DAVID AND HIS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
DAVID AND HIS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Psalm 51: 1 - 6; Psalm 68: 7 - 17; Psalm 132: 1 - 10
SMcC In suggesting the Psalms, one has in mind the experimental side which the Psalms bring before us. Brethren will note that these are all Psalms of David. David is a great pattern in the Old Testament, of manhood. These Psalms are suggested that they may furnish help for us, looking at the impressions that David had, impressions as to himself and his links with God on the moral side in Psalm 51. In Psalm 68 it is his impressions as to God and the saints - Psalm 68 is a wonderful Psalm. Then in Psalm 132 we have impressions as to God and Christ typified in the ark. It is thought that the experimental side is a side in relation to which the Lord would help us. We have been privileged to experience in the last decade the most wonderful ministry in the closing days of the dispensation. Wonderful light has come to us in regard to the truth, and the Lord is particularly seeking to help us at the present time in relation to the experimental side which the Psalms set out. Rightly speaking they are the basis of the service of God. The service of God in Israel’s time is built up in relation to them. David is the sweet Psalmist of Israel. It is thought in suggesting these passages that they might furnish help in regard to our right links in relation to things.
EAK I am sure that the scriptures before you give that. We feel the great importance of what is experimental, so that we should really have an acquaintance with divine Persons who have drawn near to us in grace and would have us near to Them. What you have brought before us surely is a three-fold cord the Spirit would develop in a mutual setting.
SMcC Yes. Psalm 51 is an important side of the truth as to our clearance on the moral line. We get an insight into David’s greatness spiritually from these Psalms, specially what he arrives at in this one, “Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom.”
CD Would you say that these experiences make for depth in our souls?
SMcC Yes. It is important that we should be helped on that side, as to thoroughness. Superficiality is a feature that is prone to mark us; every one of us knows that. It is a great thing to see in David, the man after God’s heart, how, when he got into difficulties such as Psalm 51 has to do with, he gets free, and how he is set up in relation to God as the Psalm sets out.
WE Some of us were noticing last night in 1 Corinthians 14: 26 that the apostle says, “whenever ye come together, each of you has a psalm.” The experience that you speak of on the moral line would produce depth and knowledge of God, would it not, adding tone to each occasion?
SMcC So that every circumstance, every experience, as we are helped by the Spirit, would become advantageous to us in our growth and increase in the knowledge of God, and would work out in the enrichment of the saints in the local gatherings where we are set.
GJG You have brought before us that there is something special about David. Would you say a little about that in its bearing upon the present dispensation?
SMcC He is unique in the Old Testament. You remember references made to him, at Auckland. We looked at the subject of grace in the history of David; he was unique in the way his sin was forgiven. Rightly speaking, it called for stoning, but he was forgiven. It would seem as if he is particularly chosen to set out the grace side. The Lord Jesus in Philadelphia presents Himself as “he that has the key of David,” which I take it would mean the administration of grace. This Psalm brings out what David went through in his own soul. There is nothing like moral exercises to give depth to our knowledge of God.
GJG I was wondering if you had the reference in Romans in mind, David declaring the blessedness of the man to whom God would not at all reckon sin? That would be a part of his experience, would it not?
SMcC Yes. Romans helps us as to the fundamentals of the glad tidings, especially in the way that God has set forth His righteousness in the matter of the clearance in regard to sin and sins. The truth of the glad tidings in Romans would help us so that we should be entirely free on the moral side.
GHW-n Is that the significance of David’s speaking at such a time of “thy loving kindness” and “the abundance of thy tender mercies,” verse 1?
SMcC It shows how the prophetic word had come on the historical side in 2 Samuel 12, and David was very indignant as the skill of the prophetic word was brought to bear upon the matter in hand. Then when Nathan points out that he was the man, he acknowledges his sin. This gives us the other side, what was going on in his own soul. As the fruit of all that, he comes into an enlarged knowledge of God, recognising that God’s loving-kindness and the abundance of His tender mercies enter into this matter of clearance on the moral line.
CPP Does the fact that this is well on in David’s history remind us that this depth and fullness of judgment and having God alone before us, may be reached by us some time after we have begun in our soul history with God?
SMcC Yes. David was caught unawares. In this section in 2 Samuel he was not maintained in his soul in the victory he had gained, so that he was caught unawares and falls under the power of sin, showing what is possible with any one of us in these matters. There is the constant need of vigilance, our loins being girt about with truth.
CD What comes out here really is David’s own heart knowledge of God, is it not? It stands him in good stead at this moment.
SMcC Yes. And the whole Psalm shows what David was basically. It is a great thing that we should be on the solid ground and foundation of what we are basically in our links with God.
JE Does the verse in 1 John 1: 9 confirm it, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”? Is the “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” a link with the clearance of which you are speaking?
SMcC Yes. It is an important matter that there should be a full clearance, not quarter, or half or three-quarters. Psalm 51 would denote full clearance on the part of David and what he goes through in his links with God about these matters.
CHG He traces his sin right back in relation to God in verse 4. Then he seems to clear the ground that God might speak. I wondered if something might be said as to what is in mind there and what he might judge.
SMcC There is an important principle in that, and especially as we see how he seems to understand what is in keeping with the divine pleasure, because as you come to the end of the chapter he really represents God when he says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” In verse 16 he says, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering.” He seems to understand and set out what God himself would set out, in the way he speaks.
EBMcC “Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom.” It would be there, would it not, that we would as the apostle, bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifest? The purging of course is always negative, is it not?
SMcC Yes. It is an important thing, do you not think, that we should understand this matter of inwardness, of life. We often speak of inwardness in regard to the service of God, but perhaps we have been a little careless in regard to inwardness on the moral side, in regard to moral questions.
EBMcC I was thinking that; that we should have this so that we should not be overtaken. David, as you said just now, was overtaken in it. Had he had this before him he would not have been overtaken. That is, as we hold the truth in the inward parts we would not be overtaken.
SMcC Exactly. The enemy got a right of way in David, through carelessness, and it is well we should all keep that in mind; well that the younger brothers and sisters should keep that in mind in regard to the inroads that the enemy may make; and well that we who are older, and those who are older still, should keep in mind this matter of truth in the inward parts, especially as viewed from the moral standpoint.
CPP Does that link up also with verse 10 where a clean heart is spoken of and then a “steadfast spirit within me”? Are the heart and the spirit both connected with what is inward?
SMcC Exactly. It is a remarkable touch in this Psalm - “a clean heart.” Some of the other Psalms speak about clean hands. It is important that our hearts should be clean; that we are not thinking wrong things about God and about one another; that we should have a clean heart. We may be concerned about clearing ourselves publicly (it is important that we do) but it is a great matter that our hearts should be clean.
RHG Is this inwardness gained as we cultivate the presence of God?
SMcC I think so. I think what comes up in David’s history is that he is a man who has to do with God. He is readily adjusted and always amenable to adjustment. It brings out the greatness of the man and his links with God. That is where most of us are weak, at least from what one observes in oneself. The great truth of the gospel which was referred to in Romans has in mind our being set up on solid ground in our links with God through the working out of the moral questions.
RHG If there is breakdown, does the prophetic word come in to bring us back into the presence of God?
SMcC That is the point in the prophetic service. When there is spiritual wane with us we get the prophets coming in with a powerful ministry on the line of revival.
Ques “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,” verse 12. Is the link with God in mind?
SMcC Exactly, “and let a willing spirit sustain me.” It is not that David will go on thinking about the darkness of this affair, humbled as he is about it. What David is concerned about is that as having the matter out with God he should be wholly free, clear inwardly, free inwardly in regard to the whole matter, so that the service of God can go forward. The service of God is not based on mere academic knowledge.
Ques Would joying in the Holy Spirit help us in that way?
SMcC Exactly.
CHG In this Psalm is David a pattern for us? It seems to impart to us the great desirability of an increased knowledge of God and a confidence in God in all the testing exercises that he passed through.
SMcC It is a great matter that we should be entirely free on the moral line, as it says in verse 14, “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness.” Think of that; what must be in his mind! Surely Uriah the Hittite must be in his mind. He was the cause of the slaying of an innocent man and he is concerned that he should be delivered from blood-guiltiness. “O God, thou God of my salvation” - look how intense his feelings are about this matter - “O God,” as he thinks of Uriah the Hittite. “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness” - not his righteousness, but God’s righteousness. That is the way the gospel would affect us.
CPP Would you say a word as to how the Holy Spirit would help us? Does this self-judgment, which in itself is in the power of the Spirit, make way for the Spirit’s positive help?
SMcC Yes. It is important to see the relation of the Spirit to self-judgment. If self-judgment is maintained without the Spirit, we will get into an awful state of legality and darkness of soul. As a self-judged person, you must make room for the Spirit who would fill your soul with Christ. Self-judgment in itself does not get us very far. It is largely negative, but as we make way for the Spirit, through the truth, in delivering us from the man of sin and shame, our souls are filled with the Man of God’s pleasure.
PB One is impressed that it is not only words that David uses here. As you read this Psalm you are impressed with the depth of feeling that David must have experienced with God in the whole matter of his sin.
SMcC Very good. I am sure that is important. Psalm 51 is no mere academic matter. That is, he is with God about the whole matter, judging it in all its heinousness, representing God in the judgment He passed upon it.
CD When we come to the positive side in the last two verses, it is not an academic matter there, is it?
SMcC No! The assembly is in his mind, the dignity of the assembly. “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou have sacrifices of righteousness, burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering; then shall they offer up bullocks upon thine altar.” That is, the matter is extending to a greater sphere of influence. That is how the matter works out. The saints come into it, “then shall they offer up bullocks upon thine altar.”
CBS In verse 5 David goes to the root of the matter in the secret recesses of his own heart. Would you say a word in regard to that?
SMcC He is getting completely free in his soul from the man of sin and shame - a great matter. The teaching of the gospel in Romans involves that we should have complete freedom from the man of sin and shame - “a change of man,” as Mr. Stoney referred to it. That is what we want to come to, not academically, but in the experimental way that is suggested in this Psalm and in the experimental section in Romans 6 - a change of man.
CD Is the doxology in Romans a matter of depth, “O depth of riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
SMcC Yes. The Lord is helping us as to this side of the truth - the substantial side - where we are substantially. We have all the ministry available in books and we have sat under the most wonderful ministry that it is possible to sit under in these closing days. What the Lord is bringing out now is just where we are substantially; not how much academic knowledge we have but where we are in our souls in regard to all that has come out in the way of light in the ministry.
CD It is a matter of reality.
SMcC Yes.
GJG It refers to the spirit and the heart in verse 17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” That is the inward side, the substantial side, is it?
SMcC Very interesting how the order is reversed in verse 17. In verse 10 the heart comes first, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” In verse 17 the spirit comes first because the service of God is in mind.
We might go over to Psalm 68 which brings out another side of the truth. Psalm 51 is one of the penitential Psalms, but Psalm 68 is not a penitential Psalm. We do not live in the penitential Psalms. The great thing is to go through the penitential Psalms with God, but we do not live there. Psalm 68 brings in a wonderful experience; David is set particularly free. There is no moral question in Psalm 68 and David is greatly enlarged in his outlook in regard to God and the people of God. I think God would help us. Divine Persons all would help us in our outlook in regard to God and His people, the dignity of the saints in wilderness order on their way, with God at the head of them.
CD It was a triumphant march through the wilderness.
SMcC Yes, but God was in it. Who can stand before the march when God is in it? If we are not in it we will be left behind. The testimony is going forward in this Psalm, going forward in power. The Psalm is replete with the suggestions of power.
CPP Would you say it is not the side of the wanderings so much as a definite march in an orderly way towards a goal?
SMcC It says, “O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness - (Selah) - The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God, yon Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” What a victorious march it was! If we were to look at Numbers we might think of all the difficulties, the murmurings, all that was linked with that side, but David is giving us a touch here as to God amongst His people in the march.
RMY What we are speaking of is Corinthian ground, is it not? Would you say that Paul had the light of this in his soul? Even when he was mourning over the Corinthians, he had a sense of triumph, did he not? He speaks of it in the second epistle.
SMcC Very good. So that Psalm 51 would be like the foundation in Romans in relation to the truth of the glad tidings working out experimentally in our souls and freeing us from sins and the man of sin and shame. Psalm 68 would be the abstract side as Paul insists on it in Corinth.
EBMcC The Lord came in for His people, with J.N.D. and others at the commencement when things were very low. “Thou, O God, didst pour a plentiful rain upon thine inheritance, and when it was weary thou strengthenedst it.” You spoke much about the ministry we have had, and it has continued, has it not? But at that time things were very weary.
SMcC Yes. What has come in in that way in relation to the progress of the testimony; how God comes in in His own way! So that when we are in difficulty we do not give up meetings. Why should we give up meetings at the very time when meetings are needed? If there is any time that servants should be serving it is when there are difficulties. “Thou, O God, didst pour a plentiful rain upon thine inheritance, and when it was weary thou strengthenedst it.” It is the time for ministry when there are difficult circumstances, when the march is on.
PB Would you say that when we go through with God on the moral side and complete it, what is abstract expands in our view and we take on fresh power in regard to the ways of God?
SMcC And the saints become dignified in our minds. “Thy flock hath dwelt therein.” Think of that! What the saints are as God’s flock! How they are to be cared for! It brings out the dignity of the saints that has always to be maintained. However low things get and however great the difficulties, we must keep the dignity of the saints before us.
CD Is not the footnote to “the flock” significant: Or ‘living assembly’?
SMcC Or ‘incorporated people.’ It is the strengthening of the thought of the assembly in our minds. Of course we do not have the assembly in the Psalms in the sense of which we speak of it now, but we are going back into them with the light that we have. We can speak of it in this way. The Psalms rightly belong to a people under the law. We do not take up the Psalms as under the law, but as going back, with the help of the Spirit as under grace, they afford instruction for us in regard to the knowledge of God.
EBMcC It says in the verse that you have called our attention to, “thou hast prepared in thy goodness, for the afflicted, O God.” It is a time, as you have said, when the meetings and the ministry are needed most.
SMcC Exactly. God is thinking about them. “Thy flock hath dwelt therein: thou hast prepared in thy goodness, for the afflicted.” We can thank God for that. If we have fallen down in our responsibilities, God has not fallen down in regard of the flock. We can see in matters of recent times that God has been near His people.
GJG Is it not a great matter to arrive at God’s thoughts of the saints in that way? Those who can help us most would have such thoughts, would they not?
SMcC Well exactly. No servant can serve the saints rightly unless he understands their dignity as the flock of God. No servant is above the saints. The servant’s dignity is much greater as one of the saints than it is as a servant.
EAK Is the supremacy of Christ as suggested in verse 18 in view of what you have been saying, so that no situation can ever get out of the Lord’s hands, however difficult it is? Is it not important that we should keep our eye on the Lord?
SMcC Exactly. That is the secret of being kept and preserved, that our eyes should be open to the glory of the unseen world. That is what comes in here - Christ on high functioning in heaven as Man, in the type, and the great heavenly administration in which there is power proceeding from it. The ministry does not involve academic knowledge. There is power in the ministry, the power of the ascended Man flowing down through the gifts, for the gifts are subsidiary administrators, subsidiary to Christ on high and what He is carrying on in heaven.
EBMcC “Twenty thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them: it is a Sinai in holiness.” How beautiful that is! It brings out, does it not, the strength at all times? God has this before us at all times.
SMcC Exactly. We want to see what the saints are as the hill of God from this viewpoint. Then we have, in verse 13, the power for recovery, the power for rising, revival, “Though ye have lain among the sheepfolds, ye shall be as wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with green gold.” That is, there is power to rise in relation to spiritual dignity through the help of the Spirit in relation to divine thoughts.
IE Do you think the truth of this chapter bears in a particular way upon our mid-week readings, as we speak of them; the special power that God furnishes while we are on the march; the Lord on high giving the word, the idea of the mountain linking with the hill of God, so that we might as thus furnished go on triumphantly?
SMcC Exactly, and the importance of free conditions among the saints - liberty! It says in verse 25, “The singers went before, the players on stringed instruments after, in the midst of maidens playing on tabrets. In the congregations bless ye God, the Lord, ye from the fountain of Israel. There is little Benjamin, their ruler; the princes of Judah, their company; the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.” Think of the holy liberty in this great realm of divine glory where God is known amongst His people. There is nothing oppressive here; the liberty of the work of God in a realm like this! That is how it should be in our local gatherings.
PB You have mentioned much as to what may be academic. Why should we be academic when it is a question of dealing with the truth?
SMcC Well we all know what we are naturally. The element of the Philistine is in every one of us. That is what makes us academic. ‘If we do not judge it in secret it will come out in public,’ someone else has said. We have to judge the element of the Philistine in our minds and in our hearts.
Now we should finish with a word as to Psalm 132. Here we get another insight in regard to David’s spiritual greatness. What a prince of God he was! Not now himself in introspection, not now God and the saints (although they come into the Psalm), in these clear perspectives as in Psalm 68, but God and Christ. I think we are challenged as to what place Christ has in our service and ministry, and in every one of our lives, whether the interests of God are first and foremost with us.
JE Is that the burden of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3, “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”?
SMcC Yes. As Mr. Stoney taught us years ago, the great result of union reached in the power of the Spirit in the soul is that His interests become your interests, and that is what this Psalm involves, that divine interests are our interests.
CPP Does it follow on in that way from Psalm 68 where the side of what God is to His people seems to be pressed? Does that lead to an outlook as in this Psalm as to what is for God and of God and for His pleasure?
SMcC Yes! How the thought of worship comes into this Psalm! Worshipping at His footstool! Particularly the thought of what is for God Himself. Then in verse 9, “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy.” You will notice how much joy is entering into these Psalms, the liberation of the saints in holy joy in these matters. It is a great thing that there should be this kind of liberty among the saints.
CD Would you say that in the first instance he is with God as to his sin, then he is with God as to the assembly, but here he is with God as to the place Christ should have.
SMcC At the end of the Psalm God comes in. God has taken account of what David had been saying; God comes in to say the same thing, “And I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.” God thinks, as it were, so much of what David is saying that He comes in, according to the way the verses read at the end.
VTS Does the Lord Jesus want us to be with God in the way that He was? He desired that His joy might be in us. Is that His desire for us?
SMcC Yes. So this verse, “There will I cause the horn of David to bud forth.” We want to see the horn of David budding forth. I believe that is the point at the present time in the great administration of grace. God is making the horn of David to bud forth; and who can stand against it? “His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish.” We can see that all around us on the public side of things, the enemies of God’s anointed, become to faith, clothed with shame.
GHW-n Does this prepare us for the ascent by which Solomon went up to the house of the Lord?
SMcC You might go further and say that for us it is preparing the way for the complete going up at the rapture. That is what should be in our minds constantly. We are just about to go up and we surely want to be in the gain of the horn of David budding forth; the blessed administration of grace enjoyed in a renewed way on the eve of the rapture.