CHRIST THE ONE WHO ESTABLISHED HIS TITLE TO LIVE
On previous occasions we have had the three previous psalms before us, the consideration of which has I trust been profitable to us.
Psalms 90, 91 and 92 are an introduction to the fourth book. In each of the four books I may mention you have a great sorrow psalm, and each sorrow psalm is according to the subject of each book.
Psalm 22 is the great sorrow psalm of the first book, which ends with Psalm 41, and the great idea of that sorrow psalm is dwelling. God is going to dwell in the praises of His people, and the Lord Jesus is in His sorrow there in going into death to secure that dwelling-place for God. The One who secured it is the One who leads the praises. He is the great ‘Choirmaster’ and He starts the singing, and if you sing at all, you sing with Jesus. When we come to meet the Lord, He is the “Choir-master”, and the supper puts the choir in order, so that you may sing - not merely with hymn-book - but with a heart full to bursting.
The great sorrow psalm of the second book is Psalm 69, and the thought is not dwelling, but reigning - He goes into the depths and He suffers to reign. Psalm 88 is the great sorrow psalm of the third book, and the sorrow there is that He bears the curse of the old covenant in order to introduce the blessings of the new. In the fourth book the great sorrow psalm is Psalm 102. That is greatest of all, in one sense - the cutting off of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now as I have previously pointed out, the fourth book commences with Psalm 90, and there Moses voices the cry of the man who has forfeited his title to live. That is what you and I have done, and I should like these things to lay hold of our souls. What lays hold of our souls is like a sheet-anchor. It is a moral necessity that man should die. God does not delight in death - He is the God of the living, and if death is here, the hand of God has been forced to it.
Death is here because of what man is. Man has got away from the image of God, but that which bears the image of God can never die. As a Christian I shall never die, but I have to learn that I am a poor thing and have forfeited my title to live. One has to come to it. I will tell you what helps one to come to it - the Lord's supper, if we understood it. I know what it is to have death in my house, and to come to the supper, and the Lord has said to me, ‘can you wonder that any one should die if I died?’ He died out of this world, and the supper has been instituted that we should remember that. Every Lord's day morning I am in the presence of the death of One who never forfeited His title to live. He went into death voluntarily and He has gone into another world - He has died out of this.
If Moses cries, it is a cry in hope - he applies his heart to wisdom (the fear of the Lord), calls for mercy, asks that the work of God may appear, and that the glory of God may shine, and lastly, that the beauty of the Lord their God may be upon them, and they have passed beyond the power of death. They will then be in millennial blessing and will morally answer to the glory in that day, and so the beauty of the Lord will rest upon them. As Christians we come along the same lines exactly, and we should be in the presence of the glory of the Lord - His beauty therefore resting upon us.
Psalm 91 is the history of the Man who established His title to live. If God is going to bless the man in Psalm 90, it will be through Christ, and we are therefore introduced to Christ in Psalm 91. If one can establish His title to live there is hope for us. Then the point comes out that the Man who establishes His title to live in Psalm 91 meets death in Psalm 102. I recommend you to read it - it is the cry of the Man who established His title to live in the presence of death. We are so familiar with the fact that Jesus died, and we have the words so glibly on our lips, that it seems to me that we are in danger of losing the sense of the deep reality of His death. It was His perfection as a Man to deprecate and to shrink from it - He felt it. It says in Hebrews, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared”, chap 5: 7. Let that scripture come home closely to your souls. We know very well that he was God over all, blessed for ever, but still there is the perfection and reality of His humanity, and He says, “O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days”. Yet at that very time He is greeted as Jehovah. “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, &c.,” and with the same divine ease with which you called it into being, you shall fold it up like a garment. “As a vesture shalt thou change them”, Ps 102: 24-27. We have to bow, with unshod feet, in the presence of such grandeur as that. God has come near to us - to weep and to feel things - that we might know Him. There is a reality about Him which would endear Christ to us if we entered into it, and yet of that One it goes on to say, “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end”. He never changes - I am in touch with Him, One who is outside the reach of death. If you have trusted Him, He has put His own stamp of continuity upon you. I could not tell you what a pleasure that is to me. In the might of the Spirit, He has put that imperishable stamp upon us and we shall continue. I longed for continuity and have got it. I do not want anything that will not continue. As a Christian I shall never die. “He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever”, 1 John 2: 17. I should like our souls to lay hold of the grandeur of Christianity and the mighty power it is to lift us above things here. Would you not like to give people the impression that you are in touch with a scene outside the reach of death?
Psalm 92 is a sabbath day psalm - a song of the sabbath day. The rest of God is reached - it is an order of things that suits God because it bears His image; and it is in the very nature of the thing outside the reach of death. You go from a cry to a song - from growing up in the morning and withering in the evening, you go to “the palm tree … in the courts of our God ... fat and flourishing”, Ps 92: 14. That is where Israel will be by-and-by. “Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God”.
Now we come to this little psalm (93), which is the thesis of the fourth book. There are three things:-
1. The stability of the throne.
2. The surety of His testimonies.
3. Holiness - which becomes His house.
If we are Christians the Spirit of God puts us in touch now with all that we get in the fourth book of psalms, which will be publicly manifested by-and-by, when Jehovah shall reign. Our eyes do not see it, our ears do not take cognisance of it, but it is a reality to us in the power of the Spirit.
What I want to show you is that God has already set up His throne - it is established. The strict interpretation of the passage before us indicates that it will be publicly so for Israel by-and-by, and there will be great relief and blessing. This you will understand more clearly if you study Psalm 94. Read verse 20. Israel by-and-by will go through all the distress set forth in the psalm, because they are in the presence of another throne - the throne of iniquity, Antichrist, what man's throne will eventually culminate in.
I should like to say a little more on that. God has committed power to man - “the powers that be are ordained of God”, Rom 13: 1. From Babylon the power went to the Persians, and from thence to the Grecians. The power then passed on to the Romans. When Jesus was before Pilate, the power was tested. God’s thought is that there should be righteousness and judgment, but was righteousness and judgment exercised when Jesus, an innocent man, stood before the bar of Pilate? No. The throne that was committed to man miserably failed - righteousness was divorced from judgment, and Jesus was condemned by man. Still the government goes on, and if you are with God you will be subject to the powers that be. It is a part of practical Christianity to recognise the powers that be as ordained of God. The power committed to man will end as in Psalm 94: 20. All is tending in that direction now. Well, Israel will be in the presence of that, when judgment and righteousness will be divorced, and they will cry to be delivered. They will hold on to God. In integrity of heart, in deep affliction, they will cling to the throne of God, and will not have anything to do with the “throne of iniquity”, and some will be martyred in consequence.
What I want to show is, if you have got the Spirit you have it in order that you may see where the throne of God is, for we have already come under the influence of it now; it is presented in testimony to us, and it is apprehended by us in the living power of the Spirit.
Mark what the scripture says: “Thy testimonies are very sure”. He has given testimony to us of that which the eye cannot see, and which the senses cannot take cognisance of, and we have received the Spirit in order that the reality of it may be known in our souls. You must pay attention to this, “Thy testimonies are very sure”. In the power of the Spirit we see that what is written is presented in a living Person. Thy testimonies are very sure for us, for testimony has received its answer in a living Person, and that Person our Lord Jesus Christ.
From three passages of scripture I want to show you how this works. Read Luke 4: 16 - 21. The living word was there turning over the roll in the synagogue at Nazareth. That He had in His hand was what was written, and He read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book”. He says, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”. They turn from what is written to what is presented in His Person. What is written finds its living expression in a Person. He is the Spirit of the scripture - He is it - all is set forth livingly in Him - “Thy testimonies are very sure”.
Take another case. The Spirit of God is brooding over the soul of a man (Acts 8: 26-40), and he is reading Isaiah 53. He does not understand it, but he continues to read - he is on the right track - “Thy testimonies are very sure”. Philip comes near, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” Philip began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. “Thy testimonies are very sure”. Now the man has got to the Person; what was written in the scriptures was before his soul in a living Person - he preached to him Jesus. Philip could leave him now. Why? Because he has got the key to scripture - the Person.
Again, Paul, when writing to Timothy, says, “from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”, 2 Tim 3: 15. “Thy testimonies are very sure”.
In all three cases there is the written word, but the beauty of it is that these testimonies are verified in a living Person. It is a great thing to get hold of that. If the letter of the word does not lead you to the living Person it is of no value. It is most important “Thy testimonies are very sure”, because His testimonies are set forth in Christ. I beg you to pray about it. You must cleave to the sure testimonies of God, but remember, they are all presented livingly in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where is the throne of God, then? It is in a Person. The foundation of the throne is established in the death of Christ, and the manifestation of the throne is seen in the Lord Jesus where He is. When you think of the throne it conveys a moral idea. The throne of England conveys the idea of the law and rule of the land. The blessed Lord went into death to establish the foundation of the throne, and it is set forth in Psalm 45, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity”, Heb 1: 9. His love for righteousness, hatred of iniquity, was seen when He entered into death. The question of good and evil, and everything, has been brought to bear there, and has been settled for God at the cross. The foundation of all blessing lies there, because all that God is has been made good by Him - His righteousness, majesty, holiness, truth, all that He is as a God of love, too. The basis of the throne has been established in the death of Christ.
You think of that death as having relieved you; but if the death of Christ has relieved you of your responsibility, it has established another responsibility as I understand it. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness”, 1 pet 2: 24. He died for that - that we might come under this blessed rule and live to righteousness.
The throne is set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ, where He now is. In Hebrews 2 you go from “one in a certain place testified” to the surety of the thing in a Person - “But we see Jesus”. There you have the throne by the Spirit - we see Jesus. I have come under Him as my Lord. “We see not yet all things put under him”, but we are under Him. Oh, blessed subjection, that has for its spring love! Your heart has been attached to Him, and you confess Him to be your Lord. A Christian is one into whose life God has come, and he confesses Jesus as Lord. That is, the habit of your soul is constant and abiding confession to Him that He is your Lord. There is a living link between your soul and Him, and you are in subjection to Him. The thought comes out in the Acts of the Apostles. The Lord said, “Ananias!” He said, “here am I, Lord”, Acts 9: 10. I like that. He was not startled - he did not say, ‘Who is this?’ Nay, “here am I, Lord”. This is what we want - whilst walking down the street, a confession of Him as your Lord. I would not stop you in any gospel activity, but confessing Him as your Lord is not pushing a tract into everybody’s hand, but in the secret of your soul, He is your Lord. Would not He save you from all the dangers and powers of evil in this world? You come under Him as Lord, and He becomes your Saviour, your confession is made unto salvation. I would not, of course, confine the word “salvation”. In the confession of Jesus as Lord, we are in present salvation - saved from all the horrid principles around “ the mighty waves of the sea”, v 4
That is the throne. Do not lose the sense in your soul that but for the power of that throne you would be swept away and overwhelmed. We are in touch with a throne which cannot be moved - we have received a kingdom which cannot be moved, and although I am a poor thing, if I am in the confession of Jesus as Lord, He preserves me; all the power of that throne is for me - it is established in the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God.
There are the dark tidal-waves of rationalism, superstition and spiritualism rolling over this country, and I say, ‘O Lord, I confess Thee to be Lord’, and I am in a safe spot. He is mightier than the “waves of the sea”. “His testimonies are very sure”, and His testimony is to confess Jesus as your Lord and you come under Him for salvation.
Another thing. It is a throne of grace - “So might grace reign through righteousness”, Rom 5: 21. The God of grace has come into my life and I have come under the Lord Jesus Christ - that is the kingdom of God. Do not forget that it is a throne of grace. Grace that can meet you in an hour of need. If you come under the blessed influence of the grace of God, you will not be pretentious; there will be a mark of subduedness about you. What I feel is that these things may be laid hold of by the mind, but I beg you to go to God that you might come under the moral influence of them in your soul. I will tell you what grace does. It breaks a man up; it leads also to this, ‘I cannot have any secrets’. I am become an upright man, nothing is kept back. If our souls were more under the influence of grace, we would be more helpful to each other. Grace makes you hard upon yourself, and very tender with other people. There would be a great deal of private restoration if we knew what it was to be under the influence of the grace of God. The throne is a throne of grace, and what is the result of it all? We are in perfect peace in the midst of all opposite elements.
You need to be under the influence of the throne in your practical, everyday life. It has a great moral bearing on your outside life, your business and your home life.
The Lord loves you, and He wants you to know something about these things, and if you look to Him, He will help you. It is a blessed thing to be in the consciousness that you are in touch with Him and that He is your present Saviour, and I pray you may know it day by day for His name’s sake.
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