Jottings

by Miller, J. | Category: Jottings | Jan 1957

Some Psalms are of individual application, and in particular apply to men of Israel, and some have a message for all men. Of the former kind is Psalm 1. Psalm 49 is of the latter. The message of Psalm 49 is to all the inhabitants of the world, high and low, rich and poor together. In this psalm is that statement well known to readers of the psalms, concerning the helplessness of men in the matter of redemption, that men should live alway.

Psalm 2 is also a psalm of universal application having a message to kings and rulers in regard to their attitude to God and His Anointed King, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 1 is of that individual sort which pronounces excellent blessing ("Blessed" is a plural word, a plural of excellence) on the person who follows the course outlined in verse 1.

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked

Nor standeth in the way of sinners,

Nor sitteth in the sect of the scornful."

There is a close connexion between the ideas in the words "counsel," "way," and "seat," and a progression in evil in the thoughts conveyed in "walketh "standeth," "sitteth." In the progress of the saint in holiness and godly living there can be no standing still. It is as when we throw a ball uphill - as soon as it stops in its movement uphill, so soon does it begin to descend. The time between ascending and descending is momentary. When the saint stops in the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus he begins to move downward. The pace of downward movement may be slow at first, but as time goes on the pace is increased and the decline in godly living more marked. There may be no intention at first of ever accepting the counsel of wicked, ungodly, lawless people, but with deterioration in Spiritual life and the lessoning of the intake of the word of God (indeed the appetite for the reading of and meditation on the word of God may disappear altogether), the influence of the world and worldly minded people begins to leave its impression on the mind, and the walk of the person becomes affected. His behaviour becomes conformed to the new ideas, and soon the ways of the believer become those of the wicked. This is the visible start of that course which leads to standing in the way of sinners. The believer is found where he should not be He may be found with the gaping multitudes viewing twenty two men kicking a ball for so long as the football match lasts, as though that would profit him with lasting good. Indeed he may be found anywhere where sinners gather and in the pursuits of sinners. The marks of a saint have entirely disappeared. He is just one of the godless, jostling throng that jostle their way to hell. But he may go further he may even join with the scorners, and with bitter words of scorn deride those who follow the path of the blessed Master. Such a seat of the scornfuls was that on which Peter once sat when he thrice denied that he knew the Lord or that he was one of His. How strong the stream flows in some places, against the Lord and His saints, To yield an inch will mean giving up all or nearly all that the Lord has taught us.

The blessed man passes by this course of declension and adheres to God's word.

"His delight is in the law of the LORD;

And in His law doth he meditate day and night" (verse 2).

Here is the divine antidote to declension and ungodly living.

His delight (a word which tells of his great pleasure) is in the law of the LORD Here he finds enlightenment and enrichment for his mind, comfort a joy for his heart. Here are the perfect words of God's perfect way. A law, the substance and meaning of which is love; words from the heart and mouth of God.

It is small wonder that this man is like a fruitful tree which draws its sap, unseen, from the rivulets of water. Verdure and fruitfulness are in all his actions, and in what he does both he and his work prosper.

The wicked are not so; but are like the useless chaff which the wind drives away.

In contrast to the personal character of Psalm 1, which shows the course of the life of the "blessed" man, is the universal appeal of Psalm 2, especially to kings, rulers and judges of the earth. The psalm opens with a question, as though God was amazed at the peoples and nations of the earth-Israel with all the Gentiles-in their attitude toward Him and His Anointed, the Messiah.

"Why do the nations rage ('tumultuously assemble,' mg.) And the peoples imagine a mm thing?"

Why indeed should men act toward God as they did, and do, and shall do? Has He not ever done good toward them? Does He not cause His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send His rain on the just and unjust? (Matthew 5.45). Does He not give fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness? (Acts 14.17). Are not all His works wrought in mercy, as Psalm 106 shows? Does He not deliver men from their distresses when they cry to Him, men in the wilderness, in darkness and in the shadow of death, men who are fools, and such as go down to the sea in ships? (Psalm 107). Why should men treat God as they do? This their way is their folly. But when we think of the Lord Jesus, of whom it is said that He went about doing good, the senseless attitude of men to Him can never be explained, except by alleging that it was sin in the human heart, which turned men to darkness and blindness, to enmity and hatred, to every form of wickedness. Hence the gentle Lamb of God was as in a den of lions, lions whose mouths God did not shut, as He shut the mouths of the lions into whose den Daniel was cast. Men will have to answer the question yet as to why they raged against God and His Son.

Men want to break away from God, as though it were possible to break away from One in whom they live, and move, and have their being (Acts 17.28). Man lives in God; apart from Him they could have no existence; then why should they wish to break away from Him? The answer is, sin and Satan. Both are deceivers. We read of the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3.18), and we are told that Satan is the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12.9), and that the whole world lieth in the evil one (1 John 5.19).

Man's puny efforts to break away from God will recoil upon his own head. Satan at Calvary, when he massed his forces against Christ, thought to devour Him and bring to a swift and victorious conclusion his long war against God, but the death of the Lord was his undoing, for the Lord, by death, brought to nought him that had the power of death that is the devil (Hebrews 2.14), and the Lord was caught up to God to His throne (Revelation 12.5; Psalm 110.1).

No doubt Psalm 2.6 has a double application

"Yet I have set My King

Upon My holy hill of Zion."

He is even now set upon the heavenly mount Zion (Hebrews 12.22) and shortly He will establish His throne on the earthly mount Zion when He returns to earth as He promised to do.

The Lord Jesus declares the decree or statute which men must accept or they will perish:

"I will tell of (for a decree, A.V. marg.) the decree:

The LORD said unto Me, Thou art My Son;

This day have I begotten Thee" (verse 7).

The Son of God is not a Son by a decree, nor by a statute which Jehovah made, whereby One who was not a Son became a Son by a statute and by statutory declaration. He is a begotten Son, One of whom John the apostle writes as "the only begotten Son." Here is the essence of the gospel, by which, when one believes, he is saved and has eternal life (John 3.16; 17; 20, 31). "Kiss the Son" means to acknowledge Him by faith as the divine Ruler. See Genesis 41.40 where "he ruled" is same word.

Miller, J. | Jan 1957
Jottings