By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 16
We know from the Holy Ghost, in Acts 2: 31, that this Psalm is the utterance of Jesus through David. It is the language of the Lord consciously dwelling in God's house as a priest or worshipper. Accordingly He will have no other God, and take His inheritance (like a priest, Num. 18: 20) only from God, esteeming it the best; and in constant communion find confidence and joy and praise and hope. And the very first act of this worshipper is to trust in the Lord, owning that he cannot profit the Lord, for the Lord must profit him. See the contradiction of this in Israel's worship, Psalm 2 and in the Gentiles' worship, Acts 17. It is easy and natural to call to mind here the answer of the Lord to the young ruler in Luke 18. In the moral perfectness of the place He took, the Son in flesh could talk of God as the only good one.
Though it is true, that the Lord was not our priest till He rose (Heb. 5, 8), nor took official services of such a character on Him, yet He was a priest to God, or a worshipper, all through His life on earth; showing all the personal virtues of such an one, walking always in a sanctuary, and always taking God as His portion. And what incense, what constant perfect incense, was the life of Jesus thus looked at! what sweet savour of a meat offering was all that He ever did or said!
"Thine Holy One" is the flesh of Jesus. (Acts 2: 27, 31) This title for it arises from Luke 1: 35, which separated the human nature of Jesus from all taint, and kept it in the fullest favour and acceptance with God.
Psalm 17
This, on the other hand, is the utterance of Jesus, not consciously dwelling in the house of the Lord, but as having come forth and met the oppositions of men. But as He had within carried Himself in the sanctity of a worshipper, so here outside He is keeping Himself from all evil in the midst of all; and in the confidence of this integrity, looking for vindication from God's "presence," and the rewards of righteousness in resurrection by and by, when His persecutors, who are "of the world, and have their portion in this life," shall be cast down.
The persecuted righteous Remnant may also utter this in company with Jesus: indeed they seem to be introduced very distinctly, ver. 11.
NOTE.--These two Psalms thus present the experiences of the Lord very differently. In Ps. 16 He enters into all the present joy of being a dweller in God's house, a priest or worshipper who felt that his lines had fallen in pleasant places, because he was inside the house with God. In Ps. 17 He is outside in the trial of the world, meeting the oppositions of men, and seeking help and deliverance, and looking only to future things as His joy. In 16 the resurrection comes as the end of a blessed path; in 17 as relief from a trying and dangerous one.
The experiences of His saints are according to this also. At times it is the simple joy of resurrection, and at times the hope of being relieved by that from many a present burden which fills their souls. To be "within the veil'' and at the same time "outside the camp" is the due attitude of the believer--and full of moral beauty and dignity that is.
Psalm 18
This is Messiah's praise for deliverance or resurrection, which had been expected at the close of the preceding Psalm. He celebrates Jehovah as His rock and His horn,--symbols of strength and royalty. He recites His desires in the day of His distress, and the marvellous redemption which the hand of Jehovah had wrought for Him and His Israel, when in the place of death, or amid the confederations of His enemies in the latter day. His deliverance is God's answer to His cry. The earth then shakes. As the place of assembly shook at the voice of the Church in Jerusalem. (Acts 4) For the judge of all the earth will avenge His own elect that cry to Him. The Spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming will do this. (verses 8, 12; 2 Thess. 2: 8)
This Psalm strikingly shows Christ in two places and two very distinct characters. For He is here both the delivered one and the deliverer. He is the one who makes this supplication, and the one who answers it. All this, of course, simply and necessarily arising from His person, divine and human as it is,--from His being one with His afflicted people, and yet the Lord who rescues and blesses them: as we see Him in Isa. 8, waiting on Jehovah who has turned His face from Israel, and in Matt. 23 Jehovah Himself with his face turned away.
David's deliverance from the hand of Saul was the type of this; and the deliverance of Israel (with whom Messiah here identifies Himself) in the latter day will be the real deliverance here celebrated by the prophetic spirit. The rescue of Israel from the Red Sea, where the strength of Pharaoh perished, is referred to (vv. 15, 16); for that was another typical resurrection or deliverance. So the discomfiture of Adonizedek, who was the type of the last enemy or the wilful king in the days of Joshua, is also glanced at in verse 12. (See also Ps. 144, Isa. 30: 27-33, and Isa. 64: 1-3)
And the delivered one becomes the conquering and the reigning one at the close. The Lord strengthening Him, He seems equal to everything. The same hand of God that rescues Him, gives Him victory, and at last invests Him with dominion. It lights His candle, and makes Him run through a troop.
And thus this Psalm tells us, as Paul teaches in Rom. 8, "whom He justified, them He also glorified." For the Lord does not, cannot, stop with mere deliverance, but goes on to perfect His goodness in the kingdom. The song of Israel in Exodus 15 and that of the elders in Rev. 5 utter the same truth. If He translate us into the kingdom of His dear Son, it is as putting us on the sure and ready way to the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col. 1) He perfects that which concerneth us.
But all this is in favour of the righteous (20-27); paying just judgment to others. That is the character of the action here. For the deliverance from "the violent man" will not be so much in grace as in righteousness. The sinner is delivered only in grace, through atonement, from the curse of the accuser, the penalty of sin, and the just judgment of the law. And so the Israel of God in the day of their repentance by and by. But in conflict with the enemy, they will be righteous as David with Saul. They will suffer as martyrs or as righteous ones, and as such they will be delivered. And this just judgment, this reward of righteousness and of evil, is the character of the action in the book of Revelation (see Rev. 22: 11, 15), as it is of this Psalm.
2 Sam. 22 shows us that this Psalm was the utterance of David in a fitting time; and though I have just noticed it above, I may urge it again here, what a proof does this offer of the typical nature of certain pieces of history. For the deliverance of David from the hand of Saul is here published in such a style as tells us plainly that another and far more magnificent deliverance was looked at through it.
Hannah's Song, in like manner, looks beyond the occasion of it. (1 Sam. 2) Nothing is more common than this. And this is judged by some to be the meaning of those words, "No prophecy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation." (2 Peter 1) All individual events are parts of one great system of divine government.
