CHRIST'S NAME IN THE PSALMS
CHRIST’S NAME IN THE PSALMS
What we find in the earlier psalms is the setting forth of Christ’s name. A ‘name’ in Scripture indicates that which God sees fit to set forth in a person, and this holds good in Christ as become Man. In Psalm 2 and Psalm 8 we get the full glory of Christ’s name set forth. In the former we have ‘King of Israel’ and ‘Son of God’, and in the latter the “Son of man”. When He became Man He inherited these names; Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 1:4,5. Neither one nor the other gives exactly the truth of His Person, but they set forth His glory as Man. Thus the three titles which constitute His full glory as Man are Son of God, Son of David, and Son of man.
It is interesting to notice how in John 1 Nathanael spiritually discerned the Lord, and saw Psalm 2 fulfilled in Him, and the Lord in His answer to him does not speak of judgment, but of a vast system of blessing, which God would establish under the Son of man: “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man”, John 1:51. The Lord, as it were, completes the circle of His glory; Nathanael had confessed Him as the Man of the second Psalm, and the Lord answers him by referring to the eighth Psalm.
Then again, further on in the gospel you get the same three titles of Christ brought together, and witness borne to each (chapters 11 and 12). The Lord was on the eve of His sufferings and death, and in view of these, God in His wisdom allowed that witness should be borne to His full glory. In the resurrection of Lazarus, He is witnessed to as the Son of God; then in the ovation on His entering into Jerusalem, there is witness to His glory as Son of David, “Behold, thy King cometh” (John 12:15) unto thee; and finally, when the [p. 195] Greeks desired to see Jesus, He answered, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified”, John 12:23.
The thought specially connected with Him as King of Israel is, that He will sit on the throne of David to rule His people, and to bring in the “sure mercies of David”, Acts 13:34; He will establish the kingdom in connection with Israel; “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion”, Psalm 2:6.
As Son of God He has the power of life and judgment in His hand; He has the keys of hell and of death. The Lord presents Himself thus at the close of christianity (Revelation 2) as judging the church and the nations. “These things saith the Son of God”, etc. (Revelation 2:18). He says in the address to Thyatira, of the woman Jezebel, “I will kill her children with death”, and in the promise to the overcomer, He speaks of ruling over the nations.
I come now to the thought connected with Him as Son of man, which we get in Psalm 8, and likewise in several passages in the New Testament. In the psalm we do not get the expanse given to the expressions used that we do in the New Testament, and for this reason, that in the Psalms the thought does not go generally beyond the earth.
There is a great deal involved in the expression, “Hath put all things under his feet” (Hebrews 2:8), which we could not have gathered from the psalm itself. Mark, too, that it is of the Son of man, not of man, that it is said “crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2:9. God was going to destroy the whole power of the enemy. Man had fallen at the outset by the temptation of the serpent, and the divine answer to all the evil wrought is in what He effects through the Son of man. “By man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead”, 1 Corinthians 15:21. All was lost in man, but all is regained in the Son of man, the seed of the woman; and a great deal is gained that never was lost. “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”, John 13:31. An entirely [p. 196] new place is opened up in connection with the Son of man — the One crowned with glory and honour — under whose feet all things are put. It is in this way that God gives the answer to all that has been wrought by the enemy.
In the New Testament the truth as to the Son of man is amplified. Psalm 8 is referred to in three different passages, Hebrews 2, Ephesians 1 and 1 Corinthians 15. There are two main points in Hebrews 2 which have reference to Psalm 8: (1) The Son of man “made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9), and (2) His being “crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2:9. We read, “Unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak”, Hebrews 2:5. The “world to come” is a very important truth in connection with the Son of man. We find in chapter 11 the various traits of faith, and the proper answer to all appears to me to be in the world to come. From the time that sin came in God gave light in measure to one and to another regarding the principles of the world to come. In Abel the first feature of the world to come is set forth. It is not a world of innocence, but of acceptance on the ground of sacrifice. In Enoch we get a hint of the church, death overcome by translation; and Noah is the heir of righteousness. One breath of sin having come into this world, it was spoilt for God, and from that time forward God had before Him the world to come. In Hebrews the world to come is put under the Son of man, in contrast to the dispensation of law under angels; and it is established on the ground of redemption, on the fact that God has been glorified in the death and resurrection of Christ. Death has been set aside to the glory of God, and man is accepted on the ground of sacrifice. The basis of the world to come is death annulled and life brought in.
When the Lord began to speak of His sufferings to His disciples, He spoke of Himself as Son of man.
[p. 197] It is for the suffering of death that He was made a little lower than the angels, that He by the grace of God should taste death for everything.
Then the other thought is, “We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2:9. We do not yet see all things put under Him. If we viewed things as God sees them, we should see all things are put under His feet, but the standpoint in Hebrews is our side.
“We see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2:9. We have the light of the glory of the Lord revealed to us now by the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. The world to come down here on earth will be a wonderful time. All the skill of man cannot avert death, or materially prolong life. Men may amass fortunes, but death comes in, and they have to leave all behind. What a day it will be when death is set aside! Grace, not law, will be the ruling principle of the world to come.
In Ephesians 1:22 the expression “And hath put all things under his feet” is again quoted. Then the power of God which has been displayed in raising Christ from the dead is the power of which He as Man is the vessel, and hence, from the standpoint of God’s purpose, we do see all things put under Him. As Man at the right hand of God, He is vested with power to give effect to the will of God. He is the vessel of God’s power. The church is the fulness of Christ, that is to say, it is the vessel suited for the display of all that is of Him. The ‘body’ is the vessel in which He will be perfectly set forth, and I venture to say, too, in which He will show forth His power. Now we are called to be “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10), and so enabled to encounter and withstand the power of evil — the full force of Satan. Man fell at the first blush of temptation, but the church is the vessel of Christ’s power, to stand against the force of the enemy.
[p. 198] I have one more thought to add in connection with the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, He hath put all things under His feet. I ask you, What is the greatest victor here? Death. Well, death is to be put under the feet of the Son of man. “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”, 1 Corinthians 15:25,26. Death has swallowed up all, but in the kingdom it will be swallowed up in victory, and finally it will be destroyed by every one being taken out of it. In the kingdom there will be the repression of evil, but the kingdom eventually will be given up for the complete and eternal supremacy of God. Good and evil are entangled here, but God will make good find its place with Himself, and evil with its source.
In conclusion I add that in this passage (1 Corinthians 15) you get the complete identification of the Son of man with the Son. (See verse 28.) “When all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject”, etc. Why? “That God may be all in all”. In becoming Man, He accepted eternally the place of subjection. “He emptied himself”, Philippians 2:7. It is a wonderful expression! He takes a place lower than that of God (although personally He maintained the place in which He ever was in the unity of the Godhead), in order that the church should have part with Him for ever. The Son Himself will be subject, that God may be all in all, 1 Corinthians 15:28. It is a wonderful field of view opened up to us. It is God’s great answer to what was brought in by the failure of the first man. The great end and purpose of the mediatorial kingdom is that God may be all in all, not God reigning, but pervading all.