By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 52
This Psalm presents something quite in contrast with the preceding. There the sinner, as we saw, was broken down and turned to God in repentance; here he goes on still in wickedness and in the stubbornness and pride of his heart refusing grace. The penitent was David or the Jewish remnant, as we also saw, and this mighty boaster is as Absalom or the wilful king. This apostate is here still triumphant; but the remnant are trusting in grace, and anticipating their dominion over him.
The "taunting proverb," as Habakkuk speaks, is very fine here (v. 7). We have several of these in scripture, uttered over the fall of some proud infidel despisers of the Lord. His goodness has been scorned, His corrections unheeded, His entreaties mocked, His warnings slighted, and then, when there is no remedy, the Lord "laughs at the calamity, and mocks when the fear cometh." (See Ex. 15, Judges 5, Isa. 14, Ezek. 28, Rev. 18, for instances of these insultations or "taunting proverbs.")
And this Psalm is interesting to us as giving us a divine interpretation of "the olive tree" and its "branches." (See Rom. 11) It is grace or the covenant of promise, and those who trust in it, as the penitent here says, "I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever."
And such is the interpretation of the same symbol in Rom. 11; for those branches there said to be cut off were such as did not believe, i.e., trust in mercy; and those who are there promised an abiding place are so promised on their continuing in goodness, i.e., continuing in the grace of God.
And so the olive trees and the candlesticks are connected. (Zech. 4; Rev. 11) For to be a witness, we must first live by grace ourselves. We must draw forth the fatness of the olive ere we can shine on the candlestick.
Psalm 53
The wilful king or the boaster who refuses grace or divine goodness, having been apprehended by the prophet in the preceding Psalm, in contrast too, as we saw, with the penitent remnant, the same wicked one is still, through several Psalms, kept before his eye. Here he is challenged as the fool or the infidel; for such will he be. He will show himself to be God; he will act as though there were none above him; he will do according to his will, magnifying himself above every god, and speak marvellous things against the God of gods. Thus do prophets and apostles forecast the likeness of this apostate of the last days. (See Dan. 11; 2 Thess. 2)
And how different the mind of the righteous remnant from that of this apostate. They are humbled and broken in heart, while he is in the fulness of pride. They make God everything to them in this day of their trouble, while he is saying and acting on what he says, "There is no God." Such is the contrast. And thus the saints now distinguish themselves from the world. Jesus, Jesus, is their all in all--His fulness that treasure out of which they become complete. (See Col. 2)
The "great fear" of this Psalm appears to be that of the penitent remnant; on the other hand, the "great fear" of Psalm 14 appears to be that of the boaster and his bands--the enemies of the remnant. This accounts for the difference towards the close of each of these Psalms.
Psalm 54
Its first and second verses express desires on the ground of the affliction rehearsed in the third. And then to the close the suppliant, assuring himself of an answer, makes promise of offering praise to God.
Of course such might be the utterance of faith in any. But prophetically it is the language of the righteous Israel under the pressure of the wilful king, who as we saw had been just manifested. (See Ps. 52, Ps. 53) And we know that when the Lord does bring them into the wilderness of the last days, He will then speak comfortably to them, and give them hope in that valley of Achor. (Hosea 2) In this Psalm they seem to taste this hope. God's Israel here cast themselves on His name (v. 1), and His name will at the end be their praise (v. 6); for we know that His name will deliver them. (See Rev. 19) They call the apostate faction "strangers;" for strangers to God and His Israel they will be, as saints are strangers in the world and to its ways.
NOTE.--On the last verse of this Psalm it has been profitably said--"The preterite tense is used here as expressive of confidence in future mercies. In prophetic language this tense often expresses the certainty of things future."
Psalm 55
This Psalm still like the preceding ones contemplates the lawless or wilful king and his faction. Some of it is the utterance of the Lord Jesus in contemplation of the treachery of Judas and the faction that followed him.* Ultimately it is the lawless one, or some other confederate with him, felt and pleaded against by the godly Remnant in the latter days who are deceived by him, as Jesus was by Judas. For looked at as a Jew, or one of God's nation, Jesus was the Remnant in His day. But this Psalm is also the utterance, in his measure, of David himself, under the craft and treason of Ahithophel in company with Absalom. (See 2 Sam. 15, 16) John 13: 21, shows us how deeply the Lord felt the conduct of Judas, as this Psalm does; as also Ps. 41. But His relief was in prayer (verses 16, 17; see also Ps. 69: 13).
*NOTE.--See the observations on Psalm 27 as to a part of some Psalms, and not the whole being the language of Christ.
Israel took their character from Judas then. (Acts 1: 16) He led and represented them. So will the nation be confederate with the lawless one by and by, and the godly Remnant, like Jesus, will find "violence and strife in the city" (v. 9).
We may observe that the strong thought in this Psalm is this: that the city is worse even than a wilderness. For if the afflicted one here could have done so, he would have exchanged the former for the latter. But what a view of man does this give us! He makes his place more terrible than the haunts of wild beasts! For "the city" is man's place. And through human strife and fraud and violence, it becomes worse than the place of the untamed creatures. In this state, man is likened by the Spirit to the fiercer beasts of the desert. (Dan. 7, Rev. 13) And all of us should have this sense of what man and his place is. Jesus found it to be so, and His relief was only in God. And He could say to God, though in this place of man, "thou hast shown me marvellous kindness in a large city." But by and by, this city of man will be thrown down, (ver. 23, Rev. 16: 19), and place made for God's city, where all will be peace and joy.
