Notes on the History Behind the Psalms

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Daniel and his friends obtained this privilege; during their training under Melzar, as recorded, in Dan. 1. It is not likely that they were; deprived of it when the whole province of Babylon came under their charge. The second privilege was secured by the bold stand of Daniel’s three friends against idolatry in the presence of the great image of gold (Dan. 3). The right of the Jews to serve and worship only their own God, was vindicated throughout the Chaldean empire before the “good figs ” were brought into the land “ for their good ” (Jer. 24.5).

 

The story of Daniel recalls that of Joseph (see Ps. 105). As Joseph was the man sent before Israel into Egypt, so Daniel was the man sent before them into Babylon in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar; and Daniel lived throughout the Captivity (Dan. 10.1).

 

He was ruler of the whole province of Babylon, with his friends under him, four years before the captivity of Jeconiah and Ezekiel. So that “the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive” on their arrival at Babylon found them­selves in charge of faithful members of their own royal family—Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

 

The effect of this must have been felt in countless ways. Most of all, it must have saved the Jews from being forced into idolatry, or any such abandonment of their national customs as would have broken their allegiance to the Law of Moses. They were in captivity as a punishment for disobedience to that law. But captivity would be no remedy if it made obedience impossible.

 

The destruction of the Temple and altar would of itself suspend the greater part of their ritual and ceremonial for the time. But the personal religion commanded by the Law of Moses is not affected by these things. The word of God and prayer and exhortation do not require either Temple or altar. The two great commandments of the law are the same whether there is “a place” “which the Lord has chosen to cause his name to dwell there,” or not. The desolation of “the place” at once distinguishes the permanent and weightier matters of the law from mere exter­nal observances which have no necessary con­nection with the soul of true religion. From this point of view we may see the immense importance of the questions settled for Daniel and his friends before the Captivity of the nation.

 

God also sent Ezekiel the Prophet to the captives by the river of Chebar, more especi­ally to the captives of Jeconiah’s Captivity, who formed the “remnant” that was to be chastened and prepared in exile for the Re­turn.

 

Ezekiel’s place among the captives was quite distinct from that of Daniel, but it was not less important in its way. He was a Priest as well as a Prophet, and it was his duty to instruct the captives in that religion of which the free exercise was secured for them by Daniel and his friends. The captives are de­scribed to Ezekiel as “impudent children and stiff-hearted,” and Ezekiel’s business was to convince them that, “Thus saith the Lord God”:—that is, that the Lord Himself had spoken to them, and given them His law. Their own sins and the sins of their fathers were laid before them in the most vivid manner possible, together with the commands of God given to them. Before these captives was laid open the secret idolatry of Jerusalem as it presented itself to the sight of Almighty God, and His way of dealing with it. The chastened captives were shown the iniquities and punishments of those whom they had left in Jerusalem, that they might be themselves moved to repentance.

 

Signs, judgments, lamentations, pictures in word, and pictures in the actions of the Prophet himself, were employed to work upon the minds of these men. By all this, and by their own constant experience of life in captivity, they were stirred up to realise their true position as the Israel of God, in the midst of the Gentile world. God had told Jeremiah that He would give them a heart to know that He was the Lord, and He promised that they should return to Him with their whole heart (Jer. 24.7). The result to the Jews was to banish idolatry for evermore, and to teach them their dependence on Jehovah their God. The Psalms of the Fourth Book illus­trate this state of things, and bring back to their minds the “old paths” in which Jeremiah exhorted them to walk (Jer. 6.16).

 

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We have no hint in the Psalter that it con­tains a reproduction of the service which David wrote to celebrate his bringing the Ark to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 6), yet it reappears in the Fourth Book in three parts, Ps. 105.1-15; Ps. 96; and Ps. 106.1, and 47, 48. But almost all the Psalms in this Book are ex­hibited as anonymous, even when we know from other places who wrote them.^[19] To the time of the promised restoration of the Temple they are most appropriate. After the wilder­ness Psalm by Moses (90), and the ninety-first, which is probably a companion Psalm of the same date, we have “a Psalm for the Sabbath Day” (Psa. 92). The pollution of the Sabbath was one of the sins that had brought the people into captivity. (See Ezek. 20.12,13,14,20,21,24; 22.8,26; also 44.24.) “They shall hallow my Sabbaths” is a charge laid upon the priests of Ezekiel’s time.^[20] After the Return, the observance of the Sabbath was enforced by the Governor (Neh. 10.31; 13.15-22).

 

It is difficult to read Psalm 94 without comparing it with Daniel 6, when “mischief was framed by a law” to “condemn the innocent blood,” but it returned upon those who framed it.

That the ninety-fifth Psalm is by David we learn in Heb. 4.7.

 

Is it possible that it was written to urge the people to bring up the Ark to Zion? They might have been discouraged by the death of Uzza, which caused even David to be afraid of God. But the teaching of the Psalm goes on from age to age, as we learn in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

 

It is easy to see the fitness of the follow­ing Psalm to the period. Psalm 101 has the application emphasised to the near prospect of building the second Temple, if we remember the teaching which the captives had received from the Prophet Ezekiel on the character of those who should come to worship Jehovah. (See Ezek. 43 and 44 passim, especially chap. 43.7,8.) “The place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile. . . In their setting of their threshold, by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, for there was but a wall between me and them; they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.”

 

Can we venture to suggest that the captive King, Jehoiachin, may be the writer of the Psalm inscribed “A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and poureth out his complaint be­fore the Lord ”? In verse 10 he says, “Thou hast taken me up and cast me down”: so that he had once held an exalted station, though he had been afterwards deprived of it.

 

The hundred and fourth Psalm is the full expansion of the message which God sent to the heathen by their Captives in Babylon—“The Lord is the true God, he is the living God and an everlasting King. . . . He hath made the earth by his power: he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion ... he is the former of all things . . . the Lord of hosts is his name” (Jer.10.10-16).

 

God is named Jehovah almost entirely in this Book.

 

Those who clung to the true God in these dark days held to the Covenant name. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” “Jehovah reigneth” is the keynote of the Book, as opposed to the despotism of Nebuchadnezzar and his suc­cessors. There was no longer on earth a “Place ” where God specially revealed Himself, yet He was their covenant God in “all places whither they went.” Outward things might be dark, but He “giveth songs in the night” (Job 35.10), and the “new song”—now first added to the ninety-sixth Psalm—is sung in the New Testa­ment, firstly at the Ascension of Christ, and His taking the Book of Redemption to open (Rev. 5.9); and secondly, at the revelation of the Lamb on Mount Zion, in the face of the Kingdom of the Beast (Rev. 14.3).

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^[19] This keeps up an analogy with the Fourth Period of the Exodus, when we have the long wandering of nearly thirty-eight years represented by a list of places in Num. 33, most of them unidentified to the present day.

^[20] Cf. Ezek. 46.1, 3-12.

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It has been too generally taken for granted, in treating the history of the Canon of the Old Testament, that nothing was done in it between the “men of Hezekiah” (Prov. 25.1) and the days of Ezra after the Captivity. But is not this to overlook the purpose of the Captivity, and the whole series of events as set forth by the prophet Malachi —“From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles” (Mal. 1.11)?

 

But how were the instruments for this great purpose prepared? There is nothing in the mere privation of liberty, or in the removal from one country to another, to alter the whole mind of man, to change idolaters into pure worshippers, or lawless or immoral persons into law-abiding members of a strict and separate sect. Yet this was in fact the result of the Captivity. The exhortations of Ezekiel made it impossible for them to escape from discipline and reproof. From this time we hear no more of idolatry in the Jewish nation.

 

The first act of their return was to set up God’s altar, and from the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord (Ezra 3.1-6); and in the same chapter we are told that they “kept the feast of taber­nacles,” and “offered” the “daily burnt offerings by number”; and “afterwards the continual burnt offerings both of the new moon, and of all the set feasts of the Lord.”

 

Again there was no sort of doubt or hesita­tion as to their reply to the invitation of the Samaritans to let them build with the Jews, and form one community. “Ye have nothing to do with us.” Why not? The law furnishes the only possible reply! But this precise application of the law to the daily practice of the returned captives is not traceable to anything but what had been learned during the time of the Captivity! From whom did they learn? What Books were in use? Who superintended the instruction given?

 

In answer to these questions we have only to study the Prophets of the Captivity, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, to find the information that we desire; and the whole structure of the Fourth Book of the Psalter accords with the same cir­cumstances.

 

That the Captives had the Law of Moses is evident from Ezekiel’s comments upon it. There are about ninety cases in which the expressions of the central portion of Leviticus, which did not depend upon ritual, are found in Ezekiel also; and at least twenty of these phrases are not found elsewhere.^[21] Then there is the knowledge of the details which is shown at the Return; and the Jewish peculiarities even of those who remained in the Persian dominions attracted notice all over the Persian world, as Haman bears witness. “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws” (Esther 3.8).

 

We know that Daniel had the writings of Jeremiah (Dan. 9.2), by which he discovered the duration of the Captivity; and the Fourth Book of the Psalter contains several Psalms which must have been in the keeping of the Priests and Levites, who were in charge of the sacred Books. (See Deut. 31.9,26; 1 Chron. 16.7.) Thus Psalm 90, “a prayer of Moses the man of God,” and probably 91, 95 (Heb. 4.7), 96, 101, 103, 105.1-15, 106.1,47,48, were almost certainly in their care: cf. also Ps. 104.20—end, with Jer. 10.1-16.

 

“The dates of the Captivities in Daniel 1. and in the supplement to Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer.52), are Babylonian reckoning, and Daniel’s official position would make them matters within his reach. Ezekiel was con­temporary with Daniel in Babylon for some twenty-seven years. Apparently a great deal must have been done by these ‘two witnesses’ during the Captivity for the Canon of Scrip­ture; and the scrupulous observance of the law in many particulars by the returning captives supports this belief.”— [C.H.W.] The “good figs” had indeed been brought into Babylon “for their good” (Jer. 24.5; compare Ezek. 20.34-44).

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^[21]Presbyterian and Reformed Review, New York.

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It is significant that the double “Amen” at the close of the first three Books of the Psalter gives place in the Fourth Book to “Amen, Hallelujah.” “For what” ‘Amen’ is to a promise in the language of faith and hope, that ‘Halle­lujah’ is to the fulfilment of the promise in the language of thanksgiving.”^[22] So that we almost hear the answer to the closing words, “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen,” in the proclamation of Cyrus: “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God), which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1.2,3; see Ps. 107.2,3).

 

We have then in the Fourth Book of the Psalms the hymn book of “Captivity and Return.”

 

No great Psalmist’s name is associated with this period; but the sacred hymns of the past could be adapted and arranged, and they proved marvellously appropriate to the need. We have also some nine or ten Psalms, or portion of Psalms, without a name, which take up the same theme.

 

They are not only personal expressions of the longings and aspirations of the Captives—of their faith in God, and the realisation of His promises. They are also Missionary hymns. Israel was sent into Captivity not only for his own chastisement, but to carry a message to the nations. That message is embodied in these Psalms. “The Lord reigneth” is the keynote of the Book; not a defiance of their captors, but a message from the King that while they had time they should acknowledge Him, and submit themselves to His rule. We may compare it to the everlasting Gospel with which an angel did fly in the midst of heaven, “ to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Rev. 14.6,7).

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^[22] “When ye Pray,” by the Rev. C. H. Waller, D,D.

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BOOK 5 − Part I: THE RETURN, AND THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE

 

The Fifth Book of the Psalter gives the con­summation of the whole. To interpret its appli­cation fully is beyond our power, for it takes us into the region of unfulfilled prophecy.

 

There are, however, certain points about it which can easily be noted.

 

It may be looked upon as the joint work of Judah and Levi. In the First Book David’s work predominates. In the Second Book that of the Levites. The Third Book is almost entirely Levitical. The Fourth Book has no names of authors but Moses and David. The Fifth Book has only the names of David and Solomon. Yet the longest Psalm in the Fifth Book is probably due to Ezra the Priest, “the Scribe of the Law of the God of Heaven.” Not one of the five Books lacks the name of David, “the sweet Psalmist of Israel,” as an author. The proportion of Levitical and Davidic work is well worth noticing in any analysis of the whole.

 

In the Fifth Book we see our Lord uniting the two offices of Priest and King (Ps. 110), as the Prophet Zechariah described Him later on: “Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne” (Zech. 6.13).

 

“The Fifth Book of the Psalter is the most finished of all the five in its arrangement.

 

“Two Elements are noticeable—one Historic, the other Prophetic. The period of history to which it belongs is manifestly the Return from Captivity.

 

“The three most obvious historical points of contact are:—

 

“(1) The Return of the Captives asked for in the closing Doxology of Book 4, ‘Gather us from among the nations’ (cvi. 47); and ‘granted’ and acknowledged in the first Psalm of Book 5, 107.3, ‘Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath gathered.’

 

“(2) The re-establishment of the Law in Israel in all its glory (Ps.119), from the first letter of its alphabet to the last.

 

“(3) The reminiscences of Babylon, conjoined with some of David’s experiences of trouble before he came to the throne. Psalms 137 to 143, and especially 142.

 

“Other details may be brought into line with these; but no history short of the whole experi­ence of Israel will suffice to explain the entire Book. Consequently from the period of its authorship, the view must be partly prophetical and partly retrospective.” C. H. W.

 

We deal separately with these two aspects.

 

The older Psalms that are incorporated with it help out its purpose in a wonderful way; and the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the latter part of Daniel, and the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi give us the History of the time; also the Book of Esther falls into a parenthesis between the sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra.

 

We may now examine the historical details of the Return, and see where they throw light upon the Fifth Book of the Psalter, or were themselves lit up by it.

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The rebuilding of the Temple was not accom­plished all at once. In the first year of his reign Cyrus, King of Persia, granted permission to the Captives to return to their own land, and to build the house of God. He also restored to Zerubbabel the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple at Jerusalem.

 

The altar was then set up, and the foundation of the house was laid. (See Ezra 1, 2, 3.) But opposition on the part of the Samaritan colony arose almost immediately, the Jews refusing to admit the strangers to fellowship with them. We must remember that the Samaritan colonists were not Israelites, but absolute foreigners. (See 2 Kings 17.23; Ezra 4.9,10.)

 

Even in the days of Cyrus the work of re­storing the Temple almost ceased (Ezra 4.5).^[23] The opposition continued from the reign of Cyrus into that of Darius, when the Temple was again commenced and energetically finished. Nothing is said in Scripture of the intervening Kings, Cambyses, and Smerdis the impostor. Ezra 5 is a summary of the opposition from the days of Cyrus to Darius, when the Temple was success­fully accomplished. But from that point Ezra continues the record of Samaritan opposition into the subsequent reigns, and finishes it, deferring the completion of the Temple until he has dis­posed of this topic. The paragraph marked at Ezra 4.7 should end with verse 23. The twenty-fourth verse might begin “Thus,” or “In this way ceased,” i.e. owing to the opposition of the Samaritans.

 

Ezra was not present when the building of the Temple ceased. It went on again, and was completed before he came. But he had a vivid re­collection of the way in which the building of the wall was stopped in his time “by force and power.” So he tells the story which he had only heard; being minded to set forth once for all what Samaritan spite was capable of in a moment of opportunity. Thus the mention of the reigns of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes in Ezra 4.6 and 7-23 is parenthetical, and should be reserved to the end of the book if taken in chronological order. The narrative is consecutive if you pass from verse 5 to verse 24.

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^[23] Cf. Dan. 10.1-3. Hence, in all probability, Daniel’s mourning and distress as there related. He had remained in Babylon, where he helped the returning Exiles by his influence and his prayers. We last hear of him at this time in the vision granted to him of Israel’s future (Dan. 10.-12), extending from that date to the time of “the end.” C. H. W.

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The Samaritan opposition led to a culpable slackness on the part of the Jews themselves. For this they are rebuked by the Prophet Haggai (Haggai 1.4,8). He and Zechariah, in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, stirred up the people with such energy that they set to work again, and the Temple was finished in the sixth year of Darius as described by Ezra, chapters 5, 6. The whole of Haggai and the Book of Zechariah to the close of chapter 8. illustrate this portion of Jewish history.

 

The next portion will be found in the Book of Esther, which belongs to the reign of Xerxes, and occupies historically a position between the sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra. The first six chapters of Ezra contain the record of times before he was himself a member of the restored people, except the parenthetical passage in chapter 4, which belongs to his own time, and is brought in by way of illustration where it is. The story of Esther does not strictly belong to the Return from the Captivity, though it supplies a most interesting historical illustration of it. There is a long interval of about fifty- seven years^[24] between the account of the Passover in Ezra 6 and the seventh year of Artaxerxes, when Ezra the Scribe was sent from Babylon with a large company of Captives to Jerusalem. It is not a great stretch of imagination to suppose that the education of Ezra in the law of Moses was due to Esther and Mordecai.

 

The work of Ezra under the authority of Artaxerxes is fully described by himself in the four last chapters of his book. To beautify the Temple: to recruit the forces of the restored provinces by a further contingent:^[25] to set up magistrates and judges through the whole of Judaea and Galilee: to enact the Jewish law as part of the King’s law in that district (Ezra 7.26), and, in the execution of this task, to run the greatest danger of all in compelling the people of Israel to divorce their idolatrous wives: this was the burden of Ezra. How great a respon­sibility it entailed requires some thought and imagination to realise. The attempt on the part of Ezra’s colony to build the wall of Jerusalem followed. The whole Samaritan colony was im­mediately up in arms. It was found impossible to keep the peace of Jerusalem without walls, gates, and bars. No permission had, however, been given to Ezra by Artaxerxes to fortify the city, consequently the enemies of the Jews had an ostensible ground of complaint. Now comes in their letter recorded in Ezra iv. All the nations join with one accord, being all alike offended by the action of the Jewish authorities in regard, to their women. Artaxerxes at once takes alarm, and writes an order to stop the fortification of Jerusalem until permission is given. On receipt of this reply, the enemies of the Jews promptly act upon it, and use violence to stay the proceedings at Jerusalem. This supplies the connecting link between the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Between the coming of Ezra to Jerusalem and the coming of Nehemiah there is a gap of thirteen years. The seventh of Artaxerxes is Ezra's year: the twentieth is Nehemiah’s.

 

We come now to the last stage in the restora­tion of the Jewish polity—the fortification of Jerusalem. This was Nehemiah’s work. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah was in favour at Court, when he received intelligence from his brother that things were seriously amiss at Jerusalem. “Great affliction and reproach;” “a mere remnant, or handful of people holding their own in the province. The wall of Jeru­salem broken down, and the gates burnt with fire.” Tobiah and Sanballat and their friends were answerable for this. They supposed their work had been done pretty thoroughly, when they made the Jews cease from building the walls by the exercise of “force and power.” “Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish which are burned?” they asked, as if I they knew the strength of their own fire, and the thorough destruction they had wrought!

 

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^[24] Professor Sayce.

^[25] Possibly the Priests and Levites for whom he sent may have been, like himself, teachers and scribes. We hear of one “ man of understanding,” “by the good hand of God upon us” (Ezra 8.18).

[Resource Manager]

Nehemiah knew quite enough of the temper of the Persian sovereigns to perceive the exceeding peril of meddling with the matter; yet he knew the duty that was before him. He prayed to the God of heaven, and then begged leave to visit the city of his fathers sepulchres, that he might build it. He asked nothing for the living only permission to guard the ashes of the f noble dead from dishonour and impious intrusion. The appeal told! He had leave to go, but How long will the journey be, and when wilt thou return? A time was appointed, and he took a Persian guard with him to aid his movement and to be witnesses of his integrity. The wall was built at once, with the utmost diligence;  and before any of the enemies of Israel had time to prevent it, or misrepresent Nehemiahs action at Court, the thing was done. His next step was in all probability to return to Court, and get himself appointed Governor of the province for twelve years. Of his administration we have but little detail. We know that it was at his own expense. He took no official salary from the people; he organised and protected them to the utmost of his power; he drew forth Ezra the Scribe from his position of disgraced retirement, and set him in his place as teacher and interpreter of the law; he kept down the foreign influences which Ezra had found too strong for his delegated powers.
           

At the end of twelve years Nehemiah again returned to the Persian Court, and afterwards obtained a fresh appointment as Governor of Jerusalem. In the Book of Nehemiah there should be a distinct break at the end of chapter 13.3. What precedes this belongs to Nehe­miah’s first term of office: what follows relates Tobiah’s misconduct in his absence, and the decisive measures taken by Nehemiah on his return. Last of all, we have the prophecy of Malachi, which is most probably contemporary with Nehemiah’s second governorship.

 

The first part of Malachi contains a rebuke to the priests for delinquencies similar to what we read of in Neh. 13. The state of things described by the two writers is the same upon the whole.

 

A well-known passage in Malachi indicates the Divine purpose in the series of events. “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.”

 

That the great powers of the Gentile world might receive the Kingdom of Heaven after the manner of leaven, may be said to have been the purpose of the Captivity. The Return was the means of setting Israel as a Church of God among the nations, though no longer as a poli­tical power.

 

It will easily be seen how the several steps and stages of the Return were steps towards the fulfilling of this purpose. First, the Temple of Jerusalem was restored to be a house of prayer and sacrifice for all nations; for kings and all in authority, to pray for the life of the King and of his sons, as Darius and Artaxerxes well under­stood. Next, the law of Israel was allowed to stand as part of the law of the Persian Empire, in the province where God’s Temple was built, and where His people abode. No enemy was suffered to abolish this law, or interfere with the enforcement of it, within its own appointed sphere, until Christ came. Neither Haman, nor in later times the Grecian power under Antiochus Epiphanes, was suffered to prevent this. And when a certain amount of political support was wanted in order to the full freedom of this law, the required support was fully provided in the Dispensation of Divine Providence. A Nehemiah was not lacking to strengthen the hands of the Ezra of the time. The wall of Jerusalem was built.

 

“These events occupy a period of not less than a hundred years. The decree of Cyrus for re­building the Temple bears date 537 B.C. The second appointment of Nehemiah as Governor (Neh. 13.6), by the same reckoning (Sayce), was 433 B.C.

 

“But the events of a century can only be viewed as a whole from the close of the century. Consequently the earlier incidents of the period, and the final arrangement of this selection of Psalms must be taken from the end, and not from the beginning of the century.” C. H. W.

[Resource Manager]

The Fifth Book of the Psalter seems to fit into the work of both Ezra and Nehemiah, though the larger proportion of it probably appeared early in the period, before either of them came from Babylon. The broken gates of brass, the silence of the Lord’s song, the sorrows of Captivity, the joys of release, found expression perhaps at once in Psalms 107, 126, 137.  Psalms 108, 109—both by David—would natur­ally come forth before the Temple was built, as they describe the clearing away of iniquity. Psalm 108 combines two portions of Psalms from Book 2—one of David’s in the cave when he fled from Saul (Ps. 57.7-11), and one when he was at war with the Gentiles (Psalm 60.5-12). The first shows him in danger from his own people, the second when he is in peril among the Gen­tiles. The joint Psalm commemorates his deliver­ance from both alike.

 

Psalm 109 is also by David, and it refers to many different forms of enmity to God and to His people. In the Fifth Book it has later on a reference to Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite, of whom Nehemiah says in the words of this Psalm, “ Cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders ” (Neh. 4.5).

 

Psalm 110, also by David, is perhaps alluded to by Zech. 6.13, and if so, it would be known before the coming of Ezra. It affords one of the strongest proofs in the whole of the Psalter, that prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1.21). We fail to find in the life of David any historical background for the thoughts, which indeed we are told that David uttered “in Spirit” (Matt. 22.43, 44), about his Lord. The Psalm implies our Lord’s Resurrection, Ascension, Sitting at the right hand of God, His many willing followers, His victory over all enemies, His Kingly priesthood “ after the order of Melchizedek,” who refreshed and blessed Abraham after his victory (Gen.14.18-20). In the Fifth Book of the Psalter it has a most encouraging place.

 

Psalm 136 was probably sung when the foundation of the Temple was laid, as it contains some of the very words used. Compare Ezra 3.10,11, “And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course, in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel."

 

This is the fulfilment of the Prophecy in Jeremiah 33, where the Lord promised that He would cause the Captivity of Judah and Israel to return, and would cleanse and pardon them. “And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an ‘honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness, and for all the prosperity, that I procure unto it. Thus saith the Lord, Again there shall be heard in this place . . . the voice of joy . . . the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of Hosts: for the Lord is good: for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord ” (Jer. 33.9-16).

 

This is a part of His plan by which His “Name shall be great among the heathen” (Mal. 1.11), even the goodness that He shows “towards Israel.”

 

We have not seen the last two words joined to the Song before. It cannot be accidental that this is the last mention of the Song in sacred history. We have only the remainder of Psalm 136 to consider after this, and it was probably sung at the same time.

[Resource Manager]

THE HALLEL

 

The six Psalms which were sung at the great Jewish festivals (113-118) may have been used at the Dedication of the Second Temple; but we do not know the date of the selection, except that a Jewish tradition connects Psalm 118 with this time;^[26] and Ps. 116 is ascribed to King Hezekiah, who uses many of the words found in it.^[27]

 

Psalm 119 is very generally attributed to Ezra the Scribe, who “had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach Israel statutes and judgments” (Ezra 7.10). Artaxerxes authorised Ezra to teach “the Wisdom of God that is in thine hand to those that know not this law” (Ezra 7.25). But in the execution of this order he stirred up the enmity of the Samaritan colony (as we have seen, page 86), and he seems to have been in retirement for thirteen years until Nehemiah brought him forward again, as teacher and interpreter of the Law (Neh. 8.1). He may have written Psalm 119 during these years, for some verses speak of un­fair dealing and oppression, on the part of his “adversaries,” “Princes,” “Kings,” “False accusers,” “Persecutors.” He longs for God’s quickening Spirit and “comfort in affliction.” But “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” is his strong support. Ezra tells of his own grief and shame when he found that the “holy seed” had mingled themselves with the people of the land (Ezra 9.2-6; 10.6), and in the Psalm we have “Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law,” and “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved because they kept not thy law” (Psalm 119.136,158).

 

Psalm 130 may perhaps have been uttered under similar circumstances.

 

After the Return from the Captivity, great trouble seems to have been taken to renew the Psalmody in all its beauty. Special mention is made of the Singers in Ezra 3.10,11, when the foundations of the house were laid. Artaxerxes —probably inspired by his councillor Pethahiah,^[28] a man of the tribe of Judah—orders a daily portion to be given to them (Neh. 11.23,24).

 

“And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers . . . every day his portion” (Neh.12.47).

 

The ordinances of David and of Asaph were recalled with regard to Psalmody (Ezra 3.10; Neh. 12.24, 36). Fifteen Psalms with David’s name, and one with that of Solomon were brought forth. Some of these were evidently written for the bringing up of the Ark by David to Jeru­salem, and they are therefore entirely suitable to the rebuilding of the Temple.^[29]

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^[26] Cf. verse 22, about the “stone which the builders rejected,” with Zech. 4.7, “He shall bring forth the head-stone with shoutings.”

^[27] Dr. Kay on the Psalms.

^[28] Professor Sayce.

^[29] Cf. Ps. 122.3 with 1 Chron. 13.2; Ps. 132 with 2 Chron. 6. 41, 42.

[Resource Manager]

The message which God sent to the Chaldeans through Jeremiah (Jer. 10.11) is very much in evidence after the return of the Captives. Five times over in the Fifth Book, God is called the “Maker of heaven and earth,”^[30] and the Levites, before the sealing of the Covenant, confess His name in these words, “Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all things that are therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee” (Neh. 9.6).

 

We cannot locate exactly a pair of very re­markable Psalms in the Fifth Book, and we do not know who wrote them. They are acrostic and alphabetical. One is in praise of the Creator, the other of the man that feareth the Lord. Each Psalm has ten verses besides the opening Hallelujah: eight of these verses are in two parts; and each part begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet (in order). The ninth and tenth verses are in three parts, and use up the remaining letters. In both Psalms alike we find the phrases, “He is gracious and full of compassion,” and “His righteousness endureth for ever.”

 

If we examine the Book of Nehemiah closely, we shall find reason to think that he set this model before him for his own conduct. To the poorer Jews who had returned from Babylon it was a very trying time. The pressure of the tribute demanded by the Persian Kings lay heavily upon them. They mortgaged their lands, and sold their children for slaves to the more wealthy Jews; and had no power to redeem them (Neh. 5.1-6). Nehemiah remonstrates with these nobles and rulers who had exacted usury of their distressed brethren, saying, “We after our ability have redeemed our brethren . . . which were sold unto the heathen, and will ye even sell your brethren?” He recounts various particulars, and adds, “So did not I, because of the fear of God.”—“Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord”

 

Then when Nehemiah was in perplexity through the machinations of Sanballat and Tobiah, after he had considered their proposals he says, “Then I perceived that God had not sent, him” (Neh. 6.12).—“Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.”

 

We have already seen some of his compas­sionate dealings towards his poorer brethren (Neh. 5.8-13)—“He is gracious and full of compassion.”

 

Nehemiah entreats that the Lord will re­member the good deeds that he has done for the house of God and for the offices thereof (Neh. 13.14,31, also v.16).—“The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.”

 

He was certainly not afraid when he was as­sured that his enemies sought his life. “Should such a man as I flee? and who is there that being as I am would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in” (Neh. 6.11) — “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.”

 

Nehemiah says: “There were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides those that came unto us from among the heathen that were round about us (Neh. 5.17).—“He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor.”

 

And truly “his horn was exalted with honour” and “the wicked were grieved”—when the wall of Jerusalem was finished in spite of all their opposition, and “they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God ” (Neh. 6.15, 16).

 

Apparently also “wealth and riches were in his house,” as he could live without taking the official salary of the governor, and also deal so liberally with his poorer friends—“Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.”

 

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^[30] Ps. 115.15; 121.2; 124.8; 134.3; 146.6; cf. Neh. 9.6.

 

[Resource Manager]

THE SONGS OF DEGREES

 

Many of the fifteen Songs of Degrees must have been in use long before this time; but they were probably given a place in the Fifth Book for the two great companies that gave thanks at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem when it was finished. One of these companies had the musical instruments of David the man of God, and Ezra the Scribe went before them. “They went up by the stairs (ascents) of the City of David at the going up of the wall above the house of David.” And Nehemiah was with the other company that gave thanks . . . “and the singers sang loud.” Probably the last five Psalms in the Psalter, “the Hallelujah Chorus,” were also sung on that occasion, for the singers included the women and children of Psalm 148.12, “Both young men and maidens: old men and children,” and they used in their rejoicing the very instruments named in Psalm 150., “both with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps” (Neh. 12.27).

 

The two companies stood still on the wall at the water gate and the prison gate respectively —“Also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoicings: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off” (Neh. 12.13).

 

“Thus with the end of the Fifth Book of the Psalter, with Nehemiah, and with Malachi, we see the close of the Canon of the Old Testament Scripture. Remember ye the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.’ Thus was Israel left with Moses and the Prophets until the forerunner of the LORD Himself appeared. Not otherwise are we our­selves left with the New Testament Canon closed by St. John, not waiting for Elijah, but for the Lord Himself. ‘Surely I come quickly.’ ‘Till he come’ the Scriptures are our only rule.” C. H. W.

 

Note.—The exact situation of the gates mentioned in Nehemiah cannot now be established with certainty. But the water gate and the prison gate are identified in the latest excavations at Jerusalem with more evidence in their favour than most of the others. Dr. Bliss says: “The water gate was approached from the south as the company reached it by way of the fountain gate and the stairs. From Neh. 3.15, we find that the Pool of Siloam lay between those, two places. The water gate thus was one of the southern entrances to the Temple, and the prison gate one of the northern.

 

“Being opposite the fountain gate, they ascended the Eastern Hill near its southern termination to the City of David—in other words, to that part of larger Jerusalem which, under the name of Zion, was (once) the stronghold of the Jebusites, and was wrested from them by David, who called it after himself. Though Jerusalem in later times, spread far beyond these limits, the name, City of David, still clung to the spot, gradually including the whole Eastern Hill, but never referring to the Western. ‘Zion' is used later poetically for all Jerusalem, and in Christian times even transferred to the southern part of the Western Hill.”—“Excavations at Jerusalem, 1894-1897,” by F. J. Bliss, Ph.D.

[Resource Manager]

NOTE BY DR. WALLER

 

We append a list of the Persian monarchs who rendered assistance in the restoration of the people of Israel:

 

1. Darius the Mede. Daniel’s patron (Dan. 6.25-28).

 

2. Cyrus the Persian, who decreed the re­storation of the Temple, 537 B.C.

 

Cambyses, 529 B.C.; Pseudo-Smerdis, 521 B.C., not named, but alluded to in Dan. 11.3.

 

3. Darius, son of Hystaspes, 521-485 B.C., who decreed the completion of the Temple.

 

4. Xerxes, 485-466 B.C., who supported Esther and Mordecai against Haman.

 

5. Artaxerxes Longimanus, 465-425 B.C., who most effectually supported Ezra and Nehemiah.

 

Thus the re-establishment of the Jewish com­monwealth, including the Temple, the law, and the worship at Jerusalem, is seen to be the work of not less than an entire century. Be­ginning with Zerubbabel under Cyrus, and ending with Nehemiah under Artaxerxes, it passes through a period of depression between.

 

That this is the general order of thought in the Fifth Book of the Psalter is obvious. Begin­ning and ending with the note of praise for deliverance, it exhibits distinct marks of con­flict on the way. The Book is not a diary, but a retrospect of deliverance through conflict, viewed from the conflict’s triumphant close. 

[Resource Manager]

BOOK 5 − Part II: THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT

 

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard Neither have entered into the heart of man, The things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: For the Spirit searcheth all things, Yea the deep things of God.” 

1 Corinthians 2.9,10.

 

The General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn.

 

“πανηγύριs και εκκλησία. In the last ‘there lay ever the sense of an assembly coming together for the transaction of business.’ The first ‘was a solemn assembly for purposes of festal re­joicing:’ ... ‘If we keep this festal character of the πανηγύριs in mind, we shall find a peculiar fitness in the employment of this word in Heb. 12.23, where only in the N.T. it occurs. The Apostle is there setting forth the Communion of the Church militant on earth with the Church triumphant in heaven—of the Church toiling and suffering here with that Church from which all weariness and toil have for ever passed away (Rev. 21.4); and how could he better describe this last than as a πανήγυρις than as the glad and festal assembly of heaven?”— “Synonyms of the New Testament” by Arch­bishop Trench.

 

We might look at all the Books of the Psalter in their prophetical aspect, guided by the quota­tions made from them in the New Testament; setting forth our Lord’s sufferings, and the “glory that should follow”: the kingdom that should be established in righteousness: and the dominion over all the earth. But we must leave that study for the present.

 

The Fifth Book, however, gives such wonderful hints and outlines of the employments and pur­suits of the Redeemed that we cannot refrain from dwelling on some of them. It is not so much the verses quoted in the New Testament, as the subjects and the sequence of the Psalms themselves that are so suggestive.

 

“The only analysis that accounts for the whole of this Book is that which regards it as a picture of the gathering together of all whom the Lord hath redeemed, unto the coronation of the Messiah. 

[Resource Manager]

From this point of view we have a complete scheme, thus—

 

Ps. 107 The gathering together of the redeemed, again redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

 

Ps. 108 Our hearts fixed on Him as ruler over Israel, and Conqueror of Edom.

 

Ps. 109 His foes and betrayers made sons of perdition.

 

Ps. 110 Himself at God’s right hand, a Priest upon His throne, and His foes His footstool.

 

Ps. 111, 112 Exhibit the perfecting of man’s character ‘after our likeness,’ for his destiny ‘ to have dominion.’

 

“The next group of Psalms, 113 to 118, explains in the language of prophecy how this result has been achieved. It is the Hallel or ‘ Hymn’ of our Lord’s Passion, from His humilia­tion (Ps. 113) and ‘exodus’ (114) and submis­sion—(‘Not my will, but thine’)—(115) until through love and trust (116) He overcame, and brought mercy to Jews and Gentiles (117), and though rejected by the builders, was made Head of the corner (118).

 

“The establishment of the law which He obeyed on this basis follows (Ps. 119) a complete eight­fold Alphabetical Psalm.

 

“The next group, Songs of Degrees (120−134), displays the ladder by which all the families of the earth go up to receive the blessing promised to them through the Seed of Abraham. It brings before us David’s scheme of the Temple, the restored Tabernacle of David, the house built by Solomon, and the true Temple ‘heard of at Ephratah,’ and the bond of union for all nations.

 

“This is illustrated by Zech 14, a remini­scence of Jeremiah. But the Captivity of Zion and of David’s Tabernacle is turned.

 

“Psalms 135 and 136 combine Jeremiah’s praise in Captivity (Jer. 10.13; Ps. 135.7) with the restored song of Zion when Captivity is past.

 

“Some reminiscences and past experiences of sorrow turned into joy make the next group, 137, 144. The ‘misery’ that cannot be forgotten, is ‘remembered’ as the ‘waters that pass away,’ and leave fertility instead of flood and desolation behind.

 

“David’s Psalm (Tehillah = Praise) makes a fitting finale to the group, and introduces the fivefold Hallelujah, 126-150, with which the Book comes to its close.”—C. H. W.

 

After this general analysis we return to the opening Psalm (Ps. 107) which strikes the keynote, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south”! It is the gathering together of the Lord’s Redeemed in answer to the closing petition of the Fourth Book; our “gathering together unto Him” (cf. 2 Thess. 2.1).

[Resource Manager]

It is long since our Saviour said, “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” But they cannot all be together until He comes again to receive them unto Himself, that where He is, there they may be also. It is this gathering together that is foreshadowed in the Fifth Book of the Psalter, as we may see from the way that our Lord quotes Ps. 107.3 in the account of the healing of the centurion's servant in Matt. 8.11, and again in Luke 13.29 after the parables about the Kingdom of God. “They shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God.”

 

This we think gives us the key to the use we may make of this Book. For the words go far beyond any earthly deliverance how­ever wonderful. “The words of Psalm 107, if they carry their full meaning, can be sung only to notes of heavenly music, struck from the harps of God. When our minds begin to enter into them, we think of the ‘sea of glass,’ and the rejoicing multitude that will assemble there. The congregation grows and extends itself, until it is the ‘multitude that no man can number.’ The voice is ‘as the voice of many waters,’ and as ‘the voice of a great thunder,’ and it is that ‘new song’ that no man can learn except those whom the Lord hath redeemed out of the present evil world.

 

“The Psalm has a sound of Home about it. It looks forward to that last and greatest gathering when all the many sons of God shall have been brought to glory, and there shall be no places empty in the family circle in our Father’s house. Then shall the Lord indeed be praised for His mercy. Then will the Redeemed indeed have the power to see and know the ‘wonders that he doeth for the children of men’—and then, as they look for­ward to the Eternity before them, what a force there will be in the well-known call to praise, ‘O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever’”^[31]

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^[31] “The Silver Sockets,” by Dr. C. H. Waller.

[Resource Manager]

PSALMS 108 & 109

 

The next two Psalms, 108, 109, show us the further development of the “time of har­vest,” when “the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity” (Matt. 13.30-43). This was what King Solomon—instructed by David—did before he built the earthly Temple. Nehemiah also adopts the language of Psalm 109 when he was about to rebuild the Temple, and to restore the worship of God after the Captivity (Neh. 4.4,5); and in the Book of Revelation we have the destruction of Babylon before the manifestation of the heavenly City, the new Jerusalem (Rev. 17, 21).

 

Psalm 109, “For him that overcometh,” seems to gather up in itself allusions to many different enemies of God’s people, in many different periods. The punishment of Cain as a “vagabond” recurs to our minds in reading ver. 10, as well as the “Roaring Lion walking about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5.3). Many of the words spoken by the “lying tongue” were directed against David himself. Verses 14 and 15 are applied by Nehemiah to Sanballat and Tobiah for their mocking of the builders of Jerusalem (Neh. 4.5). Long afterwards our Lord applies ver. 3 to Himself, “They hated me without a cause” (John 15.25).^[32] The apostles applied other verses to Judas Iscariot when they had as­sembled to choose another to “take his office” (Acts 1.20). But all sin seems gathered up in the use of the words “reward of mine ad­versaries” (ver. 26) by St. Paul, when he says, “The wages of sin is death ” (Rom. 6.23), thus including all kinds of transgression. For of the New Jerusalem we read, “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomina­tion, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev. 21.27).

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^[32] See also ver. 25, with Ps22.6,7; Matt, 27.39.

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 110

 

Psalm 110 shows our Lord as a Priest upon His Throne, after the Victory and the purging away of sin of Psalms 108, 109.

 

He is here the Son of God in heaven: the King of righteousness and peace on earth: the Ruler in Zion: the Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

 

Melchizedek came to meet Abraham after his victory over the confederate kings; and he brought forth bread and wine to Abraham, and gave him the blessing of “the Most High God, Possessor of Heaven and earth”! Did not our Lord, too, speak of a time when He should “gird Himself and make His servants sit down to meat, and should come forth and serve them”? (Luke 12.27).

 

Psalm 110 unites the promises of Ps.2 and Ps.8, and fulfils them to the utmost bounds. The Prophet Zechariah tells us that “He shall build the Temple of the Lord” (Zech. 6.12). And St. Paul also tells us many things in the Epistle to the Hebrews about this Mediator of the “new and better covenant,” who “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7.25).

[Resource Manager]

PSALMS 111 & 112.

 

“Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

 

Perhaps the most remarkable teaching in the Fifth Book of the Psalter is that of Psalms 111 and 112. They are acrostic and alphabetical, and thus form a pair. The one sets forth the likeness of the Creator, in which man was to be fashioned, accord­ing to the decree in Gen. 1.26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Psalm 112 shows the work of God com­pleted. Man is made “in His image,” “after His likeness,” and the very same words are used to describe them both! In both Psalms we find the words, “His righteousness endureth for ever”; in both, “He is gracious and full of compassion”! “And we may observe that these words are never applied to man − elsewhere in Holy Scripture.”^[33]

 

They form a part of the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus (34.6).

 

He had “counted the cost” when He began to build the Tower—even man—and He was able to finish it as He here shows. This is indeed the wedding garment, made ready for the feast, that those who are bidden may be “presented fault­less before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1.26). “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness” (Ps. 17.15).

 

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^[33] Dr. Kay on the Psalms.

[Resource Manager]

PSALMS 113-118 (INCLUSIVE).

 

The next six Psalms form the “Hallel”—the hymn which our Lord sang with His disciples in the “Upper Room” at the last Passover ac­cording to the regular course of the service. The only time when it is written that our Lord sang on earth, was at the moment when He was about to go forth to battle with His great enemy, and ours. Have these words of Scripture any bearing upon His sufferings? Was the rehearsal of them likely to strengthen Him, or to confirm His courage in any way, in the prospect of all that He had to undergo?

 

If we read these Psalms with this thought in our minds we shall indeed marvel at what is unfolded to us. We see here the means by which the wonderful “Likeness” of Psalm 112 was formed; for He “whose glory is above the heavens” humbled Himself and “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” that “he might set man with the Princes of his people.” And the “cup which might not pass” (Matt. 26.34) was “the cup of our salvation.” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps. 116.13, 14).

 

The “Song of Moses” becomes here also “the Song of the Lamb,” as uttered by our Lord in that upper room: “The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation” (Ps. 118.14), with Exod. 15.2.

 

Moreover, this Passover hymn opens to our view the great missionary work which lies before the restored “tabernacle of David”: even “that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord” (Acts 15.16,17). “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same,” the Lord’s name is to be praised (Ps. 113.3).

 

“O praise the Lord all ye nations: praise him all ye people” (Ps. 117.1). The receiving back of the Jews will be to the Gentiles “as life from the dead” (Rom. 11.15): but it is because the Lord humbled Himself to die! All this is re­counted in the New Jerusalem when “there stood a Lamb as it had been slain” to loose the seals of the Book of Redemption, and “ten thou­sand times ten thousand and thousands of thou­sands” proclaim His praise (Rev. 5.6-14).

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 119

 

How often Christians long for the assurance that they shall not lose the written word in Heaven! It does not look like losing it to find it magnified and dwelt upon in all its aspects and fulness in this Psalm, which is placed amongst those in use in “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven” (Heb. 12.23): “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven ” (ver. 89).

 

It is remarkable how often we find allusions to the written word as treasured in heaven.

 

Twice in Revelation there is a vision of the “Ark of the Testimony” laid up in heaven (Rev. 11.19; 15.5). Twice when St. John would have worshipped the Angels who showed him things to come, they spoke of themselves as having the “testimony of Jesus,” and being “of them which keep the sayings of this book” (Rev. 19.10; 22.9. Cf. Dan. 10.21).

 

No! there is no danger of our not keeping God’s word written, even in glory. “Once uttered, the very sound of His word cannot perish, it must reverberate throughout the Uni­verse for evermore”!

[Resource Manager]

PSALMS 120-124 (INCLUSIVE)

 

Fifteen “Songs of Degrees” follow Psalm 119 in order. It is thought that these songs belong first to the family gatherings at the feast of the second tithe in Zion. The ties of earth are not disregarded and dislocated in heaven, as we may see by the order of the twelve tribes when they are sealed in Revelation. “In no single in­stance has the tie of natural relationship been disregarded here. The children of the same mothers are beautifully united:—

 

1, Judah and Reuben, the son who took the first place, and the son who was born to it; 2, Gad and Asher, Zilpah’s children; 4, Simeon and Levi, nearest at first, then parted, and now rejoined; 5, Issachar and Zebulun, always next each other from their birth; 6, Joseph and Benjamin, Rachel’s two sons. There only remains one pair, the third, Naphthali and Manasseh. Dan and Ephraim are left out altogether: and these two each leave a brother behind. The two solitary brothers are paired in this list!” “If the final arrangement of the Twelve Tribes bears marks of such loving care and design on God’s part, and harmonises so remarkably with their former history, may we not expect the same love and care and perfect order in the arrangement of all the countless multitude of the Redeemed?”^[34]

 

But these “Songs of Degrees” also belong to other “up-goings” and “ascents.” They were almost certainly sung by the jubilant procession up the stairs of the city of David, and along the walls of Zion (recorded in Nehemiah 12) at the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem, when “God had made them rejoice with great joy” (Neh. 12.43).

 

Will they be heard in that City whose walls “shall be called Salvation, and its gates Praise” (Isa. 60. 18). Their position in the Fifth Book of the Psalter leads one to expect it.

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^[34] 1 The “Names on the Gates of Pearl,” by Dr. Waller.

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 135

 

“The fifteen preceding Psalms were songs of up-goings: the present and two following Psalms are sung by those who are supposed to have gone up, and reached Zion, and to stand in the sanctuary there, and to join in a chorus of praise to the Lord.” . . . “The Singers reveal to us a vision of the end, and of the great up-going of the Church glorified, caught up to meet the Lord, who is gone up to the heavenly Zion, to prepare a place for those who will join together in singing an everlasting Hallelujah there.”^[35] Note the recurring thanksgiving for all the conflicts and sorrows of the way, when they are seen from the end.

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^[35] Bishop Wordsworth on the Psalms.

 

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 136

 

“O give thanks unto the Lord: for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

 

Perhaps this Psalm proves to us as much as any in the whole Psalter, that “now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face,” in the subjects for which we “glorify God for his mercy.” We give thanks not only because “he led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever”—but also because He “smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for ever.” Those who stand upon the sea of glass can sing, “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints” (Rev. 15.3). 

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 137

 

Psalm 137 recalls to our minds that it is not only by His mercies that God will reveal Himself to the world. “All nations shall come and worship before him; for his judgments (requirements) are made manifest” (Rev. 15.4). And we know that “the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness” (Isa. 10.32).