Scripture Reading: Psa. 84; Psa. 85; Psa. 86; Psa. 87; Psa. 88; Psa. 89
In this message we will cover Psalms 85 through 89. In order to enter into the intrinsic significance of these five psalms, we need to realize that the aim of the entire book of Psalms is to turn God's people from so many things which they regard as positive to Christ. For example, Psalms 1 and 2 indicate that we need to be turned to Christ from certain things that in our eyes are very positive. Of the five psalms which we will consider in this message, three psalms (Psa. 85, 86, 88) show us a particular background, and the other two (Psa. 87, 89) show us the way to go on from this background.
The background in Psalms 85, 86, and 88 involves three things: the restoration of God's people, personal salvation, and release from sufferings. Throughout the centuries, God's people have been praying for revival, for corporate restoration. God's people have also been concerned about personal salvation, not only from eternal perdition but also from various bothering and entangling things in their daily life. Furthermore, all Christians pray about their sufferings, asking God to release them from their sufferings. In our eyes these three matters are positive, but in God's eyes they are not positive.
Psalms 87 and 89 present Christ with God's saints, God's house, God's city, and God's earth. The Christ unveiled in these psalms is versus the restoration of God's people, personal salvation, and the release from sufferings spoken of in Psalms 85, 86, and 88. For this reason, I have entitled this message "Christ versus Restoration of God's People, Personal Salvation, and Release from Sufferings." Today many Christians do not care for anything concerning God. If they do care for God, their concern is related mainly to restoration, personal salvation, and release from sufferings.
Let us now go on to consider Psalms 85 through 89 one by one.
The subject of Psalm 85 is the seeking of the sons of Korah for the restoration of Israel. In verse 4 the psalmist prays, "Restore us, O God of our salvation,/And cause Your indignation toward us to cease." In verse 6 he goes on to ask, "Will You not again revive us,/That Your people may rejoice in You?" In verses 8 through 11 the psalmist writes about Jehovah's speaking peace to His people, about His salvation being near to those who fear Him, and about glory, lovingkindness, truth, and righteousness. Verses 12 and 13 conclude, "Indeed Jehovah will give what is good,/And our land will give its increase./Righteousness will go before Him/And make His footsteps a way to walk in."
This seeking for the restoration of Israel was based upon God's promise to Israel's forefathers to give land, peace, and many other good things to their descendants. Eventually, however, the sons of Korah experienced God's punishment and the desolation and degradation of God's people. Hence, in their seeking as recorded in this psalm they prayed for restoration. Surely this was good and also important, but we need to see what God would say about it.
Psalm 86 is concerned with the seeking of David for his personal salvation. As we read this psalm we need to pay special attention to verses 2, 11-13, and 15-16. In verse 2 David prayed, "Keep my soul; for I am godly;/Save Your servant who trusts in You, O You who are my God." In verse 16 he said, "Turn to me and be gracious to me;/Give Your strength to Your servant,/And save the son of Your maidservant." David's seeking for his personal salvation was important; however, it was important not for itself but for something else. We may use eating as an illustration. Eating is important not for its own sake but for something else. Likewise, it is important to be saved, but salvation is for something else, not for itself.
Whereas Psalm 85 is on the seeking of the sons of Korah for restoration and Psalm 86 is on the seeking of David for salvation, Psalm 87 is on the desire of God for Zion with Christ. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, Zion always implies God's house and God's city. "Zion" is a poetic title of the church in the universal sense and also in the local sense (Heb. 12:22; Gal. 4:26). Therefore, Zion signifies the church universally and locally. The heavenly Zion is the final resting place of the overcomers (Rev. 14:1).
Psalm 87 firstly refers to Zion's foundation, which is called "His [God's] foundation" (v. 1). This divine foundation, typifying Christ as God's unique foundation for the building up of His house, the church (1 Cor. 3:11), is built in the "holy mountains," which typify the local churches. Jerusalem was built on these holy mountains, and among these mountains the highest peak is the one on which Zion was built, which typifies the church.
Psalm 87:2 says, "Jehovah loves the gates of Zion/More than all the dwellings of Jacob." The gates are for coming in and going out, signifying fellowship. The fact that the New Jerusalem will have twelve gates indicates that God's holy city will be full of fellowship.
Recently, for the sake of fellowship among the churches, the Lord has led us to practice the clustering and the blending. However, some saints care only for the jurisdiction of their local church, and they do not want anyone to come to them and touch anything related to their local church. This means that they close the gate. In Brother Nee's words, they make their local church a "native church" and a "small empire." This is not Zion, for Zion has many gates for fellowship.
Psalm 87 unveils Christ with all the saints to be God's house for God's city and for God to gain the whole earth. Verses 5 and 6 say, "Of Zion it will be said,/This one and that one were born in her,/And the Most High Himself will establish her./Jehovah will count/When He records the peoples:/This One was born there." The word about "this one" and "that one" being born in Zion indicates that Zion is full of saints. Verse 6 tells us that "this One" — Christ, the unique One — was born there. Christ Himself and all the saints were born in Zion.
In addition to those born in Zion, Psalm 87 speaks of people born in five other places: Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Cush. "Rahab" is a poetic title given to Egypt. In the Bible Egypt stands for a place rich in resources, a place where it is easy for one to make a living and where it is possible for one to make a fortune for his enjoyment. When there was a famine in Canaan and people were short of food, they went down to Egypt, a land of riches signifying today's world.
Babylon was famous in the realm of human success and glory. It was the continuation of Babel, where man endeavored to glorify himself by building a tower to heaven. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, built a great and powerful empire, a monument to man's success and glory.
Philistia was very close to the holy land. According to the Bible, the Philistines were clever in handling the holy things in a human way. When the ark of God was captured and brought into their country, they devised a way to deal with it. Having contacted the holy land and having learned about the holy things from the holy land, the Philistines became adept in handling holy things according to human wisdom. Today there are many people who are not in the holy things but are very close to these things and have their human way to handle them.
According to the Bible and to history, Tyre was a commercial country, a country of merchandise and of high civilization. Their traffic in commerce was their glory. There are many "Tyres" on earth today.
The last place was Cush (Ethiopia). Cush was a place from which people came to learn of the holy land. The queen of Sheba, for example, came from Ethiopia to learn of Solomon. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 also came to the holy land to learn. Hence, in history, Cush, or Ethiopia, also had a name and a reputation.
The people from these five places represent all the people on earth. The people in these places boasted of their "giants," saying, "This one was born there" (v. 4b). Egypt could say that the Pharaohs were born there, and Babylon could say that Nebuchadnezzar was born there. But what does God say concerning Zion? He declares, "This one and that one were born in her." Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Peter, Paul, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Zinzendorf, Darby, Watchman Nee, and so many others were born in Zion. Eventually, even the unique One, Christ, who is the totality of all the saints as the One who is all the saints and in all the saints (Col. 3:11), was born there. This is God's counting, God's record, regarding Zion.
Not all the saints born in Zion are famous ones. Rather, among the singers and the dancers (v. 7), there are many unknown ones. We today may be the unknown ones, but we can sing and praise the Lord, saying of Zion, the city of God, "All my springs are in you." Let Egypt boast of the Nile and let Babylon boast of the Euphrates. They do not have the springs, but we in Zion have them.
In Psalm 88 we have the seeking of Heman, a son of Korah, for his release from sufferings. In verses 14 through 17 the psalmist says, "Why, O Jehovah, have You rejected my soul?/Why do You hide Your face from me?/I have been afflicted and about to die since my youth;/I bear Your terrors; I am overwhelmed./Your fierce wrath has gone over me;/Your terrors have cut me off./They surrounded me like water all day long;/They altogether encompassed me." Like Heman, many Christians today are suffering ones, and to them nothing is more important than release from their suffering.
Psalm 89, especially verses 3-4, 19-29, and 34-37, unveils the intention of God for Christ, His Anointed, to possess the entire earth. Like Psalm 88, this psalm is the prayer of a saint, but in contrast to the prayer in Psalm 88 for release from suffering, the prayer in Psalm 89 is concerned with Christ, the unique One. God cares for this One, the One who was born in Zion, not for our sufferings.
The unique One in God's record in Psalm 87 has become God's anointed One, God's Holy One, God's mighty One, in Psalm 89. He has become the Firstborn and "the highest of the kings of the earth" (v. 27). His throne will be like the sun before God; it will be established forever like the moon (vv. 36-37). God will establish His seed forever and "His throne as the days of heaven" (v. 29). God will extend the territory of this unique One so that He will possess the entire earth, setting "His hand on the sea/And His right hand on the rivers" (v. 25). I believe that the sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea, the center of the populated earth. The word "rivers" indicates that all the earth will belong to Christ. All the parts of the earth are signified by their rivers, such as Egypt by the Nile and Babylon by the Euphrates. That Christ's territory will be extended to all the rivers indicates that Christ will possess all the parts of the earth and that He will therefore possess the whole earth.
Psalm 89 is a lengthy psalm revealing that God cares for nothing other than Christ as the unique Possessor of the whole earth. We, however, regard certain spiritual things — restoration, personal salvation, release from suffering — as very positive. But if we neglect Christ, we will suffer a great loss. Our seeking and our praying will not touch God's heart because God's heart is for Christ with Zion, in which are many saints and which is for the house of God and the city of God for Christ to possess the whole earth.
God's desire is for this Christ who was born in Zion with so many saints for God's house and God's city so that Christ might gain the whole earth. This is God's economy. God does not care for restoration, salvation, and release from suffering as we do. God does not care for our kind of restoration or for the kind of salvation that we seek for ourselves. God saves people for His economy. God saves people for His Christ, for His Zion, and for His house and His city in order that one day He might gain the entire earth through Christ with His overcomers. God is for this.
In Psalms Book 3 there are five outstanding psalms.
Psalm 73 unveils God as our unique portion. Here the psalmist declares, "Whom do I have in heaven but You?/And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth" (v. 25).
Psalm 80 unveils Christ as the One in the place of preeminence. In verse 17 the psalmist prays, saying, "Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,/Upon the son of man whom You have strengthened for Yourself." This psalm reveals that in the entire universe Christ has the place of preeminence.
Psalm 84 unveils Christ as the house of God with the two altars for the "sparrows" and the "swallows," that is, for the weak ones. We may be weak "sparrows" and "swallows," but we enjoy the incarnated Triune God with the two altars as His two great consummations.
Psalm 87 unveils Zion with Christ loved by God. This signifies the church with Christ and with so many saints loved by God, for Zion will be God's house and also God's city as the kingdom for God to gain the entire earth.
Psalm 89 unveils Christ as God's Anointed to possess the entire earth, with His territory extending from the sea to all the rivers.
Of the seventeen psalms in Psalms Book 3, these five are outstanding, showing us that God is our unique portion and then showing us Christ, the saints, the house and the city, the local and universal church full of gates, full of fellowship, for God to move on to accomplish His eternal economy. This is the intrinsic significance of Book 3.
Finally, these five outstanding psalms in Book 3 indicate the processed and consummated Triune God to be the all- inclusive enjoyment of His chosen people in the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and exalted Christ. The processed and consummated Triune God is revealed in the Psalms, and the enjoyment of God's chosen people is also revealed here. Their enjoyment is in the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and exalted Christ. These four matters concerning Christ — His incarnation, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His exaltation — are repeatedly unveiled in the Psalms. This Christ is for the accomplishment of God's economy that we may enjoy in full the Triune God as the processed and consummated One.
