PSALMS REFERRING TO CHRIST IN HEAVEN
[p. 40] PSALMS REFERRING TO CHRIST IN HEAVEN
Psalm 8:1-5; Psalm 16:9-12; Psalm 68:18; Psalm 110:1-4
The Psalms are of deep interest because they bring out in much detail the subjective exercises which mark the people of God in a great variety of circumstances. They also give, in a prophetic way, apprehensions of Christ which could only be fully taken up after He was in heaven as a glorified Man. The four psalms referred to are all quoted in the New Testament as applying to Christ at the present time.
Christ in heaven is a great reality, and our spiritual progress and our knowledge of God largely depend on the measure in which we apprehend Him there. The great truth of the present moment is that Christ is in heaven as a glorified Man. He has been here, and He is coming here again, but now He is in heaven, and all that is spiritual and vital is connected with our apprehension of Him in heaven.
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews refers to Psalm 8, when he says, “We see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”. There seems to be more in that than simply believing that He is crowned with glory and honour; He is seen thus by the Spirit; it is a matter of spiritual apprehension. There is a company of persons on earth who are in the light of what is glorious and splendid in heaven. God’s testimony in regard to what is there is committed to babes and sucklings, but it is committed to them in a very effective way, for out of their mouths God has established praise, or, as the margin reads, has founded strength. God has enemies both in the Christian profession and out of it, but He is giving an answer to those enemies in the praises of babes and sucklings who are able to see Jesus in heaven. What is in heaven has become a matter of praise and testimony here. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says, “one has testified somewhere”, suggesting that what is testified is important rather than where it is testified, and thus leaving it open to be testified in any locality.
Jesus is crowned with glory and honour in connection with the wondrous expression He has given to the grace of God. God is so delighted with the expression Jesus has given to His grace that He has crowned Him with glory and honour. It is God’s valuation of Him in that connection. It is a great thing to get that in the soul, for it has a universal bearing. The favourableness of God to every man has come to light in a most wonderful way. It has come out in the fact that Jesus tasted death for every man, for every thing. He did not become Man until the whole race of mankind was under death as the consequence of sin, and He became the Son of man that He might die; He has brought to light that the grace of God is greater than sin, and greater than death. He tasted death for every one who was under death. The psalm speaks of the heavens, and the moon and stars, but it is marvellously true that God is more interested in one sinful man than He is in the moon or stars! The sinless Son of man has tasted death for every man so that every man may know that God is favourable to him, notwithstanding his sin.
God has crowned Jesus with glory and splendour because He is so delighted that full expression should be given to His favourableness to men. He has put Jesus in heaven, and crowned Him there, so that the whole universe may know how pleased He is with the One who has expressed His grace by tasting death. The grace expressed at Calvary is glorified in heaven in the crowned Son of man. He is Son of man to be available for the whole race of mankind, and all heaven is worshipping Him in that character. No person in the universe is so resplendent as Jesus; a light above the brightness of the sun shone on Saul of Tarsus in grace. The sun is the most glorious object in nature, but it is infinitely transcended by the glory which is radiant in the Person of Jesus in heaven. He is the great Subject of divine testimony. No company of persons is less thought of amongst men than those who can see what is glorious and splendid in heaven. But out of their mouths God has established praise, or founded strength. The praises of the saints are God’s great answer to all His adversaries, little as men know this. The Lord, in quoting Psalm 8, said, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise”. The praise of the babes and sucklings is perfected because it takes account of matters in which there is no element of defect. It rises to the blessedness of what God has made known.
God deliberately takes up what is insignificant in the eyes of men, and the greatest things that are said on the earth today come out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. We [p. 42] may think it a feeble thing, but it is not. The vessels may be feeble, but the praise is not. “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me”. God would not put any honour upon man’s greatness, for the basis of all His work is that every man needed that the Son of man should die for him. Babes and sucklings appreciate this, but a great reducing process has to be gone through to bring us down to the point when God can establish us in what He has brought to pass. This is the character of divine operations in the saints.
Then in Psalm 16 we see the Lord prophetically in His pathway here, but looking forward to resurrection, fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. That is, He is looking forward to what He has now entered upon in heaven. It is another important aspect of the truth that Jesus being at the right hand of the throne of God is the answer to what He was here. We sing sometimes of “the path of worth which led up to the throne”. He had subsisted in the form of God before He became Man, but He was found here in a path of humiliation as Man, in contact with all the conditions and circumstances which saints have to meet, and He went through all in such a way that there could only be one answer to it on God’s part, and that was resurrection and a place at the right hand of His throne. “At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore”. That was the answer to His wondrous path of worth; the throne, we may say, has awarded Him that place.
“In view of the joy lying before him” He “endured the cross, having despised the shame”. In Jesus we see in absolute perfection a life which was morally entitled to resurrection. It was the perfect expression of that which in the saints is the life of faith. It is well to consider this psalm, because we are apt not to think enough of the importance of the responsible life in its relation to resurrection. There was a character of life in Jesus as Man here on earth that could not be left in death; it could not be left out of God’s resurrection world. But the life of Christ as set forth in Psalm 16 is also, in all its moral features, the normal life of His saints. It is possible for us, through infinite grace, to move in the life of Jesus in our responsible life; that is, in dependence, obedience, separation from the world and its idolatry, delighting in the saints, having joy in God and in the inheritance which His love has conferred upon us. That is the life of Christ morally, and it culminates in resurrection and heaven. As we sing sometimes,
‘[p. 43] No trait is lost, each beauteous grace is found,
All brought through death to resurrection ground’. (229:2)
This raises the question whether we are living in the responsible life so that there is what is morally suitable for resurrection. It is evident that this thought is in Scripture, for we read, “those that have practised good, to resurrection of life”, and we read of “the resurrection of the just”. Such a life must be characterised, even as it was in Jesus, by overcoming the world. And this is essential, not only in view of resurrection ultimately, but in view of our walking together in Christian fellowship here. We walk with the saints as delighting in them, even as the Lord said of them in this psalm, “In them is all my delight”. We delight in those who walk in obedience, dependence, separation from the world, and who have their joy in God, because we are exercised to move on that line ourselves. There is no true Christian fellowship except on this line, and it leads morally to resurrection and heaven. The result of working things out faithfully in the responsible life is that we are free in spirit for the resurrection sphere, and for what is heavenly, while we are together. We need not wait for the heavenly until we actually get there. The enjoyment of eternal pleasures is possible in the assembly now, but this largely depends on the character of our responsible life. The spiritual can only be taken up as there is moral suitability to do so. If we have not moved in the life of Jesus during the week we need not expect to enjoy the spiritual privileges of the assembly on the Lord’s day. Jesus at the right hand of the throne of God is the answer to a life in which God was perfectly glorified here. John would remind us that, “He that says he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself also so to walk”. As we move on that line we shall get great enlargement in the spiritual sphere, in what is connected with resurrection and ascension.
Psalm 68 gives us a further thought. “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts in Man, and even for the rebellious, for the dwelling there of Jah Elohim”. Evidently we are on Ephesian ground here, for this verse is quoted in Ephesians 4: 8. In connection with Christ having ascended on high we are told that He led captivity captive. I doubt if we get completely free from the elements of bondage until we know Christ as ascended. He has dealt with every power and influence that would darken [p. 44] men as to God, or that would introduce the element of bondage in our relations with God. “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. That was a wonderful movement in liberty!
Everything that comes from Him as ascended takes on the character of gift; it has not to be worked or paid for; it has simply to be received. Man has ascended up to the very highest point so as to receive gifts as Man, in connection with mankind. He has received all the gifts that were in the purpose of the Father’s love to bestow on men. They are of such a character that they were suitable to be received by the ascended Man, and He has given them to men. This is a great administration of divine bounty, and every saint participates in the wealth conferred. For it is written, “But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”, Ephesians 4: 7.
The thought of Christ ascending suggests that He has liberty to move to the very highest point. Indeed, He went in His own personal right “above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”. This is, of course, His own unique place. But in John 20 He speaks of ascending to His Father and our Father, and to His God and our God. His leading captivity captive was in view of our being liberated to move up with Him into this blessed position and relationship. If we understood that, it would set us free to speak to the Father and to God; there would not be the lack of liberty which there often is.
Then He “has given gifts to men ... for the perfecting of the saints”. A double portion of Christ’s Spirit is given in connection with His being taken up into heaven, but in addition to this He has given gifts for the perfecting of the saints. These gifts express in an effective way the victorious power and wealth that subsists in Christ in heaven. It is for us all to recognise this, and to discern gifts which give us an impression of Christ in heaven. Such gifts are to be clearly distinguished from what is the product of human ability or training. They are gifts of the ascended Christ, and they are all enriching in a spiritual wealth that belongs to heaven. To disregard Christ’s gifts is to disregard Christ, for they are His gifts of love to us. As we value Christ in heaven we value what He gives, and we value His gifts because they perfect us in the knowledge of Him in heaven so that we may be developed as [p. 45] constituting His body here. If we do not grow up to Him as Head in heaven we shall not understand the formation and fitting together of the body here according to Colossians and Ephesians. The greatest gifts of the ascended Christ are available for us in the ministry of Paul and John, and indeed in all the apostles who have left inspired words for our perfecting. The gifts of the ascended Christ today carry on the same ministry, and according to their measure they carry it on in the same power; they are commissioned by Christ in heaven. All is on the principle of gift, that we may be perfected by coming to understand the nature of divine beneficence.
The gifts cover in their exercise all that is needed for the perfecting of the saints. This has in view the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ. This contemplates the whole company of saints on earth arriving at the full measure of what is true in Christ in heaven, so that we may grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head. Most wondrous and precious things are connected with Christ in heaven.
But in the psalm we see a further thing. The ascended Christ having received gifts in Man, and even for the rebellious, is for the dwelling there of Jah Elohim. Notwithstanding the rebelliousness that has marked man in all stages of his history, it is the fixed thought of God to dwell among men. He would secure for Himself a place amongst men. This is brought out in the epistle to the Ephesians. The gentiles are “built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, Ephesians 2:22. The apostle’s prayer was “that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”, Ephesians 3: 19. The title “Jah Elohim” suggests God as known in His absolute supremacy. It is noticeable that there is a militant note in this psalm. “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them: it is a Sinai in holiness”. The militant thought also appears in captivity being led captive. There are powers in the universe acting in opposition to God, but He has taken up the challenge, and by means of Christ He has spoiled them, making a show of them publicly, and leading them in triumph. It is God known in complete triumph over evil, in connection with an ascended Christ, who dwells in and amongst His saints.
[p. 46] Finally we come to Psalm 110, where we see that Christ is shortly to have His enemies put as footstool of His feet, and He will rule in their midst. But in the meantime He is a Priest in heaven to serve us, and particularly in view of what is hostile here. Melchisedec brought out bread and wine, and he blessed Abram after he had returned from smiting the hostile kings. It was as an overcomer that Abram was blessed by the priest of the Most High God. Conditions are such today that there is continual need of overcoming. Difficulties are likely to increase rather than to diminish. But Christ in heaven is exercising a priesthood of support and blessing for those who, as in the line of faith, are overcomers here. When we are absolutely like Christ we shall not need Him as Priest. But as called to overcome in conditions of weakness we learn to value, as Abram did, the refreshment and blessing of the Priest in heaven. No doubt He succours us in the conflict too, but the particular feature of priesthood as seen in Melchisedec was that he refreshed and blessed the one who had emerged victoriously from the conflict. There is a particular sweetness in this for overcomers.