THE WAY CHRIST IS PRESENTED IN DIFFERENT PSALMS
[p. 158] THE WAY CHRIST IS PRESENTED IN DIFFERENT PSALMS
Psalm 2; John 1: 45 - 51; Revelation 2: 24 - 28; Revelation 19: 11 - 16
The subject that is on my mind to bring before you is the special way in which Christ is presented in different psalms; how it is carried through Scripture, and also how the thought connects itself with the church.
In connection with that I will just say, what no doubt all here are well aware of, that you do not get the church in the Psalms; but, though it is not spoken of, yet clearly the place or time covered by the Psalms begins with the rejection of Christ and goes on to His coming again in glory. The opening psalms start with the fact that He is rejected and the closing psalms with the consequences of His coming: the Hallelujah! the coming of Jehovah. Jehovah reigns is the burden of the fourth book; and in the fifth book, especially the close of the book, it is praise to Jehovah; Hallelujah! From the very fact of the period which is covered by the Psalms being the period of Christ’s rejection, room must be left for the assembly; for it is the time of her history upon earth.
You get in the Psalms different thoughts of Christ, special traits of His perfection, and you will find how that light is carried into the New Testament, and becomes the groundwork of a great deal there. For instance, the book of Hebrews; you might say that epistle is built up from quotations of two or three psalms. You can understand the wisdom of the Spirit of God reasoning with the Jews out of their own scriptures. Psalm 2 and Psalm 8 especially are woven into the structure of the book in a remarkable way.
It is very wonderful, when you think that these psalms were written a thousand years before Christ [p. 159] came, that they should give the whole history of things — Christ’s rejection and the state of the people consequent upon it; you see in that way how prophetic they are.
Psalm 2 is a kind of basis. From the very starting-point you begin with Christ and Christ rejected. It is quoted by the apostles in Acts (chapter 4: 25, 26) and clearly refers to Christ. First the Lord comes out as Jehovah’s anointed; that is, He is Christ. There is one very important point raised; who is going to have the earth? That is the great point of the Psalms. Is man going to have it, or is God going to have it? The question is solved as you go through the Psalms. Man claims the earth, but God is going to possess it. The book does not open up heaven and heavenly things, but gives the answer as to who is going to have the earth. It is what the apostle John does; he does not carry saints to heaven, he brings heavenly things down here. In the gospel it is true in the Person of the Son; in the epistle it is true in the saints; and again in Revelation he presents Christ executing judgment according to Psalm 2. As another has remarked, John claims the earth for Christ.
John’s testimony is God’s love to the world; John 3: 16. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son”. You see God’s faithfulness to the Jew, but then Christ is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. That distinctly refers to Christ — He takes away the sin because the world is to be for God. He brings God to the earth — God’s King, God’s Anointed is going to possess it, and He shall reign for ever and ever. No doubt it carries us on to the new heaven and new earth.
Here, as I have said, we have Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah — all terms which mean the same thing, but He is rejected. Then comes in verse 7, “I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”.
[p. 160] He was Son of David in a sense as anointed, but after His rejection the great truth comes out, “Thou art my Son” — God’s Son. I want to give you an idea of the moral importance of that name, because it is a name, and a name inherited, as we read in Hebrews 1: 4, “He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they”. That is proof that it is not exactly an eternal name. Son of God according to Psalm 2 is a name inherited. He takes it up in that way as begotten in time.
One great thought I believe to be connected with the Son of God is that He has the power of life and the power of death. What I think is connected with the thought of Christ is that He is Jehovah’s Anointed, the accomplisher of His will. I refer you to a verse in Luke 24: “It behoved Christ to suffer”. He is the Anointed of Jehovah — anointed with oil to perform Jehovah’s will and to rule over Jehovah’s people. When you come to the thought of the Son of God He can open the doors of death and He has the power of life, too. He can remove the power of death, and eventually He will set it aside; He has, too, the keys of death and of Hades, and He can bring man out of death; John 5: 24.
Think of those two things in the power of the Son of God — to set death aside and to bring man out of it! The most simple instance I know is the millennium, because then man will be conformable to God. It is the Son of God who will effect this. He annulled death and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. In the millennium they will love God with all their heart and all their soul, and their neighbour as themselves. The Son of God has the power to set aside death and to bring life in, that everything down here on earth may be conformable to God. This is not true publicly yet, but Christians pass out of death into life.
I find another thought connected with Him as Son [p. 161] of God in Psalm 2 that is the authority given to Him (verses 8, 9). Judgment is committed to the Son; John 5: 22. It is not simply that as Son of David He rules God’s people, but as God’s Son He has authority over the nations to rule them with a rod of iron; but that is not the primary thought connected with Him as Son of God, but it is introduced to us in Psalm 2, because Christ being rejected as God’s Anointed becomes the occasion of the declaration of greater glories.
In the gospel of John you get the presentation of the Son of God. At the present time He can only be apprehended spiritually. When He was here on earth this was equally true — He could only be apprehended spiritually, and it is so now. That comes out in chapter 1. We read the passage which brings Nathanael before us; whatever apprehension he had of Christ was spiritual. The Lord begins with him: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (verse 47). Nathanael finds that the Lord knew him, not simply that Nathanael knew the Lord, and it draws from him the confession: “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel”.
I should venture to say that it was by divine teaching that Nathanael thus apprehended Christ. He was touched evidently in verses 47 and 48, for it brought forth from him the confession, “Thou art the Son of God”. The Man of Psalm 2 was apprehended. I should feel that Nathanael accepts even the rejection of Christ; no doubt he felt things down here were not according to Christ, and you cannot conceive that he could have been in concert with the general condition of the people.
In what the Lord says to Nathanael there is a beautiful point; He does not speak of judgment but of the whole system of blessing that is to come to pass in connection with the glory of Christ as Son of man: “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man”. It is interesting to notice that he confesses Christ according to Psalm 2 and Christ answers him according to Psalm 8. A thousand years had gone by since David spoke of these things and now here is “an Israelite indeed” apprehending the Person as spoken of in the Psalms. Christ touches a chord in his heart and he responds to it. He is rejected, but He is recognised spiritually as Son of God and King of Israel by one divinely taught.
That is true of us today; no one has an apprehension of Christ except by the Spirit of God, that is, as taught of God. There is the pretension in Christendom to know Christ but He can only be known spiritually. Christ was not here in glory but in testimony. The same is true today and testimony can only be apprehended spiritually. In order that a man should receive any testimony from God he “must be born again”, as you have it in John 3. To apprehend the testimony of a rejected Christ a man must be born again. If you apprehend that, it will save you from being deceived by what is going on around, and from the pretension there is on every side.
Now to pass on to the close of Christianity: Revelation 2: 18. Here we have the Lord introduced again as in Psalm 2: “These things saith the Son of God”. He comes in here in the character of judgment, His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass, and has the power of life and death. He kills with moral death. An awful thought to me! “I will kill her children with death”; that is, the children of that awful system that has come into Christianity — that woman Jezebel.
Thyatira, as you have no doubt noticed, closes the connection of Christ with the church as a whole. The reason is that evil had culminated then and there — Jezebel had been admitted. It is a great mercy that you get other states brought in after — such as Sardis and Philadelphia, for the last four churches run on to [p. 163] the end, but the public connection of Christ closes in Thyatira. He takes up there what belongs to Him according to Psalm 2. As long as the public connection of Christ with the church went on the time had not come for the Lord to go back to that — to ask for the nations: “Ask of me and I shall give the heathen for thine inheritance” — but when evil is authorised and allowed then He closes His public connection with the church as a whole.
Another natural consequence is, the King comes in verses 26, 27. Two things mark Thyatira — worldliness — worldly commerce, and the acknowledgement of the god of this world. These two things were peculiarly offensive to the Lord. It was an awful thing to the Lord when the church fell to that level. There is no mistake about idolatry in Rome, indeed there is a vast amount outside of it — of a more subtle kind, perhaps — the love of money and so on. The overcomer is not carried away by the current; he walks in separation from the state of corruption that has come in; he is one who refuses commerce with the world.
Now I want you to mark the promise to the overcomer. “To him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers”; then is added what you do not get in Psalm 2: “even as I received of my Father”. He thus gives the overcomer to share with Him in what has been committed to Him. Perhaps you may say it is not a very special promise, but it comes in, and is intended to be a great encouragement in a difficult day.
Do you want to please Christ? Then stand apart from worldliness and worldly commerce. Do not “eat and drink with the drunken”! That is the mark of the evil servant who said in his heart: “My lord delayeth his coming”. These features are all true of Popery — it is thoroughly worldly; but, alas, one can find a great many others who are so too. Be sure of [p. 164] this, if you eat and drink with the drunken you are in great danger of acknowledging the god of this world.
It has been said, and I believe, truly, that the higher a person is in the social scale, the nearer he is to the god of this world. The difficulties are much greater the higher up you are, and the more difficulty you are in with regard to the things of God. I thank God with all my heart that I do not stand very high socially! What I want to press is that we should be content to be unworldly; not merely that we should be separate from the ungodly, but that we should not be sitting down to be at ease here.
The promise to the overcomer is indeed a remarkable promise, “He shall rule them with a rod of iron”. I want it to come home to us as a word of encouragement. We may be depressed here and find the path difficult, and there are few of us who have not found the temptation to be conformed to this world, but I get great encouragement here. I would not care to go on with the course of this world when I see the promise of Christ to the overcomer here. I should find in it the most powerful possible motive for separation from the course of things from which Christ has been rejected. He has been rejected as God’s King: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed”. That attitude is not given up, it is still maintained. The kings of the earth stand up still, they will not give Christ His rights. This is the time of suffering; that is what marks this moment. The present moment is marked not by our being glorified but by our suffering.
In conclusion I turn to Revelation 19: 11, 12. The same description is given of the Lord as in Thyatira, “His eyes were as a flame of fire”. In verse 14 all the saints are viewed as in heaven; “The armies which were in heaven followed him”; then in verse 15 we get, “Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with [p. 165] it be should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron”.
Now, refer back to Christ Himself in Psalm 2, “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron”. He appears in glory and majesty, and the saints come with Him and they will have part with Him in the work of judgment; and this is the promise given to the overcomer in Thyatira.
Well, I only just desired to trace out these expressions. I repeat, all acquaintance with the Son of God at the present time is spiritual. He never comes again in testimony. When Christ comes as in Revelation 19 He comes in glory to execute judgment; and there will be no question in that day as to who He is; there will be no mistake then.
In John 11 and John 12 you find the testimony given to Christ in His various titles before He suffered, as Son of God, Son of David and Son of man. In the meantime we are privileged in the time of His rejection and suffering to own the truth of who He is — the truth of His Person, of all that is covered by His name. The name is that which is set forth in the Person. Son of God is set forth in Him (Romans 1: 2, 3); rejected as Son of David He is declared Son of God with power.
I can only pray that we may have grace to walk in entire separation from the world, from the commerce of this world, and from in any way acknowledging the god of this world; and may God also give us grace to go on refusing to acknowledge these things. Then, too, may we be encouraged by that which Christ promised to the overcomer, part with Him when He comes in authority.
Another thing is promised: “I will give him the morning star”. That is peculiar to the church. May God give us to know what it is to have Him in the heart, the day star arising in our hearts — the harbinger of day!