SALVATION AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
This address and the following one were published together in an
un-dated booklet
The two psalms I have read are the first two experimental psalms, and I want to bring before you their application to us. Now the first eight Psalms are a little book of psalms by themselves. They are a synopsis of the whole book. God has been pleased to put the psalms together in a wonderful way. It took a thousand years to write the whole book. There are many writers but the Spirit of God who inspired them has also edited them. If people admire the material world, as they do, how much more should we admire scripture! Scripture is infinitely greater than any material creation. When you come to scripture you are made to feel the finger of God, and that no man has had a hand in it save as an instrument. There is divine order in it, and no confusion; but you want eyes to see it.
In reading the Psalms, I get a great sense that God alone is the Author, and man is absolutely excluded. Various writers wrote the Psalms, and sometime one psalm is written perhaps a hundred years before another; but the Spirit of God has put them together for us in such a way that we might have the deepest instruction. You may look at them dispensationally and morally. God can give dispensational and moral teaching at the same time, but, of course, the Psalms refer to Israel in their strict interpretation. I have said this just in way of preface.
Now in the first eight psalms you get a synopsis of the whole book. The first psalm is moral beauty, and then you get Christ officially in the second. After these you have five experimental psalms, Ps 3-7. You get in Psalm 3, which is the first experimental one, the subject of salvation. Then the next one is righteousness. Psalm 5 is holiness, Psalm 6 is discipline, Psalm 7 is God's vindication of the righteous, and Psalm 8 is the millennium. If we were really sitting down to study the book, we could go into these things, but now I am going to give a little exhortation and comfort in the application of these psalms. The first psalm is the righteous man who is suitable to God. Verse l is separation, verse 2 is meditation and verse 3 is prosperity. If you want to be spiritually prosperous, you must be marked by separation and meditation.
You will never bear the marks of prosperity unless you are separate from what is contrary to God, and formed by what is suitable to Him. That is what we are taught in the first psalm. Then it also suggests the blessed fact that there will be a congregation of such people - Israel, of course. Israel is the centre of the whole thing. Later on in this book we find how these people are made suitable. God changes the man before He changes his circumstances. “I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them”. (Heb 10: 16) This is what God will do, and I am very glad of it. There will be a righteous congregation on this earth, and they will sit under their own vine and fig-tree.
He has a congregation of righteous people in us. It is a fine thing to get in your soul, that all that is of God abides, and what is not of God will be blown away like chaff. I think this is a very fine psalm, beloved Christians. Then in the second you get where Christ is; you get Him set on high by God. But the moral (Psalm 1) precedes the official, which is Psalm 2.
I remember writing to some one, and saying that I would like to be able to preach like some one else of whom I was speaking. The answer I got was, ‘I would rather see you godly than gifted’. We are prone to look at that which will bring us prominently before our fellows. The second psalm is the official position, and it is a fine topic, which I have recommended to young men. You get the rage and impotence of man on the one hand, and the quiet majesty of God on the other. I feel the current down here running against me, but there is the quiet majesty of God.
Believe me, that what is fatal to soul prosperity is that men have too large a place in our hearts. Man is too attractive to us, and that is why we are often spiritually benumbed. What we want to do is to get under the influence of Christ. Now in this psalm the heathen are raging, and the people imagining a vain thing. On the other hand, you get the quiet majesty of God. It is a blessed thing to get into your soul the sense of the majesty of God, that all here that is opposed to Him will go to pieces. In Acts 4 they recite this psalm, They were brought up before the council, composed of people of position in this world, but these Christians had a very lively sense, in the power of the Spirit, of their link with Christ, and it is a great thing to see that God is going to have His way.
In this psalm Christ is the anointed One; God also salutes Him as His Son. “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”. There is a key to the Gospel of Matthew in that verse. God salutes Him. I love to think of the salutation of God in connection with the opposition of man. The Christ of God is hated in this world. We must have the Christ of scripture, and not the Christ of people's imaginations.
Let me pause for a moment and ask you, are you sensible of the grace of God that has invited you, and that you have responded to that invitation? “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry”. It closes with that beautiful intimation; God is so evangelical, He delights in grace and mercy. God invites us to share His pleasure in His Son. My heart is deeply grateful that I have been brought in accord with the heart of God. We should be increasingly sensible of the grace of God, that our hearts have been put in accord with God's, in appreciation of His Son; we have kissed Him. That is just a little sketch of the two psalms.
Now you come to an experimental psalm, a different one altogether. It is the first experimental psalm in the book. It is wonderful to see that the first experimental portion of this book should teach us the lesson of salvation. It was written when David was suffering under the governmental hand of God. He was suffering under the hand of God for his sins. I do not know if you have ever known what it is to be in that position. If so, and you have judged the state that led to it, how good to know that you can find refuge in that blessed God. It is a very sweet thing if you think of this psalm as true of the remnant in the future.
The voices are clamouring, “There is no help for him in God”. “Help” should be translated “salvation” - it is the same word in the Hebrew. Now what is to be done? He says in the midst of it all, “thou, O Lord, art a shield for me”. He is under pressure, but he looks up to God, and he cries with his voice. Mark: it is with his voice, not with words. If you pray to God at a time when your soul is under pressure, it takes the form of unexpressed breathings rather than audible words. Do you know what it is to be absolutely shut up to God? He cries with his voice, and is heard out of His holy hill. He is heard from the previous psalm, where Christ is. Now, beloved friends, that is a very precious thing. He is heard from that spot where Christ is, the hill of Zion, which is a hill of grace. Salvation is known there. Stephen is a beautiful example of it. He is an example in Christianity of the truth of this psalm. Look at him, he looks stedfastly up into heaven. He says, ‘I see the glory of God and Jesus’. In that courthouse there was not one friendly face. He was absolutely alone, and every voice said, “There is no help for him in God”. In spite of this, he gazes steadfastly up into heaven. He was sustained from heaven, and he was heard. Salvation comes from heaven.
The Psalmist says, “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me”. It is our privilege to have the peace of that place where Christ is, in our hearts. There was not a flutter in the presence of God, and there was not a flutter in Stephen's heart; that is salvation. I am an object of interest to Christ where He is, as I stand for Him where He was. I am no match for the storm, but I have a power that will enable me to stand.
Now take that verse, “if thou shalt confess … Jesus as Lord” (Rom 10: 9): God has made Him both Lord and Christ. He is Lord to subdue me and to bless me. If I think of lordship, I think of His subduing power and of administration. Now a Christian is one who confesses Jesus as Lord. That is continuously characteristic of a Christian. It is not the thought of a Christian confessing to other people, though that is in it. What you want to do is to confess to Him. If you make the confession to Him, you make the confession to other people as well. You confess Jesus to be your Lord. It was Jesus who loved you and died for you. He is Lord and Christ. I will speak of Him in the latter aspect directly.
Now, beloved friends, I want to speak to you in a practical way. Do you cultivate the habit of calling on Jesus as your Lord? You have come under His control. In Acts 9, that great lordship chapter, Saul says, “Who art thou, Lord?” in reply to the Lord saying, “Why persecutest thou me?” Lower down in the chapter the Lord’s voice is again heard. This time it is to Ananias; He tells him to seek out Saul. Ananias is near the Lord, and therefore knows when he is called. The Spirit is here, but what for? No man can confess Jesus as Lord but by the Spirit. He is Lord to you, you are under His control, but you must keep up the connection. Permit an illustration. Look at the electric tram car, and notice the little copper wheel which runs along under the wire. What happens if the little copper wheel slips off? Both the light and power go out because the connection is lost. It is a great thing to keep up the connection. There is light and power in the confession of Jesus as Lord. We have got the power here, but that power is known in the confession of Jesus as Lord. What you want to do is to keep the little copper wheel under the wire, and then you can say, “The Lord is my light and my salvation”. Therefore salvation is the great key to this psalm. Now one more remark in connection with this word “salvation”.
It is a very interesting thing to see that when you get a thing mentioned for the first time in scripture you get a very good idea of it. The first time this subject is mentioned is in Genesis 49, and it comes out there in connection with Jacob’s blessing of the twelve tribes. You get God’s history of His earthly people from start to finish in that chapter. When Jacob comes to Dan, which is Antichrist, he says, “Dan shall be a serpent by the way”, v 17. The moment he touches that terrible Satanic power, of which the Psalms so largely speak, he says, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord”. What comes next? “Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last”. Why is this? Because salvation is there. There is a turning-point where he says, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord”. That is salvation from the Satanic influences here. He cries out in the spirit of the remnant. Jacob looks to the top. Well, it is very sweet to me that salvation is for us. I thought to have taken it up more in detail, but time will not permit. “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, thy blessing is upon thy people”.
Now listen to this, “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God”, 2 Thess 3: 5. I cannot direct my heart into the love of God, but if I ask Him to do it He will. That is salvation for you. It works out in this way: we come into living contact with the Lord. If you come to a meeting like this, it is no good unless you look to the Lord. We like to go to meetings and hear the truth, but what we want is to be brought into living contact with the Lord. There is a great deal we listen to, and find pleasure in listening to it, but unless we come under His influence it is of no use to us. Therefore we must be under the influence of the Lord and come into contact with Him. He can direct our hearts into the love of God.
What should I do in the midst of the turmoil here? Everything around speaks of man's will working on all sides. Beloved friends, there is no wreckage at the top. If the Lord is pleased to remove His gifts, as He often is, what are you going to do? Where can we look but to the Lord? He has not failed us. All we need to do is to keep in touch with Him and we shall get all our need met on the one hand, and shall recognise what He raises up on the other. Let us look up to the Lord and keep close to Him, and we shall see what He will do. He will not distinguish men in the flesh, but rather extinguish them. “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes” (John 6: 9); see what the Lord can do with the lad. He will not give His glory to another. Our poor hearts often lean on props; we must value His gifts, but still we must not lean on any prop, but on the Lord. He will never leave us. His hands have never gone down, like Moses’. His heart is never wearied, as we often sing, ‘Thou weariest not, most blessed Lord, though we may weary grow’. Let us take courage and remember that salvation is of the Lord.
Now in Psalm 4 we get the way of righteousness, and the two compensations found in that way. Let me tell you that the way of righteousness can only be known as we abide in the righteous One. We take character from Him. We must come under His blessed influence, otherwise we shall not go His way. I will repeat a little parable I heard lately to illustrate this. There is no effort in Christianity, but there is energy, and I would distinguish between effort and energy. I tried to be like Christ, and it was weary work. Trying made me feel that I would rather die than live. Now I will come to my parable, it is this. The sea cried and said, ‘Oh that I could reach to the heavens’. She said, ‘O wind, help me’. So the wind said, ‘I will help you’, and it blew till the sea rose higher, and went up into the air, and then down it came again. The sea fell back and said, ‘I shall never reach it’. Just at this moment the sun shone out and said, ‘Lie still, and I will draw you up. I will do it all for you if you will keep under my influence’. This illustrates my point. You receive the Spirit from Christ in order that you may abide in Him.
Now I am going to show you what it is to be in the way of righteousness, and secondly, the two compensations found in that way. In Psalm 4 it says: “Hear me when I call ... thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress” [or pressure]. The first verse stands by itself. If we want to be enlarged, the Lord does it by putting us under pressure. That is God's way of doing it. Believe me, if a man is going to be in the good of the thing, he has got to go through it. Do not shrink away from the thought of being put under pressure. The pressure will be different to you and to me. God knows what each one will feel. You must not look at His ways with others to understand His ways with you. Thou has enlarged me under distress or pressure - the word really means pressure.
Now let me show you the way of righteousness for the Christian. We want to see the moral force of it; it is not paying twenty shillings in the pound. If you do that, everybody will say, ‘Well done’. No Christian should do less than that, for it is a terrible thing to get into debt. But, beloved friends, that is only the edge of Christian righteousness.
I may be doing the thing which every one in this town would commend; and yet it would be positively unrighteous before God. The Christian's righteousness is to be consistent with what God has made him. If God has been gracious to me, and I am not a gracious man, I am unrighteous. If He has shewn mercy to me, I must be merciful. If I seek my own glory, I am unrighteous. I will give you a verse that proves that, “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him”, (John 7: 18.
May the Lord give us a tender conscience before Him as to this, for the moment you have a thought in your heart of self-exaltation, you are unrighteous to Him. You exalt yourself at the expense of Christ, and that is moral degradation. You say, ‘Lord, unless Thou dost help me, I cannot preach to-night’. You tell the Lord that you are number five, that is the number of weakness, and then He will put number seven to you and make you strong. Then you have been supported, and He has done it all, then you will begin to think ‘What a fine fellow I am!’ You do not say it, but it works in your heart. Christianity touches the inward springs. Every bit of self-exaltation is primitive unrighteousness to Christ. Righteousness is to seek the glory of Him who sent Him. I believe in Christ-consciousness. When you are Christconscious, you will abandon yourself.
Now the first compensation in the way of righteousness is that your heart is assured before Him, because you have an uncondemning conscience, and therefore like the Psalmist you know your prayer is heard. The second is that you are in the light of His countenance, Ps 4: 6. I am under righteous obligation to you; it works out in many ways.
When a man once came to me to collect the taxes, I said to him, ‘You are a minister of God’. You are to recognise what God has instituted. Righteousness is to answer to the love of God, in showing it to one another. “O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?” What is the answer to that? It is this, “But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him”. Now what is the next compensation? Turn to verse 6, “Who will show us any good?” Every unconverted man and every carnally-minded Christian is asking that. Where is good to be found? The One who sought the glory of Him who sent Him can give it to you. It is found in being in the light of His countenance: “Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us”. Do you think corn and wine will make you happy? No, corn and wine will not make you happy, but the light of His countenance will. And you get that in the way of righteousness. You have the sense of His approval, and you are in the sunshine of His favour. This is a Neginoth psalm, that is, a stringed instrument psalm. I like stringed instrument music. With the wind instruments there is effort, that is why it represents the prayer meeting, we bring our needs and wants to God. The music from a stringed instrument is the sweetest; when you play on that, you are not conscious of wanting anything; you have nothing to pray for, but only to praise. The proposal in verse 6 is that God will put His love into my heart by the Spirit, that I shall not want anything I have not got. “I will both lay me down in peace”, &c. That is the rest of satisfaction, which is known in the light of His countenance. “I laid me down and slept” (Ps 3: 5), that is the rest connected with trouble. Men said to the Lord when He was here, that He had nothing to show, but He had. He had the sense of God's approval, and gladness in His heart. When we are there, we forget ourselves.
I advise you to read the Book of Habakkuk; you will see it is different from all the other prophets. It has no date, and in that respect it is like the Psalms. In this book the prophet begins with weeping, and ends with singing. He feels the state of ruin which surrounds him; how could it be possible for any one walking with God not to feel the ruin of things here? Habakkuk says, ‘What shall I do?’ Then the Lord takes him up into the tower, and shows him Christ. Now his heart begins to rejoice. Later on, the weeper becomes a preacher, and his text is, “the just shall live by faith”. Then he prays, and says, “O Lord, revive thy work”.
It will make you cry out, “O Lord, revive thy work”, when you see that the testimony of the Lord will not fail. Habakkuk plays the sweetest music at the end. If you begin with weeping, you will end with singing. You could not sing if you thought of the desolation here, but the moment you get your eye on Christ you can sing. The beloved apostle played the stringed instrument in the gaol at Philippi. He said, “Rejoice in the Lord alway”, &c, Phil 4: 4. He said, ‘I cannot preach Christ, but I can enjoy him’.
Sometimes we have to be taken aside because we are too big and too busy to be loved. If the jailor was present when that letter was read to the Philippians, I can imagine him saying to his wife, ‘Paul is the same man as when he was playing on the stringed instrument in the prison, years ago’. It is the continuity of the man which I so like. What made him sing praises to God? It was because he was in the way of righteousness, in the way of seeking the Lord's glory. Now I trust you will learn some little lessons by these remarks, though I feel the fragmentary way in which I have put it.
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