By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 35
This Psalm may be read as a silent musing of the afflicted soul of Jesus as he stood before Pilate. He pleads with God both for His own rescue and for the judgment and confusion of His persecutors. The "false witnesses" of verse 11 are heard in Matt. 26: 59 the "abjects" of verse 15 are seen in Luke 23: 1; the Lord's saying, "I knew not," in verse 15, is verified by His attitude in Luke 22: 64; His "quietness in the land," of verse 20, is seen in Matt. 12: 19, Matt. 22: 21; and this shows that the charge against Him in Luke 23: 2 was the "deceitful matter" here referred to by this blessed sufferer and witness in verse 20.
One thing especially might be observed here--that the Lord Jesus pleads for judgment upon the persecutor and the enemy. But we should be prepared for this; for in the Gospels we get the same, just heard from His lips for a moment--"O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee." In these words He does not utter the full request which we meet occasionally in the Psalms, but as distinctly does He leave the world in its unbelief and rejection of grace before the righteous judgment. So that these words in John 17 are of the spirit of those Psalms where Messiah calls for judgment. And if in the Psalms He is heard even pronouncing judgment, that would not be beyond His language in the Gospels" Behold your house is left unto you desolate;" or, as He again says, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida;" or still more fully, and in the solemnities of a judgment seat in Matt. 23. His words to Caiaphas in Matt. 26: 64 savour of the same. And beside, we are told that the Lord committed Himself to the righteous Judge (1 Peter 2: 23), without reviling or threatening. This Psalm appears to be a sample of such communion. in Psalm 69, with the commentary we get on it in Rom. 11, we find the same. (See also Psalm 40: 14, 15)
But the Spirit of Christ in the Remnant will be heard more distinctly crying for judgment, as the iniquity of the world is filling up its measure in their day. We find this not only in the Psalms, as here, but in Luke 18: 1-8; Rev. 6: 10, etc.
We may notice, all the "bones" were kept in the preceding Psalm (see Ps. 34: 20); here they are presented as praising and giving thanks (v. 10).
Psalm 36
The materials of this Psalm are very simple. It does not depend on any peculiar circumstances, but it is the language of any soul forced by the violence of the wicked into the greatness and excellencies of God as its refuge. But especially it is the experience of the Remnant who will have to meet the violence of the evil one in the latter day.
This experience of the saints is very blessed. It proves that out of the cater comes meat, out of the strong one sweetness; that when they are weak, as the apostle finds, then they are strong: for the violence of the wicked only makes us know still more the blessedness of the living God, and thus do we get spoil out of the strong one.
And let the strength of the enemy be as great as it may, yet the saints in spirit looking at God say, "They that be with us are more than they that be with them."
It is a beautiful, comforting meditation. The Psalmist first looks at the greatness of the wickedness of the wicked, and then at the magnificence of the goodness and glory of God. Everything is great in the eye of this worshipper, and he feels that he can leave his cause with God, anticipating the full overthrow of all the mighty in their wickedness.
The worshipper here owns the cause of all this human wickedness, which he had been contemplating to lie in having cast off God's fear; and perhaps he allows that the source, even the heart, was in himself as in any other man. (Rom. 7: 17, 18; Matt. 15: 18-20) Indeed this Psalm helps the apostle with his divine inspired verdict against man, as an utterly corrupted creature. (See v. 1, Rom. 3: 18)
Psalm 37
This is the meditation of a believer, or a worshipper, as he looks on the moral scene around him, called by the apostle "the course of this world," in the light which faith and hope afford him; and in the calmness and certainty of that light he delivers a word of rich consolation. He tells of the future and final settlement of things between the righteous and the wicked, though all may appear very different for a season.
The burden of this Psalm is the excision of the wicked from the earth, and the investing of the meek with the inheritance of it. It might take for its motto the words of Isaiah--"Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him."
And he gives us his experience as a kind of seal of the truth of this; for in his observation of persons and circumstances he could say that he had never seen either the righteous finally forsaken, or the wicked, though for a while spreading himself like an evergreen, finally prosperous (vv. 25, 35). Wherefore he would have the righteous encourage their hearts, though present griefs may be many and various. Their end shall be peace, when the wicked are cut off; their inheritance shall come and last for ever, when the day (i.e., the judgment) of the ungodly shall come (vv. 13, 18).
Meekness, which is thus to end in the inheritance (see Matt. 5: 5) appears to be that temper of soul that makes us willing to be nothing till the promised inheritance comes. The Lord Jesus (in whom was all perfectness) fully expressed it. Though Lord of all, He was content to have nothing; and the kingdom is a reward of His meekness. (Matt. 21: 5) The saints, in their measure, are the meek now. The Remnant will be so in their day. (Zeph. 2: 3) This Psalm may therefore be read by us all; for the experience of all God's chosen is in kind the same as to this; but the remnant, in fuller measure, will need the consolation of it when they come to be pressed by the successful confederacies of the wicked in the latter day. Verse 11 and Matt. 5: 5 show the disciples of the Lord Jesus and the Remnant of the last days to be in much moral identity.
Thus this Psalm would teach us not to live for any hope short of resurrection and the kingdom--and that they are divinely wise, and they only, who "consider their latter end." A simple, serious, and holy lesson--a happy one to God's strangers and pilgrims. "For the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
Psalm 38
The penitent in this Psalm feels both the weight of God's righteous anger, and the bitterness of man's undeserved enmity (vv. 4, 19, 20). It suits David's suffering from Absalom because of his sin against God in the matter of Uriah. He speaks as like a leper outside the camp. And such is the figure of a convicted sinner, or of a saint under discipline. He is separated as one defiled and defiling; but Jesus can meet us in that place, though none else can. As a poor woman convicted of her sins once said, "I am too bad for any but Jesus," and that blessed Saviour, as we know, at once "spotless" and yet "made sin," was led to the slaughter without opening His mouth. (v. 13, Matt. 26: 63; Matt. 27: 12, 14) He did not answer the accusing of the wicked, but silently, or in the unutterable musing of His spirit, committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. This was expressed in David towards Shimei. (2 Sam. 16) David knew not the counsel of the sons of Zeruiah--his soul had no sympathy with it.
And this Psalm may be read as an utterance of the Remnant; for they will call to remembrance, and take upon them the sin of their nation in shedding the righteous blood of Jesus, though personally they had no share in it. (Zech. 12: 10) For the sin of David touching Bathsheba and Uriah may represent Israel's sin touching Jesus; innocent blood was shed, and unclean alliances were formed. The Jewish people cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him," and at the. same moment said, "We have no king but Caesar." And then, we may say in a sense and measure, the subsequent sorrows of David at the hand of Absalom represent the Remnant's sorrows at the hand of their enemy, the wilful king; and this makes the same penitential Psalms the utterance of both David and the Remnant.
It is worthy of consideration whether the fool-slipping in verse 16 is not calamity rather than transgression. (See Deut. 32: 35; Ps. 94: 18)
