalm is 142, where we find that David is shut up in the cave, but he is shut up to God there. Nobody knew him; nobody cared for him; refuge had failed him, but he was shut up to God. The end of that is that God deals bountifully with him; he rejoices in God, and the righteous with him.

Psalm 32 is the first of the Maschil psalms, and it shews us how God becomes known to His people. It is not Christianity; perhaps it is not God known according to the height of the revelation of Himself, but it does shew this, that God is to be known in the souls of His people, and to this end He puts away our sins. So David describeth the blessedness of the man “whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered”. It is what God does, He forgives sins and covers transgressions. But if He puts away our sins, it is that He may put Himself in the place of that which He puts away. That is the object of the forgiveness: that God may be known in the soul of the forgiven one. So that I can say, My sins are forgiven! But what have I got besides? I have got the knowledge of God, I have got the knowledge of Christ who put away my sins. So in this first Maschil psalm we come to this element of the knowledge of God: God is known as Justifier; He forgives the iniquity of our sins. Then further, He is our hiding place, “Thou art my hiding place”. And He is our Guide; He instructs and teaches us in the way we should go, and the result is that we confide in Jehovah, we rejoice in all that He is. We know the supreme happiness of having God before us, and not ourselves or our sins.

So the first teaching brings us to this that God stands out livingly before the soul; He is all to us. If He justifies us from His side He will have a subjective answer in us, and that is He brings us to the point of “no guile”. What always accompanies the grace of God in forgiveness is that we are without guile; we hide nothing from Him; we confess our transgressions to Him; we do not hide from Him, for He has won our confidence. Then secondly, we hide in Him in all that He is, and we are guided by Him. There is the consciousness on our part that the eye of God is resting upon us, and we are guided in the way in which we should go because He counsels us with His eye upon us. Then the end of it is that we rejoice in God; we boast in God; He is our joy for ever. That is the end of all His instruction whether for us or for Israel. When Israel has come to know God they, too, will find their joy according to their measure in all that God is for them.

Other Maschil psalms are 42, 44. and 45, they show us the way to Christ; it is the way of deliverance. Deliverance is reached when Christ is reached, when the Man is reached who has brought them out of all their distresses. So Psalm 45 brings you to the King - the Beloved, and the excellences of the Man who is the King are detailed for us; they are reached in the soul, and we know deliverance from all our distresses, for we have reached Christ.

Then having learnt to appreciate the true Man, God's Man, we can bear to have the character of Antichrist unfolded to us; we shall know how to refuse Antichrist. So Psalms 5255 are all about Antichrist; they show us the true character of Antichrist, who loves evil rather than good and lying rather than righteousness. Then Psalm 74 is instruction to call upon God when he has filled the earth with violence, when the tumult of those that rise up against God ascends continually, and then Psalm 78 shows us God's sovereign goodness in all His ways with His people, feeding them according to the integrity of His heart and guiding them by the skilfulness of His hands.

Then we come on to Psalm 88, a psalm in which there is no comfort. J.N.Darby said he was comforted in reading this psalm because it brought him to a spot where there was no comfort, “lover and associate hast thou put far from me, and my familiar friends into darkness”, v 18. It is a very terrible experience to be brought anywhere near that, but blessed in its results. I need hardly say that this psalm speaks of the sufferings of the blessed Lord in being made a curse for us.

Well, the end of all instruction is that we may know God; that is what David is brought to in Psalm 142, he had to be shut up in a cave that he might learn God. And we, too, have to come to that, that no man cares for us, for then it is that God says to us, I know you, I am for you.

Beloved brethren, it is worth while going through all these experiences that we may come to know God. Think of learning God in such a way, as the One who is for us! Let us grow by the true knowledge of God. Psalm 43 says, “send out thy light and thy truth: they shall lead me; they shall bring me to thy holy mount”, v 3. The light and the truth meet us in the darkness and the distance, so that they may lead us and bring us to be at home in the place from which they came.

God wants to be our “exceeding joy” (Ps 43: 4) - think of it! Is He that to you? Well, our true blessing lies in the knowledge of God Himself.

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From ‘Mutual Comfort’, 1916