THE HEAVENLY MAN
[p. 514] THE HEAVENLY MAN
In studying the Psalms you will readily see that Psalm 14 closes one part of the first book. We find there the climax of wickedness, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt ... they are all together become filthy”; it is the climax of the depravity and contrariety of man. When the apostle is taking a survey of the condition of man (Romans 3) he confirms his position by quotations from this psalm.
The Spirit of God begins a new phase of the subject in Psalm 15, and we all have to learn the line thence opened out.
We have had before us two remarkable psalms, 2 and 8, in which Christ is seen as God’s Son, God’s King and as the Son of man. These titles constitute His name as Man, they set forth the glory which belongs to Him, and embrace the counsel and purpose of God regarding Him. The beauty of Psalm 2 is that all is of God. Christ is God’s Son, and He is God’s King. “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion”; and “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”. But Son of man brings in more the thought of redemption, and of a new world which comes in on that ground. The burden of the first fourteen psalms is, I judge, the counsel of God, and the glory of the Lord according to that counsel; but with this, the contrariety and opposition of everything down here. My conviction is, that the more light we get in regard of God’s counsel, and the vessel of it, the more conscious we become of the state of things down here that is opposed to it.
Now in Psalm 15 and 16 we have quite another side presented. The question is raised in Psalm 15,
[p. 515] Who is the man to stand in the presence of this glory? Where is the man to come from who can meet the requirements of God? “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” In Psalm 16 we get the answer. There we find set forth the man who can stand in the light of God, who is suited to the glory. Blessing is to come forth to man in connection with the man who is according to God. We get the description of this man in Psalm 16, and the psalm is applicable evidently to Christ personally. What characterised Christ is that, deriving nothing from man, all that came in by Him was morally new. Christ as man is man to perfection. He can never be improved upon. He is the last Adam — all starts from thence, and every family in heaven and earth is named of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a new starting-point; all has to take its character from that man, and that man is in the presence of God. I see all the light of God in Christ. He is the revelation of God, and He is man too in the presence of God in the perfection of that light. Psalm 8 gives the thought of the last Adam. Psalm 15 raises the question of the state of man. Psalm 16 shows us the place that Christ has taken as man. It gives us thus life to God, not even what Christ was in respect of the contrariety of man, as in other psalms where man comes in and God judges, but what His life was Godward.
In the ways of God, if He were to bless man, it was not only a question of having one to whom He could entrust all authority, but a man before Him in whom Satan should be defeated and that in the scene of his power, and in whom too God would be glorified. God could have readily swept man from off the face of the earth, but His purpose was not so. His way as regards man is recovery. But to look a little in detail at the place that Christ takes, He says to Jehovah, “Thou art my Lord”. He accepts that [p. 516] place. He does not take the place of God but that of man. The psalm is full of life, all is morally according to God. Then He associates Himself with the saints, the excellent of the earth. He has companions. In a scene where there was “none that doeth good, no, not one”, God had, I believe, in anticipation of Christ coming here, been forming saints in view of what was going to be. They took their character from Christ when He came. The Old Testament saints were formed upon promises, but then Christ was the Heir of promise. In the millennium what will mark Israel is the “law written in their hearts”, but Christ is the first man in whose heart was God’s law. He was the man out of heaven, “living bread which came down from heaven”, and thus placed within the reach of man’s appropriation. Before Christ came God had doubtless been working in view of His coming, and thus there were those with whom, when He comes, He associates Himself. Historically it refers to the godly remnant who were baptized of John, who had been made sensible of their ruin, and confessed it. They were poor things, but much more lowly than we are, for I think we have become more or less inflated with our intelligence.
In the latter part of the psalm what comes out is this: Jehovah was His inheritance, Jehovah gave Him counsel, and Jehovah was His support. He had a goodly heritage. Proprietary possession is very dear to the natural man, but Christ had Jehovah for His portion. As to His pathway here He began life in a manger, He had not where to lay His head, and He went out of the world by the cross. When questioned about the tribute money He said, “Shew me a penny”. He had not one, and yet He says, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”. He as man was in the full light of Jehovah, and having nothing as to this world, He [p. 517] was content with that. Are you content with the light of the knowledge of God? Such a one lives in the sunshine of divine love.
The next point is that He did not need to turn to man for wisdom. “I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel”. He could say, “as I hear, I judge”. Christ as man found Jehovah enough for Him. He maintained His lot. The Lord had no wealth here, no education from man, Jehovah was everything to Him.
Then Jehovah is His support, “Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved”. He lived in the light of divine goodness, He had heritage, He had counsel, and He had support. If you can say that, you are not badly off. If God is at your right hand, who is going to move you?
Christ brought the light of God into this world; but more, He was Man in that light. He was the Man who found all His resources in God. The beauty of the psalm to me is that it teems with life. The devil might come as a tempter, or as a roaring lion, but he found nothing in Christ. He was Man, but independent of man and the world, and found His portion exclusively in Jehovah. Do you want to be in that path? Christ has inaugurated it, and we are called to walk in it; we are privileged to be in the light as God is in the light.
He could say, too, “My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope”. The path ends at the right hand of God. It is not a man treading the path in haste, but the soul maintained in freshness and vigour, and finding Jehovah its portion, and this in a pathway down here.
Now this is what we get in Psalm 16, and every family will take its character from Christ. All will be formed according to Him. The psalm presents the heavenly man, but treading the path that leads to God’s right hand.
[p. 518] It is a great thing to see that while we have a portion in heaven, there is a path of piety down here that a man can find his resource in Jehovah.
The starting-point is Christ, and we have to be prepared to let all go except Christ. Nothing of the first man can abide, and therefore the second Man is brought in and everything is formed according to Him.
The Lord grant that we may be preserved from any legal effort to walk in that path. As we are in the light we are formed according to Christ, and then it is that we can take that path, and are prepared to find our whole resource in God.