Scripture Reading: Psa. 49; Psa. 50; Psa. 51
In studying the Psalms, we need to pay attention to the sequence of the psalms and also to how the psalms are arranged in groups. We have seen that Psalm 45 is a psalm concerning the king and that Psalms 46—48 are a group of psalms concerning the city of the king, Jerusalem. In this message we will consider another group of three psalms — Psalms 49—51.
Psalms 49—51 cover three categories of persons regarding the enjoyment of God in Christ. The first category (Psa. 49) consists of those who trust in their wealth (that is, in anything other than Christ). In the second category (Psa. 50) are those who call upon the Lord according to His covenant. The third category (Psa. 51) is a single person, King David, repenting, confessing his sins to God, and asking God for His purging. Those in the first category have no share in the enjoyment of God in Christ; those in the second category participate in the enjoyment of God; and the one in the third category has a full portion of the enjoyment of God in Christ. We need to ask ourselves where we are. Are we in Psalm 49, Psalm 50, or Psalm 51? If we want to have the full enjoyment of God in Christ, we must be like the one in Psalm 51, the one who thoroughly repented and confessed his sins to God.
Psalm 49 is about those who trust in their wealth (anything other than Christ). According to the Lord's word, in this age wealth, which is mammon, represents the entire world (Matt. 6:24). Some people think that money can do anything; they believe that as long as they have money, they do not need anything else. Instead of trusting in God, they trust in money. They are the ones in Psalm 49.
The word in Psalm 49 should be a warning to us. To trust in money — to trust in anything other than Christ — is to be in Psalm 49. Things such as our education or car may be a kind of wealth, or treasure, to us. If we trust in such things, we have no share in the enjoyment of God in Christ.
Psalm 49 is a word of wisdom, the meditation of understanding (vv. 1-5). In verse 3 the psalmist says, "My mouth will speak wisdom,/And the meditation of my heart will be that of understanding." The Hebrew word translated "meditation" may also be rendered "utterance."
To love money is to be foolish. A person who is lacking in money may be very sober, clear, and full of understanding. However, a person who has a great deal of money is likely to be foolish and use his money to do foolish things. Likewise, those who are greedy and covetous also are foolish. Such persons do not have the wisdom and understanding found in Psalm 49.
Those who trust in their wealth are unable to redeem their brothers, needless to say themselves (vv. 6-9).
The ones who trust in their wealth are appointed to die and perish (vv. 10-14). They will leave their wealth to others (vv. 16-20). The psalmist, on the contrary, has the assurance that God will redeem his soul from the power of Sheol, for God will receive him (v. 15).
Those who trust in their wealth are not only foolish and senseless (v. 10) but are also likened to animals, even to beasts. Verse 12 says, "But man in honor does not remain; /He is like the beasts that perish." Verse 20, the last verse of the psalm, concludes, "A man in honor but without understanding/Is like the beasts that perish." Like the beasts, the foolish ones who trust in their wealth are appointed to die and to perish.
Those who trust in their wealth do not trust in Christ for their redemption. The worst thing a person can do is not to trust in Christ. To trust in Christ simply means to believe in Him. It is most foolish not to believe in Christ.
Finally, the ones who trust in their wealth have no share in the enjoyment of God in His house and in His city. Because they are outside of Christ, they are excluded from the enjoyment of God in His house, the church, and in His city, the kingdom.
In Psalm 50 we have the second category of persons regarding the enjoyment of God in Christ — those who call upon the Lord according to His covenant. To call upon the Lord, saying, "O Lord Jesus," makes a very real difference in our situation.
According to this psalm, we need to call upon the Lord according to His covenant. The Bible is the book of a covenant, the book of a testament. A covenant may be compared to the title deed to a house. To give someone the title deed to a house is actually to "covenant" the house to that person. In the Bible, a book of covenant, God has covenanted Himself to us, and now we need to call upon the Lord according to this covenant. We should say, "O Lord, You have covenanted Yourself to me. According to Your covenant, You are now my possession, my portion, and my enjoyment." This is to call upon the Lord according to His covenant.
In this psalm, those who call upon the Lord according to His covenant are the saints of God who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. They have been charged by the righteous God, who is Judge, to offer Him a sacrifice of thanksgiving and to call upon Him in the day of trouble that they may participate in His deliverance, His salvation (vv. 1-15, 23). To make a covenant with God by sacrifice is to make a covenant by Christ as our Mediator, as the "middleman" between us and God. If we pray to God in the name of the Lord Jesus, this means that we pray to God by Christ as our sacrifice.
In ancient times the people of Israel offered different kinds of offerings to God, such as the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and the peace offering. Of all these offerings, the one that was the most touching to the hearts of the people was the peace offering. Because the peace offering touched the heart of the one who offered it, it became a thanksgiving offering. One could offer to God a burnt offering, a meal offering, a sin offering, or a trespass offering without much affection. This means that one could offer such an offering without his heart being touched. However, whenever a person, being thankful to God, offered a thanksgiving offering to God, that person's heart was touched.
Psalm 50 tells us that some of the saints of God were offering burnt offerings and other kinds of offerings (vv. 8-13), but, because they were lacking in affection, they would not offer the thanksgiving offering. Thus the psalmist, speaking for God, indicated that what God wants is not the burnt offering but the thanksgiving offering. In verse 14a the psalmist says, "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving." Here the psalmist seemed to be saying, "God does not want your burnt offering. God wants you to offer Him your thanksgiving offering, an offering that is touching to both you and God, an offering full of affection."
We need to consider this in the light of our experience with the Lord. Many of us have prayed in this way: "O God the Father, I am a sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ is my burnt offering, sin offering, and trespass offering." This is a prayer without affection, without tender feeling. This indicates that we can offer certain offerings without being touched in our heart. Suppose, however, that after passing through a time of trouble, you pray, "O God the Father, I would like to offer to You my thanksgiving." Such a prayer touches your heart, fills you with affection, and causes you and God to become intimate.
Which experience is better — to offer the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering, or to offer the thanksgiving offering? Surely the experience of offering the thanksgiving offering is better. We may offer Christ as the other kinds of offerings without being deeply touched. But when we are thankful to God and offer to Him a prayer of thanksgiving, we may be deeply touched. This is what God wants. We should not contact Him without being touched in our heart. Rather, our contact with God needs to be full of affection and tender feeling.
In verses 16 through 22 we have God's warning to the wicked, who are not included in the category of those who call upon the Lord according to His covenant.
Those who call upon the Lord according to His covenant are those who have been redeemed by God in Christ, typified by the sacrifices.
Verse 2 says, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,/God shines forth." Just as the shining of the sun is a dispensing of the sun's goodness, so the shining forth of God out of His house is a dispensing of His goodness. Under such a shining, such a dispensing, we enjoy God in Christ.
This is the second category of persons regarding the enjoyment of God in Christ. I believe that most of us are in this category.
In Psalm 51 we have the third category — a person repenting, confessing his sins to God, and asking God for His purging. In the life of each one of us, there needs to be a period of time, perhaps lasting for several days, in which we thoroughly repent, confess our sins to God, and plead with Him to deal with our sins and with our sinful nature. Furthermore, day by day we need to repent and confess.
The title of Psalm 51 is significant: "A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba" (2 Sam. 11:1—12:14). This indicates that this psalm was composed after David's great sin in murdering Uriah and robbing him of his wife Bath-sheba and then being rebuked by the prophet Nathan.
In verses 3 through 5 and 17 David repented and confessed his sins to God.
David begged God to blot out his transgressions, wash him thoroughly from his iniquity, cleanse him from his sin, and purge his sin with hyssop (vv. 1-2, 7, 9). The verbs used by David — "blot out," "wash," "cleanse," and "purge" — indicate that his repentance and confession were thorough and that his asking for forgiveness was genuine.
In contrast, suppose someone would pray, saying, "God, I know that You are merciful. No matter how many sins I have committed, I know that You will forgive me." This kind of confession does not mean anything. Like David, we need to stay in the presence of God, confessing that we were born in sin and pleading with Him to wash us and cleanse us, to blot out our transgressions, and to purge our sin. To pray in this way indicates that we have no trust in ourselves. Realizing that we are sinful and that God is holy, we trust only in Him. Also, we realize that we need Christ to be our Mediator and our sacrifice.
In verse 7a David prayed, "Purge my sin with hyssop, and I will be clean." Hyssop typifies Christ in His humble and humiliated human nature (1 Kings 4:33a; Exo. 12:22a). In Psalm 51:7a hyssop implies Christ as the Mediator and the sacrifice.
In verse 10 David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God,/And renew a steadfast spirit within me." The Hebrew word for "clean" here may also be translated "pure." David begged God not only to forgive him and purge him but also to renew him.
By sinning we become old, but after we are forgiven by God we may be renewed. Thus, after we enjoy God's forgiveness, we need to ask Him for His renewing. We need to pray that He will give us a pure heart and a steadfast spirit.
In verse 11 David continued, "Do not cast me from Your presence,/And do not take the Spirit of Your holiness away from me." We need a new heart and a steadfast spirit, and we also need God's presence. If we lose God's presence, we lose everything. God's presence is actually the Spirit. When the Spirit is away, God's presence also is gone.
In verse 8a David prayed, "Let me hear gladness and joy," and in verse 12 he asked, "Restore to me the gladness of Your salvation,/And sustain me with a willing spirit." Here we see a connection between gladness and willingness of spirit. When we are happy, we also have a willing spirit. This is the overcoming life. A defeated person, on the contrary, is unhappy and does not have a willing spirit. If such a defeated one confesses his sin and asks God for His forgiveness, he will have the gladness of God's salvation and will also have a willing spirit. It is by the gladness of God's salvation that a willing spirit is sustained within us.
Finally, in verses 14 and 15 David begged God to deliver him from the guilt of bloodshed that his tongue may ring forth His righteousness and his mouth may declare His praise.
"Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion;/Build the walls of Jerusalem./Then You will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,/In burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; /Then they will offer sacrifices of bullocks upon Your altar" (vv. 18-19). This signifies the participation in the enjoyment of God in the local church as God's house and in the church as God's city through the all-inclusive Christ as the offerings. If we are those who repent, confess our sins, and ask God for His purging, we will have the enjoyment of God in Christ in His house, the local church, and in His city, the universal church. This is related to God's favoring of the local churches and the building up of the universal church. May this be our practical experience day by day.
