BULLETIN 5

We hear so much of what is not only untrue but contorted, distorted, diabolised, where right is made to appear wrong (cf. Isaiah 5), and wrong right, that it is refreshing to ponder briefly some basics of what God has said to man, for his instruction and edification, future and function. This never leaves five features: what we are, where we are, what is needed, what God has done, and what He is prepared to do and  WILL do. This does not change any more than the fact we have a cladding of an atmosphere.

By blessed contrast with this fashionable world, haggard with its own false ideas and deployments, we can turn to the tested security of the Maker and His well-weighed words.

A Study in Psalms

with Genesis and Job

What Messianic Psalms Show

For general topical interest, please note the claims of the following 20 Psalms to be deemed Messianic Psalms, prefiguring Christ, His place, work, need, with detailed data for when He comes, so becoming the main figure, both in the Psalm and in history. In some different ways, they present, predict, depict and detail matters in view, needed and to be met.

These are:

2, 16, 18, 21, 22, 35, 40, 41, 45, 49, 55, 69, the first twelve; then

72, 89, 91, 96, 109, 110, 118, 132.

For the 21st Messianic Psalm, see Bulletin Seven.

Note that Psalm 49, a topic here, is an instance of creating the gap, showing

the fact that redemption ceases for ever (Psalm 49:7-8),
that God nevertheless does it, has provided for it,
and leaving the 'costly' method itself
to be filled in by other Psalms,  accomplishes all (Psalm 49:15).

This Psalm shows for redemption,  its necessity, cost, cessation and performance wrought to meet these things, by God Himself (cf. Hebrews 9:12ff.,cf. Hosea 13:14, Ezekiel 34). The criteria outline the call, just as Psalm 40 personally expresses the coming to meet it, not mere method, but Messiah Himself speaking personally, prepared both to redeem and to rule, to bring joy and to judge. On this eminently personal aspect, focus especially on Hosea 13:14. Note that just as the structure of creation of the world is finished (Genesis 2:1ff.), so is that of redemption (John 19:30, Hebrews 9:12,23-27, Colossians 1:19ff., Romans 3:17,5:1).

What Psalm 49 Shows with Others
 

WHAT PSALM 49 shows with PSALM 40 and Genesis 3:15 and Job 19 is a foursome. It shows indeed a slot with these together as the necessity for that very redemption is met as only God can meet it, with His exuberance in personally coming (Psalm 40:6-8), resounding with that of Job (19:23-28), for that patriarch's part,  in robustly receiving the fruit of this same redemption, when He comes. By faith, already it was received.

Ecstatically Job announces the certain day of His arrival, and the intimacies this will realise, glorious in exultation, resplendent in certainties divine, as in practicalities human, so that Job himself, even clad with personal body and individuality, is to see and know God, in the ultimate drama that does not diminish (cf. Revelation 22:4); and he knows it! (cf. Ephesians 1:11). He will see Him with his own eyes, not those of another. It will not be a probe by proxy but a personal reality experienced without distancing. Give me metal for ink and rock for paper and let me write it out! he says.

These two Psalms, then, 49 and 40, with Genesis 3:15 and Job 19 make a portentous foursome, assembled, as players for golf, by arrangement, not however for recreation but for consummation of redemption (cf. I Corinthians 15, Romans 8:23). This feat is wrought in a new body, so that they should "live for ever and not see the pit" (Psalm 49:8, Proverbs 10:25, 14:32, Isaiah 26:19).

The Two Testamental Emphasis that Grants the Grace,  to Faith

in the Triune God, of Eternal Life

Indeed, how much emphasis is found back into the Old Testament on eternal life, that flowers in the New.

In Genesis 3, its scope is lost, its restoration foretold (Genesis 3:15), then Job in the earlier times is by faith dramatically emphatic about it to the very body given for it, even when in the grip of a searching test. In Psalm 21, David specifically asks for life, for  ever and ever; in Psalm 22, Christ pays for it; in Psalm 16, the Messiah shows how He will attest it, in His own body. This rises,  itself to be, as it was, incorruptible, just as it underlies the same in due time, for the resurrected bodies of the redeemed (Romans 8:23, I Corinthians 15).

In Proverbs 12:28 its vast and straightforward grandeur is shown for the redeemed (cf. Psalm 71:15-16). In Proverbs 14:32, we find that for these there is a "refuge" in their deaths, that very word used,  in its root and core meaning! while in Isaiah 26:19, in the actual text,  the general resurrection of believers is seen, raised from the dust, this matching the New Testament where in glorious symphony with the Gospels. Paul exhibits the heart and basis of resurrection at length. Love makes it wonderful, delectable to David (Psalm 17:15), the glory of God surrounds it, and the profound practicalities of the Creator, enable redemption to allow and anoint the keeping of the individual format of each of His saved sinners, by grace deemed saints, amongst all His people, this past all mere hope, the very donation of salvation.

For other studies in Psalms, not least Messianic ones, and for titles corresponding to acronyms for volumes below, see Search as linked.

see esp.  JJ 18 (72,89),  JJ 21 (2, BAB 27),  DBSA  7,  6 (18), JJ 22  (40),
JJ 23 (110), 25 (16, 22 with others, and on Psalm 22 see also PP  12,  2:
see also Index),
 BASFUL  6 ( 22 earlier);  BASFULEPI ( 22 later).
BCDSFACEDIVINE  3 (51),
 BEN 71 (72,89), RDP 11 (72-73), JJ 14 (82),
GG  5 (82-83), BB  8 (84)), BEAUTY  3 (88),
139 (KH 9, No. 4, JJ 16), 12 (KH 9, ps126), 19 (CWP  3)
TRUST  4 (61, 142-143),  7 (88-89) and  8 (39-40),
ROP  5 (78, 106, 98) and 6   with The Site 108 (100),

FRODANSWER  4 (94)

FRODANSWER 2   (116,118)

DENAFF 8 (69,72), PASNOT   1 (69)

WISWORDTESTRUE   3 (118,72,22,69)

LBRFGI   7   (107)

BASFUL  6,  7,  8 (37, 40- 46 inclusive, 49-50, 72, 17)

WWGWM   6  (2, 18, 22, 72, 118)

DBSA 7  11  (102)

TORANMEN   6 (31)