READING ON PSALM 40
At Quemerford
W.J. Psalms 40 and 41 should be read together: it is the conclusion of the first book. The title of the first Book of Psalms is, ‘I have found a man to my pleasure’; and in that One He will bless us. God finds the Man after His own heart, who will fulfil all His will, and in Him we are blessed. In reading this psalm you should begin at verse 5, because it is a conclusion arrived at. It is a psalm of the deepest interest.
In the first Book of Psalms you get Satan's man. We learn by contrasts. In Psalm 10 you get the moral features of Satan's man, but he is only introduced to make way for God's Man, who comes out in Psalm 16. The wicked one of whom the apostle speaks in Thessalonians is there. Everything comes out in the Psalms.
Then God describes His Man. In Psalm 15 He is described, but in Psalm 16 He is found - the One who is after His own heart, and who shall fulfil all His will. But this psalm involves resurrection. He could not be a Head except in resurrection. In His person it was all there, but it was not available for us save by death and resurrection. There is the horrible pit and the miry clay, and then His feet are set on a rock: that is resurrection.
The strict application of the Psalms is to Israel, but the principles apply to us. The remnant learn that if Messiah comes to them, it is that they might be identified with Him. The principle of double identification comes out all through scripture. Hebrews establishes the same principle: He comes to our side, that we may go to His side. It is a great thing for our souls to get hold of by the Spirit the thought of double identification. If His feet go where my feet go, my feet must go where His feet go.
That is the key to the understanding of this psalm. Take Hebrews 2: 11: “the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one”. That is identification; we go to His side. Then we get, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same”, v 14.
J.W.B. If God is to bless us He must bring us into suitability to Himself.
W.J. What God has established in Christ is the security and ground of our blessing. That is the point of this psalm. Verse 5 starts this psalm. “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward”. It refers to Israel, but has its application to us. The thoughts of God could not be expressed in type. Here in this psalm we get the One who takes everything - out of type. “Thy thoughts which are to us-ward”. The happiness of the creature is to give the Creator His pleasure. “For thy pleasure they are and were created”, Rev 4: 11.
J.W.B. That is we are to be for God's glory and man has come short of that.
W.J. Yes. The principles are the same in their application to us as to Israel. “Bringing many sons unto glory” is God's thought to us-ward. Then verse 5 of Psalm 40 corresponds to Hebrews 2: 10. It has been said that we have the universe of bliss suggested here in connection with one Man; but if you can get one Man, then you can get myriads of men.
J.W.B. What is a universe of bliss?
W.J. It is a universe in which God is revealed and perfectly responded to. God all in revelation, and in all in response by the power of the Spirit. The revelation and the response come out in the same Person. It is brought out in one Man, and in that way the universe of bliss is suggested here.
J.W.B. There will be a scene filled with the blessing of God.
W.J. You get in Psalm 40 the Man in whom all is established, and in Psalm 41 you are told to consider Him.
J.W.B. Why is He called the poor Man?
W.J. We like a man who can assert himself, and he has wealth in the way of resource. The poor man is the opposite to a man who asserts himself. No man will praise a man when he does well for God. Men will praise you when you do well for yourself.
J.W.B. The poor man is akin to the meek man.
W.J. Yes. When we get God's Man, we get Satan's man in juxtaposition. Read this psalm and John 13. You get God's poor Man, and then Judas. Psalm 109 is the same, God's poor Man, and Judas, Satan's man. Then God says to the poor Man, “Sit thou at my right hand”, Ps 110: 1. He is put at the right hand. Psalm 110 is the answer to Psalm 109. When Judas goes out then the Lord says, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”, John 13: 31. We ought to love the Lord for that. That is God's poor Man, who glorified God at infinite cost to Himself. God's poor Man is glorified by God. The life we have from Christ in its principle is a God glorifying one, and therefore the moral sequence is that we must be glorified: it must be glorified by God. The sequence of things is very remarkable. We have had the moral sequence of things brought out the last few years; that is the moral necessity of things. In Psalm 40 it is the Head presented, and in Psalm 41 the blessedness which belongs to the Man who considers Him. If I am finding the will of God down here then I am happy, but if not, then I am not happy. Verse 12 of Psalm 41 is the key to the book. “Thou ... settest me before thy face for ever”. Therefore it ends with a doxology.
G.O. He had found His Man.
W.J. We have found our Head.
J.W.B. It is like “he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever”, 1 John 2: 17.
G.O. It is the moral necessity.
W.J. If our souls were on these lines we should learn things morally. Mr Bellett said, You learn truth morally in the Psalms; you may learn it doctrinally in other portions of scripture. Verse 8 (Ps 40) is the key and all the rest is the result. If God’s law is within His heart, He must do things rightly. Types and sacrifices could not set forth God. Then He comes, and He says, “Lo, I come ... I delight to do thy will, O my God”. He takes them out of type, and God's thoughts are set forth in Him.
G.O. Israel was only a type of man.
W.J. The first action of the life of Christ in you is according to verse 8; you love God. We constantly think the action of life is in conduct, doing things rightly. The first great thing is to have life expressed Godward. We are so trained up in legality, and we get occupied with proprieties; but the first great action of life is Godward. The source of life is the object of life. We have not received life from Christ to be occupied with life in ourselves, but we have received life from Christ to be occupied with life in Him. Life is Godward: “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”, Rom 8: 2. What is that? To love God; and what is the law of sin and death? To love myself. The expression and action of life is very beautiful. Christianity is a living spring of life Godward, and righteousness is the outcome. Then you get proprieties.
J.W.B. That is abiding in Him.
W.J. Yes, it is. Look at the three sentences, “he was manifested to take away our sins”; secondly, “in him is no sin”, and thirdly, “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not”, 1 John 3: 5. Put these three together.
J.W.B. What is abiding in Him? What is that to you?
W.J. It is, I am kept under His influence. It is all a question of affection. A flower abides in the sunlight, and therefore it reflects the light of the sun; the sun produces the colour. “They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads”, Rev 22: 4. When you see His face then His character will be reflected.
Ques. Has verse 12 reference to the cross?
W.J. We do not get the cross here. It is the cry of the victim before the altar, as Psalm 22 is the cry of the victim on the altar.
P.A.E.S. That can be present - we see His face.
W.J. Oh, yes; we behold His glory and reflect it. Psalm 112 is “His name shall be in their foreheads”; Psalm 111 is “they shall see his face”. His beauty is seen, and then the result is the beauty is reflected. Work that out, and think of it. I like suggestions. It is beautiful to see in the Person of the Lord that He perfectly revealed God, and as Man responded.
G.O. None but He could do it.
W.J. It was important what came out as to the Headship and Lordship. He was morally qualified for these official glories, but what gives strength to all is that He was the Son of God. Christ has qualified Himself for Headship and Lordship. It has been pointed out that Lordship and Headship come out in Acts 9, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”, v 6 Here I am, Lord. But in Acts 10 Peter had to learn that Headship involves “whosoever”. Peter went to college to be stretched out to the width of the sheet; he was too Calvinistic. Our tendency is to be unbalanced. The purposes of God are most blessed; but when you come to Headship, it contemplates everybody. Across the great sheet you get whosoever written. It is one of the most instructive chapters a preacher can read.
P.A.E.S. How far do we carry the thought of double identification?
W.J. Double identification is that He came to our side so that we might go to His side. The “horrible pit” is our distance, Christ has gone into it; “miry clay” is our state. He identified Himself with us where we were, and therefore we are to be identified with Him as the result in the highest glory. In the sacrifices you get God beginning with the burnt offering, and ending with the sin offering. In the latter, the offering is identified with the offerer; the fire of that goes out; in the former, the offerer is identified with the offering, and the fire never goes out. Therefore you can never weaken your acceptance. Then I see in this psalm the three things, faith, love and hope. You get the same features spoken of the Thessalonians, “work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope”, 1 Thess 1: 3.
The Head was reflected. In the Psalm it is all in Christ. See the simplicity of Christianity. These Thessalonians were set up in the true relationships, “in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ”, 1 Thess 1: 1. Look at the simplicity of it! People only converted three months, and yet see their state; there was moral space for God. It was the universe of bliss commenced for God. The disciples in the end of the gospels were looking for the public display of what they were in morally.
P.A.E.S. It is very wonderful.
W.J. We come under the impression of ministry; you like it because you have a life which answers to it, it stirs desires; but when you go away, what are you going to do? We may refuse the light. But am I going to be exercised by it?
G.O. If you are exercised about it, you will pray.
W.J. I know what it is to be fascinated by the truth, enjoying it as light, and yet not knowing the reality of it. It is the call of the Lord at the moment; the light has been given; but we have not been exercised by it; we have not answered to it.
“He inclined unto me, and heard my cry”. He will answer me not according to my cry, but according to the cry of Christ. In Psalm 22: 24 he says, “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard”. I am speaking of identification. The remnant will measure everything by Christ, and we are put on the same line.
J.W.B. Where was the identification?
W.J. If I was down in the depths; He went there. He was identified with the depths where we were. So God will answer us according to the cry of Christ.
It is interesting to notice that the second Book of Psalms begins with the falling barometer. Then in Psalm 45 you get the Head, “Thou art fairer than the children of men”, v 2. So Christ is the secret of the rising barometer. We shall embrace our Head. He is all I want to me. Romans 7 is a great study - a man wanting to do a thing, and he cannot do it. Then you must find your Husband, and you must admire your Husband. We sever Romans 7 and 8 too much. We are “married to another ... that we should bring forth fruit unto God”, Rom 7: 4. I am not called upon to look upon the expression of life in me, but upon the perfect expression of the life of Christ. My Husband is my true self.
G.O. It is not I, but Christ liveth in me.
______________________
From ‘Truth for the Time’, 1903