TEHILLIM 72

We come together again as thirsty travellers on a journey, to find refreshment at the inexhaustible well of living water provided for the pilgrims of God. And we come together not in vain. The water is cold and of a crystal clearness, cooling the parched mouth and restoring vigour to the failing limbs; and partaking thereof, the pilgrims renew their journey with revived strength, hope and courage.

We need these periodical refreshments. The journey is long and toilsome; the way is hard and our strength is small. Waiting for the promises of God in a day like ours, when there is no open vision, and when the divine economy is in the dust and the power of the Gentile triumphs over all, is a trying situation for flesh and blood.

We walk by faith and not by sight. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, and faith cometh by hearing the Word of God. Whatever strengthens faith helps the victory.

We have nothing in our day to strengthen faith except the written Word and the communion with God in prayer which that Word engenders We are here to day to attend on both in that appointed assembly of the saints in which both have their highest power developed.

...At the very beginning, we see the accepted burnt offering of Abel to be followed by the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. We see the first covenant made with Israel; and we read

"The days come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel."

As Paul says,

"He taketh away the first that He may establish the second."

There is the first deliverance of Israel from Egypt but a pre-figuring of their restoration from "all the lands" whither they have been driven. There is the establishment of the nation under Moses, and the coming establishment under Christ.

Now, we are instructed by the Spirit in the apostles that the first and imperfect in all these arrangements was a shadow, type, or pre-figurement of the second and perfect. Hence it is that even the literal history of the house of Israel is a type or foreshadowing of that which is to come. Who would have supposed, had not Paul told us, that the dismissal of Hagar and her son from the household of Abraham was "an allegory?"—(Gal. 4:24.)

Many other types besides that are to be found in Israel's history, and among others, the reign of Solomon, pointing to the greater than Solomon, who though having appeared, is yet to come. Hence it is that the 72nd Psalm, though probably suggested to David by the elevation and prospects of Solomon, outlines to us a reign as far excelling Solomon's as the sun exceeds the light of an oil lamp.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1875

2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.

Many things make it impossible for a mortal ruler to dispense a full and merciful justice to all. Being fallible, he is liable to be deceived by the cunning misrepresentations of the sinister. Therefore he is obliged to adopt a system which, while it keeps off the impostor, keeps the true also at a distance.

His physical energy is not equal to the demands of a full administration of justice in the multitude of cases that arise. Therefore, he has to depute the work to representatives, who, mortal like himself, have to administer the law by roundabout rules, which unprincipled cleverness can manipulate to the advantage of the evil and the hurt of the innocent.

The result is, "justice" is a clumsy and blundering machine worked without sympathy or discrimination, mangling the innocent both in what it does and what it prevents being done, and leaving wickedness to flourish in society like a green bay tree.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1875

4 He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

Think of the countless millions scattered over earth's wide surface, in poverty, in ignorance, in hopelessness and miseries of all kinds. What prospect of betterment is there? Man has had 6,000 years of self-management, and this is what has come of it.

Is there any hope of anything different? Politicians are busy with their nostrums; but man is as far off from what he ought to be as ever. He requires a government no politicians can give him. He wants a powerful head who knows what is good for him, and has power to bring it about and ability to preserve it from the "time and change" which are "busy ever", a kind and powerful captain who can manage rightly, and enforce his management against all comers-securing plenty and peace and righteousness and light and comfort and gladness for all.

Where is such a shepherd-captain to be found? Is it not in the nature of things impossible unless God provide him? Yet without him, is not man doomed to welter on in the darkness now covering the earth? But God has provided such a head and captain-

"a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel."

"God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by him."

He has already shown his reality to mankind in the words and works of 1,800 years ago which has already planted a blessing on the earth, notwithstanding the confusion and evil that prevail. Shortly, he will manifest his power in the greater marvels needed to abolish the present evil world and establish a new heavens and new earth wherein light and righteousness and joy will dwell.

Seasons 2.23

The Old Man of the Flesh is the Devil.‭ ‬He is a Devil theological,‭ ‬professional,‭ ‬political,‭ ‬and commercial.‭ ‬He is a reckless,‭ ‬indomitable,‭ ‬and swindling knave.‭ ‬While he professes to be very pious,‭ ‬very gentlemanly,‭ ‬and very sagacious withal,‭ ‬he is really an unteachable and vulgar fool.‭ ‬Experience cannot make him wise.

...it is this very prosperity that sets the Old Man crazy.‭ ‬The world is in his heart‭; ‬for he is the world‭; ‬and when prosperity comes the intoxicated old swindler thinks that adversity is no more.‭ ‬So he goes on,‭ ‬not from bad to better,‭ ‬but from bad to worse,‭ ‬until he arrives at the ditch into which he is doomed to fall.‭ ‬He is blind and led by the blind,‭ ‬and the fate of such is inevitable and decreed.

...the disasters that await the world are fearful. The present is only a fitful hurricane under which the trees of the forest have bowed their lofty heads, but have not been uprooted. The coming storm will be a tornado of thunder, lightning, wind, and hail of burning coals, that will carbonize the Old Man to the very bones. "There shall be," saith Yahweh Tzabaoth,

"a time of trouble such as there never was since there was a nation to that same time—Dan. 12:1.

This is a trouble second only to the Flood. By the flood the whole race was hurled into perdition except only the family of Noah. In the coming trouble, the race is not to be reduced to one family; for "many nations" after the subsidence of the storm are to

"be joined to Yahweh, and to be his people"—Zech. 2:2.

It will be a national tribulation, which will fall with pain upon the head of the wicked—upon the kings, princes, nobles, ecclesiastics, wealthy, and those who are concerned in their enterprizes and schemes.

Nations were inaugurated at Babel (Gen. 11:9), and with the overthrow of Babylon, or Babel, their power is to be annihilated beyond the possibility of permanent restoration. Fearful and great indeed will this tribulation be. Trade, manufactures, and commerce will be so affected as to fill the streets with starving multitudes, and to empty the rich of capital and power. Terror will be on every side, and none of the Old Man's adherents will find escape.

The disasters of this consummation of panic will overwhelm them. The banks will be closed and sealed; Wall Street, the Bourse, and the Royal Exchange will be scattered to the four winds; the Courts will be shut up; the Pulpits of all Christendom emptied of all incumbent hypocrites and cheats, hoodwinkers of the people; the Thrones will fall; and the armies that sustain them will melt the hills and mountains politic, with their blood. This will be the disaster of the vengeance in Yahweh's heart, in the year of his redeemed—Isai. 63:4; 34:7.

In the coming tribulation then, all ranks, orders, classes and degrees of men will be involved in one common ruin. It will be far worse for them than the breaking up of the Western Roman Empire by the northern barbarians over twelve hundred years ago. The Old Man of the Flesh recovered from the horrors of that terrible period, and has become rich and powerful again. But from the coming overthrow he will never recover.

He will continue in life, but only to lead a life of poverty and contempt. The power and riches he now possesses; the position and respectability he is now so proud of; and the paraphernalia of wisdom and sagacity he so ostentatiously exhibits, will all be stripped from his leprous carcass, and his nakedness made apparent to all.

To perform this work of love and charity (for it is love and charity to them that suffer to unmask hypocrisy, to make truth apparent, and to bind the oppressor in the bondage of poverty and weakness)—to perform this, is the mission of the Son of Mary. Alluding thereto, she said in the rejoicing of her spirit,

"He shows strength with his own arm; he scatters the proud in the imaginations of their hearts; he puts down the mighty from their thrones, and exalts them of low degree; he fills the hungry with good things; and the rich he sends empty away; he helps his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his Seed for the Aion"—Luke 1:51.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, April 1858

...this king will be hampered by none of these difficulties. "He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears."—(Isaiah 11:4.)

The Spirit of Yahweh resting upon him, he discerns the secrets of the heart, and goes straight to the root of a matter, dispensing with the prolix [excessively long and tedious documentation] and expensive processes at law to which men are obliged to resort. Then he

"stands and feeds in the strength of Yahweh his Elohim."—(Micah 5:4.)

Human weakness and weariness are alike unknown to him. Like the Creator of the ends of the earth, who tabernacles in him in the fulness of Spirit-power,

"he faints not, neither is weary, and there is no searching of his understanding."

Consequently, the dispensation of justice will be as unhindered by fatigue as unmarred by error.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1875

...this king will be hampered by none of these difficulties. "He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears."—(Isaiah 11:4.)

The Spirit of Yahweh resting upon him, he discerns the secrets of the heart, and goes straight to the root of a matter, dispensing with the prolix [excessively long and tedious documentation] and expensive processes at law to which men are obliged to resort. Then he

"stands and feeds in the strength of Yahweh his Elohim."—(Micah 5:4.)

Human weakness and weariness are alike unknown to him. Like the Creator of the ends of the earth, who tabernacles in him in the fulness of Spirit-power,

"he faints not, neither is weary, and there is no searching of his understanding."

Consequently, the dispensation of justice will be as unhindered by fatigue as unmarred by error.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1875

'If the British-Sheba cabinet have acquired accurate knowledge of its divine elohistic character (what he means by that is, the new king enthroned in Israel is sent from God) there is sufficient millenarianism in high places to counsel and to cause it to seek as a suppliant the favour of the greater than Solomon. So as the protector of the tent in the midst of the Land, including the ancient territory of Tyre, it might be accepted after the examples of Hiram of Tyre and the queen of Sheba, as the humble servant and ally of the great King'.

When the Kingdom existed under Solomon,‭ ‬it was a type of what it will be under the Lord Jesus Christ.‭ ‬There was universal peace‭; ‬every man sat under his own vine and fig tree,‭ ‬none daring to make them afraid.‭ ‬All the kings of the surrounding nations paid tribute to him as lord paramount,‭ ‬and brought their offerings to Jerusalem.

‭ ‬The fame of so great,‭ ‬wise,‭ ‬and rich a monarch,‭ ‬brought the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem to witness his glory‭; ‬and it is not improbable,‭ ‬when the greater than Solomon reigns in Jerusalem,‭ ‬the Queen of England may,‭ ‬like her royal sister,‭ ‬go on her pilgrimage likewise.‭ ‬For the Psalmist says,

‭ "‬The Kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents:‭ ‬the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.‭ ‬Yea,‭ ‬all kings shall fall down before him:‭ ‬all nations shall serve him.‭"

‭Herald of the kingdom and age to come, Dec 1854

6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

A single king, however endowed, could not deal with the teeming millions of the earth. A single king is wanted as the common head—the director and controller of universal power, but for the administration of his authority in detail, many co-operators are required. But if this co-operation were entrusted to the hands of sinners, the beneficence of Christ's government would be as effectually frustrated as the good designs of good rulers always have been in the hands of evil instruments.

The government of an immortal and infallible king must needs be in the hands of immortal and infallible associates. Herein lies the perfection of the kingdom of God. Christ will be represented in every part of the globe by a fellow-heir as free from error and weakness as himself and as compassionate of the people as the Great Head, from whose judgment there will be no appeal.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1875

8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

It is the preparation of this body of fellow kings and priests that explains the present "delay," as we inaccurately call it, in the consummation of the divine purpose. But for this, the kingdom of God might have been set up 1,800 years ago.

"My wedding must be furnished with guests"

Is the parabolic announcement by which the Lord taught the necessity for sending an invitation to the Gentiles after the Jews had rejected it. But not only had the invitation to go forth; the people responding to the invitation had to be trained and fitted for the position to which they were called. This is Christ's present work; he is "priest over his own house"—bringing his house to God. It was this that made his departure necessary as he told his disciples:

"I go to prepare a place for you."

His present absence and his present work are necessary to the glorious consummation of "his appearing and his kingdom." He is not idle or passive though unseen. He is at work in the preparation of his people.

His message to the seven ecclesias in Asia represent him as watchful and vigilant in the superintendence of the affairs of his house. His priesthood involves this; for mediation between God and men requires that he should know the affairs of men. Paul tells us that having suffered, being tempted, he (Jesus) is able to succour them that are tempted. This indicates the active superintendence referred to. He is still the shepherd of his sheep.

From behind the veil, he tends them invisibly, but not the less really. "As many as I love," he says, "I rebuke and chasten"—(Rev. 3:19). This is also what Paul says:

"When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world."—(1 Cor. 11:33.)

It follows that, even now, we are under His guidance if we sincerely aim at the doing of His will, and that in the affairs of our common experience, His hand intervenes for that direction of our steps which will be to our profit.

What if those affairs are chequered and trying? What if trouble harass and evil afflict? Shall we say He regards us not? This would be a very illogical as well as a very unhappy conclusion. He himself has come through a time of trouble; he was, in the days of his flesh, a man of afflicted experience. Shall we say that God did not guide him because he suffered? Yea, rather, his suffering was an evidence of his being guided.

"Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered."

It is God's method of perfecting character and laying the foundation of lasting joy. We may be quite sure there is no mistake in it. We may be quite sure that God's way is the best. We may be quite sure that goodness will be all the sweeter and salvation all the more precious, and glory to God all the more fervent for the prelude of suffering and weariness and waiting that goes before.

We know from experience that no one is ripe till he has known trouble. He may be good but he is unsympathetic. He may be interesting but he is not entirely disinterested. There is always a degree of refined selfishness (and sometimes not very refined) about those who have known only pleasure.

Trouble, if there be the right stuff to work on, removes the dross of the character, subdues and purifies and refines and ennobles, and makes fit for the kingdom of God. Therefore it is that the community of the glorified saints, as a whole, are described in the Apocalypse as

"those who have come out of great tribulation." The tribulation "tries and purifies and makes white, even to the time of the end."—(Dan. 11:35.)

The Christadelphian, Oct 1875

11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

Men shall be blessed in him

Israel, doubtless, experienced benefit from the earlier part of Solomon's reign, but not in the form or to the extent that will be realised when "all the families of the earth" will be blessed in Abraham and his seed, the Christ. It was not the result of Solomon's reign to bring about the state of things described in the following words:

"They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations."

"In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace as long as the moon endureth."

In no sense could the following have been prophetically affirmed of Solomon:

"His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed."

To Christ, doubtless, in the fullest sense the psalm applies: to him for whom we wait this morning, who, having been in the earth once is withdrawn for a time against the appointed season of his re-appearance (now at hand) to develop the glorious scene depicted in this sunlit psalm. With this confidence let us look at it and be comforted. What do we see? A king who, in the possession of universal dominion and universal power,

"saves the children of the needy and breaks in pieces the oppressor;"

a king, who though surrounded with all the circumstances of regal splendour, and receiving the homage of "all kings falling down before and all nations serving him," looks after the poor and attends to the cry of the needy.

"He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also and him that hath no helper."

Such a king as this the world has never seen before. The poor have no chance under any form of government. If they can obtain the good offices of some influential personage—if they can enlist the mediation of an M.P., or some official person near head quarters, possibly they may receive attention, but the poor that "hath no helper" is in a helpless case indeed.

This is the inevitable result of the fact that man reigns.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1875

12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

Many things make it impossible for a mortal ruler to dispense a full and merciful justice to all. Being fallible, he is liable to be deceived by the cunning misrepresentations of the sinister. Therefore he is obliged to adopt a system which, while it keeps off the impostor, keeps the true also at a distance.

His physical energy is not equal to the demands of a full administration of justice in the multitude of cases that arise. Therefore, he has to depute the work to representatives, who, mortal, like himself, have to administer the law by roundabout rules, which unprincipled cleverness can manipulate to the advantage of the evil and the hurt of the innocent.

The result is, "justice" is a clumsy and blundering machine worked without sympathy or discrimination, mangling the innocent both in what it does and what it prevents being done, and leaving wickedness to flourish in society like a green bay tree.

But this king will be hampered by none of these difficulties.

"He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears"

(Isaiah xi. 4).

The Spirit of Yahweh resting upon him, he discerns the secrets of the heart, and goes straight to the root of the matter, dispensing with the prolix and expensive processes at law to which men are obliged to resort. Then he "stands and feeds in the strength of the Lord his God" (Micah v. 4).

Human weakness and weariness are alike unknown to him. Like the Creator of the ends of the earth, who tabernacles in him in the fulness of Spirit-power,

"he faints not, neither is weary, and there is no searching of his understanding."

Consequently, the dispensation of justice will be as unhindered by fatigue as unmarred by error.

Bro Roberts - Refreshment

17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

According to this testimony it is proved that the nations, or families, of the earth will become the people of God, as well as Israel, who will have the pre-eminence among them as the inheritance of the Lord; and so Israel and the nations will constitute a kingdom and empire, which will then compose "the world," and be blessed in Him and Abraham; whose subjects will reciprocate the benefits bestowed upon them, and serve their God-like rulers with heart felt loyalty, and blessings upon His name for ever.

Elpis Israel 2.2.

An enlarged sphere of action, an immensely developed commerce, wealth, luxury, intellect, &c., may necessitate a large development of the original Mosaic law. The sapling then planted is destined to grow into a tree—varied perhaps but not different — under which all nations of the earth will find shelter, when the kings and priests will not need "two or three witnesses" to establish a case, but will know what is in man and will judge righteous judgment—when there will be no error, and no miscarriage of justice, a government so perfect that it could never be removed to make room for a better, but will last until man's mortal career will have run its course, lived its allotted age, and died its death.

The law vindicated by Christ's perfect obedience, and that obedience imputed to all in him—the law having thus given life, shall wax old and vanish away, and suffer its death agony in the final production of the race through whom

"the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea."

The Christadelphian, Aug 1888

The glory of the Deity is intellectual, moral, and physical, all of which is covered by his name, which expresses what he really is. Thus, "His name is Jealous;" that is, "He is jealous;" "His name is holy;" that is, "He is holy;" and "His name is YAHWEH Tzavaoth;" that is, He who spoke to Jeremiah is He who shall be of armies, which is the meaning of the Name.

Thus, "the Name of the Deity" in scripture signifies every thing that He is as revealed therein.

When Moses said,

"I beseech thee, show me thy glory" -- it was replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim YAHWEH before thee by Name."

When we read the proclamation, we therefore read the name or character, of the Deity (Exod. xxxiv. 6). He knows all things, and there is nothing too hard for him to do. This is what he is abstractly and essentially. As he is, so he has always been from everlasting, and will be without end.

Eureka 3.2.8.

But where is God, and where are the angels who took part in the production of nature, as it now so charmingly appears? And where is Christ to whom all things have been given? Have they left for ever this beautiful earth? It would seem so; but no!

Fetch the telescope of divine inspiration. Point it in the direction of heaven. God can be seen; Christ can be seen; and also the angels. They are looking with interest and affection towards the earth. They are standing away for the moment, beyond actual hearing and human gaze, on account of the world's unrighteousness. A day is appointed for its reformation. Things will be different then.

A. T. Jannaway.

The Christadelphian, Nov 1899