THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Books of Poetry
Message Five—Psalms (4)
Scripture Reading: Psalm 68
I. Psalm 68 reveals God’s move on the earth; Psalm 68 is the highest peak of the divine revelation concerning Christ in all the Psalms; it is written in poetry, with types and signs, portraying the steps in God’s move on the earth in Christ: (2011 ST, msg. 10; Holy Bible Recovery Version, Psa. 68:1, footnote 1)
A. God’s move began after the rearing up of the tabernacle with the Ark, signifying Christ incarnated to be the dwelling place of God on the earth, with Himself as the center for God’s move in His economy—v. 1; John 1:14a; Num. 9:15a. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. God’s move in the tabernacle with the Ark from Mount Sinai (Psa. 68:8b, 17b) through the wilderness (vv. 4b, 7b) to Mount Zion (v. 16) was a type of His move in Christ from the incarnation to the ascension—John 1:17; Eph. 4:8-10. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
C. God is still moving on this earth in and through the church, and He is moving with Christ as the center of the church—1 Tim. 3:15-16; Psa. 68:4, 7. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
D. God’s move in man is to deify man, making man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead—1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
II. Psalm 68 reveals God’s victory in Christ as the center, typified by the Ark: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. “Let God arise; let His enemies be scattered; / And let those who hate Him lee before Him”—wherever the Ark, a type of Christ, went, the victory was won—v. 1; Num. 10:35. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. “The kings of the armies flee. / They flee!”—these kings, who were defeated and scattered, typify Satan and the rulers, the rebellious angels—Psa. 68:12a, 14; Eph. 6:12. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
C. “The Lord gives the command; / The women who bear the glad tidings are a great host”—these women of Israel signify the weak ones who publish the gospel—Psa. 68:11. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
D. “She who abides at home / Divides the spoil”—the spoil signifies all the gains of the accomplishment, consummation, attainment, and obtainment of Christ as the reapings of the victory of His death, resurrection, and ascension—v. 12b. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
E. “Though you lie among the sheepfolds—lying among the sheepfolds signifies resting in God’s provision and care for His elect”—v. 13a. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
F. “There are dove wings covered with silver, / And its pinions, with greenish-yellow gold”—this verse reveals four items among the spoil—v. 13b: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
1. The dove wings signify the moving power of the Spirit. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
2. Silver signifies Christ in His redemption for our justification, which is indicated by the color white, the color of approval. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
3. Pinions (the feathers at the end of a bird’s wings giving it the strength to fly and soar) signify the flying and soaring power of the Spirit—Isa. 40:31. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
4. The greenish-yellow, glittering gold with which the pinions are covered signifies God’s nature glittering in the divine life and glory—2 Pet. 1:4; cf. John 4:24; 1 John 4:8; 1:5. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
5. The contents of the above four items, as Christ’s spoil in His victory for the enjoyment of God’s elect, are actually the Triune God with all the items of His complete, full, and all-inclusive salvation—cf. Rom. 5:10, 17, 21. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
6. God’s elect enjoy all the above items as their portion in Christ and announce them to others as the glad tidings—Psa. 68:11. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
III. Psalm 68 reveals Christ’s ascension: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. “You have ascended on high”—this refers to the highest peak in the universe—v. 18; Eph. 4:8a; cf. Isa. 14:13. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. “You have led captive those taken captive”—Psa. 68:18: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
1. Those taken captive refers to the redeemed saints, who were taken captive by Satan and imprisoned before being saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
2. Christ defeated Satan and captured his captives (including us); then like a general leading his captives, Christ in His ascension to the heavens lead us to the Father—cf. 2 Cor. 2:12-14. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
3. The Amplified New Testament renders “He led captive those taken captive” in Ephesians 4:8 as “He led a train of vanquished foes”; in Christ’s ascension there was a procession of these vanquished foes, led as captives from a war, for the celebration of Christ’s victory. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
IV. Psalm 68 reveals Christ’s receiving the gifts: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. “You have received gifts among men, / Even the rebellious ones also”—we have been captured by Christ, presented by Christ to the Father, and then given to Christ by the Father as gifts—v. 18. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. The gifts received by Christ have become the gifted believers, whom He gave to His Body for its building up—Eph. 4:7-12. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
V. Psalm 68 reveals the building up of the dwelling place of God: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. “That Jehovah God may dwell among them”—the gifts as the gifted persons, the believers in Christ, are built together to be the dwelling place for God; this dwelling place signifies the church, the Body of Christ—v. 18, Eph. 4:11-12. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. “A Father to the orphans and a Judge for the widows / Is God in His holy habitation. / God causes the solitary to dwell in a household; / He brings the prisoners forth into prosperity” —God’s dwelling place is also the habitation of the believers (the needy, the solitary, and the bound ones) —Psa. 68:5-6a. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
C. The “mountain on which God desires to dwell” (Psa. 68:15-16) is Mount Zion, the highest peak in the universe—cf. Rev. 14:1. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
VI. Psalm 68 reveals the enjoyment of God in His house: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. The enjoyment of God in His house comes after the building up of His dwelling place, the church—v. 18. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. “Blessed be the Lord, who day by day loads us with good; / God is our salvation. Selah”—the good here is the Triune God—the dove wings covered with silver and its pinions covered with greenish-yellow, glittering gold—vv. 19, 13; Rom. 8:28. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
C. “God is to us / A God of deliverance, / And with Jehovah the Lord / Are the goings forth even from death”—when we enjoy God as our saving life, we escape death—Psa. 68:20; Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:16. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
D. In God’s house we also enjoy His victory over the enemies—Psa. 68:21-23; Matt. 16:18; Rom. 16:20. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
VII. Psalm 68 reveals the praising of God according to His New Testament economy: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. “They have seen Your goings, O God, / The goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary”—they refers to the enemies, goings refers to God’s activities, and the sanctuary signifies the church—v. 24. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. “Singers go before; players after; / In the midst of virgins sounding the tambourines”—virgins signifies the believers—v. 25; 2 Cor. 11:2; Phil. 4:4. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
C. “Bless God in the congregations, / Even Jehovah, O you who are of the fountain of Israel. / There are little Benjamin, who rules them, / And the princes of Judah in their company, / The Princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. / Your God has commanded your strength; / Strengthen, O God, that which You have done for us”—Psa. 68:26-28. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
D. In the praise rendered to God by His elect, there is portrayed a scenery in typology concerning God’s New Testament economy in the accomplishment of God’s redemption for His salvation by Christ and in the spreading of the glad tidings of Christ’s accomplishment with the beautiful words of the gospel: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
1. Psalm 68:27 speaks of “little Benjamin”:(2011 ST, msg. 10)
a. As the son of sorrows, Ben-oni, Benjamin typifies Christ, who, as the man of sorrows in His incarnation and human life on earth, accomplished God’s eternal redemption for His full salvation—Gen. 35:18a; Isa. 53:3. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
b. As the son of the right hand, Benjamin typifies, Christ, who, as the Son of the right hand of God in His resurrection, victory, and ascension, ministers in the heavens to carry out the application of God’s redemption for His salvation—Gen. 35:18b; Heb. 1:3; 5:5-10. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
2. Psalm 68:27 speaks of “the princes of Judah”:(2011 ST, msg. 10)
a. Judah typifies Christ as the victory for God’s people (the lion with the power and the scepter) and the peace (Shiloh) to God’s people. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
b. Judah reveals the victory of Christ (vv. 8-9), the kingdom of Christ (v. 10), and the enjoyment and rest in Christ. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
c. Judah, as the kingly tribe, was accompanied always by Benjamin, as a warrior tribe, for God’s kingdom on the earth—v. 27. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
3. Psalm 68:27 speaks of “the princes of Zebulun”: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
a. Dwelling at the shore of the sea (Galilee) and being a shore for ships (Gen. 49:13), Zebulun typifies Christ as the “shore” of the evangelists for the transportation and spreading in the preaching of God’s gospel. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
b. On the day of Pentecost, at least one hundred twenty gospel “ships,” all of whom were Galileans, set out to spread the gospel—Acts 1:8, 11; 2:2-41. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
4. Psalm 68:27 speaks of “the princes of Naphtali”:(2011 ST, msg. 10)
a. Naphtali typifies Christ as the One who is released from death in resurrection, signified by the “Hind let loose” (Gen. 49:21; Psa. 22, title; 18:33; S. S. 2:8-9), and gives beautiful words for the preaching of His gospel. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
b. People of both Zebulun and Naphtali were men of Galilee (4:12-17; Acts 1:11), from whom the gospel of Christ has been spread, preached, and propagated. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
c. In typology Zebulun and Naphtali form a group for the spreading and the propagating of the glad tidings of Christ’s redemption for God’s salvation. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
VIII. Psalm 68 reveals the spreading from the temple into the city of God: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. “Strengthen, O God, that which You have done for us. / Because of Your temple at Jerusalem” —following God’s strengthening of what He has done or His elect, the influence of the enjoyment of God in His house spreads to the entire city of Jerusalem—vv. 28b-29a. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. The house of God signifies the local church, and the city of Jerusalem signifies the kingdom, the strengthening and safeguard of the church. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
Ⅸ. Psalm 68 reveals the gaining of the earth for God: (2011 ST, msg. 10)
A. The influence of the enjoyment of God will gain the whole earth for God—vv. 29b-31; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:24. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
B. The kingdoms of the earth are charged to praise God—Psa. 68:32-34. (2011 ST, msg. 10)
C. The psalmist concludes by praising and blessing God—v. 35. (2011 ST, msg. 10)