By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 43
This is very similar to the preceding. The character of the enemy is perhaps more defined, and the wilful king or the lawless one, and the apostate nation. The troubles of the righteous Remnant are no doubt looked at by the Spirit.
In the brokenness of his heart in these Psalms, the suppliant pours forth interrupted words; sometimes addressing God, then his own soul, and then the enemy who was grieving him. The trial of any believer very naturally utters itself in the like manner; and all of us, duly waiting for Jesus and feeling what the world is without Him, should find our sympathies in these Psalms. We should all be conscious that we have tears to drink if God's water-brooks are not with us.
Psalm 44
Here the complaint becomes the complaint of many. They stand in the consciousness of integrity, though in great sorrow; but they remember God's mercies to their fathers, and upon this they appeal to Him.
It is strikingly the cry of a martyred people, or of those who were suffering at the hand of man for righteousness' sake, and not for any iniquity or wrong they had done. Such was David when troubled by Saul; such will the godly Israel be when troubled by the bold infidel power of the latter day; and such, we need not say, was Jesus, the perfect witness of righteousness against the deeds of the world. (John 7: 7) But such, in our measure, should all of us be, in refusing the course of this present evil world, and taking the separate place of Jesus.
There is an advance in the experience of the soul here. In the two earlier Psalms (42, 43) it had been rather the cry of a penitent, righteously separated from God's house, as David in Absalom's days; but here it is the cry of martyrs.
This Psalm strikingly shows that scripture, primarily or prophetically belonging to a particular people, may have moral or general application; for verse 1 plainly shows this to be a Jewish utterance, but St. Paul applies it to all saints. (Rom. 8: 36, and v. 22) And he intimates that as it is the blessed office of the Holy Ghost to maintain the soul in the sense of God's love (Rom. 5: 5), nothing shall be so strong against us, as is the Holy Ghost for us, maintaining that love. (Rom. 8: 39)
A difference, however, between the suppliant in the Psalm and the apostle in the Epistle is this: the Psalmist gathers present confidence in the sorrow from what the fathers had told of God's mercies in times of old; the apostle gathers his from being able, through the Holy Ghost, to trace God's counsels of love and glory towards himself and all that love God--the called according to His purpose. So, I may observe, there is a difference in the affection of the two: in the one it is fear, from the knowledge that God searcheth the heart; in the other it is love, from the knowledge of His unchangeable love.
Psalm 45
Messiah in His second advent is here celebrated; and this properly forms the Lord's gracious answer to the complaints of the Remnant uttered in the preceding Psalm, and to their cry there (Ps. 44: 26) for Messiah to come as deliverer to Zion.
The heart and the tongue find ready and joyful work when the King in His beauty becomes their subject. For in such a theme, "the Ready Writer," the Holy Ghost, is at His due work. He is taking of the things of Christ to show to us. And the mind of the saint is at home also. As one of our own poets has said, speaking of the things of Jesus,
"My heart, my hand, my ear, my tongue,
Here's joyful work for you."
But in passing on to the Lord as King, the prophet's heart and tongue pause for a moment over His person and ministry in the days of His flesh. And it may be that His present glory, as Priest in the heavens, is intimated in the words, "Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever." But quickly all is passed by to see Him, as king David, fighting the Lord's battle in the cause of truth, meekness, and righteousness, and clearing the land of all workers of iniquity; and then as king Solomon, seated on the throne of glory. God consecrates Him to the office, owning righteousness to be His title, and all greet Him with love, like hers who once broke her alabaster box of ointment over His head (verses 8, 9). Jerusalem, the mystic queen, is also addressed; and the nations, her companions, set off the joy and glory of the king.
But there is something striking as regards this queen. She is looked at as coming, like any sinner of the Gentiles, from some place of defilement which she is exhorted to leave behind her. (Deut. 21: 13) This tells us the character in which Jerusalem will be finally received, even like a returned prodigal; and so the king shall greatly desire her beauty. For in such is all His delight. It is His own beauty He sees in such--the beauty He Himself hath put on them--the shoes, and the ring, and the best robe.
In this Psalm accordingly the Lord's title is owned to stand in His righteousness (v. 7); but Jerusalem's title, the queen's title, as that of every sinner, is only by grace. This is just and beautiful. And perhaps the Canticles give us the exercises of this daughter thus considering, as she is here exhorted, passing through discipline of heart in preparation for this union with the King.
Observe, the queen is the earthly, not the heavenly Jerusalem; because, first, her marriage is with the King, not with the Lamb; second, her marriage follows, not precedes, the victory. The Jews in their ancient writings speak of a Jerusalem above and a Jerusalem below, and of the one being like the other--of Jerusalem being built in the firmament as Jerusalem on earth.
We may read verses 16, 17 as addressed to the King--"thy" in verse 16, as well as in verse 17, being in the masculine gender.
Psalm 46
Here, as necessarily consequent upon the second advent which had, as we saw, just been celebrated or anticipated, the complaint of the remnant is turned into praise and gladness. God has now become their refuge. By His arm the enemy is stilled. Peace flows like a river, and the spear is turned into a pruning-hook. The mountain, according to Matt. 21: 21, had been cast into the sea, while the elect were in their closets, and now they rehearse all this. Nothing of terror touches them. They can talk of the waters gladdening, instead of overwhelming, them. They can triumph in the desolations, instead of perishing by them; for none less than God Himself has been their refuge. "Where is thy God?" has been the reproach of the enemy, and the answer is returned to him in the triumph of this Psalm.
The judgments on the ungodly precede the kingdom, as this Psalm and all the scripture teach us; for by and by, righteousness will link itself with power, and then evil will be judged; and afterwards the whole earth will be governed in peace. Righteousness will take the sword first, and then the sceptre.
