Reading:
Psalm 118.
The real title of this
Psalm is the 'Passover Hosanna Psalm', and its theme is
faith unto enlargement through adversity. Martin Luther
called this Psalm his Psalm, and I think his life
is a very good commentary upon it. We know why he made it
his Psalm. He might well have been the originator of it,
so true was his life to all that is here. It is just an
explanation and a summing-up of all his experience. 'This
is my Psalm', he said.
This Psalm was really
born out of experience, and it is that that makes it
live. There lies behind it very deep history, especially
in two particular connections.
The
Background Of The Psalm
In the first place, this
Psalm, whose composer no one seems to know, was at least
adapted to, if not composed for, the Passover after the
dedication of the second Temple. You are probably
acquainted with the history of the second Temple. You
have to turn, of course, to the Book of Ezra, and
alongside of it to the Book of Nehemiah, and then to the
prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah; and when you have
read those four books, you have the setting of Psalm 118.
Read again verses 5 to 16 of the Psalm in the light of
that, and you will see what light is thrown upon these
verses. Or take a fragment - verse 10: "All nations
compassed me about: in the name of the Lord I will cut
them off. They compassed me about…" And turn to
the Book of Ezra, chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. Here you
have a whole host of nations all gathered against Ezra
and the building of the second Temple. They compassed him
about - all these nations compassed him about - they
compassed him about like stinging bees. Thus this
description of adversity, of opposition, gives this Psalm
a very real, practical application: for the remnant which
had escaped from captivity had returned to the land with
the building and dedication of the Temple in view, and if
this Psalm is a description of things as they were then,
it is indeed the story of life out of death.
Life
Out Of Death
We must remember that
the 'I' and the 'me' repeated in this Psalm represent the
personification of the remnant or of the nation. It is as
though the nation were speaking as an individual; it is a
collective 'I'. The nation is here saying: "The Lord
hath chastened me sore" - how true that was for the
seventy years in captivity - "but He hath not given
me over unto death" (v. 18); "I shall not die,
but live, and declare the works of the Lord" (v.
17): so that the remnant speaking in these words does
really embody this great truth of life out of death and
life triumphant over death.
The Lord had promised
His people, when they were in that far-off exile and
captivity, that He would 'open their graves' and bring
them out (Ezekiel 37:12-14), and here it is. They are
out - out of that grave of captivity; and a grave it was.
There is no singing in the grave. "The dead praise
not the Lord" (Psalm 115:17) is a phrase of
Scripture, and how true it was away there. "Upon the
willows… we hanged up our harps… how shall we
sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (Psalm
137:2-4). 'The dead praise Thee not.' But listen! "O
give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His
lovingkindness endureth for ever" - four times
repeated at the very beginning of the Psalm, and then
added as the crown at the end. It is a new Psalm on
resurrection ground. So the Psalm, to begin with, is one
of life out of death.
Release
From Bondage
And then quite clearly
it is one of release from bondage. These people are so
rejoicing in this aspect of their position by the
lovingkindness of the Lord, that they are reminded of
their earliest great deliverance, and you will see here
in the Psalm a reference to the great deliverance from
Egypt, and a quotation from the Book of Exodus. They
bring the two together - deliverance from Egypt and
deliverance from Babylon - and the deliverance from Egypt
is always, in the Scripture, termed deliverance "out
of the house of bondage". The Psalm, then, is the
Psalm of release from bondage.
Now, bringing that into
the rebuilding of the second Temple, you can see how the
remnant were straitened, were pressed, by the nations
represented by these people who had been brought into
Samaria. What a time Nehemiah had from these people in
building the wall! He was pressed on every side. What a
time Ezra had! How those prophets suffered! The work was
held up for more than a decade by reason of this
opposition and adversity all around. But the point is
that the Temple was built and finished and dedicated, and
this Psalm was sung at the Passover which followed the
dedication. It says: 'Let men do their worst, let them
oppress from every side, let them oppose as they will.
The thing is done: the Lord has done it in spite of
everything, and we are out.'
From
Limitation To Enlargement
So "the Lord
answered me and set me in a large place" (v. 5).
From death to life, from bondage to liberty, from
limitation to enlargement - into a "large
place" - and this represented a very great thing on
the Lord's part. Consider all that the Lord had to cope
with - though of course it is putting it in a wrong way to
say the Lord ever has to 'cope with' anything, for He is
so supremely superior to every situation. Yet what was
against His people was no small thing. To bring them out
into this enlargement meant the overcoming of tremendous
difficulties. "The Lord answered me and set me in a
large place." We are reminded of another word, so
familiar to us: "Thou broughtest us into the
net… Thou didst cause men to ride over our heads. We
went through fire and through water; but Thou broughtest
us out into a wealthy place" (Psalm 66:11-12). It is
a Psalm of triumph over limitation, bringing into
enlargement.
God's
Faithfulness Over His People's Unfaithfulness
The version from which I
have quoted uses the word 'lovingkindness'. The version
which is perhaps more familiar has the word
'mercy' - "His mercy endureth for ever". I think
there is a note about 'lovingkindness' - God's
lovingkindness' - that touches the heart, when you think
of the failure and the unfaithfulness of His own people.
What a story it is all the way along, right through the
lives of the major and the minor prophets. It would seem
that if ever the mercy of God, the lovingkindness of God,
could have been exhausted, it would have been so with
these people, so terrible were their reactions to the
mercy of God. How far they went against the Lord! But
here in the end - and with Nehemiah we are in the last
Book of the Old Testament in historical order, we are at
the end of a dispensation - the great note is: "His
lovingkindness endureth for ever". When they used
that language, these people knew what they were talking
about. It was not just poetry or sentiment.
It is, therefore, a
Psalm of tremendous consolation. We know our weakness, we
know our unfaithfulness, we know how we have failed and
do fail. The end of the story is - "His
lovingkindness endureth for ever". You see, this is
the experience - and, out of the experience, the
testimony - of a people who have proved the Lord to be
faithful over against all that men could do against them.
It is a Psalm worth having. No wonder Luther said, 'That
is my Psalm!'
Sung
By The Lord Before Gethsemane
But there is something
even more than that. The second thing about this Psalm is
that it is believed to have been the Psalm sung by the
Lord Himself and by His disciples on the Passover night.
Before I knew this, I used to say, 'I wish I knew what it
was they sang when it says that after the supper,
"when they had sung a hymn, they went out"'
(Matt. 26:30). I have discovered that, on very good
grounds, it is strongly believed that this was the Psalm
that they sang. The Lord Jesus actually sang this Psalm!
And His disciples sang it with Him - I wonder if they
really knew what they were singing? Let us look at it.
There is no doubt that
this Psalm is very largely, if not altogether, related to
the Lord Jesus, because it is quoted in immediate
connection with Him in several places in the New
Testament. For instance: "Blessed be he that cometh
in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord" (v. 26). But the titles of the
Psalm, the 'Passover Hosanna Psalm', is not based upon
that incident of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, when
they cut down palm branches and went before Him singing
out of this Psalm: "Hosanna to the Son of David:
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord",
but upon other grounds. And then you know that on several
occasions in the New Testament the words are quoted:
"The stone which the builders rejected is become the
head of the corner" (v. 22). The Lord Jesus used
them concerning Himself (Matt. 21:42), and Peter used
them concerning Christ (1 Pet. 2:7). So this is in a
large sense what is called a 'Messianic' Psalm. It is
related to the Lord Jesus.
The
Triumph Of Faith
Now, if the Lord did
sing this Psalm on that dark night of the Passover and
betrayal, what a triumph of faith it was! "I shall
not die, but live, and declare the works of the
Lord" (v. 17). Going straightway to Gethsemane, the
trial and the Cross - "I shall not die, but
live". In faith He has leapt the garden, He has
leapt the trial, He has leapt the Cross, right over into
the resurrection. "I shall not die, but live."
What a triumph of faith through adversity, through
suffering! But oh, what a meaning this gives to
Gethsemane. Look at the Passover. "This is My body,
which is for you" (1 Cor. 11:24). "This is My
blood… which is shed for many unto remission of
sins" (Matt. 26:28). And they sang a hymn; and after
the hymn, the next thing - Gethsemane. Look - "Bind
the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the
altar" (v. 27). What was Gethsemane? They bound Him
and led Him away from the garden, but His interpretation
of that binding was of "a sacrifice… even unto
the horns of the altar"; not tied to the horns of
the altar, but bound with a view to being led toward the
altar. That is the meaning here: 'Bind and lead to the
altar.'
This puts a new light
upon Gethsemane, upon the bonds, the captivity, does it
not? This is not man's prevailing, this is not man
overcoming, this is not man's triumph. This is the Lamb
of God allowing Himself to be led to the altar. For that
is the next thing after the singing. He has sung:
"Bind the sacrifice… even unto the horns of the
altar"; and forthwith He goes. He goes to
Gethsemane, then to the betrayal, then to the judgment
hall, and then to the Cross. There is the Divine side of
all that, but here you see faith taking hold of this
human side, as men regard and interpret it, and turning
it into the redemption of the world.
The
Lord's Enlargement Through The Cross
In verse 5
again - "Out of my distress I called upon the Lord:
the Lord answered me and set me in a large place."
Are these words of the Lord Jesus? Yes: out of His
distress He cried: "O My Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass away from Me". "And being in
an agony He prayed more earnestly…"
"Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink
it, Thy will be done" (Matt. 26:39, 42; Luke 22:44).
"Out of my distress I cried…"; and,
although it does not seem that the Lord answered and
delivered, an Apostle says that He was heard (Heb.
5:7). And how was He heard? Have we the proof that He was
heard and answered? "The Lord answered me and set me
in a large place." A large place? Yes, a very large
place He is in. How enlarged was our Lord through His
Cross! "How am I straitened", He
said--"how am I straitened till it be
accomplished!" (Luke 12:50). This was enlargement
through suffering: His passion meant enlargement, release
from limitation. But it is the voice of faith. As He goes
to the Cross, faith goes beyond the Cross and claims the
answer of life, not death; enlargement, not limitation.
We could dwell quite a long time upon the enlargement
that has come to the Lord Jesus through suffering by
faith, and this we hope to do in later messages.
Life,
Liberty And Enlargement For Us In Christ
But what a testimony
this is to the mercy of God. This is the point. I said a
little earlier that this 'I' of the Psalm is an inclusive
and collective 'I'. In the first place, it is the nation
speaking in this personal way, using this personal
pronoun "I". Now it is taken up in relation to
the Lord Jesus - "I shall not die". But, you
see, it is not just personal. We know that the Lord Jesus
had no need to go to the Cross for Himself. It has often
been pointed out that those words used much later by an
Apostle - "Who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and hath sat down
at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb.
12:2) - should be translated: "Who, instead of the
joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised
shame, and sat down…", and it takes you to the
mount of transfiguration.
The mount of
transfiguration was the seal to the perfection of His
moral character. There is no transfiguration or
glorification apart from moral perfection, and so God
gave Him the great witness that He was perfect, that He
saw no fault in Him, that He had passed the scrutiny of
the eyes of Divine holiness, and there was not a flaw or
a blemish in Him: He was perfect. Therefore He had a
right to go from the mount of transfiguration right
through to the glory for aye. The glory was His: it was
declared His, it was shown to be His, it was His. But
instead of the joy that was set in front of Him, He
turned round and came down and endured the Cross, and if
you will look at the context of these words in Hebrews,
you will find that it was all because of ourselves - that
He was not going to glory without us. Bringing many sons
to glory necessitated His coming down, foregoing for the
time being His right, His immediate right, to the glory,
and enduring the Cross. You remember how, in that same
letter to the Hebrews, it is put into the mouth of the
Lord Himself: "I and the children whom God hath
given Me" (Heb. 2:13). "He is not ashamed to
call them brethren" (2:11).
So this glorious Psalm,
with its wonderful background in the life of the Lord
Jesus and by the Cross of the Lord Jesus, gathers us in. We
are in this collective 'I'. We come into the good of
this. "I shall not die, but live." "The
Lord answered me and set me in a large place." It is
true, is it not? It is true. We have that life triumphant
over death. He has given that life to us; it is ours. It
is not only ours in that general way - "the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom.
6:23) - but it is a testimony for all our life, something
for now. It is a life which has come out of His death,
and has overcome death in Him. It is for us. Do
not let us lose the force of that by familiarity. It is
to be a testimony every day. What we have in
Christ is to be experienced and manifested every day, and
it can be.
But then - and upon this
we shall dwell very much more fully - what enlargement we
have in Christ from our limitation! How infinitely great
is the place into which we have been brought, how
immeasurable are the resources, how vast are the ranges,
how potent are the forces into which we have come in
Christ through His death!
I close by reminding you
of this - that while it is all concluded in Him, that
where He is concerned there is nothing more to be done in
this matter: it is full and it is final, and He has
entered into His rest, has sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty in the heavens; nothing through which we go
can add to that, nothing which we experience can take
from it; nevertheless, in a sense - not vicariously, not
atoningly, not in the sense of His great redemptive
work - but in a sense of fellowship with Him while He is
still rejected in this world, and of humiliation in
fellowship with Him, the principle still remains: that
is, that life and enlargement come through adversity and
faith's triumph therein. It is the law of life. Faith's
triumph in adversity issues in life and enlargement.
We shall see more fully
how true that is. The Bible is just full of it. Given a
real test of faith, much adversity and opposition,
everything hemming in, circling round - 'all nations
compassed me about, they compassed me about, they
compassed me about' - you see, it is reiterated, it is
very real - nevertheless, nevertheless, that only
constitutes the challenge to faith. Faith looks upon that
as its opportunity, and when faith comes out in its
declaration over against all that, and says, "I
shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the
Lord", that is the highway to a new experience of
life and a new range of fullness - to enlargement by way of
faith's challenge and faith's victory.