THE ANOINTED
[p. 294] THE ANOINTED
Psalm 2; Revelation 2:18; Revelation 2:26-28
It is of importance to notice the identification of the Lord in the New Testament with that which comes out in the Old. This is clearly seen in the scriptures read, because the thought of Psalm 2 is applied to the Lord in the address to Thyatira. He is there introduced as Son of God, and in the promise to the overcomer the Father’s name is introduced; this is an advance upon Psalm 2, there it is Jehovah. It is in the New Testament that we get the key to the Old. Those to whom the Old Testament was given did not understand it. God may have helped them, but we are told that “not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister”. I doubt if the writer of this psalm understood it, but we have the key, and what enables us to understand it is the truth of the incarnation, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”. He is begotten as man by the power of God. This scripture unfolds the truth with regard to the Lord in a very striking way, but we have to bring the light of the New Testament into it. If we want to get a true understanding of any part of Scripture, we must view it in the light of the whole, and use the New Testament to solve the Old. In the New we must get the gospel first, and having received that we go on to get light on the Old. We see what the mind of God is as revealed there, and then conversely we find that the Old Testament helps us to understand the New; it throws reflex light upon it.
In this psalm there are two things with regard to the Lord: He is the Anointed and He is the Son of God. I want to present to you what is peculiar to each title. In Psalm 8 there is a further truth, He is Son of man, and in Psalm 22 we get another thought,
that He declares the Father’s name and sings praises in the assembly. Then in Psalm 24 we get His final and ultimate glory. But I confine myself now to the two names in Psalm 2, as I want to show you what is specially connected with them.
Very often the Scriptures speak of Jesus as the Christ, but the true force of the term here is the Anointed; if you substitute the words Christ or Messiah in verse 2 it would be quite right. What I understand by the term Anointed is that He was the child of promise, the One who was to be set forth according to promise. It comes out in the gospel of Matthew, where He is viewed as the vessel of promise; all the pleasure of God was to be set forth in Him, it was to prosper in His hand, and so in the early part of the gospel we read that “He went about doing good, for God was with him”. That is what He came here for, that the goodness of God in regard of man might be set forth in Him. Look at Luke 4: 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. What for? “Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”. It was the pleasure of God to effect recovery, and what a wonderful thing it is! All this was set forth in Him, and for this He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. He had come to bless, and so He went about doing good, for God was with Him. But all this was limited, as to the display of it, to the people of God; He was of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, and He came to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and we only see glimpses of blessing going out to the Gentiles.
In this psalm He is seen as rejected, and this is a point of all moment. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,
[p. 296] against the Lord, and against his anointed”; but what comes out is that, even in His rejection, the will of God was accomplished. The goodness of God was set forth in Christ’s ministry on earth, but other things came out, namely, righteousness and power and all that was to be expressed in God’s Anointed. In the death of His Son, God manifested another important truth, that He could not be indifferent to sin, and in that death He removed it from before His eye and declared His righteousness. What greater proof could God give of what sin was in His sight than that He should give His Son to die? But now God has raised Him from the dead, and in Christ risen all the character of God is set forth. His righteousness was shown in the death of His Son, and His power in His resurrection. All this is now set forth in Him at the right hand of God. In Him all the will of God is now expressed. The work has been completed, the power of God has been displayed in Him by resurrection from the dead, and in its application to us we see all accomplished; and being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. All is set forth in Christ because God would have His grace and righteousness and power known by man. It is the good pleasure of God that man should know it. I know nothing but sin and weakness down here, but God would have me to know His righteousness and power, that He can raise man up from the dead not for judgment but for blessing, and to this end He has raised up Christ from the dead, in order that He might be a quickening spirit to man. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit. It is a wonderful thing to see the power and righteousness of God displayed in favour of man. He shows that He was not indifferent to sin, for He has put it away in the death of the cross, and the blessed truth comes out that He “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”. When the soul [p. 297] sees this, it sees that all its responsibility has been completely settled in Christ. He came here that sin might be removed, righteousness brought in, death annulled, and that all the good pleasure of God in regard to man might be set forth in Him, and that He might effectuate the will of God. He is exalted to the right hand of God to give effect to it all.
I pass on to the next point, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed”; but whatever man may do, the purpose of God cannot be frustrated. The heart of man is always opposed to God, but in spite of all the hatred of man God sets Him on His holy hill of Zion. Zion is the joy of God, and there will be nothing right down here till Zion has its place. In the Old Testament Sinai had its place, but in the New we are come to mount Zion, and to the kingdom which cannot be moved. The Lord is God’s king, and there never was a true king but God’s king. Christ is the true king anointed with God’s holy oil, and He will rule according to the thoughts of God. He is the only One that has received from the Father honour and glory. Zion is what God delights in, and He will set His king there notwithstanding all the raging and opposition of man. God delights in His king and He will set Him there.
I will now refer to Hebrews 1: 4-6. These verses bring out that an angel is not enough for God. No intimate relationship subsists between an angel and God. What comes out in contrast is the verse quoted from Psalm 2, which refers to the Son born in time; it shows that He is enough for God. As man He is in relationship with God, and it is only in Him that we can enter into relationship with God. All that God has for us we get in Him, and this great truth came out in the life of the Lord Jesus down here, that although He has become man, yet He was a divine Person with whom God was in relationship, and who in His own [p. 298] self was enough for the heart of God. This comes out very strikingly at His baptism and on the mount of Transfiguration. Even when He was but twelve years old He replied to His parents, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” He was the Object of the Father, and so God could say, “This is my beloved Son”. God claims Him immediately He is born in time — “Thou art my Son”. What a wonderful thing that a man should be begotten who is great enough for God! All hangs on the truth of His Person. He was the eternal Son and the eternal Son had become man. This is entirely beyond the grasp of the creature. He was even beyond the comprehension of those associated with Him, for “no man knoweth the Son, but the Father”. The first thing spoken of in the epistle to the Hebrews is the greatness of His Person, and then of the throne, but the Person is far greater than the throne. It was in the eternal counsels that He should become Man, and as such He is an adequate Object for the affection and love of God His Father. “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”. He was as Man of the divine nature, and therefore enough for the love of God.
The next thing is, He is invited to ask, “Ask of me”, etc. Now these words could not be spoken of any one but the eternal Son. You will remember that when He became a man, Satan tempted Him with the glory of the world, but He refused it at his hands; what we find here is that He will ask and receive it all from His Father. It is exactly the order of Hebrews, first the glory of His Person, then the throne, and He takes it, not from the hand of Satan or man, but from the Father. Following on that in Psalm 2 is the character of the introduction of the kingdom when everything which is opposed to God will be put down — “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel”. The same thing [p. 299] comes out in the address to Thyatira. Christ’s eyes are as a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass. He is the Son of God and He is vested with authority, nothing escapes His eyes. Brass in Scripture is usually a symbol of judgment. In Psalm 2 we find He has power over the nations and in Revelation 2 this is promised to the overcomer. The church as committed to man has utterly failed, and there is no hope for it, it will be superseded on earth by the kingdom, and the overcomer will reign with Christ, and gets the promise for his present comfort. The last four phases of the church are not successive, they each go on to the end, and in Thyatira the Lord introduces Himself as the Son of God who has power over the nations. He will put down everything that is not according to God, and the overcomer has the promise that he will share with Him. The saint cannot make a greater mistake than to assume power in the place where Christ has been rejected, it would be unrighteousness, and this is what Christendom is doing; they are appropriating things as if Christ were accepted here; and it is most unrighteous, and through grace we depart from it. We leave it all to be with the Lord. The great religious bodies do not accept the truth of Christ’s rejection, and therefore we leave them to go out to the Lord who is rejected here but glorified above. If you want to see the appropriation of everything that belongs to God in a full-blown way it is Popery, and all state churches are on the same line; they lay claim to that which belongs to the Lord, before He is Himself in the enjoyment of His inheritance. The path of the saint today is to walk in separation from all this kind of thing, to own Him as Lord, to accept His rejection here, and thus be an overcomer. The great value of Christ’s Lordship to us is that He will direct us into all the will of God in regard to everything down here. My great comfort in reading the history of the church in Revelation 2 and 3 is that in every state of it [p. 300] the Lord makes known His mind in regard to it, and when I know His mind I see my own path. We cannot have a greater favour than to have His mind for the moment; He brings it home to us by the Spirit if we are near enough to Him to have it made known to us. Eighteen hundred years ago will not do for today, He would have us know His mind as to the present state of things.
I want to press upon you the fact that He has been rejected, and that He has never been accepted here. Do you accept His rejection, and are you striving to be an overcomer? The promise to the overcomer is that he will participate in the Lord’s authority over the nations, and the Lord gives him also the morning star. I have referred to these things in order that we may get an idea of how all these blessed things affect us. If I think of Christ, I see all God’s grace and goodness and love and righteousness and power, and every attribute of His character set forth in Him, and He makes all known to us not to crush us, but for our blessing and joy. Nothing could be greater than to know the heart of God as set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He as Son of God is an adequate Object for the love of God. The Father loves Him and delights in Him, He is invited to ask everything of the Father, and the Father will give Him His heart’s desire. Then the closing cheer for our hearts is that He will share it with the overcomer. “To him that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations ... even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star”.