THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Books of Poetry
Message Three—Psalms (2)
Scripture Reading: Psa. 2:6-7; 27:4; 48:2; 72:8; 23:6; 26:8; 27:4; 34:8a; 36:8-99; 42:1-2; 68:28-34
I. The book of Psalms covers four main points in a wonderful sequence: Christ—house—city—earth; the five books of the Psalms are arranged in the same progressive way as the entire Bible is arranged—2:6-7; 27:4; 48:2; 72:8:
A. 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.
B. 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 revelation of Psalms begins with the psalmist stressing the law and with the Spirit turning the psalmist to Christ:
A. When the psalmist began in Psalm 1 by stressing the law, he was going in the wrong direction; in the first psalm, the psalmist seeking after God was driving on the wrong highway, so the Spirit came in to turn him to the right way.
B. In Psalm 2, the psalmist began to enjoy Christ—to take refuge in this Christ and to kiss this Christ (v. 12); the highest and best enjoyment of human life is kissing; kissing Christ is the enjoyment of Christ.
C. This enjoyment continues in Psalm 8, in which the psalmist declares, “How excellent is Your name / In all the earth!” (vv. 1, 9).
D. Psalm 16 is also full of enjoyment; verse 11 of this psalm says, “You will make known to Me the path of life; / In Your presence is fullness of joy; / In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
E. Psalm 22 gives us a very vivid picture of Christ’s death on the cross; it also shows us His church-producing resurrection (v. 22); in Christ’s resurrection His God is our God, His father is our Father (John 20:17), and we are His brothers.
F. Psalm 23 is full of the enjoyment of Christ as our Shepherd; Psalm 24 goes onto show that the victorious Christ as the King of glory is coming to reign as the kin in God’s kingdom; all these points in the Psalms indicate that Christ is enjoyable
III. The enjoyment of Christ leading us to the enjoyment of God in the House of God—Psa. 26:8; 27:4; 34:8a; 36:8-9; 50:2:
A. 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.
B. “O Jehovah, I love the habitation of Your house, / And the place where Your glory abides”—Psa. 26:8:
1. We should love the habitation of God’s house and the place where His glory abides, remains, to be manifested—84:1; 29:9.
2. Today the church is the place where God’s glory abides to be manifested—Eph. 3:21.
C. “One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / To dwell in the house of Jehovah / All the days of my life, / To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple”—Psa. 27:4:
1. Our God is a lovable person with a lovely dwelling place; God Himself is enjoyable, and His dwelling place is also enjoyable.
2. The Hebrew word for beauty implies loveliness, pleasantness, and delightfulness; when we behold God’s beauty, we are in a very peasant atmosphere—Exo. 24:9-11; 2 Cor. 3:18.
D. “Taste and see that Jehovah is good”—Psa. 34:8a:
1. This tasting and seeing must be in God’s house, His dwelling place.
2. We taste and see that God is good in His house—in Christ, in the church, and, ultimately, in the New Jerusalem.
E. “They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, / And You cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures. / For with You is the fountain of life; / In Your light we see light”—36:8-9:
1. We can be saturated with the fatness, the abundance, the riches, the fullness, within God’s house—v. 8a.
2. In God’s house we can drink of the river of God’s pleasures—v. 8b.
3. In God’s house we can share of the foundation of the life of God—v. 9a.
4. In God’s house we can see light in God’s divine light—v. 9b.
5. In God’s house we can enjoy the river of life, the tree of life, the foundation of life, and the light of life:
a. In Christ and in the church, we enjoy the located God as the fatness to saturate us, the river of life to quench our thirst, the tree of life to feed us, and the light of life to enlighten us.
b. In the New Jerusalem we will be saturated with the fruit of the tree of life, drink of the river of water of life, share of the fountain of God’s life, and see light in God’s divine light; this will be the consummate enjoyment of God in the house of God—Rev. 22:1-2, 5.
F. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, / God shines forth”—Psa. 50:2:
1. The shining forth of God out of His house is the dispensing of His goodness.
2. Under such a shining, we enjoy God in Christ—cf. Num. 6:25.
IV. Book Two begins with the direct enjoyment of God and unveils the psalmists’ intensified enjoyment of God in His house, and even more in His city, through the suffering, exalted, and reigning Christ:
A. Book Two begins with the direct enjoyment of God; “As the hart pants / After the streams of water, / So my soul pants/ Four You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, / For the living God. / When will I come and appear/ Before God?” (42:1-2):
1. It is very striking that Book Two begins with the psalmist’s panting after God; panting after God is different from worshipping God in a formal, religious way.
2. God is our living water for us to drink; we need to pant after this water and then drink it; we need to have times with the Lord in which we pant after Him and thirst for Him.
B. God’s house is both Christ as God’s tabernacle and God’s temple (John 1:14; 2:19-21) and the church as the enlargement of Christ, the enlarged temple (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21); Jerusalem, the city of God that surrounded the temple, signifies God’s kingdom.
C. Psalms 46—48 are on the church as the city of God; here the church has become the city over which God rules and from which God reigns:
1. Psalm 46 is an unveiling of the God who meets our needs in the city; God is our enjoyment and meets our needs:
a. In the city, God is our refuge, strength, and help in distress; He is most readily found—v. 1.
b. In the city, the ruling center of God in His kingdom, there is “a river whose streams gladden the city of God;” in the city—the enlarged, strengthened, and built-up church—we have the flow of living water; therefore, we are the most joyful people—v. 4a.
c. This city, which cannot be moved, is the unshakable kingdom—Psa. 46:5a; Heb. 12:28.
2. In Psalm 47, we have the God-King ruling over the earth through the city; God in Christ is the great King over all the earth through the city—vv. 2, 6-8.
3. Psalm 48 is about the city of the great King; here we have God in the climactic experience of the city.
D. Psalm 68 reveals the spreading from the temple into the city of God; “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 for His elect, the influence of the enjoyment of God in His house would spread to the entire city of Jerusalem—vv. 28b-29; cf. Eph. 3:16-17a; John 16:13; Rev. 4:5; 5:6.
V. The book of Psalms reveals that the earth is the ultimate intention of God’s desire—8:1, 9:
A. Psalm 68 reveals the gaining of the earth for God; the influence of the enjoyment of God will gain the whole earth for God; the kingdoms of the earth being charged to praise God—vv. 29b-34; Matt. 19:28; Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 14:16-17; Rev. 21:24.
B. Psalm 72 reveals that in His reigning, Christ will recover the earth by watering—vv. 6, 8:
1. “He will drop like rain upon mown grass, / Like abundant showers dripping on the earth” —v. 6:
a. Christ gains the earth not by fighting and judging but by watering.
b. In His coming back, the Lord will not mainly exercise His righteous judgement; rather, He will come primarily like showers to water the earth.
c. Christ will have mercy on the earth, and He will come back graciously like showers of rain to water the barren land and to satisfy the depressed and empty people—v. 6.
2. “He will have dominion from sea to sea / And from the River unto the ends of the earth”—Psa. 72:8:
a. The Lord’s kingdom will spread to the ends of the earth by His flowing as a river—Dan. 2:44; Rev. 11:15; Joel 3:18.
b. The Lord Jesus will recover the earth by means of the river that will flow from Jerusalem—Ezek. 47:1-12; Joel 3:18.
c. In His kingdom the reigning Christ will recover the earth by means of this river, the unique divine stream—Psa. 72:8.
C. The Psalms shows us that God’s intention is to recover His title, His legal rights, over the whole earth through Christ in the church as the house and the city—2:6-8; 36:8-9; 48:2; 72:8.
D. When the church is enlarged from the house to the city for the recovery of the earth, God’s purpose will be fulfilled, and we will declare, “O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth!”—Psa. 8:9.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE REVELATION OF THE PSALMS BEGINNING
WITH THE PSALMIST STRESSING THE LAW AND WITH THE SPIRIT TURNING THE PSALMIST TO CHRIST
The revelation of the Psalms begins with the psalmist stressing the law and with the Spirit turning the psalmist to Christ (Psa. 1—2). When the psalmist began in Psalm 1 by stressing the law, he was going in the wrong direction. In the first psalm, the psalmist seeking after God was driving on the wrong highway, so the Spirit came in to turn him to the right way.
In Psalm 2 the psalmist began to enjoy Christ—to take refuge in this Christ and to kiss this Christ (v. 12). The highest and best enjoyment of human life is kissing. When a child is born, the parents and grandparents enjoy kissing this child. If a person had no one whom he could kiss, he would surely be one of the most miserable people on earth. Psalm 2:12 commands us to “kiss the Son.” Kissing Christ is the enjoyment of Christ.
Some may wonder where the word enjoyment is in the Bible concerning our relationship with Christ. Although this word is not in the Bible, the fact of the enjoyment of Christ is there. It is the same with the words trinity and triune. Although these words are not in the Bible, the early church fathers discovered the fact in the Bible that our God is triune, that He is the Divine Trinity. In like manner, the word enjoyment is not found in the Scriptures, but the fact is there. In Psalm 2 we are told to kiss the Son. The Son is a pleasant title. Kissing the Son is enjoying the Son.
The enjoyment of Christ in the Psalms begins with kissing the Son in Psalm 2. This enjoyment continues in Psalm 8, in which the psalmist declares, “How excellent is Your name/In all the earth!” (vv. 1, 9). Psalm 16 is also full of enjoyment. Verse 11 of this psalm says, “You will make known to Me the path of life;/In Your presence is fullness of joy;/In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Psalm 22 gives us a very vivid picture of Christ’s death on the cross. It also shows us His church-producing resurrection (v. 22). In Christ’s resurrection His God is our God, His Father is our Father (John 20:17), and we are His brothers. The apostle Paul quoted Psalm 22:22 in Hebrews 2:12, pointing out that the Lord’s brothers are the church.
Psalm 23 is full of the enjoyment of Christ as our Shepherd. Many Christians love Psalm 23, but not many have the realization that in this psalm they need to kiss Christ as the Shepherd. We saw in the previous message that Christ as the Shepherd leads us through five stages of enjoyment. The first stage is that of the green pastures and the waters of rest (v. 2). The second stage is the paths of righteousness (v. 3), and the third stage is the experience of Christ’s presence through the valley of the shadow of death (v. 4). The fourth stage is the deeper and higher enjoyment of the resurrected Christ, in which we enjoy the Lord’s table in the presence of our adversaries (v. 5). This implies that we are enjoying the Lord on the battlefield. The fifth and final stage is the lifelong enjoyment of the divine goodness and kindness in the house of Jehovah (v. 6). Psalm 24 goes on to show that the victorious Christ as the King of glory is coming to reign as the King in God’s kingdom. All these points in the Psalms indicate that Christ is enjoyable.
THE ENJOYMENT OF CHRIST LEADING THE PSALMIST TO THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD IN THE HOUSE OF GOD
The enjoyment of Christ leads the psalmist to another state of enjoyment—the enjoyment of God in the house of God (Psa. 25—41). God Himself is enjoyable, and His dwelling place is also enjoyable. Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / To dwell in the house of Jehovah/ All the days of my life, / To behold the loveliness of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple.” The one thing that David asked from God and sought was to dwell in the house of God to behold His beauty. Psalm 27:4 shows us that our God is a lovable person with a lovely dwelling. Psalm 36 also tells us that we can be abundantly satisfied with the fatness, the abundance, of God’s house (v. 8).
Enjoying the Riches in God’s House
Psalm 36:7-9 reveals the psalmist’s enjoyment of the riches in God’s house.
Saturated with the Fatness (the Abundance, the Riches) of God’s House
Psalm 36:8 says that those who enjoy the riches in God’s house are saturated with the fatness (the abundance, the riches) of God’s house. God’s house is full of the riches of God, the fatness. I have been in this house for over sixty years, and I have enjoyed many riches.
Drinking of the River of God’s Pleasures
Psalm 36:8 also says that we can drink of the river of God’s pleasures—not just one kind of pleasure, but many pleasures. In God’s house, there is a river. The end of the Bible reveals that there is a river flowing in the New Jerusalem, the holy city, and that river spirals from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the whole city (Rev. 22:1).
Sharing of the Foundation of the Life of God
In God’s house, we also share of the fountain of the life of God (Psa. 36:9a). Psalm 36 speaks of the river of God’s pleasures and of the fountain of life. In the New Jerusalem, the tree of life is growing in the river of water of life. Thus, the fountain of life in Psalm 36 implies the tree of life growing in the river of the life of God.
Seeing Light in God’s Light
Psalm 36:9b says, “In Your light we see light.” Thus, in the house of God, we enjoy the river of life, the tree of life, and the light of life. These three things are strongly stressed in the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21 and 22 reveal that the light of the New Jerusalem is God in Christ. Christ is the lamp (Rev. 21:23), and God is the light in the lamp (22:5). The lamp with the light is in the New Jerusalem. This shows us again that God is located. God is located in Christ, and Christ is located in the New Jerusalem, where the Triune God will be the light. In that light, we see light.
It is amazing that in the ancient time, the psalmist, David, could utter such wonderful things in Psalm 36 according to the revelation of the Spirit, not according to his human, natural concept. Psalm 36 reveals the fatness for us to be saturated, the river of life for us to drink, the tree of life for us to share, and the light of life for our living and walking.
This is the enjoyment of God in His house, which is Christ, the church, and the New Jerusalem. Our God is located in these three persons: in Christ, in the church as a corporate person, and in the New Jerusalem as a corporate person. In these three persons, we can enjoy the located God as the fatness to saturate us, the river of life to quench our thirst, to satisfy us; the tree of life to feed us; and the light of life to enlighten us. (Life-Study of Psalms, msg. 12)
BOOK TWO OF THE PSALMS UNVEILING THE PSALMISTS’ INTENSIFIED ENJOYMENT OF GOD IN HIS HOUSE, AND EVEN THE MORE IN HIS CITY, THROUGH THE SUFFERING, EXALTED, AND REIGNING CHRIST
Book One of the Psalms has turned the psalmists from the law to Christ, and Christ has brought them to the enjoyment of God in His house and in His city. We should come to God through Christ. Christ is the real stairway to God. Christ told us that He is the way. Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). Then Jesus said, “I am the way” (v. 6). He is the real stairway to God.
Thus, Book One of the Psalms turned the psalmists to the right direction, to Christ. Then Christ brought them to the enjoyment of God in His house and in His city. I say this because of the first two verses of Book Two, which say, “As the hart pants/After the streams of water,/So my soul pants /For You, O God./My soul thirsts for God,/For the living God” (42:1-2). This is the enjoyment of God. Book Two begins with the direct enjoyment of God.
Book Two unveils the psalmists’ intensified enjoyment of God in His house, and even the more in His city, through the suffering, exalted, and reigning Christ. Book One does not speak of the enjoyment of God in the house of God and the city of God as strongly as Book Two does. We may say, in a sense, that God was homeless at the beginning of Book One. The law is not God’s home. Who is God’s home? We have seen that God’s home is firstly Christ as the tabernacle and the temple (John 1:14; 2:21). The first part of the New Testament, the Gospels, tells us clearly that God’s home was Christ. He was the tabernacle of God. Actually, this tabernacle was a portable home. Christ was God’s tabernacle, God’s tent, and also God’s temple.
Later, Christ became mingled with His believers, and His believers became His extension, His enlargement. Thus, the church is God’s home in the second step (Eph. 2:22). It is difficult to find a verse in Book One of the Psalms which speaks of the city of God. The city of God signifies God’s kingdom. Christ as the tabernacle of God eventually became a kingdom. Christ cannot be a king without a “dom.” When the tabernacle becomes enlarged it becomes the temple, and the temple is the church (1 Cor. 3:16). The church is also the kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17), the King with the “dom.” The kingdom is signified in the Psalms by the city.
Zion was a peak of the mountain range on which the city of Jerusalem was built. Jerusalem was built on a mountain range, that mountain range had a high peak, and on top of that high peak was the temple. That high peak was called Zion. On Zion a temple was built, and the temple was God’s house. Around that temple was the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem as the city signifies God’s kingdom. In Book Two the psalmist begins to speak about the city. Thus, we have the enjoyment of God in His house and in His city.
The universal God is located in His house, His dwelling place. God’s house is both Christ as God’s tabernacle and temple and the church as the enlargement of Christ, the enlarged temple. On the one hand, God in Christ is our home, our dwelling place (Psa. 90:1), and on the other hand, we as the church are His home, His dwelling place. All the unbelieving sinners need to realize that because they are homeless, God is also homeless. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we come back home. When we get into this home, into Christ, God is also home in us. When I was younger, we preached the gospel by telling the unbelievers that they were homeless, not having any rest. Because they are restless, homeless, God is also homeless. But when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we come back home. Then we are home, and God is also home. We are no longer restless and neither is God.
Many believed in the Lord through this kind of preaching. We should not just tell people that they are sinners and that Jesus died for them. Many people have heard this kind of word, and they are not open to receive it. They would be open, however, to realize that as human beings they are homeless apart from God. In Book Two of the Psalms, God is home. We enjoy God in His home. This means that we enjoy God in Christ and in the church. Ephesians 3:21 says that God is glorified in Christ and in the church. God is glorified in His house and in His city, in Christ and in the church.
The psalmists enjoyed God through the suffering, exalted, and reigning Christ. Such a Christ is the way for us sinners to enter into God. Now we enjoy God as our God in Christ as the home and in the church as the city. Our enjoyment of God is through a stairway, and this stairway is Christ—the suffering One, the exalted One, and the reigning One. In Book Two of the Psalms, Christ’s suffering, Christ’s being exalted, and Christ’s reigning are stressed. (Life-Study of Psalms, msg. 19)