ENTERING THE HOLIEST
[p. 107] ENTERING THE HOLIEST
Psalm 72: 20; Psalm 73: 1 - 28
In what I have to say at this time, David will be prominent. He is mentioned in the verse read in Psalm 72: “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended”. Were they all written down we would have had a large book of prayer. No doubt allusion is made in this verse to the fact that he was characterised by prayer. Why should his prayers be ended? We have to enquire into this matter. David is clearly honoured by the Spirit of God calling attention to his prayers; as indeed all who pray characteristically are honoured. Solomon’s prayer, recorded in 1 Kings 8, is the longest in Scripture, and God said to him, “I have heard thy prayer;” not only did God hear it, but as it was finished, He signalised it by filling with glory the house that Solomon had built. God so valued that prayer.
I mention these facts for our encouragement, that we may be marked by prayer. The Lord, the true Solomon and the true David, speaking to men said that “they should always pray and not faint”. He is Himself seen praying, as you will remember, some ten times in Luke, mentioned there, no doubt, because priesthood is in mind. Priests are marked by prayer; we are a holy priesthood and should be marked by prayer. God honours us as praying; even the Lord Jesus Himself, as He was praying, was acknowledged from heaven, according to Luke, as the Father’s beloved Son; and indeed it was “as he prayed”, Luke says, that He was transfigured before His disciples; God thus honours prayer. Luke further tells us that one of His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. Just after the narrative of His visit to Martha’s house, he says, “And it came to pass as he was in a certain place praying,
[p. 108] when he had ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11: 1), which He did. Doubtless He had Mary and Martha in His mind when He was praying. All these facts are most important for us at this time when prayer is so essential.
I proceed now to show by the Lord’s help, how these Psalms, 72 and 73, fit into the present moment — the former referring to David’s prayers ending, and the latter introducing his great musician and singer, Asaph. My remarks in the main will refer to these two great servants of God, having the service of God in the sanctuary in mind. Great stress has been laid upon it of recent years, and it will continue, for God is looking for the very best from His people at the present time. David and Asaph represent this; they represent in type the best that the Holy Spirit produces in the saints for God.
We have other allusions of this kind to David, not in regard to his prayers but in regard to his words. The second book of Samuel records “the last words” of David — a very formal statement (chapter 23). They allude to kingship. It is important that we should have the light of kingship at the present time. We are living in times foreseen in the book of Daniel, the time of the iron and clay, which do not mix. It is important, therefore, that we should have the light of kingship, which really hinges on sonship. The glory and lustre of royalty depend on sonship, so that Psalm 2: 6, 7 tells us of the Son and at the same time of God’s King. “I have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness”. And then to the Son it is, “Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee”. So that sonship and kingship go together. The Son is King, and hence the description that David gives us of kingship refers to Christ. David does not say that he was all that he says a king should be; he was not, nor could any mortal be all that a king should be.
David’s description is abstract, but it has a full concrete expression in Christ. He is all that could be desired in kingship. “The ruler among men shall be just, Ruling in the fear of God; And he shall be as the light of the morning, like the rising of the sun, A morning without clouds; When from the sunshine after rain, The green grass springeth from the earth” (2 Samuel 23: 3, 4). He is, in a word, a divine provision, par excellence, for man. It is what David says in his last words. If we have not David himself, we have his last words brought down to us by inspiration, and the Holy Spirit within us giving fulness to them, so that we should have kingship in our hearts and be able like the psalmist in Psalm 45: 1 to say, “My heart is welling forth with a good matter: I say what I have composed touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer”. It is a feature of moment in these modern times as they become more and more accentuated and every godly man is concerned. David’s last words are intended to have a great place in our hearts that there is such a King, not simply a desire for Him, but the very King Himself in all His infinite greatness, the King of kings, sitting at the right hand of God. David’s last words are to be honoured in our souls in the power of the Spirit, so that we might go through the maze of current political principles as they become more and more oppressive, and that we might be subject to the powers that be, whatever their character. At the same time, we should have the sense of victory in our souls in the apprehension of the King as described by David.
Another thing that comes out in David’s last words refers to young people. By the last words of David, the Levites were numbered from twenty years and upwards instead of twenty-five or thirty. In a typical sense young people are thus authorised to take part in assembly service five years earlier [p. 110] than was usual. That David should have thought of this in his last words is of great significance, especially as the statement is found in relation to the service of God. Let us read these scriptures as applying to ourselves. That is how we get the force of them. Let young people here read 1 Chronicles 23, with the thought that it is written for them, that they have a right from God to take part in the assembly at an early age. It is as if the Spirit of God was thinking of you young people, even centuries ago, so that you should be free to take part as regulated by other scriptures in the divine service, beginning at twenty years of age. You will understand it is not literal, that it is a question of spiritual stature, and that the service of God in the land — in the assembly viewed thus — is less onerous than it is in the wilderness. That is the point that David makes. Young people, as believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Thus they are qualified to have part in the assembly, “in whom ye also have trusted, ... having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquires possession” (Ephesians 1: 13, 14). Hence we are made sensible that we are the property of God. We are anointed, sealed, and have the earnest of the Spirit. These three things together make us rich in whatever part we have in the divine service. In type, all this is by the last words of David.
Now we come to his last prayer. This Psalm 72 presents Solomon to us. It is an extension of David’s last words in which he describes what a king should be. Now he is praying about him, and so the psalm begins, “O God, give the king thy judgments, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son”. The king’s son is in mind; it is as if David and Solomon sat together on the throne.
[p. 111] They did sit together on the throne, as the Lord Jesus sits on His Father’s throne. And so we are told that David made Solomon king. The chapter does not say he sat actively on the throne with his father, but he sat on it and we may be sure, graced it. He is the son, and it is as if in our psalm, David prayed for him at that time. He prayed for the king, but the king’s son is in mind throughout the psalm. David says, “He will judge thy people with righteousness, and thine afflicted with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the hills, by righteousness. He will do justice to the afflicted of the people; he will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor”.
The whole psalm is about the king. Among many other things, we are told (verses 10 - 17), “The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall render presents ... prayer shall be made for him continually; all the day shall he be blessed ... His name shall endure for ever ... all nations shall call him blessed”. You see an enlargement of David’s last words, but this is a prayer — but a prayer of certainty. I bring it into the present moment because it really refers to Christ as He is now; it is the Solomonic character of Christ in view of the millennium, and that, I believe, is why we are told that the prayers of David are ended. Everything is now secured from the standpoint of kingship and is “Yea” and “Amen” in Christ. It is as sure as the foundations of the earth that every matter referring to government is finally reached in Christ. We may have to endure much, as the next psalm, the exercise of Asaph, shows, which I hope to enlarge on a little as applicable to us; but Psalm 72 is Christ as He is above in His Solomonic character. Every divine thought as to kingship, as to rule, is there infallibly. We have nothing to ask for in that respect. There is nothing to be added to what [p. 112] is there. It is final. It is only a moment, and it will be applicable to all here below. There is nothing at all to be asked for in regard to what is of Christ above. The prayers of David are ended. I stress this because we need it. We are in troublous times, the times of the iron and the clay, particularly of the clay. It is a state of things in which there is no certainty, for iron and clay do not mix, we are told. There is no fusion. It is one or the other, but whatever prevails it will only be for a moment.
For believers, it is a question of endurance, a question of our intelligent endurance, and to know how to behave ourselves in such a state of things. In spite of the fact that it is the iron and clay, it is part of the four monarchies that God has ordained. Things are more difficult for us as we reach this point, but nevertheless God furnishes us with what is needed so that we might go through. We are to go through, and in going through to be like God in Christ. How He behaved in the presence of an unrighteous politician, and yet one called “the governor” in Matthew, the governmental gospel! Although Pilate is constantly called a governor at the end, yet he is a most unrighteous politician. He says, “I find no fault in him” and yet he hands Him over to the scourgers, and finally to those who put Him to death. Nevertheless, the Lord says to him, “Thou hadst no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above” (John 19: 11).
Pilate enquired, “Thou art the king of the Jews?” The Lord said, “Thou sayest it ... I have been born for this ... that I might bear witness to the truth” (John 18: 33 - 37). He is the true King. Every divine thought of kingship is there infallibly, and that is why we do not need to pray on that line. It is all finished. The Lord is just waiting for the Father’s moment. The Father has kept everything in His own power till the Lord Jesus takes charge [p. 113] here below. The day is appointed, but it is kept in the Father’s power and only waiting for the clock, as it were, to strike and all will be put in movement, and this wonderful kingship described by David will come into public effect. Hence, the word is, “Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord” (James 5: 7). Well now, that is Psalm 72.
Psalm 73 is by Asaph, the leading singer in David’s economy. He was a prophet, too, a most remarkable man. He wrote eleven of the psalms in this third book of Psalms, so that he is a very interesting servant, an instructed man. This first Psalm in the book, which is his, gives us an account of his experience in regard to the wicked. What is up in heaven is all certain. David’s prayers are ended, and Asaph is not praying for what David is not praying for. Everything is as clear as noon-day up there. Everything is final and just waiting for the day so that it may begin to take effect. I may say it is taking effect now in a spiritual way in ourselves as here this afternoon, with hundreds of others like us who love the Lord Jesus in His kingship and who bow to Him. The first thing a believer in Christ does normally is to confess Him — that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is His kingship. His title is Lord in the christian economy, but this is kingship. That is what is in it, so that, as I said, it is taking effect in this moral way, called the kingdom of God. But His kingship as applied in a coming day, the millennium, is what David had in mind. “All kings shall bow down before him”.
And then, as I said, Asaph presents the experience of those of us who have the Spirit down here. That is what this third book would instruct us in. In spite of the place that God has given Christ in heaven there are the wicked down here, and as soon as the Holy Spirit came down, men were [p. 114] mocking at him (Acts 2: 13). Peter tells us, “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear” (Acts 2: 33). You can understand that Asaph, had he been present, would have asked why the people on the streets of Jerusalem should be mocking at the presence of the Holy Spirit. This psalm is to teach us that the wicked are for a time allowed to continue. It is the day of grace. God is bringing out a wonderful thing in the interval between the advent of the Spirit and the time when Christ will reign. This wonderful thing is what we rightly call christianity, the kingdom of God as it is now. It has continued all these centuries, and hence the need of patience, in view of the Lord’s coming, is stressed in Scripture. These men are mocking, but Peter did not call fire to come down from heaven on them. He explained to them what the Spirit meant here below. Then he goes on to say that this same Spirit is available to them; “Repent, and be baptised each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2: 38). Then he says, “For to you is the promise and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God may call”. This has been going on for eighteen hundred years. That is God, dear brethren, His wonderful patience, His longsuffering being salvation. And He is calling upon us to be like Himself, like what He was in Jesus. The Lord said, “Thou hadst no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above” (John 19: 11). Jesus suffered from the ruling powers, and we may be called upon to suffer from them. He suffered death at the hands of Pilate, and yet recognised that Pilate had power from heaven. That is the position.
[p. 115] Well now, Asaph is in great concern about all this. He does not understand. Many of us perhaps do not, and so he says what covers the whole position. “Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are of a pure heart”. That is a very fine saying. It is a general statement; but I may say it and yet be chafing at seeing my neighbours prosper while I am not prosperous in this world’s goods. So it is that Asaph says, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped; for I was envious at the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the wicked ... . Their eyes stand out from fatness, they exceed the imaginations of their heart”. This is the way he goes on, but is all this the truth? If Asaph were at one of our Bible readings and unfolded all this to us, what would any spiritual person say? He is occupying the time fruitlessly. That is what we should have said. He is mistaken. These men are not nearly so well off as he thinks they are. But still, this is Asaph, one of the greatest servants in David’s time. Do we not well to look into this matter as to whether we are not in some little way in his state now? You take the Great War a few years back. What a terrible thing! People say, Where is God? Why are these men allowed power to commit such crimes? Well, it is a good question to face, but then Christ is on God’s throne. He is on the Father’s throne. If He were on His own throne, He would not have allowed them to go on one second. He will destroy the man of sin with the breath of His mouth. The beast and his lieutenant will be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire. Satan will be bound by one angel, and put into the abyss, when Christ takes His power. Christ is now on His Father’s throne and He tells us Himself, “Neither does the Father judge any one” (John 5: 22). So that as on His Father’s throne it is grace. Christ is the Executor of grace, that is the idea; so He gives the Spirit, as Peter says,
[p. 116] and is giving it now, forgiving people’s sins, having the gospel proclaimed from week to week, and so on. That is what Christ is doing, but the change will soon take place, and that is where Asaph missed it. David is encouraged with Christ in heaven and says, ‘I have nothing more to pray for’, but Asaph has much to pray for, he is in a turmoil. He has no peace. He is envious of the wicked, mistaken about them, talking mistakenly about them, too. That is the thing I want to urge, dear brethren, for we are living in most treacherous times and we are having to do with certain powers that are scorching us, or some of our brethren anyway. This psalm is to show us how to get on in those circumstances, and so Asaph says in verse 17: “Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I their end”.
It is all settled now. These men go on for a year, for five years, a decade, twenty-five years. Look at the prophet Daniel. You see them one after another. Take Belshazzar for instance. “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain”. That very night! That handwriting on the wall — we may look for such handwriting in relation to current history. It is sure to be there in due time. So these great monarchs of old — take Alexander himself: Daniel sees the great horn broken, and his kingship divided into four parts (Daniel 8: 8). We see Herod ordering James to be slain with the sword, and to please the Jews taking Peter too, and putting him into prison; but the angel opened the door, and Peter went out. He went to the house of Mary. Nobody touched him; the outer gate even opened of itself. What happened to Herod? He was eaten with worms. That is God, the way God deals with men of this kind. “Then understood I”, says Asaph, “their end”. You cannot imagine him writing a psalm that is worth anything in the service of God while in such a state as described in the first sixteen verses of this Psalm. He says, “Truly God is good”. You may say, that is fitting for any psalm; but, when he begins to tell us of his envy of men, prosperous in this world, and being proud and all that, there is nothing there for anyone to get good out of. But we must consider the whole psalm. It is a Psalm, it is an experience, and it is for us to look into it and see whether we do not need to judge ourselves as possessing a state similar to the early part of it, that we are envious of our neighbours, or even our brethren. God would have us delivered from this sort of thing, and Asaph would tell us that if we want to get delivered, we must go “into the sanctuaries of God”. Let each read verse 17 over and over again. Underline it, and see if you cannot realise it. The Lord says in Matthew 6: 6, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret”. That is a thing to be noted, to shut doors when needed; to keep out things that hinder you in your relations with God, and “pray to thy Father who is in secret”. Try that in regard to any matter at all that troubles you. The Lord further says, “Thy Father who sees in secret will render it to thee”. He will show you that those people that you are envying, that are flourishing like a green bay-tree, will come to nothing in a moment. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, for the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it” (Isaiah 40: 7). That is the principle governing poor man, unregenerate, unsaved, in this world. However much power he may seem to have, however much wealth he may seem to have, it is just for a moment and it is gone.
Verse 18 says, “Truly thou settest them in slippery places, thou castest them down in ruins ... As a dream, when one awaketh, wilt thou, Lord, on arising despise their image”. When God awakes — what does that mean? Well, we are told in this [p. 118] very book, this third book of Psalms, Psalm 78: 65, 66, that the Lord “awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine; and he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach”. That is the idea, and so Asaph says, that when Jehovah awakes He will despise the image of these men. They have their coats of arms, of course. It is remarkable how heraldry comes into view if people want to make a show. How people look up their ancestors, their coats of arms, their seats, if they think these will add anything to them. “Whose is this image and superscription?” Caesar’s. “Pay then what is Caesar’s to Caesar”, is God’s word to us at the present moment. What will God do when He awakes? He will despise Caesar and all such. Christ is the image of God. The Holy Spirit puts His stamp on us so that in believers too there is representation of God. God does not despise that, but Asaph says as to these, “Thou, Lord, on arising despise their image”. You see the irony with which God will deal with all this that provokes such people as Asaph — God will deal with them suddenly; they are destroyed in a moment. These are most important things. It is a question of peace in our souls — restfulness in our souls — in the midst of the gross darkness and confusion caused by persons in high places. How the soul revolts against it, but God would say as it were, Just be patient and wait and let Me do these things. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord”. Your business is grace, to exercise grace. That is the christian’s business. That is the service Christ is maintaining at the present time. He is on His Father’s throne, and our privilege is to enter the holiest, where we see everything clearly. We see Christ as He is above, and see the means whereby God can do everything and carry out His will. We see how the wicked must go,
[p. 119] for everything must be according to Christ. Psalm 2 is the basis of it. The divine decree is that everything must be according to the Son.
That is what I see in the holiest, and I come out with shining face, and say to myself, I am just as assured as David was when he finished praying. I see the whole matter settled, and it is settled in Him above as we have in that little hymn of Mr. Wigram’s, ‘Not a cloud above’. That is Psalm 72. ‘Not a spot within’, that is Psalm 73. Nothing of myself; the flesh, which darkens the vision, judicially out of the way. Asaph is entirely free now and so he says, “Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden my right hand”. Let us underline all these verses too — the confidence that entering the holiest inspires. “Whom have I in the heavens? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee” — no longer envying men in their prosperity. I am satisfied. That is the position, dear brethren; that is the state, answering to Psalm 72, which in Psalm 73 bears, according to God, all that conditions here involve; a state that is in those who enter the sanctuaries of God and see everything settled above and everything settled in their own souls, and that it is only a moment and all the evil will be dealt with. The Holy Spirit sets up a millennial state in our souls, and normally every christian is a testimony to that coming glorious day. So that there is a state of happiness, of peace, of satisfaction, developed in Asaph in this psalm. I commend it to the brethren in these days that we are in, so that there might be a testimony for God such as was here in Christ as He appeared before Pilate. James says, “Ye have condemned, ye have killed the just; he does not resist you” (James 5: 6). That is the attitude. God has marked it out for us, that the Spirit of Christ should be seen in us in testimony.