Scripture Reading: Col. 1:15-19; Rom. 5:20; 10:4; 6:14
In order to help us understand the book of Psalms and even the entire Bible, we need to see the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible concerning Christ and the law. The spirit of the Bible does not refer to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, directly. The Bible as an entity has its own spirit.
The book of Psalms, composed of one hundred fifty psalms, is the longest book among the sixty-six books of the Bible. Furthermore, each psalm is not just a story, a history, or a kind of teaching, exhortation, or instruction. Each psalm is man's speaking to God. In the Psalms we see prayers, thanksgivings, or praises to God. Thus, it is not an ordinary book. Many Bible readers spontaneously and naturally love this book, but they do not know why it is so lovable. The Psalms are very sweet to us because they are man's talk to God. The title of Psalm 18 says that it is a psalm which David "spoke to Jehovah." This psalm was not just David's prayer, thanksgiving, or praise, but his speaking to God. When we pray, that is the sweetest time because we are speaking to God.
Even in our sweet talk to God, however, we make mistakes. We may be mistaken, but our talk to God is still very sweet. A husband and a wife may speak to each other in a way that is full of mistakes, but their talk to each other can still be very sweet. In order for us to understand such a sweet book as the Psalms which is full of both the divine concept and the human concept with human mistakes, we need to see the way to understand the Bible. In order to understand the Bible, we need to see the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible.
In order to see the two lines of the Bible, we need to go back to the very beginning of the divine revelation at the creation of man. The book of Genesis reveals that God created man in His image so that He could have a vessel to contain Him for His expression (1:26-28; 2:7-9). After God created man, He did not give man a long list of instructions. He did not say to man, "Man, you have to know that I am your God. You have to fear Me, love Me, and obey Me. Furthermore, I will make you a wife, and you have to love her. After you have a wife, you will produce children, and you have to listen to Me so that you can pick up the best way to raise them." God did not do this.
After God created man in His own image and after His own likeness, He did not tell man what to do and what not to do. Instead, God brought man into a garden, signifying that God's intention with man for the accomplishment of His economy needs a pleasant situation, a pleasant environment. Even to carry out the church life, we need a pleasant situation. If there is much complaining, arguing, debating, gossiping, and reasoning among us, the church life cannot be carried out. The garden on this earth today is the place where God's people are gathered into the Lord's name.
God brought Adam into a garden, into a pleasant environment, and put him in front of two trees — the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). God told Adam that he could freely eat of every tree in the garden, including the tree of life, but He warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (vv. 16-17). In telling Adam that all the trees in the garden were good for food, God was very wise. His intention was to stress to Adam that the tree of life was good for food. Then God warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, telling Adam that if he ate of it, he would surely die.
We need to realize that the entire Bible was written according to these two trees. The entire divine revelation is the development of the notion of these two trees. Genesis shows us man in a pleasant garden with the tree of life before him. Then in Revelation at the end of the divine revelation, we see the tree of life again (22:2). The tree of life not only was in the garden but also will be in the eternal city, the New Jerusalem. The line of the tree of life runs through the entire Bible from Genesis to reach the last chapter of the book of Revelation.
Someone may ask, "What does the Bible teach?" This question can be answered in many ways. We can say that the Bible teaches God's economy or that it teaches Christ. In this message, I would say that the Bible teaches the tree of life. The Bible is a book which defines the tree of life. Along with the main line of the tree of life, there is another line, the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
When I was very young, I thought that God made a mistake in allowing Satan to exist. If He had not allowed Satan to exist, everything would be fine. Furthermore, after God created man, He did not put man in front of one tree. If there were only one tree, the tree of life, Adam would not have been able to fall even if he had wanted to fall. Why did God allow there to be two trees — the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? We might say that if we were God, we would have had only one tree in the garden. We probably think, "How good it would be if in this whole universe, there were only God, but not Satan." We might think this, but this is not according to God's thought. Without Satan, the excellency, the majesty, the wisdom, and the marvelous, wonderful points of God could never be exhibited. God and Satan are two sources in the universe.
The two trees set before man after man's creation signify God and God's enemy, His opposite. God is positive, and Satan is negative. From these two sources, there are two flows, and these two flows become two lines. A line is also a way. The tree of life is a way, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is also a way. The tree that you live by is the way that you live. To live by the tree of life is to live by the way of life. To live by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to live by the way of the knowledge of good and evil.
About six thousand years have passed since the time of Adam, and the entire world today is taking the way of the knowledge of good and evil. Families, societies, and nations of the world are formed not by the way of life but by the way of the knowledge of good and evil. But thank the Lord that we are a group of people who have been called out of the group of those who live by the way of the knowledge of good and evil, the way of complication.
Much of the time, however, instead of living by the way of life, we live by the way of the knowledge of good and evil. Day by day we parents raise our children to deal with three things — knowledge, good, and evil. The mothers teach their children with the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. The children are taught in their homes and schools to pick up the proper knowledge to do good and hate evil. The law courts and human governments are set up according to the concept of the knowledge of good and evil. Even Christianity and many other religions have fallen into the same "cage" of the way of the knowledge of good and evil. But we need to be those who are outside of this cage. We do not care for the knowledge of good and of evil. We care only for life.
Cain and Abel are representatives of these two lines, which are two ways. I believe that Adam brought forth many sons, but the Bible in Genesis 4:1-2 records only two sons of Adam — Cain and Abel. Both Cain and Abel came to worship God by offering something to God. Cain was a farmer. His labor produced a crop, so he offered the fruit of his crop to God. It seems that Cain worked for God and respected God by offering something to God. God, however, rejected Cain's offering. When I was young, I could not understand why God did this. Abel was a shepherd who offered the firstlings of his flock to God. God was pleased with Abel's offering.
These two brothers of the same parents represent the two lines of the Bible. The first one, Cain, chose the way of the knowledge of good and evil, and the second one, Abel, chose the way of life. Adam's race became two groups. One group was of Cain, and the other group was of Abel. In Abel's group there were Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who eventually became Israel. This is the positive line in the Old Testament. In Cain's group there were all the evil ones. Eventually Nimrod was raised up in this evil group. He was a mighty man who built Babel (Gen. 10:8-10a). He also built Assyria with Nineveh as the capital (vv. 11-12; cf. Micah 5:6).
The history of mankind in the Old Testament is of two groups, two lines, which are out of two sources. To what group did David belong — the group of Cain or the group of Abel? According to the revelation we have seen thus far, David was in both groups. In Psalms 1, 3—7, and 9—15, he was in the group of Cain. In these psalms, he was praying to God, praising God, and thanking God in the group of Cain. He was fearing God, loving God, and worshipping God, but in the wrong way.
We have seen that in these psalms he justifies himself and mentions his righteousness frequently. He asks the Lord to hear him and remember him because of his righteousness. We need to ask whether David's righteousness as an offering to God is from the crop, as from Cain, or from the flock, as from Abel. David's prayer, thanksgiving, and praise in Psalms 1, 3—7, and 9—15 may be good, but they are of the knowledge of good and evil. There are two kinds of fruit of the same tree — good fruit and evil fruit. It is possible to pray to God, love God, praise God, and work for God according to the line of the knowledge of good and evil. Cain was a God-worshipper who offered something to God, but what he offered according to his way was not acceptable to God. David offered his righteousness to God, but we know that man's righteousness is as a soiled garment in the sight of God (Isa. 64:6).
In Psalms 2, 8, and 16, however, David was in the group of Abel in the line of life. We may say that at times David was a "Cain," a good Cain, a positive Cain, not an evil Cain. He was a Cain of good, not a Cain of evil. But sometimes, David was turned to another group, to the group of Abel. In this group he did not mention his righteousness or what he could do. He spoke of taking refuge in the Son (Psa. 2:12) and of God hiding him under the wings of God (Psa. 17:8). In Psalm 27 David was on the line of life, saying that he desired to dwell in the house of Jehovah to behold the loveliness of Jehovah (v. 4). In Psalm 36 David said that in God's house, there is the fatness, the river of God's pleasures, the fountain of life, and light (vv. 8-9). This is God as our enjoyment. Therefore, we can see that at times David was with the group of Cain in the line of the knowledge of good and evil, but at other times God turned him to be with the group of Abel in the line of life.
Now we need to ask, "To what group do we belong?" Do we belong to the group of Cain or the group of Abel? Are we companions of Cain or companions of Abel? At times we may be with Abel, and at other times we may leave Abel and join Cain. When we endeavor to do things in ourselves, by ourselves, with ourselves, and for ourselves, we are companions of Cain. We have to confess that today we are mostly "Cains" in the line of the knowledge of good and evil. Very rarely are we "Abels" in the line of life. We live mostly by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not by the tree of life.
Now I would like us to consider whether Abraham was with Cain or with Abel. Actually, Abraham was sometimes with Cain and sometimes with Abel. God had promised Abraham a son, but Abraham and his wife Sarah became very old, and they had lost the human capacity to produce children. Sarah then urged Abraham to take her handmaid, Hagar, so that they could have a son (Gen. 16). Before taking Hagar to produce Ishmael, Abraham was with Abel. But when Abraham took Hagar, he became a companion of Cain, and that offended God. God did not appear to Abraham for thirteen years after Ishmael was born (Gen. 16:16—17:1).
Abraham was walking with God in the line of the tree of life, but he was under God's test. God promised him a son, but by the time he was very old, he still did not have a son. His wife was very concerned about this and gave Hagar to Abraham to produce a son named Ishmael. God's desire, however, was not with this son. Ishmael was born when Abraham was eighty-six years old (Gen. 16:16). Thirteen years later, when Abraham was ninety-nine, God appeared to him again (Gen. 17:1), and Isaac, the child of God's promise, was born when Abraham was one hundred years old (Gen. 21:5). Abraham returned again to the line of life. Ishmael was produced according to the line of the knowledge of good and evil. Isaac was produced according to the line of life.
When the descendants of Abraham became the race of Israel, God brought them to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai God's intention was to train them to be His people to serve Him with a tabernacle, with a priesthood, and with all kinds of offerings. The tabernacle, the priesthood, and the offerings are of the line of the tree of life. But the people of Israel did not know themselves. Their thought was always with Cain.
God, before the making of the tabernacle, decreed the law, and the law is in the line of good and evil. We have seen that the law was a side line. The main line is the line of the tree of life with the tabernacle, with the priesthood, and with the offerings. But the people of Israel desired to take another way, the way of the law, the way of good and evil. They promised God that they would do whatever He said (Exo. 19:8; 24:3). God knew, of course, that they were talking in a foolish way. While Moses was on the mountain with God receiving the commandments of the law, they made a golden calf to break the law. Later, Moses went up to the mountain again. This time God gave him the pattern of the tabernacle. He also showed Moses the priesthood with all the offerings. The tabernacle, the priesthood, and all the offerings typify Christ. This is the way of life. Throughout the entire history of Israel in the Old Testament from Moses' time, we can see these two lines — the line of the law and the line of the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the offerings, which are the line of life.
David treasured the law and tried to keep it, but he failed to the uttermost. He killed Uriah and robbed Uriah of his wife. He needed the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the offerings. Through the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the offerings, David was forgiven. Psalm 51 shows us that when David repented, he was a strong "Abel." Psalm 51, a psalm of David's repentance and confession, is the most spiritual psalm. At the end of his confession, he asked God to do good to Zion and to build the walls of Jerusalem (v. 18). Later, however, when he was fleeing from Absalom, David turned back again to the group of Cain, as we saw in Psalms 3—7.
Now we can see that in the book of Psalms, as in the entire Bible, there are two lines. At the end of the Psalms, the psalmists are fully in the line of life. The concluding psalms are full of praises, full of "Hallelujahs." The psalmists by that time were not praising the law, but Christ. We have to see the two lines in the book of Psalms. In reading the Psalms, we should not agree with David when he is "Cain-David." We need to stay with "Abel-David." We need to stand with "Abel-David" in Psalm 51. We should treasure all the psalms concerning Christ in the line of life. We need to come out of the group of Cain and enter into and stay with the group of Abel.
When we study the book of Job, we can see many "Cains" there and also some "Abels." My burden is to help us know the two lines, the two ways, in the Bible. Among the Jews in the Old Testament, there was the wonderful way of the tabernacle, the priesthood, and all the offerings. There was also the way of the law. The people of Israel could not meet God by keeping the law; they met God in the tabernacle.
Whenever we try to accomplish something in ourselves like Cain, we do not have the inner anointing. We need to pray, "Lord, I can do nothing and I do not want to do anything. I just want to enjoy You, to partake of You, to experience You, to live You, and to express You." When we pray in this way, we are like Abel, and we are full of the inner anointing. Thus, we can see two sources, two lines, and two ways with two kinds of results. One result is the absence of God, and the other result is the presence of God.
The main line of the Bible is the central line of God's economy concerning Christ and the church. This is the line of life. Christ is the centrality and universality of God's eternal economy. The church is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23), the counterpart of Christ, the complement of Christ, to be God's dwelling on the earth, typified by the tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9; Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:3) and the temple (1 Kings 6:1), both of which are considered as the house of God (Judg. 18:31b; Psa. 5:7). The main line is of Mount Zion in the heavens (Psa. 2:6; Rev. 14:1), signified by Mount Zion on the earth (Psa. 3:4; 9:11, 14; 14:7; 15:1b); and the New Testament believers have come to Mount Zion in the heavens (Heb. 12:22) in the main line of God's economy.
The other line in the Scriptures is the side line concerning the law. This is the line of the knowledge of good and evil. The law was added alongside the main line of the economy of God (Rom. 5:20a). The side line is of Mount Sinai, where the law was given. The Old Testament saints, who were for the law, were slaves of this Mount Sinai (Gal. 4:24).
The psalmists, who were for the law, stayed ignorantly at Mount Sinai of this side line. Occasionally and unconsciously they turned to Mount Zion of the main line, as unveiled in Psalms 3:4; 9:11, 14; 14:7; and 15:1b. In Mount Zion they enjoyed the house, the temple of God, as unveiled in Psalms 5:7 and 11:4. This is an unconscious progression in the psalmists' seeking after God.
The psalmist in Psalm 15 was questioning as to who may sojourn in God's tent and who may dwell on God's holy mountain. The answer according to David's concept is the perfect man in the side line of the law (Psa. 15:2-5). But the answer according to the divine revelation is the God-man Christ (Psa. 16:1-11) as the firstborn Son of God with His many brothers as the many sons of God in the main line of God's economy (Rom. 6:14).
There are many principles in the Bible and of the Bible which can help us to understand the Bible in a proper way. It is very difficult for many students of the Bible to understand the Bible because they do not know the principles of the Bible. In order to understand what these principles are, I want to present a few illustrations.
During Martin Luther's time, the Catholic Church taught that to be saved and justified by God, one had to do good works and keep the law. Then Luther stood up to say that justification is by faith. Faith is a principle in the New Testament. Genesis 15 says that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness (v. 6). God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. This shows that we do not need to do anything to build up our own righteousness. We simply need to believe in Christ.
The book of Habakkuk talks about the Babylonians coming to devastate the entire country of Israel. In this book there is a verse which says, "The righteous one will live by his faith" (2:4). Faith is a big principle in the Bible. According to the entire Bible, faith is to stop our work, to stop our doing — on the negative side. Then on the positive side, faith is to trust in the Lord. Faith is to stop our doing and to trust in His doing.
The principle of faith is related to the principle of the Sabbath. The principle of the Sabbath is this: you have to cease your work because God is everything to you. If you need something to be worked out, God works for you. That is what it means to enjoy the Sabbath. The Sabbath is in the same principle as faith. The real believing, the real faith, means to stop your doing. Whatever you do is an insult to God. In the principle of the Sabbath and in the principle of faith, you do not need to work or to do anything, because God does everything and works out everything for your enjoyment. You just trust in Him and trust in His doing, in His working. This is faith.
Psalm 1 says that if you keep the law, you will be blessed (vv. 1-2), but Psalm 2 says that the one who takes refuge in the Son is blessed (v. 12). The only way that we can take refuge in the Son is to stop our doing. We need to take refuge in Jesus, to believe into Him. This is the principle of faith. According to the teaching of Catholicism, you have to work, to labor, and to suffer to be justified by God. Then Martin Luther found out that God's principle of His salvation is not by doing, not by working, but by believing in God and in all that He has done and is going to do. This is to take refuge in the working God and to stop our work. This principle of faith should govern our entire Christian life.
On the one hand, we need to stop our work. On the other hand, we still need to labor, but this labor is not in ourselves and by ourselves. Paul said, "I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me" (1 Cor. 15:10). The grace of God is Christ. Paul said, "Yet not I but the grace of God." This is similar to Galatians 2:20, where Paul said that he had been crucified with Christ and that it was no longer he who lived, but Christ lived in him. This is to rest, to keep the Sabbath, to take refuge in the Son, to believe into Him. Our entire Christian life should be according to this principle of the Sabbath and of faith.
Faith is one of the many principles in the Bible. Paul defined the principle of faith thoroughly in his Epistles. He said that no flesh can be justified by the works of the law (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16; 3:11). There are many other principles of the Bible.
The Bible is in two testaments — the Old Testament and the New Testament. To understand the Old Testament, you need to keep one principle; and to understand the New Testament, you need to keep another principle. Today, the Pentecostals, like those in Catholicism, understand the Bible in a mixed-up way. They do not keep the principle of the Old Testament and of the New Testament. When you apply anything of the Old Testament, you must find out the principle of applying it in a spiritual way, not in a physical way.
This is the difference between the practice of Judaism and the practice of God's New Testament economy. The Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, has become an idol to the religious Jews. They do not really care for God in reality but for the letter of their Torah. Even the ark became a superstitious thing to the children of Israel. When they were fighting the Philistines, they brought out the ark to go with them. Eventually, they were defeated and the ark was captured (1 Sam. 4:3-5, 10-11). The children of Israel also built the temple, and the temple eventually became an idol to them. They trusted in the temple rather than in God Himself. Later, the Babylonians came to destroy the temple.
The two lines of the Bible are the line of life and the line of the knowledge of good and evil. With these two lines, there are the principles of the Bible. As long as it is something other than God, whether good or evil, that is not life. Only God Himself is the tree of life.
Today people are claiming their rights, but they are violating the God-ordained principles. Paul spoke of the distinctions between male and female in his Epistles (1 Cor. 11:2-15; 1 Tim. 2:9-15). Deuteronomy 22:5 says, "A woman shall not put on a man's belongings, nor shall a man wear a woman's garment; for everyone who does these things is an abomination to Jehovah your God." For a woman to wear a man's clothing or for a man to wear a woman's clothing breaks God's principle. We have to keep the principles. Every part, chapter, paragraph, sentence, and clause of the Bible must be interpreted according to the proper principles.
According to the principle in the Old Testament, the Old Testament saints had to keep the Sabbath, the seventh day. But when the Lord Jesus came, He ended the Old Testament time. To end means to conclude and to consummate. Christ consummated, concluded, ended, the Old Testament. Now according to the book of Hebrews, Christ is everything. In the New Testament, Christ is our Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28; Col. 2:16-17).
Now that we are in the New Testament age, we have to keep this principle concerning Christ. The principle in the Old Testament was to keep the Sabbath day. The principle in the New Testament concerning the Sabbath is to believe in the Lord, to rest in the Lord, and to enjoy the Lord. The Seventh-Day Adventists mix up the Old Testament principle with that of the New Testament. They keep the Old Testament Sabbath in the New Testament age. They are wrong in principle. Their intention might be good, but their principle is wrong.
We need to see the principles of the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. The tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9; 40:1-2) as the precursor of the temple (1 Kings 6:1), the priesthood (Exo. 28:1), and the offerings (Lev. 1—7), all as types of Christ, were ordained by God to be the main line for God's chosen people to worship God, serve God, contact God, and partake of God until Christ as the fulfillment of all the types came (Heb. 9:8-12).
The law as the testimony of God (Psa. 78:5) was given by God to be the side line alongside the main line to guard the chosen people of God until Christ as the end of the law (Rom. 10:4a) came (Gal. 3:23-25).
God has ordained Christ to be the centrality and universality of His economy to fulfill His good pleasure (Eph. 3:8-11; 1:9-11). The law as the alongside factor has been ended by Christ (Rom. 10:4a), and the believers are no longer under the law (Rom. 6:14).
Colossians 1:15-19 shows that the spirit of the Bible exalts Christ. These five verses are unique in the Bible in exalting Christ. Christ must have the first place; He must have the preeminence. Christ has the preeminence in the Godhead because in the Godhead, He is the image of God, the embodiment of God, and the expression of God. He is in the first place, even in the Godhead. Then in the old creation, He was the first creature, the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). In the new creation, in resurrection, He is also the first. He is the preeminent One. Furthermore, in the Body of Christ, in the church, Christ is the first. In the Godhead, Christ is the first; in the old creation, Christ is the first; in the new creation, Christ is the first; and in the church as the Body of Christ, Christ is the first. He is first in everything.
Since He has the first place in all things, we must give Him the first place in our being and in all that we do. He must be first in our marriage, in our spending of money, and in our demeanor. In the way that we dress, we must give Christ the preeminence. The spirit of the Bible is just to exalt Christ. When we come to study the Psalms, we must realize this. We must realize that we cannot exalt anything higher than Christ. If we exalt anyone or anything other than Christ, we break the spirit of the Bible. If we are going to interpret any types or explain any parables, we must take care of this spirit. The spirit of the Bible is to exalt Christ.
The spirit of the Bible exalts the Christ ordained by God to have the preeminence (the first place) in the old creation, in the new creation, in the Body of Christ, and in everything (Col. 1:15-19). Also the spirit of the Bible does not give any orthodox position to the law (Gal. 4:21-25) given by God alongside His economy (Rom. 5:20a).
Many teachings in Christianity today are off the mark because they do not take care of the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible. We have to stay on the line of the tree of life. Whether or not we speak with the oracle of God depends upon what we speak. A prophet is one who has received the word from God. Then he speaks the word in the line of the tree of life, in the proper principles, and in the spirit of exalting Christ. In whatever we speak, we must have a spirit to exalt Christ.
In the past two years, we have released messages on Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, and Jeremiah. It is not easy to see Christ in these four books. How many people see God's economy in these four books with Christ as the centrality and universality? Whenever we study a book of the Bible, we must keep the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible. Then the light comes. If we read the Bible without seeing the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we will not know what it is talking about.
When we study the Psalms in the light of the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we can see the human concept and the divine concept. We can see Christ in God's economy versus the law in man's appreciation. We may think that all of the psalms are good psalms, since they are psalms of prayer, psalms of thanksgiving, and psalms of praise. But when we see the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we will see that many of the psalms may be good, but they are good in a wrong way.
David said that because of his righteousness, God heard him. This is not just wrong, but terribly wrong. This is against the principle of the Bible. How could God hear us because of our righteousness? The Bible says that even our best righteousness is as a soiled garment (Isa. 64:6). No flesh can be justified before God by the works of the law. This is the principle. We cannot be justified and please God by our righteousness.
Cain offered the fruit of his labor to God. It seemed that this was a kind of worship to God, but actually this was an insult to God. This was an insult to God because God does not need us to do something for Him. We need Him to do everything for us. He wants us to stop our doing, rest in Him, and take refuge in Him. By doing this, we honor God. This is the principle.
We may love people and help people, but our love and help can be an insult to God. Do we love people and help people by ourselves or by Christ? If it is by ourselves, this is the good of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If we hate people, this is the evil of the same tree. The fruits are different, but the source and the result are the same. We may say that we do everything with the best knowledge. This means that our doing is according to the tree of knowledge, not the tree of life.
We should have the attitude that even though we can do something by ourselves, we would not do it. We do not like to act by ourselves because God hates this. God hates anything out of us, anything by us, and anything through us. We need to stop our doing and rest in Him, trusting in His doing. This honors God and brings in His blessing.
Many times good things can be a real temptation, a snare, and a trap to us. When we are doing good things, we have to check who is doing them. Are we doing them or is Christ doing them? Even the best thing done merely by man is an insult to God. Only the things done by Christ as our life and only the things accomplished by God as our enjoyment are in the line of the tree of life. When we act in the line of the tree of life, this is in the proper line, in the keeping of the proper principle, and in the spirit of exalting Christ.
When we see the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we have the boldness to say which psalms are of the tree of life and which psalms are not. Regardless of how good something is, God only cares for who does it. God wants us to live Him, but not by ourselves. God wants us to express Him, but not by ourselves. We have to stop our expression. We have to put our trust in Him and let Him live in us and out of us. Then whatever we do will be an honor and a glory to God. Otherwise, whatever we do, even though it may be good, is an insult to God.
