By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 90
At the opening of this sublime Psalm the worshipper or "man of God" utters his sense of everything failing but the Lord, and those who trust in Him. And this thought the Lord Himself in His ministry afterwards has--"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away."
The worshipper then confesses human frailty, and traces the reason of it; and upon this utters his desire that in the full sense of this frailty he may act wisely, and wait only for the Lord's return; and he closes by desiring that return, when stability shall take the place of frailty, and beauty of ashes and dust.
The sense of all distance between the judgment of death on man, and his return out of death, appears to be lost to the soul here, in its strong apprehension of what God is (v. 4). St. Peter appears by the Spirit to have this scripture in mind. (2 Peter 3: 8)
The Spirit of God, by the man of God, touches in this Psalm on new creation in Christ Jesus. Of course He could not announce this mystery in the same fulness as a scribe now instructed in the kingdom. But we have it touched on. There will be heavenly and earthly scenes, but all is new creation. The Lamb's wife, the heavenly city, will bear in her the glory of God (Rev. 22: 11); but Israel and the earthly city will know that glory also. It will shine on them, if not in them: "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." (Isa. 60: 1) All will enjoy it, but in different power. This therefore is the intelligent cry of a man of God, though but with Jewish or earthly hopes, looking on to the kingdom. "Let thy works appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children; and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." And this language tells us that Israel speaks in this Psalm, though it speak of man as such. This, however, is simple and just. Because man was tested in the Yew. Israel's fall is the witness of human frailty. Seventy years the Psalmist mentions as the period which marks man's frailty or vanity, and that also we know was the time of Israel's vanity, or their captive state in Babylon.
Truly blessed, however, the general truth of all this is. The new creation has not had its foundation in the dust, but in the Lord Himself--in the Lord as risen from the dead, when He was in victory over all the strength of the enemy, having put away sin and abolished death. "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place." The Builder is the chief stone in the building. Waves and winds may beat in vain--the subtlety of the serpent is vain. This is for everlasting. "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish."
Psalm 91
In contrast with the frailty of man contemplated in the preceding Psalm, here are celebrated the rights and prerogatives of that perfect Man in whom there was no frailty (1, 2). For all beside carried the sentence of death by reason of sin, but Jesus knew no sin. His nature was clean, and He ever fulfilled the divine pleasure to perfection, and was entitled to full security and blessing. And such chartered rights are here read out to Him (3-13).
Thus this Psalm was a city of refuge to Christ, had He pleased at any time to run into it. But He was willing that refuge should fail Him, and though without sin, to be made sin for us. He emptied Himself of these His human rights, as He had before of His divine glory. Phil. 2 shows both of these.
How was the whole rife of Jesus the great contradiction of the way of Adam! Adam was nothing, but sought to be as God. Jesus was everything, consciously equal with God, yet made Himself nothing, and emptied Himself. The person He assumed--the form of a servant; the station He filled on earth--a carpenter's son; His life, His ways, His testimony--all was the full contradiction of him whose departure from God in pride has fashioned the course of "this present evil world." He was ever hiding, ever emptying Himself. He could have commanded legions of angels (as this very Psalm entitled Him, v. 11; Matt. 26: 53), but He was the silent captive of His wicked persecutors. If He taught, and the people wondered, He would say, "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me." If He worked miracles He would say, "The Son can do nothing of Himself."
What worship, what fragrant incense before God, was this life of Jesus! That divine delight in Him is here expressed (14-16). And what rest and solace to the heart, yea, what satisfaction to the conscience, to know that God has been so honoured, so refreshed, in this world of ours. What savour to the death or blood of Jesus does the life of Jesus render! His blood is the sinner's plea, his only title; but all God's delight in Him aids in enforcing the claim of that blood on the poor sinner's confidence. What a Christ-honouring contrast shows itself to us, when we read Psalm 91 in company with Psalm 90, "the man of God" is confessing human frailty, tracing the cause of it in human iniquity, and owning the only relief it can count upon to be a new creation of which God will be Himself the foundation as well as the former, the chief corner-stone as well as the head of the corner.
In Psalm 91 a divine oracle addresses Messiah, and tells Him that because of His perfection in faith, His moral glories, God would be His security against all frailty, accident, hesitation, danger, or damage of every kind; and God Himself is heard affirming this and recognizing Messiah's perfection in affections, as the oracle had recognized His perfection in faith and morals.
But there is this further, though not expressed, that in His day, Messiah surrendered these His chartered and divinely attested rights and securities, as Son of Man, in that wondrous mystery in which He was willing to be made sin for sinners, and the vindicator and exhibitor of the full glories of God. (See Matt. 26: 53, 54)
Thus man's frailty has to look for its relief only from God. Messiah has perfections, not frailties, but surrenders all the rights they secure Him to God.
