AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH     

August 26, 2012  2012

 A Presbyterian Church following the Bible without Qualification
and the Lord Jesus Christ without Compromise by Faith

DIVINE IMPORTUNITY

AND HUMAN OPPORTUNITY

PSALM 69

Notes

Salvation Sought from Deep Waters

a) There is no standing  1-2

b) Weariness enervates, dissipating strength  3

c) Those who hate without cause are like an army,
demanding what has not been taken  4

d) This does not posit sinlessness or anything like it.

Yet the vehemence is gross, and this distortion
must not compromise the people of God  5-6.

Salvation Bought by Reason of Redemption

69:18

"Draw near to  My soul and redeem it, deliver me because of My enemies."

Caps. are used because of the direct flow from here to v. 21, certainly Messianic, capable of no other rational interpretation.

The sin blasted Him like a nuclear-tipped rocket, both in spiritual  antagonism to Him, and in the crucifixion, as paralleled in Psalm 22.

In retrospect, 69:7-8 shows His rejection, as if like Haman, His face had been covered,
ready for execution!

As to the sin-blasting (like a spiritual sand-blasting), you see this in Psalms 69:2--21, 22:13-16, 35:15. Here is both the exposure of what sin's nature is, and the cost to redeem from it.  

"The reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen upon Me,"

both in transferred hatred  and as in Psalm 69:20-21, and in the vicarious bearing of guilt in predicted sacrifice. Thus the consignment of this cargo leaves the cry:

"Reproach has broken  My heart,"

as in Isaiah 53:4-6. Psalm 35:21-25 gives the cry for vindication, in the midst of which 69:6  shows the desire for the kingdom. Psalm 69:16-21 is the call. 

Clearing Divine Accounts

How does and can the Father righteously vindicate Him (35:24-25) cf. 69:22 ?

He even was pleased to bruise Him! (Isaiah 53:10).

How vindicate Him on whom the squalor of seas of sin sat, laying claim to Him, so destroying His body, but only to death, not to inner disaster! in experience, yes, in status, no! He had to be raised up, freed and pure, without fault. There was in fact infinite ground for it.

First, it was because as in Isaiah 53, He had poured out His soul to death, made intercession for the transgressors and was numbered with the transgressors, even to the point of bearing sin (Isaiah 53:11-12). No sin was to be found OF Him though much was placed ON Him; and He did all things with a passionate completeness which shone like a search-light, not only illuminating the sky, but exposing the evils that sought to bring destruction from evil powers above.

Thus in entire righteousness and utter love and profound pity, He had done all, soared past all restraint, being authentic, had completed as Messiah the entire program of divine love in sanctity and consummation. In this, He accredited Himself again, who already had eternal accreditation by nature (Philippians 2). Righteousness had indeed "looked down from heaven," as in Psalm 85:10, and in unstoppable zest, met every quest; and it was for man that it came, clad in flesh, incarnate, impervious to sin and imperial over it. It attested truth and found its mark in Him.

The payment made being sufficient, the death could not remain, or retain a hold over Him; and having in His body (cf. Colossians 1:21-22, 2:14) paid, with His body He rose, the exhibition of innocence, victory and just acclaim. Pronounced authentic in action, He was thus covered by the Father's decree, giving warrant to His integrity.  In that sense, He was redeemed from the transgressions, His own sin JUSTLY accounted as zero, the death having due fully paid signals placed on the sins of others who would take Him, where faith-acceptance enabled transfer.

What despised His death, despised its own mercy, and so received nothing (John 8:24), leaving averted life irreparably misaligned. God SO loved, but when man preferred darkness (John 3:19), the love was unimpaired, though unreceived, and the Redeemer Himself was delivered from all harassment, for only ONCE ONLY did He suffer, in preparation first,  and then in payment; and as to that, it is finished (Hebrews 9).

Death, since He did bear sin, could savage Him, but

    His own soul nothing could touch:
    experience could desolate Him
    (Psalm 22:1 in prospect, Matthew 27:46 in fulfilment),
    but reality rejoiced over Him
    (Psalm 69:29-30. 22:21-26).

In the resurrection of His body,

     He was declared to be the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4),

     vindicated, magnified, accredited

     as Saviour whose intercessions continue (Hebrews 7:25).

What as if believing, yet departs from His self-defining righteousness

has another christ, another gospel,

not the One who died for sin biblically defined by the word of God,
not the One divinely authenticated in the rupture of death,
till the rapture confers the wonder of His glory on all who have received Him.

Meanwhile, many innovators, in realms moral, spiritual, move

with fraudulent zeal,

for a forlorn by-product,

creation of man, a perpetual prisoner of their minds,

which in turn perpetually imprison their deluded spirits:

the sin He died vicariously to cover, they love  to uncover,
at times  even with the gall  to use His name.

Their sordid christs exist only in the mind of those
in the business of making gods (Deuteronomy 32:17),
while many divert

to secular quasi-constructions which never work,
and are liable to be paid for in the end,

or to groundless principles, creating nothing,
bred by imagination without foundation,

their antics exposed in advance both by Peter (II Peter 2),
and Paul (II Corinthians 10-11, I Timothy 4, II Timothy 3-4).

Of the Rock that begat believers

they are unmindful,

just as Israel was!

and have lightly esteemed Him,

even  though God "raised Him from the dead and

gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God."

On this, see I Peter 1:20-21 with Luke 24:34 and ponder in the latter, the word "FOR"! WHY should they handle Him and see ? that it might be clear it was indeed Himself, well-known wonder. Then what is the conclusion ? it is that He is no spirit, FOR a spirit does not have flesh and bones. How does He reinforce this ? It is by saying this: "as you see Me to have!" It is obvious; it is testable; tests invited; results are clear, as confirming sight.

HENCE we find in Psalm 69:22-28, the other side of His necessary suffering, so that mercy should serve love. Just as massive was the price Christ paid, so massive is the price of the neglect of His offering. What was needed is vast; what is left is vast no less for those despising redemption, or applying for it to a god who is not there, made by man!

How vast is the tumult for such. The price THESE THEREFORE PAY is seen in typified in 69:22-28, though here it is specific to direct treachery, which has many brothers.

As in Psalm 22, with the work of redemption finished, the Messiah is now free to praise the Father who sent Him in the subordinated and vulnerable form of a man. Since this was a vast undertaking as broad as the human race (I John 2:1ff.) in its offer and desire, "the humble shall see this and be glad," Psalm 69:32). How well the Lord for His part showed that HE did not despise His prisoners, those caught in their own sins (as in Isaiah 61:1-3).

This will  apply to a greatly visited and restored Israel not least (as in Zechariah 12:10-13:1), for as in Romans 11, there is to come such an end at a virtually national level, to spiritual blindness that it will be an eye-opener even to the Gentiles!

To many, it has come  already as in Psalm 69:32, as in Psalm 22:30-31. The  entirety, striking faith, produces praise, liberating an ongoing generation to attest this,  as there foretold. Forever will their hearts live (Psalm 22:26, 69:32).