Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Spurgeon
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Psalm 1:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Spurgeon
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
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Introduction to Psalms
The character of the book of Psalms
The Book of Psalms has
evidently a peculiar character. It is not the history of
God's people, or of God's ways with them, nor is it the
inculcation of positive doctrines or duties, nor the
formal prophetic announcement of coming events. Many
important events, doubtless, are alluded to in them, and
they are immediately connected with various prophetic
revelations (as, indeed, with precepts and all the other
parts of the divine word to which I have just referred);
but none of these form the true character of the book
itself. The subjects too, of which the various parts of
scripture I refer to treat, necessarily find their place
in the thoughts expressed in the Psalms. But the Psalms
do not directly treat of them.
The importance of
rightly judging the true bearing and application of the
Psalms
The Psalms are almost all
the expression of the sentiments produced in the hearts
of God's people by the events (or I should speak more
correctly if I said, prepared for them in the events),
through which they pass, and indeed express the feelings,
not only of the people of God, but often, as is known,
those of the Lord Himself. They are the expression of the
part the Spirit of God takes, as working in their hearts,
in the sorrows and exercises of the saints. The Spirit
works in connection with all the trials through which
they pass, and the human infirmity which appears in those
trials; in the midst of which it gives thoughts of faith
and truth which are a provision for them in all that
happens. We find in them consequently the hopes, fears,
distress, confidence in God, which respectively fill the
minds of the saints—sometimes the part which the
Lord Himself takes personally in them, and that,
occasionally, exclusive of all but Himself, the place
which He has held that He might so sympathise with them.
Hence a maturer spiritual judgment is required to judge
rightly of the true bearing and application of the Psalms
than for other parts of scripture; because we must be
able to understand what dispensationally gives rise to
them, and judge of the true place before God of those
whose souls' wants are expressed in them; and this is so
much the more difficult as the circumstances, state, and
relationship with God, of the people whose feelings they
express are not those in which we find ourselves. The
piety they breathe is edifying for every time; the
confidence they often express in God in the midst of
trial has cheered the heart of many a tried servant of
God in his own. This feeling is carefully to be preserved
and cherished; yet it is for that very reason so much the
more important that our spiritual judgment should
recognise the position to which the sentiments contained
in the Psalms refer, and which gives form to the piety
which is found in them. Without doing this, the full
power of redemption and the force of the gospel of the
grace of God is lost for our own souls; and many
expressions which have shocked the christian mind,
unobservant of their true bearing and application, remain
obscure and even unintelligible.
The heart that places
itself in the
position described in the Psalms
returns back to experiences which belong to a legal
state, and to one under discipline for failure and trial
in that state, and to the hopes of an earthly people. A
legal and, for a Christian, unbelieving state is
sanctioned in the mind: we rest content in a spiritual
state short of the knowledge of redemption; and while we
think to retain the Psalms for ourselves, we keep
ourselves in a state of soul in which we are deprived of
the intelligence of their true use and our own
privileges, and become incapable of the real
understanding of, and true delight in, the Psalms
themselves; and, what is more we miss the blessed and
deeply instructive apprehension of the tender and
gracious sympathies of Christ in their true and divinely
given application. The appropriating spirit of
selfishness does not learn Christ as He is, as He is
revealed, and the loss is really great. There are
comforts and ministrations of grace for a soul under the
law in the Psalms, because they apply to those under the
law (and souls in that state have been relieved by them);
but to use them in order to remain in this state, and to
apply them prominently to ourselves, is, I repeat, to
misapply the Psalms themselves, lose the power of what is
given to us in them, and deprive ourselves of the true
spiritual position in which the gospel sets us. The
difference is simple and evident. Relationship with the
Father is not, cannot be introduced in them, and we live
out of that if we live in them, though obedience and
confiding dependence be ever our right path.
The meaning and
object of the Spirit of God in the Psalms
I purpose in this study of
the Psalms to examine the book as a whole, and each of
the Psalms, so as to give a general idea of it. The most
profitable manner of doing this (though the character of
the Book of Psalms renders it more difficult here) will
be, as I have attempted in the books we have already
considered to give the meaning and object of the Spirit
of God, leaving the expression of the precious piety
which it contains to the heart that alone is capable of
estimating it, namely, one that feeds on Jesus through
the grace of the Spirit of God.
The Psalms, and the
workings of the Spirit of God expressed in them, belong
properly in their application and true force to the
circumstances of Judah and Israel, and are altogether
founded on Israel's hopes and fears: and, I add, to the
circumstances of Judah and Israel in the last days,
though as to the moral state of things those last days
began with the rejection of Christ. The piety and
confidence in God with which they are filled find an
echo, no doubt, in every believing heart, but this
exercise, as expressed here, is in the midst of Israel.
This judgment, of which the truth is evidently
demonstrated by the reading of the Psalms themselves, is
sanctioned by the Apostle Paul. He says, after citing the
Psalms, "Now we know that whatsoever things the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law."
Their primary
character: the remnant and Christ Himself
The Psalms then concern
Judah and Israel, and the position in which those who
belong to Judah and Israel are found. Their primary
character is the expression of the working of the Spirit
of Christ as to, or in, the remnant of the Jews
[1] (or of Israel) in the last days.
He enters into all their sorrows, giving expression to
their confessions, their confidence of faith, their
hopes, fears, thankfulness for deliverances
obtained—in a word, to every exercise of their
hearts in the circumstances in which they find themselves
in the last days; so as to afford them the leading, the
sanction, and the sympathy of the Spirit of Christ, and
utterance to the working of that Spirit in them and even
in Christ Himself. In addition to this, the Psalms
present to us the place which Christ Himself when on
earth took among them, in order to their having part in
His sympathies, and to make their deliverance possible,
and their confidence in God righteous, though they had
sinned against Him. They do not as the Epistles, reason
on the efficacy of His work; but in the Psalms which
apply to Him, present His feeling in accomplishing it.
They intimate to us also the place He took in heaven on
His rejection, and ultimately on the throne of the
kingdom, but, save His present exaltation (which is only
mentioned as a fact necessary to introduce, and to give
the full character to Israel's ultimate deliverance), all
that is revealed of the Lord in this His connection with
Israel is expressed, not in narration but in the
utterance of His own feelings in regard to the place He
is in, as is the case with the remnant themselves. This
feature it is which gives its peculiar character and
interest to the Psalms.
Christ entering into the
full depths of suffering with and for His people
The psalms teach us thus
that Christ entered into the full depths of suffering
which made Him the vessel of sympathising grace with
those who had to pass through them—and that as
seeing and pleading with God in respect of them. In the
path of His own humiliation, He got the tongue of the
learned to know how to speak a word in season to him that
was weary. They were sinners, could claim no exemption,
count on no favour which could deliver and restore. They
must, if He had not suffered for them, have taken the
actual sufferings they had to undergo in connection with
the guilt which left them in them without favour. But
this was not God's thought; He was minded to deliver
them, and Christ steps in in grace. He takes the guilt of
those that should be delivered. That was vicarious
suffering as a substitute. And He places Himself in the
path of perfect obedience and love in the sorrow through
which they had to pass. As obedient, He entered into that
sorrow so as to draw down, through the atonement, the
efficacy of God's delivering favour on those who should
be in it, and be the pledge, in virtue of all this, of
their deliverance out of it as standing thus for them,
the sustainer of their hope in it, so that they should
not fail.
Trial to bring the
sense of guilt in a broken law and a rejected and
crucified Messiah
Still, they must pass
through sorrow, according to the righteous ways of God,
in respect of their folly and wickedness, and to purify
them inwardly from it. Into all this sorrow Christ
entered, as He also bore their sins, to be a spring of
life and sustainer of faith to them in it, when the hand
of oppression should be heavy without, and the sense of
guilt terrible within and hence no sense of favour, but
that One who had assured to them and could convey this
favour had taken up their cause with God, and passed
through it for them. The full efficacy indeed of His work
in their deliverance, in that one Man's dying for the
nation, will not be known by them till they look on Him
whom they have pierced. They are purposely left (and
especially the remnant, because of their integrity; for
the rest will join the idolatrous Gentiles for peace'
sake) in the depth of trial, which, as ways of God in
government, brings them through grace to the sense of
their guilt in a broken law and a rejected and crucified
Messiah, that they may truly now what each of them is,
and bow before an offended Jehovah in integrity of heart,
and say, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of
Jehovah."
The Psalms under
law and under grace
But, though the
deliverance and a better salvation be not to come till
then, still, in virtue of the work wrought to effect it,
Christ can sustain and lead on their souls to it; and
that is just what is done in these Psalms. These are His
language to, or rather in, their souls when they are in
the trouble—sometimes the record of how He has
learned it. Hence too, souls yet under the law find such
personal comfort under them. Let not any soul, let me
remark in passing, suppose that deep heart interest in
these sorrows of Christ is lost by passing from under the
law to be under grace. There is immense gain. The
difference is this—instead of using them merely
selfishly (though surely rightly) for my own wants and
sorrows, I, when under grace, enter in adoring
contemplation and joyful love into all Christ's sorrows,
in the deeper competency given by His Spirit dwelling in
me. I go back now in peace, as He is on high, and I trace
with divinely given interest and understanding (whatever
my measure) all the sorrows through which He passed when
here, tracing this "path of life" in love to us
across a world of sin and woe, glorifying God in it,
through death itself, to the righteous glory in which He
now is. Christ comforted His disciples in John 14, though
not indeed as under law, but He says at the close,
"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I said, I
go to the Father." Under law the Psalms may comfort
us in profitable distress; under grace we enjoy them as
loving Christ and with divine intelligence.
The distinction
between Christ and the remnant
But to return. The great
foundation which had to be laid to make sympathy possible
was, that Christ did not escape where the remnant of
Israel will,
[2]
because He must suffer the full penalty of the guilt and
evil, or He could not righteously and for God's glory
deliver them. Thus Christ must pass personally fully
through the sorrow as He did in spirit; and besides that,
make atonement for the guilt. He passed through it, save
in atonement work, near to God; and makes all the grace
and favour of God towards Him, all that He found God to
be for Him in sorrow, available, through the atonement,
to those who should come to be in it, that they might
thus have all the mind of God towards them in grace in
that case to use when they found themselves in it, even
though in darkness. If it be said, How can they when they
have not yet learned that God is for them in the
atonement? These Psalms, entering into every detail, are
precisely the means of their doing so according to Isaiah
50, as already referred to. In truth, many Christians are
in this state. They cling to promise, feel their sins,
are comforted by hope, see the goodness of God, use the
Psalms as suiting them, and do not know redemption nor
peace.
The Psalms, then, belong
properly to Israel,
[3]
and in Israel to the godly remnant. This is the first
general principle, which the word itself establishes for
us, as we have seen stated by Paul—What they say,
they say to those under the law. (
continued)
The faithful remnant
distinguished from the rest of the nation
In examining the Psalms
themselves, we shall find other elements of this
judgment, which are very clear and positive. The Psalms
distinguish (Psalm 73) and commence by distinguishing
(Psalm 1) the man who is faithful and godly, according to
the law, from the rest of the nation. "The ungodly
are not so," nor shall they "stand in the
congregation of the righteous." Indeed, Isaiah
teaches the same truth doctrinally just as strongly.
[4] Their characteristic subject is
the true believing remnant, the righteous in Israel
(Psalm 16: 3 and many others). It is, therefore, the
portion and hope of Israel which are in view in them. In
Psalm 1 this is definitely and distinctly presented. But
it is the hope of a remnant, whose portion is from the
commencement distinguished in the most marked way from
that of the wicked.
The Spirit of
Christ, the Spirit of prophecy speaking in the Psalms
Again, it is evident (and
it is the second general principle I would notice), that
it is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of prophecy, which
speaks. That is to say, it is the Spirit of Christ
interesting Himself in the condition of the faithful
remnant of Israel. This Spirit speaks of things to come
as if they were present, as is always the case with the
prophets. But this does not make it the less true that it
is a spirit of prophecy which speaks of the future, and
which in this respect often resumes its natural
character. But if the Spirit of Christ is interested in
the remnant of Israel, Christ's own sufferings must be
announced, which were the complete proof of that
interest, and without which it would have been
unavailing. And we find, in fact, the most touching
expressions of the sufferings of Christ, not
historically, but just as He felt then, expressed as by
His own lips at the moment He endured them.
[5] It is always the Spirit
[6] of Christ that speaks, as taking
part Himself in the affliction and grief of His people,
whether it is by His Spirit in them or Himself for them,
as the sole means in presence of the just judgment of
God, of delivering a beloved though guilty people. Hence
we see the beautiful fitness of the language of the
Psalms in a point I shall touch upon farther on. In the
Psalms which speak properly of atonement Christ is alone,
and thus His work is secured. In those which speak of
sufferings not atoning in their nature, even though they
go on up to death, parts may be found personally
applicable to Christ, because He did personally and
individually go through them, but in other parts of the
same Psalms the saints also are brought in because they
will have a share in them, and thus His personal
sufferings are presented to us, but His sympathy too is
secured.
Earthly
deliverance sought: sins felt and confessed
Another principle connects
itself with this, which gives the third great
characteristic of the Psalms. The sins of the people
would morally hinder the remnant's having confidence in
God in their distress. Yet God alone can deliver them,
and to Him they must look in integrity of heart.
We find both these points
brought out: the distresses are laid before God, seeking
for deliverance; and integrity is pleaded and the sins
confessed at the very same time. Christ, having come into
their sorrows, as we have seen, and made atonement, can
lead them in spite of their sins and about their sins, to
God. They do not indeed know at first perhaps the full
forgiveness, but they go in the sense of grace as led by
Christ's Spirit, (and how many souls are practically in
this state!)
[7]
in expressions provided in these very Psalms, to the God
of deliverances, confessing their sins also. They
"take with them words and return to the Lord."
Forgiveness also is presented to them. The Spirit of
Christ being livingly in them (that is, as a principle of
life), and fixing the purpose of their heart, they can,
through confessing their sin, plead unfeignedly their
integrity and fidelity to God. But the thought of mercy
everywhere precedes that of righteousness as their ground
of hope. In substance, all this is true of every renewed
soul who has not yet found liberty, the liberty obtained
by known redemption. The Psalms, unless certain praises
at the close of the book and the end of some others, are
never the expression of this liberty: and even when the
expression of it is found, it is that of earthly
deliverance or forgiveness.
The Psalms the expression
of the Spirit of Christ in the Jewish remnant or in
Christ as suffering for them
In sum, then, the Psalms
are the expression of the Spirit of Christ, either in the
Jewish remnant (or in that of all Israel), or in His own
Person as suffering for them, in view of the counsels of
God with respect to His elect earthly people. And since
these counsels are to be accomplished more particularly
in the latter days, it is the expression of the Spirit of
Christ in this remnant in the midst of the events which
will take place in those days, when God begins to deal
again with His earthly people. The moral sufferings
connected with those events have been more or less
verified in the history of Christ on the earth; and
whether in His life, or, yet more, in His death, He is
linked with the interests and with the fate of this
remnant. In Christ's history, at the time of His baptism
by John, He already identified Himself with those that
formed this remnant; not with the impenitent multitude of
Israel, but with the first movement of the Spirit of God
in these "excellent of the earth," which led
them to recognise the truth of God in the mouth of John,
and to submit to it. Now it is in this remnant that the
promises made to Israel will be accomplished; so that,
while only a remnant, their affections and hopes are
those of the nation. On the cross, Jesus remained the
only true faithful one before God in Israel—the
personal foundation of the whole remnant that was to be
delivered, as well as the accomplisher of that work on
which their deliverance could be founded.
The threefold
sufferings of Christ during life and on the cross
There are some further
general observations on a point to which I have already
alluded, which, while in a great measure they are drawn
from the Psalms themselves, yet, through the light the
Gospels also cast on it, may aid us in seeing the spirit
of the whole book, and entering into the purport of many
psalms in detail. I mean the sufferings of Christ. We
have seen in general already that the book brings before
us the remnant, its sorrows, hopes, and deliverance, and
Christ's association with them in all these. He has
entered into their sorrows, will be their deliverer, and
has wrought the atonement which lays the foundation of
their deliverance, as it does of the deliverance of any
living soul—but He died for that nation. Of course
His own perfection shines out in this; but here we are to
look for its connection with Israel and the earth, though
His personal exaltation to heaven be mentioned, from
which their final deliverance flows. We are not, however,
to look for the mystery of the assembly, which at this
time was hid in God, nor for Christ viewed in His
associations with the assembly. The Psalms furnish most
exquisitely all the earthly experiences of Christ and His
people which the Spirit of Christ would bring before us.
We must look to the New Testament (as in Philippians, for
example, and elsewhere) to find the heavenly ones of
those He has redeemed.
Now Christ passed through
every kind of moral suffering the human heart can go
through, was tempted in all points like as we are, sin
apart. Nor can anything be more fruitful in its place
(for it must not be too long dwelt on in itself, and
entirely separated from the divine side of His character,
or it becomes profitless or hurtful, because really
fleshly sentiment), than to have the heart engaged in
contemplating the sorrows of the blessed Redeemer. Never
were any like His. But the Psalms will bring them before
us, and I refrain from entering on them here. In these
introductory remarks, I can only shortly refer to the
principles on which, and the positions in which, He
suffered. There are, I think, three. He suffered from man
for righteousness and love, for the testimony He bore in
that which was good, in which He bore testimony to and
revealed, God: He suffered from God for sin. These two
distinct characters of suffering are very simple and
plain to every believer's mind. The third kind of
suffering supposes somewhat more attention to scripture.
It is said of Jehovah's ways with Israel, "In all
their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
presence saved them." This was (as to the last part,
yet will be) most especially fulfilled in Christ, Jehovah
come as man in the midst of Israel. But the sufferings of
Israel, at least of the remnant of the Jewish portion of
the people, take a peculiar character at the close. They
are under the oppression of Gentile power, in the midst
of utter iniquity in Israel, yet are characterised by
integrity of heart (indeed, this is what makes them the
remnant), but conscious of, for that very reason, and
suffering under, the present general consequences of sin
under the government of God and the power of Satan and
death. The deliverance which frees them from it not being
yet come, the weight of these things is on their spirits.
Into this sorrow Christ has also fully entered.
Sufferings from
man and from Godf
During His whole life, up
even to death itself, He suffered from man for
righteousness' sake (see, in connection with this Psalm
11 and others). Besides this, on the cross He suffered
for sin, drank the cup of wrath for sin, the cup His
Father had given Him to drink. But besides these two
kinds of suffering He bore in His soul, at the close of
His life (we may say from after the paschal supper), all
the distress and affliction under which the Jews will
come through the government of God—not condemnation,
but still the consequence of sin. No doubt He had
anticipated, and, so far felt it, as in John 12 the
coming cross; but now He entered into it. It was, as to
the point we are now on, as He said, apostate Israel's
hour then and the power of darkness. But He was still
looking to His Father in the sense of faithfulness. Nor
was He yet forsaken of God. He could still look to man's
watching with Him. What could watching do when divine
wrath was upon Him? But the distinctive character of
these kinds of suffering is clearly seen if we, as taught
of God, weigh the psalms which speak of them
respectively. Thus we shall see that, when He suffers
from man, He looks, as speaking by His Spirit in and for
Israel, for vengeance on man. Others too are then often
seen to suffer with Him. When He suffers from God, He is
wholly alone, and the consequences are unmingled blessing
and grace. As to suffering from man, we can have the
privilege of so suffering, having the fellowship of His
sufferings. In suffering from God as under wrath, He did
so that we might never have the least drop whatever of
that cup; it would have been our everlasting ruin. In the
sufferings He underwent under Satan's power, and
darkness, and death, when not yet actually drinking the
cup of wrath, besides what was due to the majesty of God
in view of this see Heb. 2: 10), He suffered to
sympathise with the Jews in their afflictions, which they
come into through their integrity and yet in their sins.
Every awakened soul under the law will find comfort in
this. All these sufferings are entered into in the Psalms
as to Christ and as to Israel. But the Jews passed into
utter ruin, and loss of all the promises (save sovereign
grace), and the remnant into their place of trial and
sorrow as such, by the rejection of Messiah.
On the cross
It is to be remembered
that, though all three principles of suffering are
essentially different, and all very clear and important
in their character, at the close of Christ's life all
coalesced and united in the sorrows of His last
hours—save that I doubt not, in coming out of
Gethsemane, the pressure of Satan's power on His spirit
had been gone through and was over, but on the cross He
suffered from man for righteousness, and from God for sin
only. I am persuaded that this last, when fully on His
soul, was too deep to leave it possible for the other or
anything else to be much felt.
Having made these general
observations, which appeared to me necessary to
understand the book, we will now examine, with the Lord's
help, its contents; and may He indeed guide both myself
and my reader in doing it! If it does depict Christ's
sufferings and His interest in His people on earth, it
behoves us to search into it reverently, yet with
child-like confidence, and to wait—as indeed we ever
should—upon His teaching, that we may be led and
taught in our search. That which speaks of what He felt
should be touched with confiding love, but with holy
reverence.
The five books of the
Psalms
It is generally known that
the Psalms are divided into five books, the first of
which ends with Psalm 41; the second, with Psalm 72; the
third, with Psalm 89; the fourth, with Psalm 106; and the
fifth, with Psalm 150. Each of these books is
distinguished, I doubt not, by an especial subject. Our
examination of the Psalms contained in each will give the
fullest insight into the character of the several books;
but it may be well to give here a general notion of their
contents.
The first book:
the state of the Jewish remnant in Jerusalem
The subject of the first
book is the state of the Jewish remnant before they have
been driven out of Jerusalem, and hence of Christ Himself
in connection with this remnant. We have more indeed of
the personal history of Christ in the first than in all
the rest. This will be readily understood, as He was thus
going in and out with the remnant, while yet associated
with Jerusalem. I use Jewish here in contradistinction
with Israel or the whole nation.
The second book:
the remnant cast out of Jerusalem
In the second book, the
remnant are viewed as cast out of Jerusalem (Christ, of
course, taking this place with them and giving its true
place of hope to the remnant in this condition) The
introduction of Christ, however, restores them, in the
view of prophecy, to their position in relationship with
Jehovah as a people before God (Psalms 45, 46).
Previously, when cast out, they speak of God (Elohim)
rather than Jehovah, for they have lost covenant
blessings; but by this they learn to know Him much
better. I doubt not, the history of Christ's life
afforded occasion to His entering into the practical
personal sense of thus condition of the people, though,
of course, less historically His place in general. In
Psalm 51 the remnant own the nation's (more precisely the
Jews') guilt in rejecting Him.
[8]
The third book:
national deliverance and restoration of Israel
In the third book we have
the deliverance and restoration of Israel as a nation,
and God's ways towards them as such (Jerusalem, at the
close, being the centre of His blessing and government).
The dreadful effect of their being under the law, and the
centring of all mercies in Christ are brought out in
Psalms 88 and 89, closing with the cry for the
accomplishing of the latter. Electing grace in royalty
for deliverance, when all was lost, is presented in Psalm
87.
The fourth book:
Jehovah the dwelling-place of Israel
In the fourth, we have
Jehovah at all times the dwelling place of Israel. Israel
is delivered by the coming of Jehovah. It may, in its
main contents, be characterised as the bringing in the
Only-begotten into the world. Jehovah having been always
Israel's dwelling-place, they look for His deliverance.
For this the Abrahamic and millennial names of God,
Almighty and Most High, are introduced. And where is He
to be found? Messiah says, "I seek them in Jehovah,
the God of Israel." There He is indeed found. Thus
there will be judgment on the wicked, and the righteous
delivered. The full divine nature of Messiah, once cut
off, is brought in to lay the ground for His having a
part in the latter-day blessings, though once cut off. He
is the unchangeable living Jehovah, the Creator. Then
comes blessing on Israel, creation, judgment of the
heathen, that Israel might enjoy the promises. But it is
the same mercy which has so often spared them.
The fifth book:
God's ways rehearsed, closing with triumphant praise
The last book is more
general, a kind of moral on all, the close being
triumphant praise.
Having spoken of the
details of their restoration, through difficulties and
dangers, and God's title to the whole land, the
wickedness of the antichristian tool of the enemy, the
exaltation of Messiah to Jehovah's right hand till His
enemies are made His footstool, and the earthly people
made willing in the day of His power—we have then a
rehearsal of God's ways, a commentary on the whole
condition of Israel and what they have passed through,
and the principles on which they stand before God, the
law being written in their hearts.
Then the closing praises.
The order of the
Psalms the stamp of the hand of the Spirit of God
As this rapid sketch will
have shewn (and the details I shall now enter on will
shew more clearly still), there is far more order in the
Psalms than is generally supposed by those who take them
up as each an isolated ode to serve as the expression of
individual piety. They are not connected, it is true, in
one continuous discourse or history, as other parts of
scripture may be; but they express in a regular and
orderly way distinct parts of the same subject; that is,
as we have seen, the state of the remnant of the Jews or
Israel in the latter day, their feelings, and Messiah's
association with them. These topics are treated in the
most orderly way. The Spirit of God, who has
superintended the structure, as He has inspired the
contents of the whole scripture, has stamped the
unequivocal traces of His hand on this especial part of
it. Who collected these divine songs, the work of diverse
authors, and written at different epochs, I do not
pretend to say. This the learning of divines may discuss;
but the result cannot, I think, leave a doubt on the mind
of any one who enters into their purport as to whose
power wrought in it.
I have already noticed
generally the subject of each of the five books. The
distinction of subject I found in them had led me to
divide the whole Book of Psalms in the same way, before
my attention had been drawn to the well-known fact of its
being so divided in the Hebrew Bible. But this principle
of order is carried out also in the details of each of
the books This order in the first book, and the contents
of the psalms which compose it, are now to occupy us. It
is, perhaps, the most complete in the general and
characteristic view it gives of the subjects treated of
in the Psalms, and so far the most interesting. The
others naturally pursue more the details which carry out
the general idea thus given.
The principle
running through the book
It will be remarked that
the following principle runs through it, and indeed, more
or less, the others when it is applicable some great
truth or historical fact is brought forward as to Christ
or the remnant, or both, and then a series of psalms
follows, expressing the feelings and sentiments of the
remnant in connection with that truth or fact.
[1] This so
distinctly characterises the Psalms that there are very
few indeed even of those which are prophetic of Christ,
where the remnant is not found. In the second book they
are not, because that element is distinctly presented as
the primary subject in the first: the connection being
moral through His entering into their sorrows in grace,
this is easily understood. And it is necessary to
remember this, to account for various passages in which
they come in, though partly applicable to, or used by;
Christ.
[2] It is in the
point of death that the sufferings of Christ, whether for
righteousness' sake, and that which He underwent to be
able to sympathise with them when they suffer under the
government of God, on the one hand, or atonement on the
other—the latter prefigured in the burnt and
sin-offering (compare Heb. 9), the former the expression
and testing of perfectness in the
meat-offering—meet. Christ suffered onward up to
death. Then He also made atonement for sin. Some of the
remnant may suffer unto death, as faithful under the
trials of this government; but then, like Christ, they
will obtain a better resurrection Of course, the atoning
part is exclusively His.
[3] I here use Israel as contrasted
with the Assembly and Gentiles We shall see Judah
distinguished from Israel when we enter into details.
[4] Compare Isaiah
48: 22; 57: 21.
[5] Hence the intimacy of feeling and
peculiar interest of the Psalms. They are the beating of
the heart of Him, the history of whose circumstances, the
embodying of whose life, in relationship with God and
man, whose external presentation, in a word, and all
God's ways in respect of it, are found in the rest of
scripture.
[6] Compare 1 Peter
1: 11.
[7] The state of the prodigal till he
met his Father—the state of every soul, where the
God who is light and love has been revealed in Christ;
but redemption-work, and acceptance in Him are not
known—there is confidence, but not peace.
[8] I think it will be found that the
first two books are somewhat distinguishable from the
last three. The first two are more Christ personally
among the Jews; the last three, more national and
historical. And so Psalm 72, the last part of the first
two books, closes with the Solomon reign.
Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Spurgeon
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Psalm 1:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Spurgeon
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 Job Proverbs
This version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1995 by L. Hodgett. Used by permission. The files of the Synopsis found on this site may not be reproduced without permission from L. J. L. Hodgett, Stem Publishing. A special thanks to L. J. L. Hodgett and Stem Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament.
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
