By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 1
JESUS, the Son of man, is here presented in His personal holiness and integrity, and then in His rewards, as "the tree planted by the rivers of water." (See Jeremiah 17) These rewards awaited Jesus in His resurrection, and will still await Him in His kingdom or the "judgment," and there the righteous will share His rewards and the wicked be no more.
This psalm is very soothing to the soul. It is the godly man in the care and leading of God,. whom we see before us. No other intrudes to disturb the rest and security of the righteous one; but on he goes, in his proper undistracted path, to his reward.
And it is gracious to see this book, which is the great depository of the exercises of the soul, open with so tender and soothing a picture as this--the godly man's portion in the favour of the Lord, finding his happiness there. And our souls should ever move on in the like happiness. The Israel of the last days, the godly remnant, will have their place here also.
Psalm 2
Here, however, the soothing influence of the previous psalm is not felt; it is altogether broken up; for the world enters the scene. It is no longer the privacy of God and the godly man. That path is in this psalm trespassed upon by the rude and wild foot of an evil persecuting world.
It is "suffering and glory" that we get here--the rage of man against the Lord's anointed; but the Lord's triumphant exaltation of Him.
Jesus, the Christ of God, is presented in His grace and power, and consequently the vanity of resisting Him, and the blessedness of trusting in Him.
The confederacy, which is here anticipated, was formed when Jesus was crucified. (See Acts 4) He will punish it when He returns in His kingdom. (See Luke 19) It is still in principle existent, being the course of this world already judged, but spared through divine long-suffering. It will be fully developed in all its forms of evil in the last days--those days which the Psalms so generally belong to. It acts on the old desire, and the lie of the serpent. (Gen. 3: 5) It would dethrone God. For the present, however, He that sits in the heavens laughs at it all; as was expressed by the angel rolling away the stone, and sitting on it, while he put the sentence of death into the hearts of its keepers. (Matt. 28) What was all that but the Lord telling the confederacy which had crucified Jesus that He had them all in derision? In like spirit the Lord Jesus from the heavens challenged Saul, the persecuting zealot, in Acts 9.
But there is much more than this present laughter; for the decree of God touching the Christ is the great counter-scheme, and will of course prevail. And that decree, as here announced by the Lord Himself, gives Him Sonship and inheritance: Sonship is already His by resurrection (Acts 13); inheritance will be His in glory by and by.
NOTE.--Looking at these Psalms together, it is Jesus under the law, approved of God and earning blessing by His righteousness, whom we may see in the first: Jesus in testimony or as anointed, resisted by man but exalted by God, and securing blessing or executing judgment on others, whom we see in the second.
Psalm 3
This Psalm is the devout meditation of an afflicted servant of God. It was probably the experience of David, but the Spirit of Jesus breathes in it. It is a morning meditation or prayer, and the afflicted one appears to take courage from his now awaking in safety; anticipating from this, as a pledge or sample, the morning of His kingdom, when all His enemies shall be taken away. This morning rising of the godly man, as the pledge of the opening of the kingdom, is sweet and striking; for the kingdom will be near at hand when those "last days" have come, and the remnant are manifested.
Psalm 4
This meditation is the companion of the preceding one. It is an evening prayer of the same godly man. He appears to have passed through a trying day (as was every day to Jesus more or less), but to have been sustained and refreshed in it.
The godly man, as here, may go to bed and sleep (v. 8); but he warns others to go to bed, and there commune with their hearts, and search their spirits (v. 4). He knows His own full title to rest in God undisturbed; for "God giveth His beloved sleep." The Lord Jesus realized this, though winds and waves tossed the ship on the sea of Galilee. (See Mark 4)
Psalm 5
This Psalm is still in connection. It is a meditation by night. (See verse 3) Thus it follows the preceding. In it the same godly man looks on the evil powers that war against Him, but anticipates His victory and deliverance. But whether it be morning, evening, or night, these Psalms show the pattern of a full faith in God. Different fruit because a different season. As Jesus could "weep" and could "rejoice in spirit." Every season found in Him its due fruit, and all was beautiful; for all was in its season. He knew in what spirit to take His journey to the holy hill in Matthew 17, and in what spirit to set Himself on the road to Jerusalem for the last time. (See Mark 10: 32) He knew how to be abased and how to abound, and each perfectly.
