By J.G. Bellet
Psalm 127
This Psalm is also suited to the returning captives, who must on their journey have had the house and the city in their prospect, and the joys of homes and households again before them, when their fruitfulness and prosperity in their own land would give a triumphant answer to many a scornful word of their haughty adversaries. And so it will be with the Remnant in the coming days when, though in trials, they will have expectations given them from the God of hope. And this Psalm is a devout confession that these expected blessings, yea, that all strength and blessing come from God alone, and that without Him human toil is vanity. (See Zech. 4: 6)
But often (how often!) is there exercise of spirit where all should be stillness (verse 2). "Stand still and see the salvation of God." It is unbelief which raises all this. As with Jacob: he was praying when he should have been sleeping in the promise. (Gen. 22) He fears and calculates and settles all according to man's best advice, when as the heir of the blessing and the possessor of the birthright, he should have trusted and rested. So was it not, however, with Peter. In the very prison, between two soldiers, and bound with two chains, he sleeps, and sleeps so soundly in the promise and sufficiency of God, that his deliverer has to smite him on the side to raise him up. (Acts 12) And how did the true "beloved blessed one" sleep, when winds and waves were around Him. (Mark 4)
Psalm 128
Thoughts arising from the same expectations are continued. The happiness of a citizen of Zion, in his temporal prosperity, in his family enjoyments, and in the peace and honour of his country, is rehearsed. It may have been, as well as the previous Psalm, the language of Solomon; for in his days citizens of Zion were thus manifested in their prosperity. But also, like the previous one, it well suits the returning captives; for they return, of course, full of visions of all such happiness. And it will be the joyous expectation of God's Israel in future days.
Patriarchal family happiness is here expected; for that will be revived in the kingdom on earth (ver. 6, and Gen. 1: 28). Human delights in family order and general earthly blessing will be the portion of Israel in the days of the kingdom. As of old, in days which were typical of the kingdom, we read that "Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry." (1 Kings 4: 20)
Psalm 129
Mere the same company have a remembrance, as in the two preceding Psalms they had a prospect, in their minds. They look back here, as there they had been looking forward. There it was their expected blessing in Jerusalem that filled them, here their recollected griefs in Babylon--yea, the griefs of their nation from its infancy.
All this is varied and natural exercise of heart for a people on their way; as our souls have such also in journeying across this world of confusion home to our God and the rest that remaineth.
The ransomed of the Lord rehearse their wrongs at the hand of their enemies, and the Lord's deliverance of them; and they look for righteous judgment upon the haters of Zion--all of which will suit another generation of Israel in a like condition. And again they publish that the Lord Himself was everything to them. They contrast also the faded withered state of the ungodly with their own flourishing estate just set forth in the previous Psalms. (See also Psalm 1; Jeremiah 17) The quick destruction of the enemy and the wicked in the latter day, even in the very moment of their fullest pride, may also be intimated. For this will be the fate, it would appear from the word of God, both of Babylon and the Beast. (Dan.11: 45; Rev. 18: 17)
Psalm 130
This Psalm expresses the joy and confidence that spring from the simple sense of God's forgiving love; for that unaided and alone has power to turn the convicted sinner into an accepted worshipper, and an expectant of glory. (Rom. 5: 1, 2) It is the gospel that is here learnt and enjoyed by the soul. The poor soul had been crying out from its own depths, but apprehending God's forgiving love, it was at once made to sing of His heights and to wait for Himself.
It is a beautiful abridgment of Rom. 7, 8--perfect, though so short. For here, as there, the soul is first heard as in the sorrows of conviction; then, on the firm ground of confidence; and then, in the bright elevations of hope, the longings and expectings of an heir of God. And a gospel this is, suited to be the utterance of returning captives, of any soul consciously on its way to God, and so, too, of the awakened and exercised Israel of the latter day. And as in the three preceding Psalms we listened to the returning captives, both remembering Babylon now behind them, and anticipating Jerusalem now before them, here in this Psalm they have remembrances and anticipations also, but of a deeper character, personal and spiritual.
The consciously accepted sinner may boldly and happily tell his fellow-sinners to look with him to Jesus--as here the soul calls on Israel to hope in the Lord because of His mercy and salvation.
Psalm 131
The happy confidence of the preceding Psalm is not to be condemned as presumption. Eliab may accuse David of naughtiness and pride of heart, but it is not so. Hope "in the Lord" may be bold; and such was David's then, and such is that of the soul in these Psalms, and such is that of every poor sinner who receives the grace and salvation of the gospel.
This Psalm, therefore, strikingly and beautifully follows the preceding one. It was the feeling, possibly, of the really meek David, on turning away from the reproach of Eliab. (1 Sam. 17: 28, 29) But it could have been afterwards happily used by ransomed Israel, who were then free and confident in the salvation of God. And this assured "hope in the Lord" is ever, when real and spiritual, combined with the quietness and subjection of a weaned child.
This allusion to David leads me for a moment to look at him in 1 Sam. 16, 17. We may call the time of those chapters the youth or spring-time of David's soul. And how beautifully simple, and how full of real moral dignity it is!
He was the neglected one of the family. But he was content to be so. He would readily tend the sheep in the field, while his more esteemed brothers remained at home to receive the guests, and do the honours of the house.
On the arrival of the prophet Samuel he is called in. But as scorn had not dejected him, distinctions do not elate him. As soon as the occasion is over, he is back again among the flocks.
He is then summoned to the court of the king to do a service which none but he could do. But again, when the service is done, he is in the wilderness with his few sheep, despised but contented. (1 Sam. 17: 15)
A third time he is called for. He has now to go to the camp, as before to the court. But after achieving the greatest feats, he is willing to be still unknown, and without thought of resentment tells who he was to those whose ignorance of him was itself a kind of slight or indignity. (1 Sam. 17: 55, 58)
What beauty, what true elevation of soul! And what was the secret of all this? He found his satisfaction in Christ. The sheepfold was as important to him as the court or the camp, because "the Lord was with him." He did not live by excitement, nor pine under neglect. He let the world know that he was independent of what they could either give him or make him. Blessed attainment! It may remind us of those affectionate words from the Olney Hymns
"Content with beholding His face,
My all to His pleasure resign'd,
No changes of season or place
Could make any change in my mind.
When blest with a sense of His love,
A palace a toy would appear;
And prisons would palaces prove
If Jesus would dwell with me there."
Psalm 132
This Psalm is Solomon's pleading with the Lord to arise and possess Himself of the house which he had builded, upon the ground of David's zeal and affliction, and of the Lord's own covenant and promises (1-13). The Lord seems at once to answer this with still larger promises than He had made before, and with richer blessings than His servant had desired. (14-18)
For this is His way--this is divine. Even the promise of His own lips, as well as the wish of His people's heart, is exceeded. And the promise which was conditional (verse 12) is now yea and amen in Christ Jesus (verses 17, 18).
I think I see a very right mind, if I may so speak, in Solomon here. For while he desires God's blessing on himself, the "anointed one," he desires it in connection with God's presence, or with the Ark's entrance into its rest. This is quite as it should be. We may seek happiness if we seek it in and with the Lord.
The ark had been a stranger in the days of Saul. (1 Chr. 13: 3) David's earliest desire was to restore it; and this Psalm shows that that desire consumed him. We can admit this, when we understand David as presented to us in 1 Chronicles. And this in David is pleaded here by Solomon. So, Jesus could say, "The zeal of thine house has eaten me up." To restore to God a habitation among men, and to bring back man to God, was the spring of His energies, the secret of His many sorrows. The griefs and cross of Jesus have opened a way for the glory to return, or the long estranged presence of God to fill the earth again in its season; as the same blood has already rent the veil, and is preparing mansions in the heavenly house for us.
The "lamp," which is here promised to shine in the kingdom of the Son of David by and by, had been espied afar off by Abraham (Gen. 15: 17), who thus saw Christ's "day," and "was glad." It has been the desire both of Christ and His people, all through the night-time of this present world. (Isa. 62: 1) The Lord Himself, in answer to that desire, will light it up in due season. (Ps. 18: 28) And then it will shine in steady full brightness through the kingdom. (Isa. 60: 1)
So the "horn" shall then "bud," as here also promised. The oak of Judah, the stem of Jesse, has long been a withered stump. But the substance has been in it, though it have cast its leaves (Isa. 6: 13); and in the latter day brought forth, like Aaron's rod, as from the presence of God (Num. 17), it will revive, and bud, and be fruitful. "The mercies of David" are "sure" in Jesus risen. (Acts 13: 34)
All this we have in this magnificent Psalm of Solomon. And being of such a character, it could very happily have been used by the captives, now drawing near to this house which Solomon had built for the Lord. And so it may be again taken up by the heart and lips of the people in the days of Israel's revival, when expectation counts on speedy fulfilment.
