THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Books of Poetry
Message Two—Psalms (1)
Scripture Reading: Psa. 2:6-7; 26:8; 27:4; 46:4; 48:2; 72:8; 73:16-17; 90:1; 91:9
I. The book of Psalms is a book of divine revelation through expressions of the sentiments, feelings, impressions, and experiences of godly men; in and through these expressions, Christ is revealed and the church as God’s house and God’s city is typified—2:6-7, 26:8, 27:4, 46:4, 48:2:
A. The book of Psalms is not of doctrines or of any kind of teachings; the writings of the Psalms are in the form of praises; the book o Psalms is composed of the expressions of the sentiments, feelings, impressions, and experiences of godly men; this is the very crucial key for us to understand the Psalms—Psa. 1:2.
B. Psalms is a book of divine revelation composed of the expressions, sentiments, feelings, impressions, and experiences of godly men—vv. 2, 6; 2:6; 26:8; 46:4; 48:2:
1. God and the way He is in His dealing with them.
2. The law of God as the Holy Word with the divine revelation.
3. The house of God, the temple, and Mount Zion, on which the temple was seated, as the center of God’s dwelling place on earth.
4. The holy city of God, Jerusalem, as the encompassing protection of the house of God.
5. The holy people of God, Israel, as God’s beloved elect among the nations.
6. Israel’s love toward God, their fellowship with God, their blessings received of God, their sufferings under God’s dealing, and their environment.
7. Their captivity.
8. Their thanksgivings and praises to Jehovah their God, whom they tasted and enjoyed.
C. Through the godly expressions of the psalmists Christ is revealed and the church as God’s house and God’s city is typified—2:7-9, 46:4.
D. The central thought of Psalms is Christ, the church as the house of God and the city of God, for His kingdom, as typified by the temple and by the city of Jerusalem—Psa. 8, 84, 87.
II. The book of Psalms was written according to two kinds of concepts—the human concept of the holy writers and the divine concept of God; we need to be brought into the divine concept of the unveiling God—73:16-17:
A. The human concept of the holy writers was produced out of their good nature created by God, formed with the traditions of their holy race, constituted with the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, promoted by their practice of a holy life, and uttered out of their holy sentiments and impressions—vv. 1, 16-17, 23-26.
B. The divine concept of God as the divine revelation in the Psalms concerns three major items—2:7, 51:1, 53:6, 91:9:
1. God’s eternal economy, of which Christ is the centrality and universality.
2. Christ in His divinity, humanity, human living, all-inclusive death, life-imparting and church-producing resurrection, glorification, ascension, appearing in glory, and reigning forever.
3. God’s heart’s desire, His good pleasure, in Christ as His centrality and universality, in the church as His fullness for His expression, in the kingdom for His eternal administration, and in the recovery of the earth for His eternal kingdom in eternity.
C. The human concept of the holy writers uplifts the law as their central emphasis to treasure the law and remain in it for their whole life—1:2, 40:8.
D. The divine concept of the unveiling God exalts Christ as His central stress to turn the holy writers’ human concept from the law to Christ according to the divine concept of the divine revelation—43:3, 5.
E. In the Psalms, only what is written out of the divine concept of God, and not what is written out of the human concept of the psalmists, should be considered as part of the divine revelation from God concerning His divine economy—73:17, 24, 25, 28.
III. The book of Psalms, composed of one hundred fifty psalms, is divided into five books; these five books can be likened to the five floors of a building; the first books is the ground floor, whereas the fifth book is the highest floor; the five books of the Psalms were divided by the Spirit according to four crucial words: Christ, house, city, earth—2:6-7, 27:4, 48:2, 72:8:
A. Psalms 1—41 are the first book; indicating that God’s intention is to turn the seeking saints from the law to Christ that they may enjoy the house of God—the church.
B. Psalms 42—72 are the second book; indicating that the saints experience God and His house and city through the suffering, exalted, and reigning Christ.
C. Psalms 73—89 are the third book; indicating that the saints, in their experiences, realize that the house and the city of God with all the enjoyments there of can be preserved and maintained only with Christ properly appreciated and exalted by God’s people.
D. Psalms 90—106 are the fourth book; indicating that the saints, being joined to Christ, are one with God so that He can recover His title over the earth through Christ in His house and city.
E. Psalms 107—150 are the fifth book; indicating that the house and the city of God become the praise, safety, and desire of the saints, and that Christ comes to reign over the whole earth through the house and the city of God—the church.
IV. In the book of Psalms, as in the entire Bible, there are two lines: the line of the tree of life, the line of life, and the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the line of death; in addition to these two lines, the line of the law runs alongside the line of life—Gen. 2:8-9, 16-17; and note 93, par. 2:
A. In reading the Psalms, we need to be on the line of the tree of life, not on the line of the knowledge of good and evil—Gen. 2:9:
1. The two trees are two sources with two lines, two principles, and two ends; the tree of life signifies God as the source of life; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of death.
2. The Bible was written according to these two trees; the entire divine revelation is the development of the notion of these two trees.
B. God’s purpose in giving the law was to lead His people to Christ (Gal. 3:23-24), i. e., to the line of life:
1. However, if the law as the sideline is exalted improperly, it becomes part of the line of the tree of knowledge, the line of death (Rom. 7:7-11; 2 Cor. 3:6b).
2. God has ordained Christ to be the centrality and universality of His economy to fulfill His good pleasure (Eph. 1:9-10; 3:8-11); the law has been ended by Christ (Rom. 10:4a), and the believers are no longer under the law (Rom. 6:14).
V. To take God as our habitation, our eternal dwelling place, is the highest and fullest experience of God—Psa. 90:1; 91:9:
A. Psalm 36:8 speaks of eating the fatness of God’s house and drinking the river of God’s pleasures, indicating that we can experience the Lord by eating and drinking Him—cf. John 6:48-58, 63; 7:37; 1 Cor. 10:3-4; 12:13.
B. According to Moses, the giver of the law and the writer of Psalm 90, we can also dwell in the eternal Triune God as our Lord—v. 1; 91:9; Deut. 33:27; cf. John 15:4; 1 John 4:15-16; Rev. 21:22.
C. To dwell in God is to have our living in God (Col. 2:6; 3:3; 1 John 4:16), taking Him as our everything; this is deeper than eating and drinking Him.
D. If we would be identified with Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension, we need to abide in Christ (John 15:4), and to abide in Christ is not only to remain in Him but also to dwell in Him, taking Him as our everything.
E. Book Four of the Psalms (Psa. 90-106) unveils the saints’ deeper experience of God in the identification with Christ, and it unveils God’s recovery of His title and right over the earth:
1. This indicates that our experience of dwelling in God paves the way for Christ to come to possess the earth so that God may recover His title (ownership) and right over the earth.
2. Without the saints’ deeper experience of God, God has no way to recover this title and right.
Ⅵ. “God desires to have an organic habitation on earth, and this habitation is the aggregate of the saints gained by God through the terminating death and germinating resurrection of the all-inclusive Christ; they will be the eternal manifestation and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God, and He will be everything to them in His all-inclusive Christ; the Triune God will reign on the new earth through such an organism in the new universe; this is the spirit, the extract, of the book of Psalms.” (Life-Study of Psalms, msg. 45)
Ministry Excerpts:
THE PSALMS BEING NOT A BOOK OF DOCTRINES
OR ANY KIND OF TEACHINGS, BUT A BOOK OF THE EXPRESSIONS OF THE SENTIMENTS, FEELINGS, IMPRESSIONS, AND EXPERIENCES OF GODLY MEN
The book of Psalms is not of doctrines or of any kind of teachings. The writings of the Psalms are in the form of praises. These praises were not composed by doctrine or understanding of teachings.
The book of Psalms is composed of the expressions of the sentiments, feelings, impressions, and experiences of godly men. This is the very crucial key for us to understand the Psalms. If we do not pick up this key, we have no way to understand this book. Not seeing this key is a big mistake many Christians have made.
THE PSALMS BEING WRITTEN ACCORDING TO TWO KINDS OF CONCEPTS
The Psalms were written according to two kinds of concepts. We also have to pick up this point. Otherwise, we cannot properly understand the Psalms.
The Human Concept of the Holy Writers
The first concept, according to which the Psalms were written, is the human concept of the holy writers. Their human concept was produced out of their good nature created by God, formed with the traditions of their holy race, constituted with the teachings of their holy Scriptures, promoted by their practice of a holy life, and uttered out of their holy sentiments and impressions. These are the constituents of the human concept of the holy writers of the Psalms. They were from a holy race, possessing the Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses. They were a greatly cultured people. The traditions of their holy race formed their human concept according to which many of the psalms were written.
The Divine Concept of God
The Psalms were also written according to the divine concept of God as the divine revelation. This divine concept of God as the divine revelation is concerning His eternal economy in Christ, taking Christ as its centrality and universality. IT is also concerning Christ in His divinity, humanity, human living, all-inclusive death, life-imparting and seed-producing resurrection, glorification, ascension, appearing in glory, and reigning forever. All these points are clearly, and even in detail, revealed in the Psalms. The divine concept in the Psalms is also concerning God’s heart’s desire, His good pleasure in Christ as His centrality and universality, in the church as His fullness for His expression, in the kingdom for His eternal administration, and in the recovery of the earth for His eternal kingdom in eternity. This divine concept of God was uttered from the godly writers of the Psalms as a part of the utterance in their holy writings. The same writers uttered two kinds of concepts—the human concept and the divine concept.
The Human Concept of the Holy Writers Uplifting the Law
as Their Central Emphasis
I hope that we would remember these points concerning the human and divine concepts in the book of Psalms. The human concept of the holy writers uplifts the law as their central emphasis to treasure the law and remain in it for their whole life.
The Divine Concept of the Unveiling God Exalting Christ
as His Central Stress
The divine concept of the unveiling God exalts Christ as His central stress to turn the holy writers’ human concept from the law to Christ according to the divine concept of the divine revelation.
We need to see that, on the one hand, the book of Psalms was written according to the human concept, and on the other hand, it was written according to the divine concept. If we do not see this, our understanding will be natural, and the Psalms will be understood by us according to the human concept. In our understanding of the Psalms, we will not have anything of the divine concept. We all need to be brought into the divine concept of the unveiling God. We need to be turned from the law to Christ according to the divine concept. (Life-Study of Psalms, msg. 1)
THE TWO LINES CONCERNING GOD’S ETERNAL ECONOMY IN THE PSALMS AS IN THE ENTIRE SCRIPTURES
The Line of Life versus
the Line of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
In order to see the two lines of the Bible, we need to go back to the very beginning of the divine revelation at the creation of man. The book of Genesis reveals that God created man in His image so that He could have a vessel to contain Him for His expression (1:26-28; 2:7-9). After God created man, He did not give man a long list of instructions. He did not say to man, “Man, you have to know that I am your God. You have to fear Me, love Me, and obey Me. Furthermore, I will make you a wife, and you have to love her. After you have a wife, you will produce children, and you have to listen to Me so that you can pick up the best way to raise them.” God did not do this.
After God created man in His own image and after His own likeness, He did not tell man what to do and what not to do. Instead, God brought man into a garden, signifying that God’s intention with man for the accomplishment of His economy needs a pleasant situation, a pleasant environment.
God brought Adam into a garden, into a pleasant environment, and put him in front of two trees—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). God told Adam that he could freely eat of every tree in the garden, including the tree of life, but He warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (vv. 16-17). In telling Adam that all the trees in the garden were good for food, God was very wise. His intention was to stress to Adam that the tree of life was good for food. Then God warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, telling Adam that if he ate of it, he would surely die.
We need to realize that the entire Bible was written according to these two trees. The entire divine revelation is the development of the notion of these two trees. Genesis shows us man in a pleasant garden with the tree of life before him. Then in Revelation at the end of the divine revelation, we see the tree of life again (22:2). The tree of life not only was in the garden but also will be in the eternal city, the New Jerusalem. The line of the tree of life runs through the entire Bible from Genesis to reach the last chapter of the book of Revelation.
The Main Line as the Central Line of God’s Economy Concerning Christ and the Church
The main line of the Bible is the central line of God’s economy concerning Christ and the church. This is the line of life. Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy. The church is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23), the counterpart of Christ, the complement of Christ, to be God’s dwelling on the earth, typified by the tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9; Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:3) and the temple (1 Kings 6:1), both of which are considered as the house of God (Judg. 18:31b; Psa. 5:7). The main line is of Mount Zion in the heavens (Psa. 2:6; Rev. 14:1), signified by Mount Zion on the earth (Psa. 3:4; 9:11, 14; 14:7; 15:1b); and the New Testament believers have come to Mount Zion in the heavens (Heb. 12:22) in the main line of God’s economy.
The Side Line Concerning the Law
The other line in the Scriptures is the side line concerning the law. This is the line of the knowledge of good and evil. The law was added alongside the main line of the economy of God (Rom. 5:20a). The side line is of Mount Sinai, where the law was given. The Old Testament saints, who were for the law, were slaves of this Mount Sinai (Gal. 4:24).
The psalmists, who were for the law, stayed ignorantly at Mount Sinai of this side line. Occasionally and unconsciously they turned to Mount Zion of the main line, as unveiled in Psalms 3:4; 9:11, 14; 14:7; and 15:1b. In Mount Zion they enjoyed the house, the temple of God, as unveiled in Psalms 5:7 and 11:4. This is an unconscious progression in the psalmists’ seeking after God.
The psalmist in Psalm 15 was questioning as to who may sojourn in God’s tent and who may dwell on God’s holy mountain. The answer according to David’s concept is the perfect man in the side line of the law (Psa. 15:2-5). But the answer according to the divine revelation is the God-man Christ (Psa. 16:1-11) as the firstborn Son of God with His many brothers as the many sons of God in the main line of God’s economy (Rom. 6:14). (Life-Study of Psalms, msg. 8)
THE SAINTS’ DEEPER EXPERIENCE OF GOD
IN THE IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST
The Psalms, the most difficult book in the Bible to read and understand, is divided into five books. Book 1 is composed of Psalms 1 through 41; Book 2, of Psalms 42 through 72; Book 3, of Psalms 73 through 89; Book 4, of Psalms 90 through 106; and Book 5, of Psalms 107 through 150. The division of the Psalms into these five books is not according to chronological order, that is, it is not according to the time of writing. Neither is the arrangement of the books according to the nature of the teaching found in these books. In each book there are psalms that are a mixture of the revelation concerning Christ and the complex sentiments of the psalmists, sentiments that are according to the writers’ thought regarding good and evil.
It is hard to say how the Psalms were divided into five books, but we can be sure that this arrangement was not made by the human mind. Of course, certain persons made the arrangement, but the Spirit was also involved. As the Lord showed us during our study of the Psalms in 1969, the five books of the Psalms were divided by the Spirit according to four crucial words: Christ, house, city, earth.
According to Moses’ word in Psalm 90:1, our house, our dwelling place, is the Triune God as our Lord. Dwelling in God is the deeper experience of God. When we experience the Triune God to the degree that we take Him as our dwelling place, we have the deeper experience of God.
To take God as our habitation, our dwelling place, is the highest and fullest experience of God. To take God as our dwelling place is to experience Him to the fullest extent. Probably no one among us would dare to say that he dwells in God all the time. But this is what Christ did. When He was living His human life on earth, He continually took God the Father as His habitation.
DEEPER EXPERIENCE OF GOD IN THE IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST AND GOD’S RECOVERY OF HIS TITLE AND RIGHT OVER THE EARTH
Psalm Book 4 unveils the saints’ deeper experience of God in the identification with Christ and God’s recovery of His title and right over the earth. This indicates that our experience of dwelling in God paves the way for Christ to come to possess the earth that God may recover His title and right over the earth. Title refers to ownership, and right refers to all God’s right over the earth. Without the saints’ deeper experience of God, God has no way to recover this title and right. This means that if we drink Christ, eat Christ, and breathe Christ without taking Christ as our habitation, God has no way to recover the earth.
This thought is found in John 15. In John 14:2 the Lord Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes…I go to prepare a place for you.” These abodes are not rooms in a heavenly mansion, as commonly supposed, but places in the Father’s house. In 15:4 the Lord went on to say, “Abide in Me.” This reveals that Christ is not only the way to the house—He is the house itself. To abide in Christ is to dwell in Him. By our dwelling in Him Christ has a way to recover the earth. (Life-Study of Psalms, msg. 35)