BOOK 2
[p. 129] BOOK 2
The second book begins not with Christ, but with the condition of the remnant; and hence has more for its subject the facts of the latter day, Israel being driven out. It is not going through all these states of soul, so that Christ might be brought in. It is like the position, when Christ went out to a place called Ephraim. (John 11: 54.) There was a kind of hoping for good, from the multitude before; but now He has done with the wicked, and come out. So now it is not Jehovah, but God. One is cast more simply on God. He is not trusting in the relationship, but in God, in the nature of Elohim.
Psalms 42 and 43. In the two first psalms of this book, Christ takes the place of the godly remnant as cast out of all Jewish privilege by the power of the enemy and the apostasy of the Jews themselves — a nation “Lo-chasid;” — ungodly.
Psalm 42 is more the Gentiles.
Psalm 43: 1. “Ungodly nation,” more than Jews. “The deceitful and unjust man” is Antichrist. The whole of this book is applicable to the period during which Antichrist has been received, that is, the last three and a half years.
In Psalms 44-48 we have the appeal of the remnant to God, as the One who, at the beginning, had delivered them, with all the consequences consequent on the intervention of Messiah in Psalm 45, Psalm 49 being a moral comment on human grandeur in view of this.
In Psalm 50 God has summoned all in judgment, and shines out of Zion, owned the “perfection of beauty.” Psalm 51. The Jews own their guilt in connection with the death of Christ.
In Psalms 52-58 we see the wickedness and violence within, that is, among the people. In Psalm 59, it is more the heathen without come against them at the same time. But in Psalm 60 in the midst of this distress, there is the assurance that God Himself will interfere, and claim His own rights in the midst of them.
In Psalm 61 Messiah identifies Himself with the outcast remnant; and, in Psalm 62, expresses His confidence in God so as to lead theirs, and that of all men.
All these psalms are to God, and not to Jehovah; that is, they depend on what God is in Himself.
In Psalm 63 it is the earnest desire of the godly soul after God, as he has known Him in the sanctuary. Psalm 64 is the confidence of the Spirit of Christ in God, though obliged to wait for Him till the judgment is executed. In Psalm 65 his faith is pressing: God has only to give the word, and He will have the praise that waits for Him; while in Psalm 66 God’s intervention in judgment is celebrated, and their state described until it come. In Psalm 67 the face of God, shining on His people, carries His saving health among all nations. In Psalm 68 the heavenly exaltation of Christ is the source of the blessing of His people. In Psalm 69 is all the depth of His distress as man — not exactly the cup of wrath, though it is on the cross. In Psalm 70 he looks for deliverance; and that those who seek God may be able to praise God because of it, however needy he may be. In Psalm 71 he speaks as the representative of the family of David — all dying out. In Psalm 72 we see the son of David in his new glorious reign on earth. This closes the book.
[p. 130] Psalm 44 is the cry of the remnant. Their present confidence is in God, through looking for Him to take the place of Jehovah.
In Psalm 45 Messiah comes in. Verse 6: His divine title is owned, Verse 9: when we have the kingdom on earth, Jerusalem is the bride. Verse 14: the virgins are the cities of Judah. In verse 16 the old thing is not remembered; but the new, which grace has introduced.
Psalm 46. The remnant find that they are owned as the nation, when they have settled in Zion. Messiah having been introduced, God is the God of Jacob.
In Psalm 47 He is subduing the peoples under their feet. The consequence of God’s establishment in Zion is His stretching out His hand over the nations.
Psalm 48. Zion takes her place. She is established in blessedness. Verse 8: “As we have heard, so have we seen.” It is not merely that He has come there, He is settled there. Not “I had gone with the multitude,” but, “in the midst of thy temple.” Verse 10: “According to the name,” etc. They had trusted the name, and now so is it. Verse 14: Unto death — that is, all their life long. Death not destroyed. The desire of Psalms 42, 43, and 44 is fulfilled in Psalm 48.
Psalm 49 is a moral sermon; a kind of “improvement” of Psalms 44-49. Verse 15 is resurrection, or preservation from death.
Psalm 50. They now come in to the covenant “by sacrifice”; not by obedience, as at Sinai. Verse 3 is the way He gets to Zion.
[p. 131] Psalm 51. Their confession. Verse 19: When the heart is set right, their “sacrifices of righteousness” are acceptable. Mercy coming before righteousness is always a sign of the remnant.
As in Psalm 42 we had Israel cast out, and in Psalm 45 the temporal deliverance; so in Psalm 51 is the deliverance within. The secret of the whole we get in Psalms 68 and 69 on to Psalm 72. In Psalm 50: 6, the heavens declare His righteousness: in Psalm 68: 18, we find that Christ has ascended there; in Psalm 69 we learn how He got there whilst Psalm 72 gives His royal place in Zion as Solomon.
As Psalm 52 gives faith in God’s enduring goodness for the righteous whilst He would destroy the wicked, so in Psalm 53 we see the wickedness of the people judged by God; and Psalm 54 is the cry to God as such for deliverance, before His name of Jehovah is praised.
Psalm 55 is the horror of Spirit of Christ at seeing the total iniquity at Jerusalem — Judas and Antichrist. Verse to, Jerusalem. Verse 20, Antichrist.
Psalm 56 is more outward. Verse 8, “wanderings that is, up and down, not knowing what to cry; as Psalm 57 directs to heaven for the true source of deliverance.
Psalm 58: it is the meaning of judgment, establishing God’s government of the earth.
Psalm 59: 6. Not within the city yet.
Psalm 60: 3. “Hard things” shewn the people. Verse 4, a banner given to them that fear, that it may be displayed because of the truth.
Psalm 61. All is outside; when Jesus went beyond Jordan and abode there — the hill Mizar and Hermon.
Psalm 62 is the cry of confidence in God.
Psalm 68 is the cast-out king; and (verse 2) the desire is not as in mysticism after a thing never known, but “to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee,” etc. Verse 3: his life was all sorrow, yet, “because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.”
Psalm 64: 3. “They bend their bows to shoot their arrows”; but (verse 7) “God shall shoot at them with an arrow.”
[p. 132] Psalm 65: 4. The Jews are blessed; verse 8, then all the earth.
Psalm 66 shews righteous intervention before all; and Psalm 67 the blessing of the remnant as the way of blessing for the nations.
Psalm 68: 18 is the secret of it all — Jehovah received up into glory — the mystery of godliness.
Psalm 69 is the utmost distress of Christ in the midst of Israel. Verse 26: The fact of atonement, though not directly stated as such. He is looking at sorrows from the reproachers (not as in Psalm 22), and therefore the judgment of men.
Psalm 72: 16 does not touch heaven; so it is not the Son of man’s dominion, but the King’s Son’s.