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Scripture Reading: Psa. 107:31-32; 108:1-3; 109:1, 30; 110:1-7
By the end of Book Four we have the consummation, the completion. Everything now has been recovered — Christ, the house, the city, and the earth. We need nothing more. All we need to do is praise. Therefore, Book Five, Psalms 107 to 150, indicates how the house and the city of God become the praise, safety, and desire of the saints. Furthermore, it tells us how Christ will come to reign over the entire earth through the house and the city of God. In the first four books of the Psalms, we have Christ, the house, the city, and the earth: now in Book Five, the last book, we have the praise, the Hallelujahs.
Again in Book Five, Christ is stressed, not in a deeper way but rather in a higher way. Book Two reveals something of Christ in a deeper way (Psa. 45). But Book Five, as we shall see, speaks of Christ in the highest way. Book Five emphasizes even more the city of God; it speaks of the city much more than all the other books. It does not refer much to the house, for ultimately the house will disappear. When our brother John saw the New Jerusalem, he mentioned that he saw no temple in the city (Rev. 21:22). When we come to the last book of the Psalms, the temple has all but disappeared; but we do have the city as a high mountain. Eventually and ultimately, a local church must become a city. When we come to the end, we will praise God for Christ and the city.
Take, for example, the church in Los Angeles. In retrospect, we did have at the beginning the sense of the reality of the house of God. In a very real sense the church life was God’s house to us. Then gradually, little by little, something of the city began to come forth. There is still something of the house here, but mainly the church life is as a city now. This indicates the improvement of the local church. I do expect that one day the church in Los Angeles will give everyone the impression that it is a city, the city of God.
In Book One, as we have seen, there is very little about the city. In Book One we mainly see Christ and the house. Then, both in Book Two and in Book Three, we have the city with the house. In Book Four we have something added; we see there the city with the house for the earth. Finally, when we come to Book Five, we see very little of the house, but we see much of Christ, revealed in such a high way, with the city to possess the earth.
Now let us consider the first four psalms of Book Five, Psalms 107, 108, 109, and 110. In Psalms 107 and 108 the saints thank and praise God for His care, deliverance, and victory through Christ. “Then they cried out to Jehovah in their trouble, / And He delivered them from their distresses. / And He led them on a straight way / That they might come to a city of habitation. / Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His lovingkindness / And for His wondrous deeds to the children of men” (107:6-8).
In Psalm 109, within the saints in their suffering, we have the cry of Christ to God (cf. Psa. 109:8; Acts 1:20). In Psalm 110 we see the answer, God’s answer, to Christ’s cry. This answer is exceedingly high — not deep but high. Martin Luther said that this psalm is the greatest of all the psalms. In a sense, I agree with him. It has only seven verses, just as Psalm 87, that wonderful psalm regarding the city. Psalm 110, however, is not about the city but about Christ in the city. It is divided into four sections: (1) the first three verses, (2) verse 4, (3) verses 5 and 6, and (4) verse 7.
Verse 1 tells how God makes Christ sit at His right hand: “Jehovah declares to my Lord, / Sit at My right hand / Until I make Your enemies / Your footstool” (see Matt. 22:42-45; Acts 2:34-36; Eph. 1:20). This verse has been quoted frequently in the New Testament — more than ten times as a direct quotation and another ten times indirectly. All together, there are more than twenty instances in the New Testament where Christ is referred to as sitting at the right hand of God. Of course, it was from the time of His ascension that God made Him to sit at His right hand. This is proved by Hebrews 1:3: “Having made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” He is sitting there until God makes His enemies His footstool. Now we are still in the period of “until.” We are still in the time when God is working to bring all enemies under the feet of Christ. This period is the age of the church.
Psalm 110:2 says, “Jehovah will send forth / The scepter of Your strength from Zion: / Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” We know that this has not yet transpired, but it will come to pass. This means that when God has secured Zion in a full way, Christ will return. Then, out of Zion, God will send forth the scepter of Christ’s strength to rule over all the nations. The day will come.
Verse 3 says, “Your people will offer themselves willingly / In the day of Your warfare.” The day of His warfare is to come. In a sense it has not yet come, but in a spiritual sense we are now in the day of Christ’s warfare. As long as we are in the local churches, we are in the day of His warfare. This is the day when all His people are voluntary offerings. We all need to offer ourselves as voluntary offerings. Young lives offered in this way are exceedingly precious. Are you a voluntary offering? Do you mean it?
We have another very significant phrase in verse 3: in the splendor of their consecration. When we consecrate ourselves voluntarily to the Lord, it is a kind of beauty, a splendor. In a recent conference in Los Angeles, the Spirit moved mightily among us, and so many stood to offer themselves in consecration to Christ and the church. We had the sense then of the splendor of consecration.
The poetry in this psalm is marvelous. Verse 3 says, “Your young men will be to You / Like the dew from the womb of the dawn.” This means that all the young people who come to the Lord are just like the dew in the morning. Out of the womb of the dawn, young men will come as the dew to Christ. It is so refreshing to Him. Praise the Lord that so many young people today are coming to Christ as the dew from the womb of the dawn. What a privilege they have in offering themselves to become the refreshing dew to Him! Whether we are old or young does not depend upon our physical age but upon our spiritual condition. I have been to many places and have seen numerous “old” young people and numerous “young” old people. We love to see so many “young” old folks in our midst. I am among these young men as the dew to Christ out of the womb of the dawn. I am not of the womb of the night. We all need to be the voluntary offerings as a refreshing element to the Lord.
Verse 4 says, “Jehovah has sworn, / And He will not change: / You are a Priest forever / According to the order of Melchizedek.” Christ is not only appointed to be the King but also ordained as the Priest. He is the King-priest: the King to rule over the nations, and the Priest according to the order of Melchizedek to care for us. To understand fully the meaning of the order of Melchizedek, we must read Hebrews, 5, 6, and 7.
Verse 5 says, “The Lord is at Your right hand; / He will shatter kings in the day of His anger.” The Lord here is not Jehovah, as in verses 1 and 4, but Adonai, which means simply “the Lord.” It is not God who is mentioned here but Christ. Christ, at God’s right hand, will shatter kings in the day of His anger. This day will come.
Verse 6 says, “He will execute judgment among the nations; / He will fill the place with corpses; / He will shatter the head / Over a great land.” (See Psa. 2:10, 12; Dan. 2:44; Rev. 17:12-14; 19:11-21. These verses show the fulfillment of all these things.) He will shatter kings and His enemies in His anger, and He will execute judgment among the nations. This will happen both at His coming back and at the end of His thousand-year reign.
Verse 7 says, “He will drink from the brook by the way; / Therefore He will lift up His head.” This means, as in verse 3, that Christ also needs refreshing. He needs both the dew in the morning and the fresh water by the way. “Therefore He will lift up His head.” What is this water of the brook from which Christ drinks? Do not forget that this is poetry. According to the context of the entire psalm, the brook mentioned here must be the saints. While Christ is on His way, while He is fighting through to defeat His enemies, He needs refreshment; He needs a living fountain. He is our living water, and we are His drink. He is our refreshment, and we are His refreshment. We are the dew to Him in the morning, and we are the brook to Him in the daytime, while He is on His way to fight with the enemy. I do believe deeply within my spirit that this is right. Christ is riding on and riding through triumphantly, and on His way He needs you, He needs me, He needs all of us, as a kind of refreshment to Him. We are the dew and the refreshing water to Christ so that He may lift up His head. Are you willing to be as the dew and as the brook?
We have covered the first four psalms of Book Five, Psalms 107 to 110. Of these, Psalm 110 is the climax. In fact, no other psalm is higher than Psalm 110 regarding Christ. It is a short psalm with only a few main points, but these points are immensely significant. The first is that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. This refers to His exaltation and enthronement. The significance of this verse is seen in the fact that it is mentioned approximately twenty times in the New Testament. Even the Lord Jesus Himself quoted this verse frequently. It is profitable to look into all these New Testament quotations: there are some in the first three Gospels, some in the Acts, some in Ephesians, some in 1 Corinthians, and many in Hebrews.
The second point in this psalm is the victory of Christ. He has won the victory, and He is going to win many more victories. The fact that God has promised to make all His enemies His footstool is an aspect of His victory.
The third point is His power, His authority, His scepter. He is the exalted One, the enthroned One, the Victor, and the One who has the scepter. The scepter is in His hand (v. 2).
The fourth point is that Christ is still fighting, and He will fight to the end. In verse 3 we have this phrase: In the day of Your warfare. It is not only the day of His power but also the day of His fighting. It is then that the people will offer themselves willingly in the splendor of their consecration. It is then that the young men will be as the dew from the womb of the dawn and as the brook by the way. Christ needs refreshment because He is fighting. On one hand, this psalm tells us that He has won the victory, but on the other hand, He is still fighting. He will fight to the end. So many things may be realized from this short psalm.
The fifth point is that He is today the Priest. He is the King, He is the Warrior, and He is also the Priest. He is a Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not according to the law of a fleshy commandment but according to the power of an indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). We do not realize how much He prays for us, how much He is sustaining us all the day long, by being our Priest. He is there at God’s right hand as the King to care for God’s interest in the entire universe; He is there as the Priest to care for us; and He is also there as the Warrior, fighting against His enemies.
The sixth point is that He will eventually return.
It is clear, by combining all these six points, that Psalm 110 is the highest peak in the revelation of Christ. Christ today, according to Psalm 110, is at the right hand of God, the highest place in the universe. Hebrews 1:3 says that He “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” the highest place. Psalm 110 tells us not only where Christ is but also what He is. He is the King, He is the Victor, He is the Warrior, He is the Priest, and He is the Coming One — at least these five items. In such a short psalm of seven verses we see all these things. This psalm, which gives the highest revelation of Christ, is not in the first book but in the last book of the Psalms. In Book Five, we reach the highest peak.
