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Scripture Reading: Psa. 28; Psa. 29; Psa. 30
In this message we want to see the mixed expressions of the psalmist's sentiment in his enjoyment of God in God's house in Psalms 28—30. When we put these three psalms under the "microscope" of God's New Testament economy, it is difficult to find anything in them that is up to the divine standard. The only point that might be worthwhile for us New Testament believers to consider is that David said his heart trusted in God (Psa. 28:7). Of course, when David said this, he did not have the realization that we have today in the New Testament.
It is somewhat easy to understand what is written in many of the psalms. In the New Testament, however, there are sayings which are very mysterious and difficult to understand. The Lord Jesus said, "Abide in Me and I in you" (John 15:4a). This is a very simple word, but who can fully understand it? When I was a young Christian, I tried to find a book to help me understand what it meant to abide in Christ. Eventually, I found a book by Andrew Murray concerning abiding in Christ, but all he said was that consecrating ourselves is to abide in Christ. This book did not help me understand what it means to abide in Christ. The truth concerning abiding in Christ is very mysterious and deep.
There are many things in the New Testament that are simple in terminology but deep and mysterious in their significance. The New Testament frequently uses the expression in Christ or in the Lord. When some missionaries translated the Bible into Chinese, they thought that the Chinese would not be able to understand the usage of the preposition in. Therefore, they translated "in the Lord" as "trust in the Lord" or "rely upon the Lord." This translation, however, brings in a wrong concept. Noah and his family had to get into the ark in order to be saved by the ark from God's judgment. In order to be saved they could not merely rely upon the ark; they had to be in the ark.
The New Testament terms are deep because the New Testament was written based upon the principle of the New Testament economy, which is the manifestation of God in the flesh. The great mystery of godliness is the manifestation of God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). No one can fully comprehend this. No one can understand what Paul meant when he said, "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20a). Who can understand what Paul meant when he said, "For to me, to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21a)? He also said that he labored more abundantly than all the apostles, yet it was not he but the grace of God which was with him (1 Cor. 15:10). He spoke of the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit being with us all (2 Cor. 13:14). In Philippians he spoke of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ being our salvation (1:19). We may read these expressions in the Bible, but who can understand them? It is easy for us to understand many of the psalms because they were written according to our human concept. The New Testament, however, was written altogether according to another concept on another "planet." This is why it is so difficult to understand.
The New Testament charges us to believe into Christ, the Son. Many will not translate this Greek word as into, because they say that this is not good English. They maintain that into should be translated as in. In other words, we are to believe in Christ. The word in, however, should actually be translated as into. We do not merely believe in Christ; we believe into Christ. To believe into Christ is to receive Him and be united with Him as one. The word into conveys this divine revelation.
The writer of a book entitled Bone of His Bone quotes Jessie Penn-Lewis as saying that the Greek text of John 3:16 conveys a different meaning from our English versions. It is not he who believes in Christ but he who believes into Him who shall have eternal life. Then the author goes on to say that the Christian life is not an imitation of Christ but a participation in Christ. To believe into Christ is to be united with Christ as one. This shows that in speaking of the divine things in God's economy, we should not be bound by language. Language should be managed by us to serve our purpose in the culture.
The New Testament says that we should believe into Christ. Noah and his family could not have been saved if they had merely relied upon the ark outwardly. They had to enter into the ark. This is a picture of our believing into Christ. We were once outside of Christ. We were born in Adam, but we were outside of Christ. We needed to take a step to get into Him. The first step was our believing into Christ, and the following step was our being baptized into Christ. Through our believing and being baptized, we have been transferred out of Adam into Christ. Now we are in Christ.
This brief fellowship should help us to see the standard of God's New Testament economy in comparison with the mixed expressions of the psalmist's sentiment in Psalms 25—41. While the psalmist was enjoying God in God's house, he expressed his sentiment, and his expressions were a mixture. In this message we want to see these mixed expressions in Psalms 28—30.
Psalm 28 shows us the mixed expressions of the psalmist's sentiment in calling God to hear the voice of his supplications.
The psalmist asked God, his rock, not to be deaf and silent to him when he cried out to Him (vv. 1-2). We cannot say that this belongs to the tree of life, because there is no indication of life here. Is it proper to ask God not to be deaf to us? If we asked someone not to be deaf to us, he might not be happy with us.
We have seen that many portions of the Psalms contain David's words according to his human concept, not God's words according to the divine concept. We believe that all of the Scripture is God's breath and each book of the Bible is God's revelation with every line and word coming from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21). Every line and word of the Scripture is inspired by God, but there are many words in the Bible that are not God's words. The Bible even contains the words of Satan. Genesis 3 records the serpent's words to Eve (vv. 1, 4-5). These words are a part of the Bible, but they are Satan's words, not God's words. This shows that although the entire Bible is God-breathed, not all of the words in the Bible are God's words.
David asked God not to drag him away with the wicked but to repay them according to their evildoings because they did not regard the deeds and the works of God. Then he said that God would tear them down and not rebuild them (vv. 3-5). Surely this speaking is according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As those in the New Testament age, we cannot ask God to repay the wicked ones. In the New Testament, we are charged to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44).
David blessed God as his strength and his shield, for God had heard the voice of his supplications (v. 6). Furthermore, his heart trusted in God and exulted with songs and thanks to Him (v. 7). He was blessing God, considering God as his strength within and also as his shield without.
David also asked God, as the strength of His people and as the stronghold of salvation to His anointed, to save His people, bless His inheritance, shepherd them, and carry them forever (vv. 8-9). Psalm 28 does not reveal anything that is up to the standard of God's New Testament economy.
Psalm 29 reveals the mixed expressions of David's sentiment in his praising God for His glory and majesty.
David exhorted the sons of God, the Mighty One, to ascribe to God glory and strength and worship Him in holy splendor (vv. 1-2).
In verses 3-9 David speaks of the powerful and majestic voice of God — the thunder of the God of glory. According to David, God's powerful and majestic voice is like thunder. He said that the voice of Jehovah was over the waters (v. 3), breaking the cedars of Lebanon, making them to skip like a calf, like a young wild ox (vv. 5-6). He also said the voice of Jehovah cleaves out flames of fire (v. 7) and shakes the wilderness, even the wilderness of Kadesh (v. 8). Furthermore, according to David, Jehovah's voice causes the hinds to calve and strips the forests bare, and "in His temple all say, Glory!" (v. 9).
As God's people in the New Testament, do we need this kind of prayer and praise to the Lord? We should be able to see that the standard, the level, on which this psalm was written is low. There is no comparison between David's praise and blessing in this psalm and the utterance in Paul's prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3. The New Testament does not have any prayer or praise according to David's way in Psalm 29. This psalm is too much in the material and physical realm.
David also admired God as the One enthroned at the Flood and sitting as King forever (v. 10).
At the end of Psalm 29, David blessed the people of God with God's giving strength to them and His blessing them in peace (v. 11).
Psalm 30 shows us the mixed expressions of David's sentiment in his song at the dedication of the house of God. The house of God, the temple, was built and dedicated after David's death.
David extolled God for His lifting him up over his enemies, for His healing, and for His deliverance of his soul from Sheol (vv. 1-3).
David also exhorted God's saints to psalm to God and to praise God's holy name (v. 4). God's holy name is His memorial. Then he said that God's anger lasts but a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may linger in the evening, but a ringing shout goes up in the morning (v. 5).
In verse 6 David said, "As for me, I said in my prosperity,/I will never be shaken." Although David said this in Psalm 30, he surely was not prospering when he was being chased by his rebellious son, Absalom. In verse 7 David said that God made his mountain strong. His mountain refers to his empire, his kingdom.
David called out to God and made supplication to Him (v. 8). He said that there was no profit to God if he went down into the pit. He also said that there was no praise and no declaring of God's faithfulness from the dust (v. 9). David was calling out to God, making prayers to God, and reminding God that if he died and went into the pit, there would be no praise to God and no declaration of God's faithfulness. For this reason he said that God should keep him alive. According to David's concept, it seemed that God owed him something.
David asked God to hear him and be gracious to him to be his help. He also thanked God for turning his mourning into dancing and loosening his sackcloth to gird him with rejoicing, that his glory (spirit) might sing psalms to God without silence and praise God forever (vv. 10-12).
I hope that by reading these psalms we can see that there is no comparison between the Old Testament economy and God's New Testament economy. The Old Testament is the old covenant, and the old covenant was based upon the law. The psalmists were very pious. They loved the law, uplifted the law, and treasured the keeping of the law to the uttermost. Many of the psalms were based upon the principle of keeping the law. The keeping of the law was the basic factor and structure of their composition.
But in Jeremiah 31 God told His fallen, degraded elect, the children of Israel, that He would make another covenant, a new covenant, which would not be based upon the law of letters, but upon a living law which God would write into their being (vv. 31-34). We are enjoying this new covenant today. The living law, the law of life, being written into the New Testament believers is to have God imparted into them. Thus, God in them is the law of life. In the new covenant, we who were once dead have been enlivened, resurrected from the dead, and regenerated to become a new person. After our regeneration, God continues to renew us, to sanctify us, to transform us, to conform us, and eventually to glorify us at the second coming of Christ.
There is no comparison between the old covenant of the Old Testament and the new covenant of the New Testament. The Psalms, therefore, are full of expressions that are not uttered in the New Testament, especially in the apostle Paul's Epistles. In 1 Corinthians 1:9, Paul said that God called us into the fellowship, the participation, of His Son. We have been called by God to partake of Christ, to enjoy Him. Thus, Christ becomes our life, our nature, and even our person. By God's salvation in the New Testament, we have been made one with Christ. According to the Lord's speaking in John 15, we believers and Christ are one tree. He is the vine tree, and we are the branches. Thus, all of us are one with Him, and we grow together with Him. Christ and we are all one person because He is the Head and we are the Body. The Head and the Body are not separate but are one person. We Christians are one with Christ.
Stanza four of Hymns, #152 says:
This hymn says that the Lord's love has blended us with Him and made us one with Him. This is the highest plane of love. The real blessing in God's New Testament economy is that Christ has made Himself one with us and has made us one with Him. First Timothy 3:16 speaks of the great mystery of godliness, which is the manifestation of God in the flesh. We are the flesh, yet God made us, the flesh, His expression. The church is the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is the fullness of the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:22b-23). This fullness is Christ's expression. What a wonder it is that God made us men of flesh His expression!
We have to remember that the Word who was God became flesh (John 1:14) and lived in this flesh for thirty-three and a half years. He died in the flesh (1 Pet. 3:18; Col. 1:22). If He had not died in the flesh, we would have no share in His death. Because He died in the flesh, that indicates He died with us (Gal. 2:20a). He died in union with us. We are the flesh, and He became flesh. This is a part of the history of Christ. His history has become our story. God became a man, and by dispensing Himself into us He made us God-men, men who are one with God, having God within us as our life and nature (Col. 3:4a; 2 Pet. 1:4).
I thank God that we live in such an age, the age of the great mystery of godliness, the age of God manifesting Himself in our flesh. In this age we do not need to keep the law. We have Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, and Christ today is realized as the life-giving Spirit, the consummated, compounded Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Today we are one with this compound Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Many in today's Christianity still remain in the Old Testament economy. They do not understand the Lord's words in John 14—17, and they do not understand Paul's fourteen Epistles. Furthermore, they do not understand the significance of our being in Christ. We have believed and have been baptized into Christ, and now we are in Him. In Christ everything is okay; outside of Him everything is a mess. We all need to be turned from the human concept of uplifting the law to the divine concept of exalting Christ according to the divine revelation.
