PSALM 45 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)
PSALM 45 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)
The Maschil Psalms give us (Psalm 32) the knowledge of God in forgiveness and justification, as Deliverer and Resource and Guide of His people. Then there is in Psalm 42 the intense longing of the soul for God when the experiences of His favour are withdrawn and there is no outward manifestation of His presence. One has gone with the festive multitude, but that fails, and Jordan, Hermons and Mizar have to be known. God wants us to go to His tabernacles through real soul exercise of our own and not merely as passing along with the multitude. It is not a multitude in Psalm 43 (which is really a second part of Psalm 42) but “thy light and thy truth”. The festive multitude we may be deprived of, but God’s light and truth remain to lead and bring us to His holy mount and to His tabernacle. Then we go to “the altar of God, unto the God of the gladness of my joy”. We come to the house in a deeper and truer way and we have more joy in God than we had as first learning the covenant.
Then Psalm 44 is instruction for a day when it is not outward triumph, but reproach and suffering, and God seems to hide His face: He does not come in in any public way. We have not only the normal sufferings of Christians but the peculiar sufferings of 2 Timothy days. But it is in such circumstances that we learn we are inseparable from the love of Christ, and we come into view as His lilies among thorns. We should like the thorns to be removed, but He has put us there to make us more distinctive. It is the crooked and perverse [p. 316] generation that shows up the contrast in those who are harmless and simple, irreproachable children of God.
Now we can get a wondrous “instruction” — a song of the Beloved. The heart can be filled with Christ and with what stands in relation to Him. And it is Christ as He will be known in the world to come. The present world is an evil world: it gives Christ no place; but He will be supreme in the world to come. It is the world to come that we Christians speak of (Hebrews 2: 5); we have no interest in speaking of this world, it hates both Christ and the Father. He will have to gird His sword upon His thigh and to make His arrows sharp in the heart of His enemies. The sword and the arrows are to secure a place here for truth and meekness and righteousness. These are the things Christ brings in. If He has brought them into our hearts the world to come has arrived there!
One would note and dwell on the fact that this psalm is not God speaking to men about Christ. It is sons of Korah speaking out what their hearts are full of — what they have composed “touching the king”. Had we ever an ambition to say something of Christ that no one had ever said before? Do we really believe that the Spirit of God would delight to give us an apprehension of Christ that was a fresh instruction for the sons of Korah?
First we have to learn to compare Him with the sons of men. I take it that the sons of men are those that have fair features before God. We are told that Moses was ‘fair to God’, and all down the ages there have been those sons of men who have had divine features. But He has outshone all the saints. An Enoch and an Abraham and a Joseph and a Moses and a David were fair sons of men, but here is One who is fairer. “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” They counted Him as one of the sons of men, John, Elias, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. They had not learned that He was fairer than all the earth-born race. For every feature of beauty that had been seen directly in them shone in full splendour in Him and in perfection. He is altogether lovely.
[p. 317] We think of John, Peter, Paul, Stephen: they all had some of His features, but He is fairer than all. His name is above every name. Perfect in everything was He, alone since Adam’s fall.
That is the Vessel — the human Vessel. Then grace is poured into His lips. That is the grace of God towards sinful men. The grace of Luke’s gospel. It could not be poured into any other lips: “Never man spake like this man”. God found His delight in Him as the Vessel in whom He could express all His grace. Is that our apprehension of Christ? That through His life all the vast and unfathomable grace of God has come to us? What a Person we have to delight in!
Then “God hath blessed thee for ever”. I think that is His exaltation as the glorified Man, that all that was set forth in the lowly Man might now be set forth in the exalted Man (see the Acts).
Now we come to the truth of His person. He is addressed as “O God”. The deity of the Messiah. The kingdom of God is a present reality to His saints, and the sceptre of that kingdom is one of uprightness. There is never any deviation from uprightness in the rule of that kingdom — no policy, no diplomacy.
He is anointed with gladness from God above his companions. The anointing is on all His garments. His garments would indicate what he is invested with: it speaks of fragrance in every form of love which He wears — Revealer, Teacher, Priest, Advocate, Intercessor, Shepherd; we see Him in different garments. Everything is fragrant.
Ivory palaces speak of incomparable reception for Him, secured through death. An elephant is an imposing animal, but it is through death that its ivory is obtained. What have we contributed to the ivory palaces? Stringed instruments are there: hearts tuned to utter what is delightful to Christ. A great throne of ivory was made by Solomon: what is suitable for His dwelling.