THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Christ and the Church
Message Three—Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms
Scripture Reading: Psa. 2:6-9; 26:8; 27:4; 46:4; 68:18; 84:1; Col. 1:15-19; Luke. 24:44; Eph. 4:8, 11-12
I. The central thought of the book of Psalms is Christ, as revealed in plain words, and 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. 2:6-9; 26:8; 27:4; 46:4:
A. The spirit, the reality, the characteristic, of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is Christ as the centrality and universality of the eternal economy of God—2:6-9:
1. For this, Christ is first the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), then the house, the habitation, of God (signified by the temple—John 2:19-21), the kingdom of God (signified by the city of Jerusalem—Luke 17:21; Rev. 22:3b), and the Ruler of the entire earth from the house of God and in the kingdom of God (Dan. 2:34-35).
2. Christ is therefore all in all in the entire universe—Eph. 1:23; Col. 3:11.
B. The picture given in the book of Psalms is the same as that portrayed by the entire Bible: Christ, the church, and the reigning of Christ over the whole earth with the New Jerusalem as the center—Matt. 16:16, 18; Rev. 21:1-3, 24.
C. The particular point related to the divine revelation in the Psalms is that such a high revelation is prophesied in the expressions of the sentiments of the ancient godly saints.
D. The consummation of the divine revelation is the city of New Jerusalem as a sign of the habitation, the tabernacle, of God, through which the processed and consummated Triune God will be manifested and expressed in the all-inclusive Christ and will reign on the new earth in the new universe for eternity—Rev. 21:1-3.
E. The five books of the Psalms are arranged in the same progressive way as the entire Bible is arranged:
1. From the first book of the Psalms to the fifth book, the revelation progresses higher and higher; the fifth book is filled with the psalmists’ praising of God.
2. The central thought in this progressive revelation is that God is embodied in Christ, Christ is in His Body, and His Body is God’s house and God’s city for God’s kingdom over the earth—Col. 2:9; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:19; Rev. 11:15.
II. The Psalms are fully Christ centered; Christ is not only the centrality but also the universality of the Psalms；In our study of the Psalms, we need to realize that the spirit of the Bible is to exalt Christ—Col. 1:15-19; Luke. 24:44:
A. The spirit of the Bible exalts the Christ ordained by God to have the first place in the old creation, in the new creation, in the Body of Christ, and in everything; since Christ has the first place in all things, we must give Him the first place in our being and in all that we do—Col. 1:15-19; Rev. 2:4.
B. we have seen four major stations concerning Christ; we all need to see the particular aspects of Christ revealed in these psalms; these psalms present us a completed Christ—Psalms 2, 8, 16, 22-24:
1. Psalm 2 tells us that Christ is God’s anointed One—1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27.
2. Psalm 8 reveals Christ as the incarnated and crowned One, the excellent One in all the earth.
3. 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.
4. 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.
C. In the Psalms we see the details concerning the all-inclusive Christ in God’s eternal economy:
1. Christ in His divinity—45:6; Heb. 1:8.
2. Christ in His incarnation—Psa. 8:4; Heb. 2:6.
3. Christ in His humanity—Psa. 8:4; Heb. 2:6.
4. Christ in His human living—Psa. 16:1-8.
5. Christ in His death—22:1-21.
6. Christ in His resurrection—2:7; 16:10; 22:22; Heb. 2:12; Acts 2:25-32; 13:33-37.
7. Christ in His ascension—Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:8.
8. Christ in His exaltation—Psa. 80:17; 110:1.
9. Christ in His being crowned—8:5; Heb. 2:9.
10. Christ in His enthronement—Psa. 2:6.
11. Christ in His dominion, kingship, and authority—v. 8; 8:6; 47:2; 72:8.
12. Christ in His priesthood—110:4.
13. Christ in His fighting—vv. 5-6; 45:3-5.
14. Christ in His victory—110:5-6.
15. Christ in His indwelling—22:22.
16. Christ in His shepherding—23.
17. Christ as the stone for the building—118:22.
18. Christ in His coming—72; 96; 110.
19. Christ in His reigning—93-101.
D. The main psalms concerning Christ: Psa. 2, 8, 16, 22, 23, 24, 45, 68, 80, 91, 110, 118.
E. These are just the main aspects; there are many details which could be filled in; it is clear that through the Psalms we can know Christ much better than through the New Testament.
III. The temple and the city were both types of the church. the building up of the temple and city are types of the building up of God’s house today; all the verses in the Psalms concerning the temple, the house, and the city are verses which typify the building up of the church—Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:8, 11-12:
A. When we put these two passages in Psalm 68 and Ephesians 4 together, we have strong proof that the building up of the temple in ancient times was a type of the building up of the church today—Eph. 4:8, 11-12.
B. God is universal and omnipresent, yet He is a located God; God is located in His house, His dwelling place—23:6; 27:4:
1. Christ is God’s location; Christ is the tabernacle of God and the temple of God— Col. 2:9; John 1:14; 2:21.
2. Christ has been enlarged, and the enlarged Christ is the church as God’s enlarged temple, His dwelling place—1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15.
C. The Psalms show us that God’s intention is to recover His title, His legal rights, over the whole earth through Christ in the church, through Christ in the house, through Christ in the city—Psa. 2:6-8; 36:8-9; 48:2; 72:8:
1. When we speak of God’s house, we must make mention of the house principally as God’s dwelling and the place of His presence, beauty, glory, and riches; we must also refer to its ground and its foundation.
2. Wherever and whenever there is a real expression of God, there we find God’s presence, and there we sense God’s anointing; God honors such an expression so greatly because it is the key for the fulfillment of His purpose on earth.
3. He needs a church, a proper church; He needs a house and even a city that He may consider as a steppingstone for Him to return; without the house, without the city, there is no beachhead for God to launch back and recover the earth.
4. The building up of the church is not a small matter; it is the key to God’s purpose; the unique, strategic work of the Lord today is the practical building up of the local churches in the leading cities of this earth.
5. The local churches are the steppingstone, the beachhead, for Him to take the earth and fulfill His purpose; He will certainly do it; how glorious this will be!
D. The main psalms concerning the house; the Psalms reveal many aspects of the church as God’s house, such as—Psalms 27, 36, 68, 84, 92, 122, 132, 150:
1. God’s dwelling—68:18; 84:1.
2. The ground, the site—24:3; 68:16; 76:2.
3. Its foundation—87:1.
4. The place of God’s presence, which is God’s glory—26:8; 27:4; 29:9.
5. The place of revelation—73:17.
6. The saints’ desire—84:2, 10.
7. Its loveliness—v. 1.
8. The place where we may be planted, flourish, and bear fruit—92:13-14.
9. The place of springs—87:7.
10. The place of worship—99:9.
11. The place where God is our portion—73:26.
12. The place where we are mingled with God—92:10.
IV. “God desires to have an organic habitation on earth, and this habitation is the aggregate of the living 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 CENTRAL THOUGHT OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS
IS CHRIST AND THE CHURCH AS THE HOUSE OF GOD AND
THE CITY OF GOD FOR HIS KINGDOM
According to the divine concept, the central thought of the book of Psalms is Christ (as revealed in plain words—Luke 24:44), and 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). The spirit, the reality, the characteristic, of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is Christ as the centrality and universality of the eternal economy of God. For this, Christ is first the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), then the house, the habitation, of God (signified by the temple—John 2:19-21), the kingdom of God (signified by the city of Jerusalem—Luke 17:21; Rev. 22:3b), and the Ruler of the entire earth from the house of God and in the kingdom of God (Dan. 2:34-35). Thus, He is all in all in the entire universe (cf. Eph. 1:23; Col. 3:11). Such a divine revelation is the same as what is revealed in the entire Holy Scriptures. The only particular point related to the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is that such a high revelation, even the highest peak of the divine revelation, is prophesied in the expressions of the sentiments of the ancient godly saints. Thus, it is mixed with their comfort in sufferings and with the cultivation of godliness. The consummation of this highest divine revelation is the city of New Jerusalem as a sign of the habitation, the tabernacle, of God (Rev. 21:1-3), through which the processed and consummated Triune God will be manifested and expressed in the all-inclusive Christ and will reign on the new earth in the new universe for eternity. (Psalms 1:1, footnote 1, Recovery Version)
THE SPIRIT OF THE BIBLE— EXALTS CHRIST
Colossians 1:15-19 shows that the spirit of the Bible exalts Christ. These five verses are unique in the Bible in exalting Christ. Christ must have the first place; He must have the preeminence. Christ has the preeminence in the Godhead because in the Godhead, He is the image of God, the embodiment of God, and the expression of God. He is in the first place, even in the Godhead. Then in the old creation, He was the first creature, the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). In the new creation, in resurrection, He is also the first. He is the preeminent One. Furthermore, in the Body of Christ, in the church, Christ is the first. In the Godhead, Christ is the first; in the old creation, Christ is the first; in the new creation, Christ is the first; and in the church as the Body of Christ, Christ is the first. He is first in everything.
Since He has the first place in all things, we must give Him the first place in our being and in all that we do. He must be first in our marriage, in our spending of money, and in our demeanor. In the way that we dress, we must give Christ the preeminence. The spirit of the Bible is just to exalt Christ. When we come to study the Psalms, we must realize this. We must realize that we cannot exalt anything higher than Christ. If we exalt anyone or anything other than Christ, we break the spirit of the Bible. If we are going to interpret any types or explain any parables, we must take care of this spirit. The spirit of the Bible is to exalt Christ.
Many teachings in Christianity today are off the mark because they do not take care of the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible. We have to stay on the line of the tree of life. Whether or not we speak with the oracle of God depends upon what we speak. A prophet is one who has received the word from God. Then he speaks the word in the line of the tree of life, in the proper principles, and in the spirit of exalting Christ. In whatever we speak, we must have a spirit to exalt Christ. (Life-study of Psalms, msg. 8)
THE FOUR MAJOR STATIONS CONCERNING CHRIST
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)
THE BUILDING UP OF THE TEMPLE AND CITY ARE TYPES OF
THE BUILDING UP OF GOD’S HOUSE TODAY
Now we must go on from Christ to the house. Here we are confronted with a problem. Prior to the last century, before the so-called Brethren in England were raised up, the Old Testament verses concerning the temple and the city were misused in Christianity. The common teaching was that the temple and the city were the church itself. That, of course, was a wrong application. Then the Brethren came forth and received much light upon the Scriptures. They pointed out that to say the temple and the city are the church is wrong. The church is the church; the temple of ancient times was the temple, not the church, they asserted. Using the book of Ephesians, they showed that the church was a hidden mystery in the Old Testament. Christians before the last century had gone to one extreme: they said that the temple and city of ancient times were the church. But then the Brethren went to the other extreme, saying that the temple and the city had nothing to do with the church. They did not see so clearly that the temple and the city were both types of the church. Today we have been brought by the Lord to such a point of revelation. We now see that the temple, the house, or the city were indeed not the church but types of the church. Similarly, we do not say that the passover lamb and the manna were Christ, but that they are types of Christ.
How may we prove that the building up of the temple and the city in the Old Testament are types of the building up of the church? It is important that we have a strong basis and proof for this in order to substantiate our position that the building up of the temple and city are types of the building up of God’s house today. We have such proof in Psalm 68:18: “You have ascended on high; You have led captive those taken captive; / You have received gifts among men, / Even the rebellious ones also, / That Jehovah God may dwell among them.” The key is in the last part of this verse: “That Jehovah God may dwell among them.” The purpose of Christ’s ascending on high and receiving gifts was that the dwelling place of God might be built up. Surely, according to Psalm 68:18, this refers to the building up of the temple. We all know this, and we all agree with this. But Paul the apostle quoted this very verse in reference to the church: “Therefore the Scripture says, ‘Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men’…And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (Eph. 4:8, 11-12). When we put these two passages in Psalm 68 and Ephesians 4 together, we have strong proof that the building up of the temple in ancient times was a type of the building up of the church today. This is the ground we have in saying that the temple and the city are types of the church. We do have the basis for saying that all the verses in the Psalms concerning the temple, the house, and the city are verses which typify the building up of the church.
THE PURPOSE OF GOD—EXPRESS HIMSELF IN A CORPORATE WAY
God’s purpose in the entire universe is to express Himself in a corporate way, not just to express Himself through you or me or some other individual. This is what the enemy opposes and seeks to frustrate more than anything else. The problem on the earth today is headed up in the enemy’s frustration to God’s fulfillment of His purpose. The earth became and still is a real frustration to God. With God’s will there is no problem in heaven, but there is a real problem on this earth (Matt. 6:10). With many Christians there is a religious concept concerning heaven, which causes them to continually consider heaven and their going to that place. But God’s concern is for the earth; the earth is His desire. We would like to go to heaven, but He would like to come to earth. Eventually, the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven (Rev. 21:2). God’s problem is now on this earth, which is under Satan’s usurping hand. God’s enemy is still usurping the earth to frustrate God’s purpose; hence, the struggle between God and Satan is over this earth. The key to this struggle is humanity. If God could gain humanity, He would win. If Satan could keep humanity in his hand, he would win. Humanity today is also a problem to God; so out of humanity God is building up a church. The church, a building of Christ in humanity, is the key for God to win the victory. If God today could obtain a church, it is certain that He would have the victory. The Lord has ascended, two thousand years have passed, and still He has not come back. The reason He has not returned is that the church is not ready. Today God has not yet obtained the key, the church that is built up with Christ in humanity.
RECOVER HIS TITLE OVER THE WHOLE EARTH,
THROUGH CHRIST IN THE HOUSE, THROUGH CHRIST IN THE CITY
The Psalms show us that God’s intention is to recover His title, His legal rights, over the whole earth through Christ in the church, through Christ in the house, through Christ in the city. Hence, there is the need of the holy mountain of Zion. We not only need Christ, but Christ in Zion, Christ in the holy mountain. Thus, we have seen that the beachhead, the steppingstone, for God to take over the earth is the church. The building up of the church is not a small matter; it is the key to God’s purpose. This is His work; it is not ours, and we have no ambition in this affair. But we are burdened today that God must have His key. Without the house, without the city, there is no beachhead for God to launch back and recover the earth.
In past years and even at the present time we have seen that wherever and whenever there is a real expression of God, there we find God’s presence, and there we sense God’s anointing. God honors such an expression so greatly because it is the key for the fulfillment of His purpose on earth. He needs a church, a proper church. He needs a house and even a city that He may consider as a steppingstone for Him to return. His full and longing desire is to step onto the earth, but there is as yet no steppingstone; there is no place where He may put His feet. He yearns to recover the entire earth from the usurping hand of the serpent, but without a beachhead established here, it is difficult for Him to accomplish it. He is waiting for a built-up church here and there in so many cities on this earth. (Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms, ch. 24)
THE SPIRIT, THE REALITY, THE CHARACTERISTIC,
OF THE DIVINE REVELATION IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS
Revelation 19:10 says that the spirit of the prophecy of the book of Revelation is the testimony of Jesus. Based upon this principle we can say that the spirit, the reality, the characteristic, of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is Christ (Luke 24:44) as the centrality and universality of the eternal economy of God. For this, He is firstly the embodiment of the Triune God, then the house, the habitation, of God (signified by the temple), the kingdom of God (signified by the city of Jerusalem), and the Ruler of the entire earth from the house of God and in the kingdom of God. Thus, He is all in all in the entire universe. Such a divine revelation is the same as what is revealed in the entire Holy Scriptures. The only particular point of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is that such a high revelation, even the highest peak of the divine revelation, is prophesied in the expressions of the sentiments of the ancient godly saints. So it is mixed with their comfort in sufferings and the cultivation of godliness, yet the center and the reality, the spirit, of this highest revelation is not the comfort in sufferings nor the cultivation of godliness. It is the Christ of God, who is all in all according to God’s desire and for God’s good pleasure.
The consummation of this highest divine revelation is the city of New Jerusalem as a sign of the habitation, the tabernacle, of God (Rev. 21:1-3), through which the Triune God is manifested and expressed in the all-inclusive Christ.
God desires to have an organic habitation on earth, and this habitation is the aggregate of the living 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)