By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 101
The previous Psalms have been, as we have seen, varied happy exercises of the Remnant on the great themes connected with the kingdom, and which were suggested at the beginning--such as the discomfiture of the enemy, the stability of the throne, and the holiness of the house or government of the Lord. Here Messiah is again personally heard, as He was in the first of this series. (Ps. 92) He takes the kingdom (that is by anticipation, greatly desiring it in reality, verse 2), entering it with a song to "mercy and judgment;" for mercy and judgment had just been seen in the way of bringing in the kingdom-judgment on the enemy, mercy towards the true Israel.
And having sung this song, He undertakes to order His kingdom in righteousness, and to maintain the holiness of God's house for ever, as in Ps. 72, 2 Sam. 23: 5, Isa. 9: 7, Isa. 11: 4, Zech. 14: 21.
And observe that, in principle, "mercy and judgment" are the burden of the thoughts or songs of every believer or worshipper when entering on any divine dispensation. Adam went out of Eden to walk across a cursed earth as a pardoned sinner, with this song in his spirit--so did Noah enter on the new world--and so did Israel enter Canaan in the like way; for each of these in his day, Adam, Noah, and Israel, had witnessed judgment upon others, and were themselves the witnesses of mercy. We have entered on our age, singing likewise of "mercy and judgment;" for we have seen the judgment of our sin sustained by Christ, and ourselves the monuments of mercy. And when the glory or kingdom is entered by and by, as we read here, mercy and judgment will again be sung. And this must be so, for righteousness must be upheld, while grace takes its course; justice will not give way, though love will have its way.
What a perfect little volume this appears to be. (92-101) Messiah Himself opens and closes it. At the beginning He anticipates His being anointed for the kingdom, or the exaltation of His horn--at the close He declares how He will order His kingdom. And His Israel in the mean time have, as we have also seen, rehearsed their anticipations of the kingdom in its judicial righteousness and final blessedness. Oh for more concord with all this in our hearts! Oh that we were "tuning our instruments at the door"--getting our hearts more in harmony with the joys of this coming kingdom! May we watch and pray for such a mind, and be skilled in the songs of the Lord!
Psalm 102
Something very different is now to be heard. This Psalm opens with the complaint of "the Man of sorrows." He sees Himself deserted by His followers, reproached by the foe, and sustaining the righteous anger of God,--the indignation and wrath due to others falling on Him. (1-11 ) We then listen to God's answer to this; and that answer pledges Him life and a kingdom, and display in His glory, rehearsing also the theme of praise with which Israel and the nations will then celebrate Him. (12-22) Then Messiah is heard a second time solitarily musing on His griefs, (23, 24,); and God, in like manner, again answering Him--reminding Him, so to speak, of His ancient glories at Creation, and pledging Him, as before, life, a kingdom, and a seed. (25-28)
The quotation in Heb. 1 from this Psalm seems to give it this structure and character; for it tells us that v. 25-27 is the language of God to the Son, and this leads us to conclude that v. 12-22 is the same. And thus the above structure of the Psalm is determined.
But, in connection with it, we may notice one thing. The Lord Jesus Christ is the builder. This entitles us to see the Christ as the head of every dispensation--the great active power in all--whether in Creation, among the Patriarchs, on mount Sinai, or as the God of Israel through all their history. He made the worlds, or ordered the ages. (Heb. 1: 2) He built Moses and every house of God. (Heb. 3: 3) And it is the Christ whom God addresses in this Psalm as having laid earth's foundations, and outliving, in His glory, all things that are made--the Christ who was once the bruised and smitten one. Wondrous mystery!
It is a Psalm of very touching beauty and grandeur.
It is like Jesus in Gethsemane, exceeding sorrowful even unto death, going away and praying again, saying the same words, and yet again and again heard--the angel from heaven strengthening Him there, the answer of Jehovah assuring Him here. (See Luke 22: 43)
I might further observe that this Psalm also lets us read, in these utterances of Jesus and the divine answers to them, what we learn from other simple doctrinal Scriptures--that the glories of Jesus come from His suffering. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." It shows us "the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow." For the Lamb on the throne is the Lamb that had been before on the altar. It is the bow of Him who had been once shot by the archers that abides in strength. All Scripture shows us this; and we have it in these cries of Jesus, and the answers so blessedly made to them.
And so as to our blessing. It all depends on the same sufferings of Christ. No thoughts of God's love are to be allowed which would interfere with the demands of His righteousness. The love is without measure. That is true. But it is not a mere emotion. It is that which, at an unutterable cost, provided redemption for the guilty. And if we think of love without believing the provision that it made for the claims and exactions of righteousness, we are dealing with a mere sentiment of our own mind, and not with the revelation of God. And poor are the best conceptions of man's religion--something different indeed from the moral grandeur and perfections of the Gospel of Christ, where God is just while He justifies the sinner, where we learn that He has brought back His banished ones, and received His prodigals, all the while upholding the full glories of His throne of righteousness, and providing in and from Himself an answer to all its demands. The Cross of Christ is the secret and centre of all this.
