By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 78
A certain distinguished Prophet here announces himself as having deep secrets to open. (v. 1, 2) A company of Prophets then, according to divine appointment and by way of admonition, trace the history of God's ways in grace, and Israel's ways in perverseness, from the Exodus to David. (3-72)
Thus we have "things new and old,"--the new being the secrets just hinted at by the speaker of the two first verses, the old being the well known things rehearsed by the company of Jewish prophets.
Now we know that the Lord Jesus Christ took the place of this distinguished Prophet--this Prophet of new things, and so, in measure, does every one instructed in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 13: 35, 52) In such sense the least there is greater than John the Baptist. St. Paul was eminently among these instructed scribes, being conscious that he was bringing forth the new things (see 1 Cor. 2, Eph. 3, Col. 1), things kept secret, or hidden mysteries. And no scribe is duly instructed in the kingdom of heaven, or a due teacher in the present dispensation, who does not discern between the things "new and old."
But the old things as well as the new are of grace. The difference is rather in the old being Jewish or earthly, the new being of the Church or heavenly. (John 3: 12) This is the difference. But the old or Jewish things of this Psalm very distinctly tell of final grace and salvation. For Israel is here recorded to have destroyed themselves, and God at the last to have arisen in the grace that could set up David, and choose Zion and Judah for their help and recovery. And so will it be in the latter day. They are now a scattered and judged people again, having again destroyed themselves; but again they will be gathered and blest under the true David, the true King of Zion, the true Lion of Judah. And in the integrity of a heart that never can swerve, and in the skilfulness of a hand that never can err, He will keep and feed His Jewish flock on their native mountains.
NOTE.--I would suggest that a full stop ought to be put to verse 2; and that verses 3 and 4 ought to be read thus: "That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, we will not hide from their children," etc., etc.
Psalm 79
I listen to this Psalm as the expression of the sorrow of the captives after Jerusalem had fallen into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. But equally do I read it as the sorrows of the Remnant under the hand of the great enemy in the latter day.
And we might observe that the captives in Babylon would express their sorrow in language suited to the Jews till Messiah and the kingdom come, because the age is one. The times of the Gentiles began with the captivity, and will not end till the throne of David revive in the hand of Messiah. The mind of a righteous Jew, if I may so speak, in one sense is the same throughout this age. And we have a similar thing in the history of the church. St. Paul prophesies of certain evils in "the latter times," and in the "last days," but yet speaks about them to Timothy as though they had then come. (1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3) And so, in one sense, they had, inasmuch as the same spirit was working then. The whole age of Christendom, as of Israel in the discerning judgment of the Spirit of God, sustains one character from beginning to end.
More specifically this Psalm, I judge, is the cry of the Remnant in the hour of their deepest distress under the pressure of the beast (Rev. 13) after the slaughter of the witnesses. (Rev. 11) It may be read as the impassioned cry of the preserved remnant after their brethren had been martyred (v. 3). Such two remnants, or two portions of the same remnant, the Lord contemplates in His great prophetic word in Matthew 24. The Revelation of St. John, I believe, proceeds upon the same distinction of preserved and martyred portions of the faithful Israel in those days.
They own their sin, trust only in mercy, plead the glory of God's own name, present to God their reproach and grief, and the enemies' infidelity and oppressions, and make their reproach God's reproach,--their cause His cause.
I would observe a difference that has struck me. The psalmist or the prophets, rehearsing the cause of Israel's present rejection, speaks of their iniquities and sins as in this Psalm; but the apostle in the same connection speaks of Israel's not submitting themselves to God's righteousness. (Rom. 9, 10) Such difference is easily and beautifully intelligible.
Psalm 80
This Psalm seems to be in connection with the preceding. Psalm 79: 13 suggests 80: 1. Accordingly the soul of the Remnant advances in liberty and confidence. There is not the same confession of sin, but a stronger appeal for deliverance, and a fuller intelligence of the divine counsels. The Man at God's right hand is pleaded,--the Son of man made strong for God's purposes. What a thought, as we utter it! to think that there is a Man, "a real Man," now glorified in the highest heavens. And such is Jesus in resurrection and ascension. (See Matt. 28: 18; Psalm 110: 1; Dan. 7: 13; 1 Peter 3: 22)
Verse 2 refers to Numbers 10, where, on the journeying of the camp, we learn that the Ark went immediately before the standard of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, and on the moving forward there was a cry to the Lord as here.
Verse 17 may remind us very specially of Matthew 26: 64.
The prophet, in pleading for Israel, is animated by tender and lofty thoughts of Israel's ancient glories, as the apostle afterwards is. (See Rom. 9: 1-5) And very beautiful is this. The very nature of the ruin bespeaks the grandeur of the building, and awakens the deeper sympathy.
On the burden of this Psalm, so to call it (see verses 3, 7, 19), it may be observed that we get the person of the Lord strikingly revealed through Scripture. Thus, regarded in different lights, He is both the answerer of prayer and the suppliant. He receives the Spirit, and pours out the Spirit. (Zech. 12: 10; Acts 2: 33) He is the Rock (Matt. 16: 18), and yet He looks to God as the Rock. (Psalm 62) He is one of the flock (Psalm 23), and yet the Shepherd of the flock. (John 10) He is on the throne praised, and yet the leader of the people's praise. (Psalm 116; Rev. 5) He is a Priest, and yet the redeemed are priests to Him. (Rev. 20: 6) In one respect He is a Jew, desiring the divine favour for His nation, and waiting for the face of Jehovah to be turned again to His people. (Isa. 8: 17) In another respect He is as Jehovah Himself, the God of Israel, with His face turned away from His people (Matt. 23: 39), thus strikingly revealed in both His divine and human place, both as the expectant head of Israel, and yet as Israel's God. All this can be understood when the great mystery of "God manifest in the flesh" and its glorious results are understood. But who can utter it all? (See on Ps. 18)
Psalm 81
We are still in the same connection; for this Psalm is the expression of the Remnant quickened, as they had desired in Ps. 80. It is the language of their souls now revived and repentant, or of Israel keeping the feast of trumpets, which was the type of Israel's repentance in the latter day, according to Leviticus 23. This is the true blowing of the trumpet in the new moon, or the expression of Israel's revival after the present Gentile interval (verses 1-5)--the time of returning light, or when the moon shines again under the light of her lord.
But the Lord is moved by this repentance of Israel, and then rehearses both His ways and their ways in older times,--by, this, vindicating His dealings with them; for He lets them understand that it was their own folly and evil which had made this revival necessary; that had they obeyed His voice, "their time should have endured for ever"--they should have known no breach or interruption at all. He has now in His grace quickened them afresh; but He desires that they may never forget this--that they themselves have made a revival or re-quickening necessary.
But He not only vindicates His dealings with them in this way; but His words are beautifully suited to deepen and strengthen the spirit of repentance in them, as the look of Jesus at Peter worked, together with the cock crowing, in restoring his soul. And this is quite natural,--so strikingly does God enter into the ways of the heart of man. The heart, in a day of softness and repentance, would powerfully feel such an appeal as this.
Verse 13 may remind us of Deut. 5: 29, and of Isaiah 48: 18,--from all which passages we gather other witnesses to the deep tenderness and sympathies of the Lord; for before Israel sins, He is presented as longing that they may not sin, but remain a blessed people; after they have sinned, He is presented as mourning over their evil and loss of blessing.
