BOOK 3

BOOK 3

I think that the third book gives the ways of God with Israel, not with Judah merely (”unto which [promise] our twelve tribes hope to come”); the result being, Psalm 73, that God is good to Israel, but to the clean-hearted among them; while the prosperity of the wicked is a long sore trial to faith. Hence, in Psalm 74, all that on which their natural hopes rest is smashed and broken down. Flesh cannot build up what God has put under the power of judgment; but faith can wait on God, till He glorifies Himself. Psalm 75: His judgment is clearly unfolded, and Messiah declares the principles on which He will govern in respect of God. Psalm 76: thus God is known in Judah, His name great in Israel, and Jerusalem the seat of His power and glory. Psalm 77: the believing heart blames all distrust of this, as its infirmity, and remembers the previous days of God’s right hand.

In Psalm 78 all the perverse ways of Israel are discussed and the electing grace of God, in the house of David, presented as its only resource.

In Psalm 79 the excesses of the heathen, in the latter days, are brought under God’s eye, that He may favour His people, and not remember their iniquities against them.

In Psalm 80, the connection of God, as the dweller between the cherubim of old, and the manifestation of His power as Son of man, are brought together as the deliverance of the vine once brought out of Egypt.

Psalm 81. On the reappearance of Israel, that is, on the new moon, God shews the rectitude of His ways with that people in judgment.

^[p. 133] In Psalm 82 He judges among the gods.

In Psalm 83 we have the last conspiracy of the Assyrians, and those that dwell within the limits of the land, where judgment displays that Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.

Up to this, we have had God, in His nature and character, as such. Now, in Psalm 84, the people in connection with Him as Jehovah think of the joy of going up to His sanctuary, that is, to worship Him.

Psalm 85. In the favour He has shewn to His land, mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, have all been verified and brought together.

Psalm 86 is a celebration of the character of Jehovah, in respect of the needy, bringing all nations up to worship before Him.

Psalm 87. The excellency of Zion is celebrated as a defiance to the whole world, specially because Messiah is reckoned amongst her children.

Now we come to what Christ gets amidst all this. Psalm 88 is the curse of the broken law, which rests on the remnant, entered into by the Spirit of Christ: while in Psalm 89 all the mercies of God are centred in Him.

In the first Book of Psalms we get Christ more as an object for example, Psalms 2, 16, 20, 22, 40. In the second book, He is presented more as an answer. So it is more the remnant, and how they are to be delivered; there is as much of Christ, but more in the way of Deliverer. In the third book, it is more entirely the remnant, for it is not David, but Asaph. There is a great deal more of grace here, than of righteousness, for the remnant, and not so much of Christ. We get Israel in the old associations of Egypt, and not Christ Himself in the midst of the thing.

Psalm 73 is Israel beloved for the fathers’ sakes, modified by the necessity of personal righteousness. It forms a kind of thesis for the whole book.

Psalm 77 is exercise of soul in this state of things. Verses 13, 19: if you get into the sanctuary, there you win be sure to find God’s way; but if you look [for it] outside, it is “in the sea.” Verse 16 is the Red Sea.

Psalm 78 is an account of how they behaved under these mercies. Verse 67 is the natural heir refused. Even if God is good to Israel, it is God who is good, not that Israel has claim. Verse 68, He chose Judah.

^[p. 134] Psalm 82. If all the deputy — judges go wrong, God judges among the gods.

Psalm 84: 4 is the “house” and “praise.” Verse 5 is the “ways” and “strength”; both “blessed.” Verse 6, “Baca weeping”; so, “rejoicing in tribulation.”

Psalm 86 is David. A great deal more personal; the consciousness of standing in the gap for Israel.

Psalm 89: 1. “Mercies” celebrated. Verse 19 shews them summed up in the person of Christ, Verse 49, Israel is cast over on the certainty of mercy in God’s promise to David.