THE GOSPEL IN THE PSALMS

It is no uncommon thing, especially in country districts, to see some aged inmate of a cottage sitting with the Bible opened at the Psalms. Often has the writer's heart been cheered by such a sight. Poring over the sacred page the aged reader has doubtless found there what could be found nowhere else. Yet what ignorance, alas! there often is even with such, touching the gospel of the grace of God, which in its fulness and blessedness is unfolded in the New Testament.

Now, the gospel is not the subject of the Psalms. Still, in the Psalms we do find what constitutes the gospel; that is, we find Christ - “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1: 11) ; and it is with the thought of presenting Christ that we desire to take up certain Psalms in a gospel way.

Let us suppose the reader to open the Book of Psalms for the first time. He shall begin with Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man”. How sweetly the first word falls on the ear - “Blessed”! It is what God pronounces him to be who answers to the description given in this psalm. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night”. What a beautiful life this is both in its negative and its positive side! My reader, can you claim blessing from God on the ground of answering to the description here? Have you never walked “in the counsel of the ungodly”? Have you never stood “in the way of sinners”? Have you never sat “in the seat of the scornful”? Have you delighted in the law of the Lord, and in His law meditated day and night? Let such questions be answered by you in the presence of God. No, your life and mine have been far otherwise. One Man, and one alone, could claim blessing from God on the ground of what He was. It is Jesus who fully answers to the picture - that unique and beautiful Man over whom God could open the heavens and say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”, Matt 3: 17. Surely He was that “tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper”. It is Jesus, who was all that a man should be. His beautiful life should convince us of sin.

We have all, like lost sheep, gone astray - He never; and He could perfectly say, “By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer”. We have found pleasure in doing our own will; He could say, “I do always those things that please him”, John 8: 29.

But let us look now at Psalm 14: 2: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God”. What did He see? “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one”. How emphatic and sweeping is this verse - “all”, “altogether”, “none”. No exception among all the children of men. Bow thine heart here and say, ‘O God, I own that Thou hast in this scripture given me my moral photograph’. This is repentance. God would convince thee of sin, in order that thou mayest take the place of selfjudgment, and we know that He will never condemn those who condemn themselves. Psalm 1 then is Jesus, not I; Psalm 14 is I, not Jesus.

Now we come to Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent”. Well do we know Who it is that was thus abandoned of God. “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt 27: 45, 46. The forsaken Man of Psalm 22 is Jesus the Son of God; the blessed, perfect Man of Psalm 1. Dear reader, ponder these words: “why”, “thou”, “forsaken”, “me”. And when no answer came, then from out of that awful solitude, and from that heart - that broken heart which was a shrine for God's glory - came the answer which vindicated God in that forsaking: “But thou art holy”. In 2 Corinthians 5: 21 we read: “It” or “he hath made him to be sin for us”. “made him … sin”, is the answer to “forsaken me”. A holy God forsakes Him because He was made sin. But this same scripture testifies, “who knew no sin”, for He was the perfect Man of Psalm 1. But here in Psalm 22 He, blessed be His name, takes the place of the “filthy” men of Psalm 14. None may know what it cost Him, and none can fathom that ocean of sorrow. There are other sorrows in this wonderful psalm - sorrows resulting from man’s hatred; for poor, wretched man is there. “For dogs have compassed Me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet”. They can even gamble for His garments, v 18. But the sorrows of verses 1, 2 are atoning sorrows - it was what He endured at the hand of God as in Isaiah 53: 10, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put Him to grief”. Oh, wondrous love to give His Son! oh, infinite holiness that put Him to grief when made sin! Can we wonder at the streams of blessing flowing out from verse 22 right on to millennial scenes to all who trust Him? The bitter ‘night of weeping’ is over in verse 21, inasmuch as He was heard and taken from the lowest point of death - “the horns of the unicorns” - after having met all the righteous claims of God, and Satan's power. (Hebrews 2: 14, 15) All - all - was met there; and now joy, eternal joy, comes in the morning. It is the resurrection morning. All our blessings are secured in resurrection - “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God”, John 20: 17.

How beautifully the psalm ends. Mark the closing sentence, “he hath done this”. Let your eye rest upon it - “he hath done this”. Now put believingly two other words - “for me”, write your name in full at the bottom of that psalm -

For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died,

And I have died with Thee;

Thou’rt ris’n! my bands are all untied;

And now Thou liv’st in me.

The Father's face in radiant grace

Shines now in light on me.

Yes, you say, ‘for me’ - for the “me” of Psalm 14.

Now turn to Psalm 32. Again are we greeted by that precious word “Blessed”. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile”. Now this is true of thee, dear reader, if thou hast written thy name at the foot of Psalm 32. Thou art without doubt the blessed man of Psalm 32. God accounts thee righteous - the God “that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”, Rom 4: 24, 25. It is not what we think, feel, or realise; but it is what God says in His word. (Acts 13: 38, 39; Eph 1: 7; Col 1: 14) So the sinless man of Psalm 1 dies in Psalm 22 for the sinful men of Psalm 14 in order that the sinful men of Psalm 14 may be in the blessing of the man of Psalm 32.

It is interesting to note also that this is the first “Maschil” Psalm. “Maschil” means ‘giving instruction’. It is the first instruction God gives to men. May you, my reader, be thus instructed and blessed.

Another word. The man who is thus blessed and instructed can now go back to Psalm 1, and seek to walk in the footsteps of this blessed One. He hath left us an example, that we should walk in His steps, 1 Peter 2: 21. Who are the people of whom this is said? In chapter 1: 9 we are told they had already received “the end of your faith”, the salvation of their souls. And again in chapter 2: 24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness”. It is because they were forgiven, justified, saved, that thus they were exhorted. So in 1 John 2: 6, “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked”. But note a little lower down, in verse 12, he says, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake”. They were in the blessing of Psalm 32. We must know Him as Saviour before we can have Him as an example. We must be instructed and blessed before we can be exhorted to walk in His footsteps. May it be our joy and blessing thus to walk.

‘Till travelling days are done.’

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From ‘The Simple Testimony’, 1909