CHAPTER   6

THE SINGULAR PSALM AND THE MULTITUDE OF RESULTS 

PSALM 69

Often, the Psalm grips the heart; one is there with David, suffering in empathy, his pangs appreciated, his drive relished, his faith akin, and then as one moves deeper, suddenly it becomes apparent that the one whose far off descendants would include one with the fatherhood of God personally, the Messiah, was speaking no longer of himself, but of his Lord (Psalm 110). The transition is alluring to the mind, a challenge to the thought, a work of art to the spirit, a joy to the heart, as you move from the sinner to the Saviour, almost like a verbal parallel to the action of salvation itself. .

In this case, you see the type of hatred that mounts to the spiritual from the earthly debasement, in verse 4, the weakness before it of the suffering soul in verse 5, and the aspirations and resolve that the Lord be not dishonoured.

In verse 6, you find a steely resolve for the glory of God, and then from verse 7 onwards, you see the ANSWER to be provided by God, the lifter of the heart, the One who IS the answer, who bears the sin and in Himself, suffers far more than David could, Himself being both deity and guilt-free, moving sin to the cross and evacuating it through the tomb, in confirmation of His work (I Peter 1:3). Increasing degrees of alienation of would-be supporters are seen developing like a storm. The One appointed, anointed and sent (Isaiah 48:15ff.), to bear the alienation of sin, becomes as an alien to those who are still in the sovereign grip of sin. The zeal of David NOT to bring shame to the people of the Lord, becomes now the zeal of the Lord to purify and purge His house; and alienation becomes mockery and contempt, even from the lowest in the land. Sin loves to wallow in would-be wisdom, disdaining every good thing, and the better it is, the more it disdains it.

In verse 13, we find this cry, "O LORD, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, hear Me in the truth of Your salvation." Out of "deep waters" He cries, that He should not sink (cf. Psalm 22:1). For deliverance, He appeals to His Father (v. 14). Facing hell, because of sin, He looks not to be swallowed up, for bearing sin IS to face hell, sin's proper lair: if it were not for the work of the cross itself, received by some. Note how it is THE acceptable time as in Galatians 4:4; for God not only had the time marked, but had publicly demarcated it as in Daniel 9:24-27 (explained in The Christian Prescription Ch. 2 for example), and there was only ONE such acceptable time, written into history about 30 A.D.. It could not be altered; the Lord had already spoken. So the cry is for this time, the "acceptable" one, transpires before our eyes as we read this Psalm: there being no other Father, nor any other time. Draw near to My soul! comes the cry...(verse 18).

"You know My reproach!" He muses, and "My adversaries are all before Thee." It is a pure marvel how this both represents the cry of the Lord, and the heart of the saint who seeking for deliverance both from sin and mocker, and seeing what is happening, whence it comes, from the same enemy of souls, seeks for deliverance. That from the Lord,  that cry becomes effectual, as He answers the sinner's call by bearing the very sin of the believer. In Him, the Lord, the Son of God,  it is a cry for deliverance of vicariously borne sin, for one victoriously born into our race for just such a purpose; and being heard, it brings answers for all.

Then, Psalm 69:19-22,  the graphic crucifixion scene itself comes onto the tarmac in truth, descending from heaven's foreknowledge, into view, as if it were occurring even as the prophet, in this case David, wrote. "Reproach has broken My heart, and I am full of heaviness!" proceeds from His lips, this His articulation of the experience of bearing sin. There IS and can be no comfort for Him now (as in Isaiah 59:1-2), as sin strikes like an atomic bomb. Nor was there any..

In verse 21, the predicted details for Calvary appear. No comfort is given, but vinegar is offered, for they "gave Me gall for My food." They gave food; He gave gallantry, eternally conspicuous, perspicuous, victorious, for one as for all who in the grace of God, would receive and DO receive Him and not another (II Cor. 10:12, 11:13).

We realise that here we are in the vicinity of Psalm 22, which gives even more detail of the impacts and events surrounding this transference of guilt, from man to God, in the work of salvation, and this because of the KINDNESS of God towards MANKIND (Titus 2-3), who once for all has now so acted (Hebrews 2, 9).. As we pass to Psalm 69:22ff.), there is made even more manifest, the awfulness of betrayal, that of one of seeing His words and works and STILL preferring darkness (as in John 15:22). Here the awefulness and horror of its being better not to have been born, appears looming in the gloom always associated with spiritual darkness (Psalm 69:22-28). The wonder and the marvel, above all, is that Christ was sent, just as He desired that He might dismiss it, not by vehement forcefulness moulding all, but in brilliant offer, implementable for all, exercised in some.

Thus, on the other side of pathology preference, as alas it is (Matthew 13:15), there is the attestation of the obvious and total victory over this death (particularised verbally in Psalm 16, but here implicit). Indeed, this life overflows into the transference of VICTORY and DELIVERANCE and ETERNAL LIFE to those who are glad because of Him whose work, just foreseen in this Psalm, THEY have received.

Thus, just as He received their sin, so they received His victory (and indeed the assurance of the coming bodily recladding as in II Corinthians 5, I Corinthians 15). This eternal life  is seen in Psalm 69:32, as in Psalms 73:26 and 21,  Psalm 22:26, the last showing a free rush of divine enterprise ending in endlessness of life. Here, it is imparted, amid the donations of the Lord from His victory, freely to the recipients of the graces bound to the wonder within it.

Now in outline we have this.  

I   THE PERSONAL  1-9

a) Deep waters threaten  1-4

b) Shame from sin endangers testimony  5-6

2 THE SCENE CHANGES

a) With zeal He seeks prophetic reformation, as in John 2 for instance ... 7-9

b) Spiritual self-denial led to drunken songs of degradation ...10-13
the spurious lullaby of the despisers. Purity already reaches to the Messiah,
and the acceptable"  time rushes in, on time and in time.

3 THE MESSIAH IN DIRECT FOCUS  13-18

a) The passion  13-14 "In the multitude of Thy mercies, hear Me in the truth of Your salvation."

b) The heart flow of sublime holiness - Let nothing overwhelm, or swallow up,
even in the midst of the maelstrom of transferred guilt. So purity prevails, though death ensues.
Thus  is it for 15-18. Draw near, deliver! Nearer than a brother, is THIS call upon the intimacy of the eternal Father of the Eternal Word, shrouded in flesh from birth into it, appealing to the Father who sent Him..

c) The dire data of the disregard now appear: the scene at Calvary 19-21

4 VOLCANIC RESULTS  22-28

Here we expound a little.

Unrepentant rejecters (Luke 23:34) find the rejection in their spiritual progenitor or type, Judas,
example of their rejection, just as those refusing a helicopter ride from the suddenly eruptive volcano, would find the depths arising to meet them instead. It is impossible to ignore the depths of sin, and the only available escape is by air lift, sent down from heaven, to lift us from the earthiness of the earth to the sublimity of heaven (Colossians 1:13, Ephesians 2:6).

It is in some ways, like a second Eden: the first was lost because of wilful sin against the word of God (which led to the work of God). This time, the opportunity for an eternal more-than-Eden, eternal life direct, may be lost through wilful rejection, despite the love and provision of God in Christ, of what ? This time, it is a matter of rejection of REDEMPTION. Always willing (for God does not change, Colossians 1:19ff.), always loving (John 3), God enables the crippling of what cripples, but does not perform as if in the abstract, nor stifle the departure from the cure (Acts 7:51, cf. Christ not Culture ... Ch. 9). The cry COME, REPENT, WHY WILL YOU DIE (Ezekiel 33:11), is not addressed to machinery, but to mankind.

 

5  ENTIRE ACCOMPLISHMENT   29-36
 

Now is a time to exposit further concerning this great Psalm.

a) Suddenly He appears (vv. 33-36), restored and even exuberant in life, and praising God, He declares as in overflow to believers "Your heart shall live"! and as in Psalm 22:26, and 73:23-6, implied in 139:24, it is for ever. Rejoiced in, in Psalm 21:4-6, this everlasting life is seen in setting in Psalm 16, and dowered over and over to His believers/receivers/people as in Proverbs 12:28. There is a time for mortality and a time for immortality, and in Christ it is time for the latter, immovable, granted (II Timothy 1:8ff.), sealed (Ephesians 1:12-14), assured (1:11) and secured (I Peter 1:5ff.).

b) In verses 33-36, we find that Zion is to be saved, HIS prime real estate, because primarily of its estate in reality, first as a centre for the dissemination of prophetic truth, second for the presentation of a kingdom in His name, and thirdly as the site of His rejection by the people with His name, through a formal act of  treachery, which nevertheless was an integral part of the plan to offer redemption not just to Israel, in prelude and form; but for all. It becomes, no less and fourthly, site for His manifest overthrow of death in bodily resurrection,  through the performance perfected in Christ and to apply to His people (I Cor. 15:20,42). Fifthly, it is the site for His return (Zechariah 14:5), and so false religionists dishonouring the King, are subjected to every man of difficulty, confusion, frustration (Psalm 2), as they seek to wrestle with God, not for His life, as with Jacob, but against His will, word and actions of old, to the present. As the end comes near, it is all the more with God, not Israel that they fight, as will appear soon enough! (Micah 7).

HIS promises will not lapse, though all the world should collapse! (Genesis 17:7-9). But that is not all. There are ALL His promises (as in Genesis 12, Galatians 3, Isaiah 2:17).

One of the premises of His promises is this, that they happen. Israel, its Jerusalem, will be restored to those at this late phase in the predicted Israel (cf. Luke 21:24), t his in large proportion (as in Zech. 12:10-13:1, 14:1ff.) turning to Him. Ruin is the adverse face turned to all contrary contenders (Isaiah 66, Micah 7). For millenia have they contended; and for millenia has Israel waited to repent! like someone with vertebral problems, on the wrong road. It goes on long, but it ends, not in stalemate but with a vast sending forth of the Spirit of God to awaken many in that nation, and to change its face (Zech. 12:10).

Yet it will be, in becoming HIS visibly, as they did not at the first, become a boon for ALL His people. There was His body ground, and now resurrected and returned, is the ground of truth. What then ? Just as some in rule, preferred Calvary's invention, and ensured it happened in the First Century, their intention to cast aside the 'bonds' of their own Messiah (Psalm 2): so now as an abundance of people in Israel come to Him, many will be delivered In other words,  the land comes to them to whom it has been appointed, but they come to the Lord.

This is as is becoming, this as one people, together in heart at last, with the PEOPLE of the LORD, and not as with any other! That is the main thrust, for GOD and not a series of gods, or restless spirits, or false prophecy attenders, He through Christ the Saviour will have the pre-eminence, will rule, and be BE ALL IN ALL (Habakkuk 2:14, Isaiah 11, Colossians 3:11). 

Thus not in pride and glory is Israel to be delivered (Isaiah 65:13-15, Galatians 3), but in humbleness of heart as God takes its part (as in Isaiah 19, 66, Deuteronomy 32,   Zechariah 14, Micah 7). It is to delivered to become a place "for those who love His name." That is a central feature as God rules on earth (Psalm 72). Blessed then is His name, is His son, to one as to all;  yet in the domain appointed to Israel as to particularity, it proceeds and all the earth is then filled with His glory, unsubdued by the intoxicating brews of many for so long, with such evil desire: those who would run HIS earth, their way, an ultimate in attempted theft and disjunction of what He has graciously used, from Him who so used it.

ALL will be fulfilled, and in fulfilling all, God displaces what has been illegitimate in any, such as a grab for Israel by others, or for Jerusalem, despising His name, promises and power, or a grasping lust to intimidate, alienate, possess the hearts of mankind, by subterranean forces of intense earthiness of robust lust.

WHEN He is ready, and  all is as planned, THEN and in HIM ONLY,  during the time of divine rule on earth,  will the Jerusalem which is above (Galatians 4) lodge something of its magnificence in that Jerusalem which is below. This is through the Victor, Jesus Christ, for oen  and for all, operative not least in the crux of Jerusalem, site of cross and loss, triumph and now majesty; while that for its part, is centred in Him. All is for "those who love His name," Psalm 69:36.

In the end, the particulars of all that God has done in history,

choosing now this focus and feature, now that, and

keeping to all that He says,

complementing, completing, bringing culmination, climax and consummation in and through Christ, at its due time (as in Galatians 4:4, Psalm 69:13),

all as in His word and will, purpose and grace:

all occurs till the scenes finished, the glory remains. Then immovable, He keeps in blessedness not one, but all His people who have loved His appearing and trusted in His name, even His own. These in the brilliance of truth, the grace of love, and the abundance of mercy,  stay with Him where their hearts have been, their thoughts have resided.