THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Books of Poetry
Message Four—Psalms (3)
Scripture Reading: Psa. 2:6-7; 26:8; 27:4; 46:4; 48:2; 72:8; 73:16-17; 90:1; 91:9
I. Four major stations concerning Christ—Psalms 2, 8, 16, and 22—24; we all need to see the particular aspects of Christ revealed in these psalms; these psalms present us a completed Christ:
A. Psalm 2 tells us that the Christ is God’s anointed One.
B. Psalm 8 reveals Christ as the incarnated and crowned One, the excellent One in all the earth.
C. Psalm 16 reveals Christ in His human living; it shows that Christ lived on this earth as a God-man, died on the cross, resurrected, and then ascended to the right hand of God.
D. Psalm 22 shows us Christ crucified and resurrected to produce His brothers to constitute His Body, the church; then in resurrection in Psalm 23, He became our Shepherd, shepherding us through five stages of enjoyment; eventually, He will come back to be the King of glory, as revealed in Psalm 24.
II. Psalm 2 is God’s speaking, God’s declaration, God’s proclamation, concerning Christ as the center of His economy:
A. The word economy is not in Psalm 2, but the revelation and reality of God’s economy are there.
B. The King and the kingdom in Psalm 2 show us the economy of God—vv. 6, 8-9:
1. For God to have a King is for the fulfilling of His economy—v. 6.
2. Christ’s kingdom will be a great kingdom of all the nations, covering the entire earth; His kingdom will be everywhere to include everyone—vv. 8-9; 22:28; Dan. 7:14.
C. Psalm 2 reveals the steps of Christ in God’s economy, beginning from His being anointed in eternity in His divinity (v. 2) and continuing with His resurrection (implying His death also—v. 7; cf. Acts 13:33), His ascension (Psa. 2:6), His setting up His universal kingdom (Rev. 11:15) with the nations as His inheritance and the ends of the earth as His possession (Psa. 2:8), and His ruling the nations with an iron rod (v. 9).
III. Psalm 8 is David’s inspired praise of the excellency of Christ—this psalm speaks of the heavens, the earth, babes and sucklings, man, three categories of enemies, and the Lord’s incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension, the Body of Christ, His coming back, and His kingdom—cf. Matt. 6:9-11; Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51:
A. The Lord’s name is excellent (majestic) in al the earth, and His splendor (glory) has been set over the heavens—v. 1:
1. In Psalm 8, the name of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and exalted Jesus (Phil. 2:5-11) is excellent (majestic) in all the earth according to the divine revelation, and the Lord’s Glory is over the heavens in the sight of David.
2. The goal of this psalm is to join the earth to the heavens and bring the heavens down to the earth, making the earth and the heavens one—John 1:51; Gen. 28:12.
B. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings the Lord has established strength (praise—Matt. 21:16) because of His adversaries, to stop the enemy and the avenger—Psa. 8:2:
1. Satan is God’s adversary within God’s kingdom, God’s enemy outside God’s kingdom, and the avenger who roves to and fro over the earth—cf. Job 1:7; 1 Pet. 5:8.
2. The Lord stops these three categories of negative ones by establishing strength and perfecting praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, the youngest, smallest, and weakest ones.
3. The highest consummation of the Lord’s work in His redemption is to strengthen the weakest and smallest ones and perfect the praise they offer to Him out of their mouths.
C. “What is mortal man, that the Lord remembers him, and the son of man, that He visits him?” Psalm 8 shows that God’s purpose and plan for man to express Him with His image and to represent Him with His dominion have never changed—Psa. 8:4; Gen. 1:26-28:
1. In his view in the heavens, David turned his consideration to man on the earth.
2. Man is the central object of God in His creation for the accomplishment of His economy to fulfill His heart’s desire.
3. The first “man” in verse 4 is enosh in Hebrew, and the second “man” is adam in Hebrew, both referring to:
a. The God-created man in God’s creation in Genesis 1:26.
b. The Satan-captured man in man’s fall in Psalm 8:4.
c. Christ as a man in His incarnation for the accomplishment of God’s redemption in Hebrews 2:6.
4. Such a man God remembers in His economy and visits in His incarnation—John 1:14; Phil. 2:7.
5. The man prophesied in Psalm 8 is the second man, the Lord Jesus, who has recovered man’s lost ordination and has fulfilled God’s original purpose—Heb. 2:5-9.
D. The Lord has made man a little lower than angels; this refers to Christ’s incarnation with His human living for His all-inclusive death—Psa. 8:5a; Heb. 2:7a; John 1:14; Heb. 2:9a.
E. God has caused man (Christ) to rule over the works of God’s hands and has put all things under His feet: all sheep and oxen, the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas—Psa. 8:6-8; Heb. 2:7b-8a:
1. This word was fulfilled in Adam (Gen. 1:26-28), but it was broken by man’s fall.
2. In Christ’s ascension God subjected all things under Christ’s feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body—Eph. 1:22-23; Rom. 16:20.
3. It will be fulfilled in full in Christ with His Body, the overcomers, in the millennium, the age of restoration—Rev. 20:4-6; Matt. 19:28; Isa. 11:6-9; 65:25.
IV. The subject of Psalm 22 is the Christ who has passed through His redeeming death and entered into His church-producing resurrection:
A. Psalm 22:1-21 gives a detailed picture of Christ in His suffering of death (cf. Isa. 53), as typified by David in his suffering:
1. The question in Psalm 22:1 was spoken by David in his suffering, but it became a prophecy concerning Christ in His suffering of His redeeming death.
2. Verses 6 through 8 display Christ’s suffering unto death through men’s reproach, despising, deriding, sneering, headshaking, and mocking.
3. Verses 9 through 11 show that while people were mocking Him and deriding Him, Christ trusted in God for deliverance, that is, for resurrection; He intended definitely to die and expected to be delivered from death, that is, to be resurrected from the dead—Luke 18:31-33; Heb. 5:7.
4. Psalm 22:12-18 depicts in vivid detail how Christ passed through His suffering of crucifixion—Mark 15:16-37.
5. God judged Christ and put Him into death for our redemption—Psa. 22:15:
a. On the one hand, man crucified the Lord Jesus; on the other hand, God killed Him; in the first three hours that Christ was on the cross, He was persecuted by men for doing God’s will; in the last three hours, Christ was our Substitute, He became sin on our behalf, and He died a vicarious death to redeem us from our sins and from God’s judgment—2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:3.
b. All the sin of the world was laid on Christ as the Lamb of God; God judged Him and put Him into death or our redemption—Isa. 53:6b, 10a; 1 Pet. 2:24a; John 1:29.
6. On the cross Christ was forsaken by God; when the Lord Jesus died on the cross under God’s judgment, He had God within Him essentially as His divine being; nevertheless, He was forsaken by the righteous and judging God economically—Psa. 22:1; Matt. 27:45-46.
B. After passing through His redeeming death, Christ entered into His church-producing resurrection—Psa. 22:22-31:
1. “I” in verse 22a is the resurrected Christ who declares the Father’s name to His brothers; it was in His resurrection that Christ called His disciples His brothers, for in God’s eternal view, His disciples were regenerated and became God’s sons in Christ’s resurrection—Heb. 2:12; John 20:17; Matt. 28:10; 1 Pet. 1:3.
2. In Psalm 22:22b, the assembly signifies the church, indicating that the Lord’s brothers constitute the church; thus, His resurrection is the church-producing resurrection—Heb. 2:10-12.
3. In Psalm 22:22, You and Your refer to the Father; in resurrection Christ declared the Father’s name to His brothers and praised the Father in the church—Heb. 2:12.
4. The church ushers in Christ’s kingdom for Christ to rule over the nations; the church, produced by Christ’s resurrection, is the reality of the kingdom and a precursor to the manifestation o the kingdom in the millennium—Psa. 22:27-28; Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17.
5. Jehovah as Christ will rule over the nations in the millennial kingdom—Psa. 22:28; 2:8-9; Rev. 19:15.
6. The believers are the seed of Christ, and their declaring the Lord’s righteousness (justification, salvation) to a coming generation refers to the preaching of the gospel—Psa. 22:30-31.
V. In Psalm 22, Christ was the Redeemer and the Regenerator, in Psalm 23, He is now the Shepherd, and in Psalm 24, He will be the King who will regain the entire earth through the church, His Body, the people whom He has redeemed and regenerated and is shepherding today:
A. Christ in His resurrection is the Shepherd (Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4), and the church produced by Christ’s resurrection is His flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2):
1. By being incarnated, crucified, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), Christ as Jehovah (John 8:24), the Triune God (Exo. 3:14), is qualified to be our Shepherd (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2).
2. By His redeeming, washing, resurrecting, and regenerating us, we are qualified to be His flock.
3. To enjoy Christ’s shepherding, we need to be in the lock, i. e., in the church.
B. According to Psalm 23, Christ shepherds us in five stages:
1. The initial stage is the enjoyment of Christ as the green pastures and of the Spirit as the waters of rest—v. 2.
2. The second stage is the revival and transformation on the paths of righteousness—v. 3.
3. The third stage is the experience of the resurrected pneumatic Christ while walking through the valley of the shadow of death—v. 4.
4. The fourth stage is the deeper and higher enjoyment of the resurrected Christ in fighting against the adversaries—v. 5.
5. The fifth stage is the lifelong enjoyment of the divine goodness and lovingkindness in the house of Jehovah—v. 6.
C. In His heavenly ministry, Christ is shepherding people, and we need to cooperate with Him by shepherding people; this is the apostolic ministry in cooperation with Christ’s heavenly ministry—John 21:15-17; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:1-4.
D. If all the churches receive the teaching to participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding, there will be a big revival in the recovery; our cooperation with Him in His heavenly ministry of shepherding will build up His Body, prepare His bride, for His second coming to be the King in the next age.
E. Psalm 23 is the link between Psalms 22 and 24; it is by Christ’s wonderful shepherding and by our entering into this shepherding (the intrinsic significance of the vital groups) that the Body of Christ will be built up with His redeemed and regenerated ones and that the bride will be prepared for Him to return as the King in the next age in the manifestation of His kingdom.
Ministry Excerpts:
FOUR MAJOR STATIONS CONCERNING CHRIST
Thus far in our fellowship, we have seen four major stations concerning Christ—Psalms 2, 8, 16, and 22—24. We all need to see the particular aspects of Christ revealed in these psalms. Psalm 2 tells us that Christ is God’s anointed One. Psalm 8 reveals Christ as the incarnated and crowned One, the excellent One in all the earth. Psalm 16 reveals Christ in His human living. It shows that Christ lived on this earth as a God-man, died on the cross, resurrected, and then ascended to the right hand of God. Psalm 22 shows us Christ crucified and resurrected to produce His brothers to constitute His Body, the church. Then in resurrection in Psalm 23, He became our Shepherd, shepherding us through five stages of enjoyment. Eventually, He will come back to be the King of glory, as revealed in Psalm 24. These psalms present us a completed Christ. (Life-study of Psalms, msg. 12)
CHRIST IN GOD’S ECONOMY
We need to see the revelation concerning Christ in God’s economy versus the law in man’s appreciation in the Psalms. In the previous message, we saw the truth concerning the law in man’s appreciation. Now we need to see the divine revelation of Christ in God’s economy in Psalm 2 (vv. 2, 6-9, 12).
A Declaration of God According to His Divine Concept
Psalm 2 is a declaration of God according to His divine concept. Psalm 1, however, is according to the natural, human concept. David thought that the one who mediated in the law day and night would prosper in everything. This is according to the human concept of doing something for one’s personal benefit and gain. There is no consideration in Psalm 1 for God’s economy.
Exalting Christ as the Center of the Economy of God
Psalm 2 exalts Christ as the center of the economy of God. Although the word economy is not in Psalm2, the revelation and reality of God’s economy are there. In this psalm God declared that He had installed His King (v. 6). For God to have a King is for the fulfilling o His economy. Then God said, “I will give the nations as Your inheritance / And the limits of the earth as Your possession” (v. 8). This is for a kingdom. Of course, the King needs a kingdom, and this kingdom is not small. It is a great kingdom of all the nations, covering the limits of the entire earth. This will be the biggest kingdom in human history. Christ will possess all the continents. His kingdom will be everywhere to include everyone. The King and the kingdom in Psalm 2 show us the economy of God.
Concerning the Accomplishment of the Economy of God
Psalm 2 is concerning the accomplishment of the economy of God, whereas Psalm 1 is concerning the personal benefit of the saints (vv. 1-3). The human concept of Psalm 1 is that the man who delights in the law of God prospers in everything. But according to the New Testament revelation, the law is over and Christ is here (Rom. 10:4a). Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s economy. The entire book of Psalms takes these two lines: the law and Christ. Eventually, by the end of the Psalms, the law is over, and we see Christ with His complement, which is His Body, His church, the house nad the kingdom of God in God’s economy to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. Thus, we have to see that Psalms 1 and 2 shows us a comparison of the human concept in exalting the law with its keeper as the one blessed by God in man’s interest and the divine revelation in proclaiming Christ as the One anointed of God in God’s economy. (Life-study of Psalms, msg. 3)
PRAISING CHRIST’S EXCELLENCY
In verse 1 [of Psalm 8] David said, “O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name/In all the earth,/You who have set Your splendor above the heavens!” This one verse covers both the earth and the heavens. In Psalms 3—7 the earth is a mess, but in Psalm 8 there is something excellent on the earth. This excellent item is the excellent name of the Lord Jesus. He is not here today physically, but His name is here. This earth today is nothing but a mess. But, thank the Lord, at least on this earth there is something excellent—the name of Jesus! His name is the exalted name, the glorified name.
Verse 1 mentions both the earth and the heavens. We need to realize that this psalm tries the best to link the earth to the heavens and to bring down the heavens to the earth. In verse 1 we can see this linking. Jehovah’s name is excellent in all the earth, and He has set His splendor above the heavens. Actually, the heavens are the source of the excellency. The excellency does not initiate from the earth, but from the heavens.
Verse 2 says, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings / You have established strength/Because of Your adversaries,/ To stop the enemy and the avenger.” This verse shows us three negative categories of persons: the adversaries, the enemy, and the avenger. Above the heavens is God’s splendor, and on the earth Jesus’ name is excellent. But in this universe, there are still many adversaries, enemies, and avengers. Adversaries are those who are within, enemies are those who are without, and the avengers are those who run back and forth (cf. Job 1:7). Satan can be signified by these three categories. First, Satan was within God’s kingdom. Then Satan became an enemy without, outside the kingdom of God. He is also the avenger, running back and forth. Above the heavens there is splendor, and on the earth there is the excellent name. But in between the heavens and the earth, there are the adversaries within, the enemy without, and the avenger running back and forth.
What would God do about this? God does something in a consummate way. He establishes His praises out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, the youngest, smallest, and weakest ones. Babes are a little stronger than sucklings, and sucklings are somewhat smaller than the babes, but both of them are in the category of the smallest and weakest.
Psalm 8 is poetry. Poetic writing should not be understood in a mere physical and literal way. We have to understand the terms according to a poetic way. Babes are not the real babes, and sucklings are not the real sucklings. These are the children of the kingdom of the heavens. All the people who are in the kingdom of the heavens are either babes or sucklings. If we onsider that we are people with a high degree or status, that we have a doctor’s degree, that we are seniors, we are not in the kingdom. The brothers and sisters who are seniors in high school should not take this standing in the church life. We should not be seniors, but sucklings. The psalmist means that we, the children of God, all are babes and sucklings, yet God could cause us to praise Him.
Psalm 8:2 says that the Lord has established strength out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. Seemingly, strength does not refer to something that comes out of the mouth. When the Lord quoted this verse in Matthew 21:16, He used the word praise instead of strength. Weaker ones in themselves cannot praise. To cry or weep does not require strength, but to praise requires strength. When we gossip, argue, or reason with people, that does not require strength. But without strength, we cannot praise the Lord. Some praises may come out of our mouth, but they cannot be considered as perfected praises, because they are not so full of strength. Praises should be full of strength. Many times when the saints are praising the Lord, we can see the strength.
On earth the Lord’s name is excellent; above the heavens is the Lord’s splendor, His glory. In between there are the adversaries, the enemy, the avenger, who are stopped by the praise of strength that comes out of the mouths of the smallest ones and the weakest ones. This is God’s marvelous consummation. The highest consummation of the Lord’s work in His redemption is to perfect the praise to Him out of the mouths of the smallest and the weakest.
The Lord does this because of His adversaries, with the purpose of stopping the enemy and the avenger. The Chinese translation shows that to stop the enemy and the avenger means to shut up their mouths. Today before the Lord and God, Satan’s mouth has been shut up. In the whole universe, there are many voices. The adversaries have their voices, the enemy has his voice, and the avenger has his voice. But all these voices have been stopped by the overcoming Christ. He has overcome all of God’s enemies in the entire universe, so He can perfect the praise to Him out of the mouths of the smallest and weakest persons, in order to stop the voices of His enemy and His avenger.
The moon and the stars in Psalm 8 indicate that it was in the night. In the nighttime, everything is dark. But the psalmist lifted up his eyes to look at our Father’s heavens. In the night he saw the moon and the stars which God had ordained. The scientific experts can bear witness to this ordination. The divine ordination of the moon and the stars is truly a wonder.
THE TRIUNE GOD CAME TO VISIT US
After the psalmist turned his view from the messy earth to the bright heavens, he said, “What is man, that You remember him,/ And the son of man, that You visit Him?” (v. 4). He turned his view from the moon and the stars in the heavens back to man on this earth. First, God remembers man. Second, He visits man. We have to understand this in a poetic way. God in th heavens remembered man before He became incarnated. Then He came to visit man by becoming a man through His incarnation. The Triune God came to visit us. Before coming to us, He remembered us. The Triune God was very busy, yet He remembered us. Then according to His remembrance of us, He became incarnated to visit us.
Psalm 8:5 says, “You have made him somewhat lower than angels/ And have crowned him with glory and honor.” The word angels in Hebrew is Elohim, which is normally translated God (Gen. 1:1). The Septuagint translated Elohim here into angels. In Hebrews 2:7, Paul quoted this verse, not according to the Hebrew version but according to the Septuagint version. God made him somewhat lower than the angels. Who is “him” in this verse? “Him” actually refers to the man Jesus. God has made the man Jesus somewhat lower than the angels. To make Jesus lower than the angels refers to His incarnation with His human living. In the sense of being in the flesh, He was somewhat lower than the angels.
After His human living, He was resurrected, and in His resurrection, He was glorified. Then He ascended to the heavens, and in His ascension, He was honored. “Crowned…with glory and honor” indicates or implies two steps: Christ’s resurrection and His ascension. Before His resurrection and ascension, there was the death of Christ. If there is no death, there is no resurrection, and if there is no resurrection, there is no ascension. Furthermore, without His incarnation and human living, He was not qualified to die. He had to become a man and live for thirty-three and a half years. Thus, in Psalm 8:5 we can see all the steps of the Triune God’s process: incarnation, human living for thirty-three and a half years, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Verses 6-8 say, “For You have caused him to rule over the works of Your hands; / You have put all things under his feet: / All sheep and oxen, / As well as the beasts of the field, / The birds of heaven and the fish of the sea, / Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.” Whatever passes through the paths of the seas are the sea animals other than the fish. These verses refer to the kingdom in which Christ will rule over all the created things and to the restoration in this one-thousand-year kingdom, the millennium.
Psalm 8 is a short psalm, but it comprises and implies Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, and His being crowned to be the Lord and Christ and the King of kings, the unique Ruler of the entire universe. The day will come when He will be in the kingdom for a thousand years to rule over all the creatures. This is the revelation in Psalm 8. (Life-Study of Psalms, msg. 5)