IV. Christ In The Poetical Books

1. Job

In whatever aspect we look at it, the Book of Job is perhaps the most wonderful poem that has ever been written. Tennyson called it “the greatest poem whether of ancient or modern literature.” Luther regarded it as “more magnificent and sublime than any other book of Scripture.”

The scene is laid in patriarchal times, and it is said to be the oldest book in existence. That Job was a real person is settled by Scripture itself. Through the prophet Ezekiel God says of the land: “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls” (Ezek 14:14, 20).

The book is wonderful in the beauty of its language, in the wide sweep of knowledge it displays, in its scientific accuracy. It is wonderful in that it deals with the mystery of pain, and with the riddle of all times, “Why do the righteous suffer?” It lifts the veil of the spirit world, and teaches us both the extent and the limit of the power of Satan. It is wonderful in clearly revealing the fact of the resurrection, and, above all, in foreshadowing the mystery of redemption.

The language of the book is sublime in its simplicity. The pathos of Job’s description of his sufferings has found an echo in countless souls who have been brought into God’s crucible. As Elihu describes the gathering storm we can see the clouds rolling up, the flashing of the lightning, and hear the roar of the thunder. Out of the midst of the storm God speaks.

God’s Book. Though the object of the Bible is not to teach science, its language is always abreast of the latest discoveries. This is nowhere more noticeable than in the Book of Job.

“He hangeth the earth upon nothing” (chap. 26:7). What could more accurately describe the poise of our world in space!

“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades?” (38:31). Alcyone, the brightest of these seven stars, is actually, so far as is known, the pivot around which our whole solar system revolves. How mighty and at once how sweet must be its influence to hold these worlds in place at such a distance and to swing them round so smoothly!

“The morning-stars sang together” (38:7). Only modern science has discovered that the rays of light are vocal, and that if our ears were more finely tuned we should hear them (see Ps. 19:1-3).

“By what way is the light parted?” (38:24). Could language more exact be employed even after the discoveries of the spectrum analysis?

Had Bildad been taught the chemical absorption of chlorophyll by plants from light, he could have used no exacter term than this, “He is green (or is full of juice) before the sun” (8:16).³⁰

The Mystery of Suffering. The Book of Job deals with the mystery of human suffering, especially the suffering of the righteous. Job’s friends erred in thinking that all suffering is God’s special judgment upon some special sin. “Who ever perished, being innocent?” (4:7) was the burden of all their consolation. They reckoned that Job’s sin against God must be exceptionally great to account for such exceptional suffering. In this connection it is important to remember Job’s attitude towards God. He was one who, having access to Him through the blood of sacrifice (1:5), was walking with Him in integrity of heart and conformity of life.

God’s own testimony of him was, “There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil” (1:8). “Of all men he was the one most fitted to be entrusted with the service of suffering, being chosen as a pattern of the ways of God in the ages to come, for all His children in the service of trial.”³¹ Job knew that his heart was true to God, and he could not accept the accusations of his friends. He shows them that their conclusion is false, and that the wicked often prosper in the world. “They gather the vintage of the wicked” (24:6). One of the elements of danger in a course of sin is that it is so often successful. The young man who wins his first stake in gambling is in far greater peril than the one who loses.

Chastisement. Elihu, who had been listening to the argument of Job and his friends, sums up their discussion in two terse sentences: “Against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (32:2, 3). Elihu was a true messenger from God to Job, and brought out His gracious purpose in the chastisement of His children. Elihu’s words prepare the way for God’s own revelation of Himself which followed. Chastisement is the Key-note of this book.

Spectators of the Conflict. But God has a deeper purpose in the suffering of His children than even their personal perfection. We have the clue in the words of Paul: “To the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10). An unseen cloud of witnesses is eagerly watching the conflict carried on in the arena of this little world. God is unfolding to the angels of light and to the hosts of darkness “the eternal purposes” of His grace in His dealings with His redeemed children on the earth. The adversary had challenged the integrity of Job in the council of heaven, and God’s honour is in question. How little did Job realise the issues which hung upon his steadfastness when he said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord”; and again, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” How little the Church today realises the issues which hang upon her faithfulness, or God would find among those who trust Him a larger number of saints whom He could trust.

The Adversary. Both the extent and the limit of Satan’s power are brought out in this book. He had power to bring up the hordes of hostile Sabeans and Chaldeans to carry off the oxen and the asses and the camels. He had power to manipulate the lightning to consume the sheep, to summon the wind to slay Job’s children, and to smite Job himself with a terrible disease; for is he not the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience? And did he not bring against Paul a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him? But, on the other hand, he had no power at all, except in so far as God permitted him to break through the protecting hedge with which He had surrounded His servant (1:10). What comfort there is here for the child of God: no calamity can touch him except as his Father permits it; and He who has “shut up the sea with doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed” (38:8-11), will never suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, or allow the furnace to be hotter than we can bear.

We have in the Book of Job not merely the theory of suffering, but a living example of one of God’s children placed in the crucible, and the effect of it upon his life. Because God trusted Job He assigned to him the ministry of suffering. Because He loved him He chastened him. Even in the midst of his anguish Job recognised that it is only the gold that is worth putting in the fire. Job, in his prosperity and uprightness and benevolence, was in danger of becoming self-confident, and not recognising that he had only held his power and position in trust for God. But as God dealt with him we see him broken (16:12, 14, 17:11) and melted (23:10) and softened, so that he could say, “The hand of God hath touched me” (19:21); “God maketh my heart soft” (23:16).

“Now mine Eye seeth Thee.” But it was the vision of God Himself that completed the work and brought Job into the very dust. He had protested that he was prepared to reason with God over His strange dealings with him. But when God took him at his word and said, “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him?” Job replied, “Behold, I am vile (or contemptibly mean); I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” God continued to deal with him until Job was brought to the very end of himself, and cried out, “I have uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:1-6).

God’s “Afterward.” God’s chastened, softened servant is now ready to intercede at God’s command for the friends who had so aggravated his woe. Before his own misery is relieved he offers the appointed sacrifice which they have brought, and prays for them. As he does so God turns the captivity of Job, and his prosperity returns to him, doubled in every particular. Twice as many sheep and camels and oxen and asses fell to Job’s portion as before—but only the same number of children, seven sons and three daughters. We have here the most beautiful intimation of the certainty of resurrection. Job’s prayers had evidently been answered, and his sacrifices accepted, on his children’s behalf, and the fact that he was only given the same number as before was God’s assurance that those who had been taken were safe in His keeping, “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest” (3:17).

“My Redeemer liveth.” Job’s vision of the future life had been obscure at first, for we find him asking the question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (14:14). But with his affliction his faith grows, and he answers his own question in the glorious words: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the dust: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself and on my side. Mine eyes shall behold Him and not a stranger” (literal translation). However dimly Job himself may have understood the Spirit-given words, what a vision of the future life we have here, what a prophecy of the coming Saviour, sounding forth in the earliest ages! Job sees Him as the Goel, the Kinsman Redeemer—not a stranger; the One who, because He is the next of kin, has the right to redeem.

Again and again in this book we have the foreshadowing of the Saviour. We see Him in the accepted sacrifices which Job offered for his children as the book opens, and for his friends as it closes.

We see Him in Job’s question, “How shall man be just before God?” A question answered only in Him who has justified us “by His blood” (Rom. v. 9).

One Mediator. We see Him in the “Daysman,” the “Umpire,” Job longs for between him and God. “For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any Daysman betwixt us, that might lay His hand upon us both” (9:32, 33). The need of the human heart has only been met in “God our Saviour,” the “one Mediator between God and men—Himself, Man—Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:4-6, R.V.).

A Ransom. Yet once more we see Christ again in the words of Elihu, “Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom” (margin, “atonement”). The ransom prophesied by Elihu and the ransom proclaimed by Paul are one. “Job had seen his Redeemer as the living One who would vindicate him in the day of His coming, but let him now see Him as the ransom, the One who would be gracious to him, and deliver him from going down into the pit—not on the ground of Job’s integrity, but on the ground of His own shed blood as the price paid for the redemption of fallen man.”³²

The next verse gives the result of this ransom. “His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall pray unto God, and He shall be favourable unto him; and he shall see His face with joy.” Cleansing and communion resting on the ground of full atonement.

Yet once again we see the Cross dimly foreshadowed in Job’s sufferings. His sufferings were through the enmity of Satan. “The suffering upright man pointed the way to the suffering sinless man—the Man of Sorrows.” Job was wounded by his friends. He was “the song and by-word” of base men. “They spare not to spit in my face… My soul is poured out upon me … my bones are pierced in me. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not answer me” (chap. 30).

How closely all this answers to the description of the suffering Saviour. But while Job complained and justified himself, the sinless Lamb of God was dumb before His shearers, and poured out His soul a sacrifice for our sins.

2. Psalms

The Book of Psalms—or Praises, as it is called in the Hebrew—has undoubtedly found more response in the human heart in all ages than any other book in the Bible. It is the book of the inner life, of private devotion. It expresses the doubts and fears, the joys and sorrows, the sufferings and aspirations of the soul at all times.

Notwithstanding its tone of sadness, it is a book of praise. With only one exception (Ps. 73) all the Psalms which begin in despondency end in trust as the eyes of the Psalmist are lifted above his circumstances to his God. Its Key-note is Worship, and it has been used in the worship of God, by Hebrews and Christians alike, down to our own day. It is the book of worship, not only in the Temple, for whose service many of the Psalms were composed, but the worship of the Creator under the starry heavens, or in the caves of the mountain fastnesses where David was hiding from his enemies.

Psalms is the book of nature. Nowhere do we breathe the pure air of God’s creation more freely, or see the marvels of His handiwork more clearly, than in the Psalms. It is the book for all who are in distress, the prisoners, the sailors, the exiles, the persecuted, the sick and suffering, the poor and needy. It shows the relative duties of life, the duty of kings and rulers, of ministers, and citizens, and brethren. It is the book for the sinner, telling him of God’s forgiveness; the book for the saint, leading him into deeper communion. It is the book of God’s Law, showing it to be the most perfect work of His creation, and the blessing which rests upon keeping it with the whole heart.

“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8:3, 4). The wonder of modern astronomy is here! When our place among infinities was discovered it raised the infidel cry, Was it conceivable that God would concern Himself about the salvation of the inhabitants of such a mere speck in His creation? It was the very cry of the Psalmist, anticipating the inexpressible wonders which the science of his day had not yet revealed, but revealing the still greater wonder of God’s redeeming love.

In Ecclesiastes 1:7 we read: “All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” What an accurate description of the facts of the absorption and condensation of water from the sea into clouds and then into rain, by which the equilibrium of sea and land is maintained. We have a similar description in Ps. 104:8, 9, where we read of the waters going up by the mountains as well as down by the valleys. The facts are still further explained in Ps. 135:7: “He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: He maketh lightnings for the rain: He bringeth the wind out of His treasuries.” The watery vapour is rising from the ocean’s breast in such volume as no pumps ever imagined by man could produce. In the upper sky the cold air condenses the watery vapour and holds it in clouds. If left there the waters will fall again upon the sea, but the verse tells us how this is averted. God has made preparation. “He bringeth the wind out of His treasuries.” The clouds are borne in silent majesty to the mountains. How are these clouds to become rain? “He prepareth lightnings for the rain.” The shock precipitates the rain upon the waiting earth. Lord Kelvin has said, “I believe there never is rain without lightning.” And thus the Psalmist, inspired by God, described in simple but accurate language what science is today revealing.³³

The Writers. At the head of the list of the writers of the Psalms stands David, the poet-king, the sweet singer of Israel, the one who arranged the service of song in the sanctuary. Seventy-three of the Psalms are ascribed to him, fifty are anonymous, and it is thought that some of these are likewise his. Moses is declared to be the author of the ninetieth. We know he was a poet, and the majestic character of the Psalm is in keeping with his writings. The internal evidences corroborate the heading. It is emphatically a wilderness and pilgrim song. To Solomon two are ascribed (72 and 127). Some are believed to have been written during and on the return from the Captivity. It is generally believed that David arranged those Psalms which were existing in his time, and probably Ezra collected and arranged the book as we now have it.

The Psalms are divided into Five Books, as shown in the Revised Version.

Each book ends with a doxology, the last with five Hallelujah Psalms. Thus the structure of the Book of Psalms is very beautiful, and this not only as a whole, but each Psalm is arranged on a definite plan, so that the various parts of which it is composed either alternate with one another or are introverted, with sometimes a combination of both arrangements in the same Psalm.³⁴

Several of the Psalms are written in acrostic form, following the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (9 and 10, 25, 34, 36, 111, 112, 119, 145). This is specially the case with Psalm 119, each verse of which, in the entire twenty-two parts, begins with its own acrostic letter.

Fifteen of the Psalms (from 120 to 134) are Songs of Degrees, Pilgrim Psalms, probably sung by the caravan pilgrims as they went up to Jerusalem to keep the feasts.

“In the Psalms concerning Me.” We can never exhaust the treasures of the Book of Psalms. Spurgeon wrote seven large volumes, containing two and a third million of words, on this one book, and it has probably been more commented on than any other book in the Bible. Seeing that it is impossible to give any adequate idea of its teaching in so short a space as this, it will be well to confine our attention to one aspect, and that the special aspect of the whole of these Bible Studies, what we can learn about Christ in the book.

We see Him in the frequent mention of the Good Shepherd (Ps. 23, 77:20, 78:70-72, 80:1, 95:7, 100:3, 119:176); of the Rock of Ages (Ps. 27:5, 40:2, 28:1, 31:2, 3, 71:3, 42:9, 61:2, 62:2, 6, 7, 78:20, 89:26, 94:22, 95:1); of the Light (27:1, 118:27, 43:3). In the redeeming work of the Goel, or Kinsman Redeemer (19:14, 69:18, 72:14, 77:15, 78:35, 103:4, 106:10, 107:2, 119:154). In the forgiveness of sins through grace alone, which led Luther to call some of the Psalms “Pauline Psalms” because they teach Justification by Faith.

Several of the Psalms are “Penitential Psalms” (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 80, 143), bringing out the exceeding sinfulness of sin, as shown in the depth of contrition of the Psalmists. May we not in some of these see Christ Jesus as our Sin-bearer! He who did no sin was made sin for us; and just as the righteous Ezra and Nehemiah and Daniel confessed the sins of their people as if they were their own, so in a much deeper and fuller sense we may see our Saviour’s estimate of sin in these confessions on our behalf.

In the Book of Psalms we are given an insight into our Lord’s inner feelings, and His sufferings for us, as nowhere else. He often quoted from the Book of Psalms, and in each case applied the quotation to Himself. He may have intended us to understand from this that all the Psalms are Messianic, though our eyes may not always be open to see Him in them. However this may be, it is doubtless the fact that they are so full of Christ which makes them so meet our need. The Jews are unanimous in applying a Messianic interpretation to those Psalms which are generally accepted as such by Christians. It is a remarkable fact that of all the citations in the New Testament from the Old which have a Messianic reference, nearly one-half are made from the Psalms.

The King. In several of the Psalms we see Christ in His royal aspect as God’s anointed King (Ps. 2, 20, 21, 24, 45, 72, 110).

In Psalm 2 we have three of the special titles of our Lord. He is here called the Anointed, that is the Messiah (verse 2). He is the King of Zion (verse 6), and He is the Son of God (verses 6, 7). He is then shown to be the possessor and Lord of all the earth (verses 8, 9), and loyal submission to Him is shown to be the only way of safety and reconciliation with God (verse 12). Here, at the outset of the book, we see the Messiah, not in His suffering and humiliation, but in His ascended glory, and in His victory over all the earth. Verses 1 and 2 had a first fulfilment at the time of our Lord’s crucifixion, when “the heathen,” “the kings of the earth,” that is Pontius Pilate and Herod, on the one hand, and “the people,” “the rulers,” that is the Jews and the rulers of the Sanhedrin, on the other, banded themselves together against Christ. But it waits a final fulfilment in the hostility of the last days, a hostility to be overthrown for ever, that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ.

Verse 6: “But I,” the King of heaven, “have set My own King, My Son, and My Viceregent, on the throne,” “on My holy hill of Zion.” This was a kind of anticipative hint of the great truth taught in Psalm ex., that the anointed King should be the anointed Priest (Perowne).

Verse 7: “Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.” Paul teaches us to see the fulfilment of these words in Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It was by that that with power He was declared—marked out as in a distinct and peculiar sense—to be the Son of God (Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33).

Verse 8: “Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” What a stimulus to all missionary effort to remember that the heathen are God’s gift to the Son, as part of His inheritance. Seeing the uttermost parts of the earth are His possession, with what alacrity should we fulfil His last command to carry the Gospel there.

Verse 12: “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.” Do homage to the Son, lest Jehovah be angry. Christ said: “The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him” (John 5:22, 23).

Psalm 45 tells of the marriage of the King. It is the key to the Song of Songs, and a foreshadowing of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. “Christ calls Himself the Bridegroom, and thus defends the joy of His disciples who did not fast. This word ‘bridegroom’ is an epitome of the whole Scripture.”³⁵ This Psalm has a historical application, connected with the marriage probably of Solomon, but it is the sight of a greater King and a more glorious bride which makes the heart of the Psalmist to “bubble over” as he describes His eternal Kingdom. However little he understood the vision he seems to have seen that Face of glory, for he exclaims, “Thou art fairer than the children of men.” He seems to have heard His voice, for he says, “Grace is poured into Thy lips.”

The bride, “the king’s daughter, is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework.” “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” The “King’s palace” is to be her home for ever. “In My Father’s house are many mansions.”

Psalm 72 is one of the two Psalms ascribed to Solomon. It celebrates the coronation of the King. “The monarch grows fairer and larger than the Sons of Men; he is transfigured in the light of the promise made to David.” “Like a man standing on high ground in a sunset, a glory not his own is on him. He casts a shadow much larger than himself!” In One, alone, is this glorious ideal realised. Christ stands out the true Prince of Peace, who is to reign from sea to sea, and whose dominion is to have no end; in whom all nations of the earth shall be blessed. “ The handful of corn on the top of the mountains,” that little group of unlearned and persecuted disciples sown in the unlikely soil of a corrupt Judaism, have already become like a forest of Lebanon, and the harvest shall one day fill the earth.

A double line of prophecy runs through the Psalms. One line speaks of the coming of the Messiah as an earthly King, the other of the coming of Jehovah, Israel’s true King, her redemption and her glory. The earthly hope and the heavenly run on in parallel lines, but they never meet. In the light of the New Testament only do we see how David’s Son is David’s Lord (Perowne). Delitzsch, commenting on this fact, says: “In the night of the Old Testament there rise in two opposite directions two Stars of Promise. The one describes its path from above downwards; it is the promise of Jehovah who is about to come. The other describes its path from below upwards; it is the hope which rests on the prophecy of the Son of David, which at first ran a course wholly human and only earthly. These two stars meet at last, they mingle so as to form but one; the Night vanishes, and it is Day. This one Star is Jesus Christ, Jehovah and David’s Son in one person, the King of Israel, and at the same time the Redeemer of the world—in a word, the God-Man, blessed be He.”

David’s Son and David’s Lord. In Psalm 110 we see Christ in the united offices of King and Priest after the order of Melchizedek. The Jewish Rabbis all accepted this Psalm as Messianic, and this fact is recognised in the way it is quoted—with neither proof nor explanation—to the learned Jews to whom the Epistle to the Hebrews was written. Our Lord not only applies it to Himself, as the Messiah, as recorded in three of the Gospels, but gives it to us as an argument for His deity. And the logic of this argument rests absolutely on the fact of its authorship. “How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord (Jehovah) said to my Lord (Adonai), Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth Him Lord; and whence is He then his Son?” (Mark 12:35-37).

Our Lord puts this very solemnly, He says that by the Holy Ghost David called Him Lord. And yet some would have us believe that Christ was mistaken in this statement, and that the Psalm was not written by David but some hundreds of years later. About the time that Christ quoted Psalm 110, shortly before the last Passover, He said of His own words: “I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.” The words of David and of David’s Son were alike inspired words, the words of God. Mark adds as his comment on this incident: “The common people heard Him gladly.” What a rebuke is this to those who tell us that ordinary folk cannot weigh the evidence for the truth of the Bible, but must surrender their judgment to experts! But Matthew throws further light upon the result of this conversation, and tells us that “no man was able to answer Him a word; neither durst any man, from that day forth, ask Him any more questions.”

Immediately before this the most learned of the Jewish Rabbis had been putting their heads together to know how they might entangle Him. Their enmity seems to have reached a climax. First came the Pharisees, with the Herodians, and when He answered them “they marvelled, and left Him and went their way.” Then came the Sadducees, and were “put to silence” by His answer—an answer which hinged on a question of the tense of one word, “I am”—not “I was”—“the God of Abraham.” When the Pharisees heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence they were stimulated to renew their attack. Having answered their question, our Lord propounded to them this problem about David’s Son, “and no man was able to answer Him a word.” If Christ had been mistaken about the authorship of this Psalm, how eagerly would He have been tripped up by these hostile scholars. And surely they in their turn were better able to pronounce judgment on a question of authorship than men of our day. They were astute scholars; their scholarship was directed to one study, the study of the Scriptures—the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms; they were masters of the Hebrew language; they lived nearly two thousand years nearer the time when those books were written; they were in an incomparably better position to weigh the evidence than the most learned men of the Western world.

Christ’s unanswerable argument convinced the doctors of the Law. It convinced the multitude also—“they were astonished at His doctrine.” But there was this difference between the convinced people and the convinced scholars: “the common people heard Him gladly” (Mark 12:37); “the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by craft, and put Him to death” (14:1). God has condescended to make His revelation to man so simple that the wise and the mighty stumble at it, “but the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.”

Psalm 110 represents Messiah, by Jehovah’s appointment, both as Zion’s King and Zion’s Priest. The kings of Judah were not priests. Uzziah was struck with leprosy for attempting so much as to burn incense. Of the tribe of Judah “Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood” (Heb. 7:14). The priests of Levi’s line were not kings. But this is a royal Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, ruling in Zion, the seat of Melchizedek’s kingdom and priesthood. Of this King-Priest it is declared in the second verse of this Psalm, “Jehovah will send Thy strong staff out of Zion.” The word here used is not the sceptre, the usual mark of kingly power. It is the matteh, or ancestral staff. The mark of the hereditary and lineally descended ruler. It is borne by the head of each village, the sheik of each Bedaween tribe. And because in patriarchal times each head of a house appears in the character of a priest to his own family, the matteh marks the priest as well as the prince. It is here therefore most fitly said to be given to him who is described as bearing both offices, and as being the promised Prince of David’s direct line. We read that this staff shall be “sent out of Zion.” This mention of the sanctuary carries us back to Aaron and the way in which his authority as high priest was manifested. His staff, laid up “before Jehovah,” was brought out from the Ark of the Tabernacle blossoming and bearing almonds, instinct with resurrection-life; indeed a strong staff of indisputable authority sent out of the sanctuary.

In like manner the Divine mission of our great High Priest was incontrovertibly established. He was with power declared to be the Son of God, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. When the Jews demanded of our Lord a sign to prove His authority, He said unto them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”; and He spake this of the temple of His body. Twice upon other occasions, when the Pharisees and Sadducees came and asked for a sign or miracle to establish His Messianic claims, He replied, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah,” that is, as our Lord explains, His own resurrection from the dead on the third day. This is still the one sign, the one “token against the rebels,” in Israel. The laying up of Aaron’s rod in the Holy of Holies, which we are told is a type of heaven, prefigures Christ’s ascension and His seat on the throne of God. The bringing out of the rod once more “from before Jehovah” to work further miracles, fitly foreshadows our Lord’s second coming, amidst fresh miraculous signs, with power and great glory.³⁶ “We see not yet all things put under Him; but we see Jesus, crowned with glory and honour.” “And the Father hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:27).

One Sacrifice. In Psalm 40 we again see Christ as Priest. “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God.” These words are quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews in the argument against the perpetuity of the Jewish sacrifices. These sacrifices were part of a Law which was a shadow of good things to come; their repetition proved their incompleteness. The writer contrasts Christ’s sacrifice, the virtue of which lay in its being the offering of an obedient will, and then he arrests the attention of his readers by claiming these words of the Psalmist as fulfilled by Christ.

Psalm 23. We have already dwelt on the twenty-third Psalm in connection with the life of David. It is the first Psalm we learned to love as children, the last to comfort us in our passage through the dark valley. It contains three secrets—the secret of a happy life, a happy death, and a happy eternity. The setting of the twenty-third Psalm should not be overlooked; it does not stand by itself, but in a group of three.

Psalm 22	Psalm 23	Psalm 24
The Good Shepherd	The Great Shepherd	The Chief Shepherd
in death,	in resurrection,	in glory,
John 10:11.	Heb. 13:20.	1 Peter 5:4.
My Saviour.	My Shepherd.	My King.
The Cross.	The Crook.	The Crown.
Past—Grace.	Present—Guidance.	Future—Glory.

Calvary. Psalm 22 brings us to “the place called Calvary.” In its light we stand at the foot of the Cross. Here and in Isaiah 53 the crucifixion is portrayed more clearly than in any other part of the Old Testament. Isaiah 53 dwells mainly on the atoning aspect of Christ’s death, Psalm 22 dwells more on His sufferings. It begins with the cry uttered by our Lord in the hour of darkness, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” It closes with the words “He hath done it,” or “It is finished,” as it stands in the original Hebrew, identical with almost the last cry of our Saviour. It is a “Psalm of sobs.” The Hebrew shows not one completed sentence in the opening verses, but a series of brief ejaculations, like the gasps of a dying man whose breath and strength are failing, and who can only utter a word or two at a time.

Taken together with Psalm 69, which also pictures the crucifixion, we find the whole story of the Cross given here, and the Evangelists have specially and repeatedly called our attention to it. “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” Here is the offence of the Cross. “All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip” (22:6, 7). “The rulers derided Him.” “The soldiers also mocked Him” (Luke 23:35, 36). “They shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him” (verse 8). “They that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads. Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said… He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him” (Matt. 27:39, 41, 43). “Strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round. They gaped upon Me with their mouths” (verses 12, 13). “Sitting down, they watched Him there. The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth” (Matt. 27:36, 44). “They pierced My hands and My feet.” “All My bones are out of joint” (verses 16 and 14). The Roman method of death by crucifixion—unknown to Jewish Law—is prophesied here. The nailing to the Cross, the straining of bone and sinew. The very action of the soldiers is given in the words, “They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture” (verse 18). “My tongue cleaveth to My jaws” (verse 15). “In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” (Ps. 69:21). “Jesus … that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. And they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth” (John 19:28, 29).

A Broken Heart. “I am poured out like water: My heart is like wax; it is melted” (22:14). “Reproach hath broken My heart” (Ps. 69:20). Here we are told the immediate cause of our Saviour’s death. He died of a broken heart. Six times over in Psalm 69 the word “reproach” occurs. Reproach and shame and dishonour borne for others. The bearing of our sins, the hiding of His Father’s face on account of it, was what broke His heart. Oh, here we have the reproach of Christ, the offence of the Cross in all its awful solemnity! No wonder that to hold this truth still brings reproach upon His followers.

“Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matt. 27:50, 51). When the soldiers came to break the legs of those that hung upon the cross, they found that Jesus was dead already, and brake not His legs. “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.” Death from a broken heart is very rare. It is caused by intense mental emotion. The loud cry, the fact of death occurring so soon, the effect of the spear-thrust, all point towards this being indeed the cause of our Lord’s death. It tallies with His own words: “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.” By wicked hands He was crucified and slain. By the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God He was delivered to death. By His own will He laid down His life. These three statements are all true in the mystery of that great sacrifice for sin.

Surely we have in Psalm 51 not merely the cry of the sinner, but a prophecy of this great sacrifice in the words: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (51:17). This is “the plural of majesty.” In Hebrew the plural is often put where the word great is to be understood. “The great sacrifice of God is a broken heart.” This was the sacrifice that our Saviour offered for us. He clothed Himself in a human body that He might have it to offer (Heb. 10:5, 9, 10). He became possessed of a human heart that it might be broken. The way into the holiest is opened up for us through the broken heart of our Saviour.

This is the Gospel for us sinners. It is this that humbles us and brings us to know the power of the Cross of Christ to break the power of sin and set us free to serve Him. Psalm 22:and Isaiah 53—these two passages which unveil the power of the Cross, alike foreshadow also in their closing verses the resurrection triumph. The song of victory bursts upon our ear, victory through the blood of the Lamb. The Cross is the gateway to resurrection life for us now in this life. The crucified Lord must have crucified followers. Only as in our own lives we know the power of the Cross to separate us from the world, shall we know its power to move the hearts of others. “The Word of the Cross” is the power of God today, when proclaimed not in wisdom of words but in the demonstration of the Spirit.

3. Proverbs

The Book of Esther closed the historical books of the Old Testament. Between these and the Prophets we have a series of writings which have been said to deal with the exercises of the hearts of God’s people as to sanctification. In Job we have the death of the self-life. In Psalms the resurrection-life and the idea of worship. In Proverbs “Laws from Heaven for life on Earth” (Dr. Arnot). In Ecclesiastes the powerlessness of the world to satisfy the soul. In the Song of Songs the satisfaction of the soul in the Beloved.

Solomon’s Wisdom. Apart from inspiration, Solomon was peculiarly qualified to write this book. God had given him “wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore” (1 Kings 4:29). Solomon was a philosopher, an architect, and a man of science, as well as a king. Persons who have sought to catch the “wise man” tripping in his science, have only displayed their ignorance. “The clouds drop down the dew” (ch. 3:20) our version says, and it has been rightly objected that dew only falls on a cloudless night. But the word in Hebrew means “night-mist.” It is a copious mist, shedding small invisible rain, that comes in rich abundance in Palestine, every night, about midnight, in the hot weather when the west or northwest winds blow, bringing the clouds from the sea.³⁷

But beyond this wide knowledge of nature, Solomon possessed keen intuition and discernment of character, and insight into motives and springs of action. This special power was remarkably illustrated in the expedient he devised to discover the true mother of the living babe. When all Israel heard of this judgment at the beginning of his reign “they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment” (1 Kings 3:28).

Laws for Daily Life. The object of the book is clearly stated at the outset (1:2-4). “To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; to give subtlety to the simple (literally the ‘open,’ the open-minded), to the young man knowledge and discretion.” “It is the application of that wisdom which created the heavens and the earth to the details of life in this world of confusion and evil.” It is eminently practical in its teaching, and we should do well to give it closer study for our guidance in daily life.

Coupled with “the fear of the Lord,” filial piety finds a prominent place in this book. The duty of parents to chastise their children is enforced, and is founded on God’s chastening of His children (3:11, 12). The influence of a good mother is dwelt upon, and culminates in the description of the “virtuous woman” in the last chapter. This chapter forms a beautiful contrast to woman’s influence for evil to which Solomon so grievously yielded in the latter part of his life, in spite of the solemn warnings he gives in this book.

The warnings against sin of various kinds in the Book of Proverbs come to us as God’s message independently of the messenger. The writer urges his own experience of the wisdom of his father’s instruction as a reason why his son should listen to his own advice, given with great tact and beauty of feeling. He warns the young especially against the influence of bad companions, against impurity and intemperance, against contentions, strifes, quarrels, anger; against the liability to sin with the tongue through its too free use; against lying, and deceitful dealings in trade, and against taking bribes. He earnestly denounces idleness and sloth, pride and an undue desire for riches, and he commends liberality to the poor.

The Fear of the Lord. Proverbs teaches “the fear of the Lord” as the beginning of knowledge. This is not the fear of fright, but the filial fear, the fear of grieving the Father’s love.

Wisdom. But the beauty of the Book of Proverbs lies hidden in the meaning of the word Wisdom. Clearly this word, as used here, means more than an attribute. We cannot doubt that the Wisdom of Proverbs is identical with the Incarnate Word of the New Testament. Wisdom is represented as dwelling with God from all eternity, “from everlasting, from the beginning,” as being “His Artificer” by which He founded the earth and established the heavens (3:19).

Wisdom	The Word
Prov. 8:23. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.	John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word.
Ver. 27. When He prepared the heavens, I was there.	And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
When He set a compass on the face of the deep. When Pie appointed the foundations of the earth.	Ver. 3. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Ver. 30. Then I was by Him, I was as His Artificer.	Heb. 1:2. His Son … by whom also He made the worlds.
Ver. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of the way, before His works of old.	Col. 1:17. He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
Ver. 30. I was daily His delight,	Luke 3:22. Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
rejoicing always before Him.	John 17:24. Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
Ver. 14. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding.	1 Cor. 1:30. Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Wisdom.
2:4. If thou searchest for her (Wisdom) as for hid treasure.	Col. 2:3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
8:5. O ye simple, understand wisdom.	Luke 10:21. Hid from the wise and prudent … revealed unto babes.
1:20, 23. “Wisdom crieth … Turn ye at my reproof.	Matt. 18:3. Except ye be converted, etc.
1:33. “Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall be quiet from fear of evil.	Matt. 11:28. Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.
8:1, 4. Doth not Wisdom cry? Unto you, O men, I call.	John 7:37. Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
9:5. Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine that I have mingled.	John 6:35. I am the bread of life: he that cometh unto Me shall never hunger.
8:17. I love them that love me;	Gal. 2:20. The Son of God who loved me.
and those that seek me early shall find me.	Matt. 7:7. Seek, and ye shall find.
Ver. 35. Whoso findeth me findeth life.	John 6:47. He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.
Ver. 32. Blessed are they that keep my ways.	John 15:10. If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love.
Ver. 6. Hear; for I will speak excellent things.	Luke 4:22. All wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.
Ver. 20. I lead in the way of righteousness.	Ps. 23:3. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.

“What is His Son’s Name?” “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in His fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is His Name, and what is His Son’s Name, if thou canst tell?” (30:4). This is a most marvellous verse. If we ask a Jew the first question, “What is His Name?” he would at once reply “Jehovah.” But if we go further and say, “What is His Son’s Name?” the Jew is silent, or replies: “It is blasphemy to say God has a Son.” But here is a verse which attributes ascension to heaven, and the creation and control of the world to God and to His Son. “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true” (1 John 5:20).

4. Ecclesiastes

This book is one long comment on the words of Christ, “Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again.”

The expression “under the sun” occurs no less than twenty-eight times, and nowhere else in the Bible. It may be taken as the Key-note of the book. “Under the heaven” is thrice mentioned, and “upon the earth” seven times. The word “vanity” occurs thirty-seven times. Nearly forty times in this book does the Spirit of God name the earth and the things belonging to the earth. It is only in the last few verses that we get “above the sun.”

If life be viewed apart from God it becomes an insoluble problem; all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Exclude God from the world, and skepticism and materialism must be the inevitable result. The chief design of the book is to test things in order to prove how inadequate they are to satisfy the deepest and truest longings of the human heart. Its problem is—Can the world, apart from God, meet man’s need? The verdict is, “All is vanity.”

What shall it profit? Who is it that propounds this problem? It is one who was in the very best position to judge. One who possessed everything the world could give, not only of material things, but of intellectual gifts also. Solomon— “the peaceful one”—was intended to be the great ideal king. In the First Book of Kings we see the extent of his possessions. A large, well-defined, fertile territory, peace within and around his kingdom; an enormous revenue to spend, wealth practically limitless; all the interests of new commerce and exploration. Insight and penetration above all men, sympathy with all men and things, the interest of starting classifications of science, and of forming books of maxims and songs. The respect and admiration of all his contemporaries. The power of expressing his thoughts in words (1 Kings 4, 8, and 10; Eccles. 2:1-11). Wealth, youth, and strength were all on his side at the commencement of his reign, and, unlike other Easterns, he was never idle. He spent a number of years in building the Temple, a worthy work for such a king. His actual possessions and his power of insight and penetration lift him into a position from which he can really view the whole of life, and the limit of what it can afford. Here is philosophical insight fully developed; the great problem stated but not solved; the diagnosis of the disease, but not the remedy. The book presents the world in its best aspect, yet says emphatically, “Satisfaction is not there.”

“Only in the last two verses do we find the solution. Here Solomon gets above the sun, and things begin at once to disentangle and straighten. Love God, obey Him, trust Him, and all will be well with you; for the judgment approaches in which all wrongs will be righted, and all mysteries cleared up, and you will be made glad with a joy unspeakable. This is the key to the book. Live under the sun, rise no higher, and doubt and unbelief will ensue. Live above the sun, spend the days with God, and light and peace you shall have.”³⁸

A New Centre. In chapter 2 we have a striking parallel to Romans 7. Both chapters are bristling with the personal pronoun “I,” and the result in both is failure and disaster. In Ecclesiastes 2 Solomon says, “I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth. … I said, I sought, I made, I builded, I planted, I got, I gathered, so I was great. Then I looked, and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit.” The pronoun “I” occurs thirty-six times, and over thirty times in Romans 7. That New Testament chapter is the expression of what the Apostle’s experience would be, any moment, apart from Christ. As he looks at himself all is failure, vanity, and vexation. But in Romans 8, as he looks at Christ, he loses sight of himself. The pronoun of the first person hardly occurs; he is taken up with the contemplation of God, of Christ, of the Spirit. The Divine Name occurs abundantly all through the chapter, and the result is “No condemnation,” “more than conquerors,” “no separation.”

When self is the centre of our life, and everything is looked at from that standpoint, all is failure. When we find in Christ a new centre and everything revolves round Him, then all falls into its right place, and we find rest and satisfaction to our souls. We begin then to ask about everything—not “How will this affect me?” but “How will this affect my Lord and Master?” Does it touch His honour? Does it bring glory to Him?

White Robes. There is a verse in Ecclesiastes which takes us into the very atmosphere of John’s first Epistle. “Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment” (9:8). Obviously this does not allude to outward things. But how can we keep ourselves unspotted in such an evil world? and how can we be continually “unto God a sweet savour of Christ”? “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” As we walk in the light as He is in the light, and abide under the power of His shed blood, we can be kept clean. “Ye have an unction from the Holy One … and the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you.” As we abide under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, He will abide with us for ever.

The Little City. Again, this book contains a little parable. It is not a type, it is not a prophecy, but a simple little story with a beautiful truth hidden in it for those who believe that all parts of the Scriptures converge towards One Centre (Eccles. 9:14, 15).

“There was a little city, and few men in it”—a picture of this earth which the Lord hath given to the children of men; a speck in His great universe, yet He is mindful of man.

“And there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.” “The Prince of this world cometh,” Christ said; and he, the god of this world, has blinded the minds of men, lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine unto them; so successfully has he laid siege to the city of Mansoul.

“Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city,” We know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor, and was found in fashion as a man, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. The preaching of that Cross is unto them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

“Yet no man remembered that same poor man.” “My people have forgotten Me days without number,” “forgotten that they were purged from their old sins.” “Of the ten cleansed there were not found that returned to give glory to God save this stranger.” Oh, redeemed children of men, “forget not all His benefits!”

“Both alike Good.” Chapter 11 contains words of encouragement to the worker for Christ. “Cast thy seed-corn on the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” When the Nile overflows in Egypt, the rice grain is literally cast upon the fields while they are under water, to spring up in due season. In the parable of the sower, Christ tells us plainly that “the seed is the word.” The ground, be it shallow, or trodden down, or preoccupied, or good—that is, soft and empty, and receptive—is the human heart. From this parable we see that the heart of man contains nothing of the good seed of the Kingdom to begin with—it has to be sown. The work of sowing the good seed of the Kingdom is always an act of faith. We cannot tell what sort of ground it will fall upon, but in this passage in Ecclesiastes God gives the faithful sower the benefit of the doubt as to its success. “Thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” Therefore, we are to be diligent in sowing, whether it be morning or evening, and whichever way the wind blows (11:6, 4). “Preach the word,” Paul says to the youthful Timothy; “be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine.”

“Those that seek Me early shall find Me.” The book closes with a call to the young: “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” The intention of the writer evidently is not to encourage the young to follow the dictates of their own heart without reference to God’s will. He warns them of the result of such a course: “Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”

This book is given as a danger-post, that we may be spared the bitterness of learning the vanity of the things of earth by finding their waters to fail; that we may choose the Lord’s delightsome service of our own free will.

Those who have studied the subject have found that by far the largest proportion of men and women who are living to serve the Lord have chosen that service in childhood; that the proportion of those who are converted to God late in life is very small. How important then that the children should be won for Christ, that this most fertile soil should be claimed for Him, that the children should be led to accept His invitation: “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me.”

5. The Song of Songs

In all ages Christians have regarded this song as an allegory. It was in the Old Testament canon when the Septuagint version was made, 250 years before the advent of the Saviour; it has kept its place there ever since. Its mystic character has had the strongest hold upon some of the most spiritually-minded men the world has ever seen, such as Samuel Rutherford and Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

Adelaide Ann Newton has left us a little volume upon this Song which brings us into the very presence of the Lord of Glory. In her Preface she says: “The general character of this book in contrast to Ecclesiastes is very striking. Ecclesiastes from beginning to end tells of the vanity of the creature—Canticles of the sufficiency of the Beloved… One verse in St. John’s Gospel gives the contrast perfectly. Ecclesiastes is the first half of the verse ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again’; Canticles is the latter half of the verse ‘Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.’ Thus the book is full of Jesus. But it is Jesus in a special character. He is not seen here as ‘Saviour,’ nor as ‘King,’ nor as ‘High Priest,’ nor as ‘Prophet.’ … No! it is a dearer and closer relation than any of these—it is Jesus as our ‘Bridegroom’; Jesus in marriage union with His Bride, His Church.

“This is a great mystery, but it is one of most peculiar preciousness to ‘all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.’ It pervades every part of the Holy Scripture. It was first revealed in Adam and Eve in Eden. It was more fully brought out in the typical characters of the Old Testament; as, for example, in Boaz and Ruth; it was distinctly taught in the betrothment of the Jewish nation; and it is plainly declared in the spiritual language of the Epistles—‘I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.’”³⁹

The Need of the Church Today. This characteristic makes the Song of Songs to contain a message which is peculiarly appropriate to the Church in our own day. In no age perhaps was Christ more the centre of interest both within and without the Church than He is today. His nature, His character, His work, His kingdom are freely discussed on all sides. But what a chill often creeps over our hearts as we listen, for we feel how little some of those who are thus discussing Him really know Him with that intimate personal knowledge which comes through communion with Him. When any one speaks who really knows and loves the Lord it awakens a response within us which no theoretical knowledge can do. The speaker may be an old country-woman in her cottage, or a policeman living amid the din of the London streets, but we feel at once “Here is one who has audience of the King.”

Personal love to Christ is the greatest need of the Church today. A knowledge of sin forgiven and of our share in His redeeming work is the chief thing to draw out our love to Him. This is an age in which there is very little conviction for sin, so it is no wonder that love grows cold. For “to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Simon the Pharisee asked our Lord to his house by way of patronising the Prophet, but he neglected to show Him any of the courtesies which civility demanded. The poor forgiven sinner drew near and lavished her love upon His feet. And the Master said: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.”

Redemption. In the Song of Songs the truth of Redemption is brought out in the beauty—not her own—with which the Bride is invested. She exclaims, “I am black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.” Black as the goats’ hair tents of the Bedaween; comely as the curtains of the Temple. “Perfect through My comeliness which I had put upon thee,” as the Lord said to Israel. Our righteousness is as filthy rags, but He hath clothed us with the robe of His righteousness.

“O my dove, thou art in the clefts of the rock,” the Beloved says to His Bride. Hidden in the cleft Rock of Ages, “crucified with Christ,” and therefore dead to the world. “Thou art fair,” is His reiterated assurance; “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” “For Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25, 27).

The Beloved. “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste” (chap. 2:3). There are four marks of the “apple” of our A.V.: (1) Pleasant and powerful perfume (7:8); (2) Dense and delightful shade (2:3); (3) Sweet and luscious fruit (2:3); (4) Golden colour in the fruit, surrounded by a molten-silver setting of white flowers (Prov. 25:11). All these, in the highest degree, meet in the glorious evergreen orange and in it alone. It is doubtless the “apple” of Scripture.⁴⁰ Truly it is a very “tree of life,” and, above all others, a fitting image of the Saviour.

“He is the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys.” The Rose of Sharon is a highly perfumed and very valuable white variety of the Damascene rose. The Lily of the Valleys is the wild crimson anemone. The one images our Lord’s spotless, sinless character, the other His blood shed for us. The Lamb slain corresponding with chapter 5:10: “My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.” The description of her Beloved in these words and the verses that follow is drawn from the Bride in response to the question of the daughters of Jerusalem, “What is thy Beloved more than another beloved?” “He is the chiefest among ten thousand… Yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend.”

We can trace through the Song how the Bride’s love deepens through communion. Twice in the account that communion seems interrupted for a season, and this leads her to seek His presence more earnestly. These seasons when communion seems withheld may be the result of backsliding, or it may be that the Lord is leading her on into deeper fellowship with Himself. In either case that result seems clearly to be accomplished.

“My Beloved, is mine, and I am His” (2:16). Here the chief thought is that of her possession in Christ. He is mine, for He has given Himself for me. The secondary thought is, “I am His”—bought with His own blood.

“I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine” (6:3). Here the thought of His ownership of her holds the chief place.

“I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me” (7:10). Here His ownership swallows up every other thought.

In these three verses we have the double thought which is given us in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Christ the inheritance of the Church; the Church the inheritance of Christ. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance” (verse 11); “The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (verse 18).

Results of Love to Christ. This leads us to the consideration of what should be the result in the Church today of a deepened personal love to Christ. We are not left in any doubt about it.

1. Keeping His Commandments. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Where there is a real love to Christ there will be an intense sensitiveness not to grieve Him; a great desire to become in fact what He sees us to he potentially—“undefiled,” “all fair,” “without spot.”

2. Feeding His Sheep. Three times He said to Peter, “Lovest thou Me? feed My sheep, feed My lambs.” The longing to be of blessing to others comes out in various ways in this Song. In the Bride’s care of the flock in chapter 1. In her care of the garden in chapters 4 and 6. In her care of the vineyard in chapters 7 and 8.

3. Fruit-bearing to His Praise. “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit,” our Lord said to His disciples. In this Song the thought of fruit-bearing is brought to perfection. “A garden enclosed is My sister, My spouse; a well shut up, a fountain sealed” (4:12). In this fair picture of the garden the Lord has given us an idea of His inheritance in the saints. A quiet spot where He can delight to dwell, enclosed for His use, full of all manner of precious fruits and flowers. “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits” (4:16). His response is, “I am come into My garden; I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honey-comb with My honey” (5:1). But He will share it with others: “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” His desire is that His fruitful Church shall be a blessing to others. The sealed fountain in the midst of the garden is first for the Master’s use, for He says, “Give Me to drink”; but it is also to flow out to others. “A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon” (4:15). How exactly this verse corresponds with the threefold description of the living water in John’s Gospel. (1) “Whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst”—the soul’s thirst quenched at the Fountain; (2) “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life”—an unfailing supply in the soul of the believer; (3) “He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water,” “streams from Lebanon,” flowing through the believer to a thirsty world.

Shining and Victorious. The Church which is really separated unto her Lord will be a power for Him in this dark world. “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” (6:10). A glorious description of what the Church should be—shining with the reflected light of her absent Lord, a witness for Him in the night. “Terrible as an army with banners”—an all-conquering, victorious Church, pulling down the strongholds of Satan with the weapons of her warfare, which are not carnal, but mighty through God. Oh, how different is the Church of today! The blot of worldliness is lying like the shadow of the earth in an eclipse right across her fair face, preventing her being a light-bearer to the world. Instead of leading a victorious campaign against the enemy, she is suffering her walls to be broken down by his advance!

“Love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which have a most vehement flame” (8:6). With a jealous love Christ yearns over His Church, that He may be able to present her to Himself a glorious Church.

Looking for His Appearing. The Church that is really separated unto her Lord will be watching with intensity of desire for His appearing. With this thought the Song closes. “Make haste, my Beloved, and be Thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices” (8:14). With the same thought the last book of the Bible closes: “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come… And He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly: Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

³⁰ See Bible Teachings in Nature (Hugh Macmillan); God’s Living Oracles
(Dr. Pierson); and the writings of Canon Tristram.

³¹ The Story of Job, by Mrs. Penn-Lewis. A book full of helpful teaching on
this subject.

³² The Story of Job. Mrs. Penn-Lewis.

³³ This description is abridged from Roger’s Reasons, by Rev. J. Urquhart.

³⁴ A Key to the Psalms, by Rev. Thomas Boys, edited by Rev. E. W.
Bullinger.

³⁵ Christ and the Scriptures. Adolph Saphir.

³⁶ Palestine Explored, p. 171. Rev. James Neil.

³⁷ See Palestine Explored, chap. 5. Rev. J. Neil.

³⁸ Outline Studies in the Books of the Old Testament. W. G. Moorehead, D.D.

³⁹ The Song of Solomon compared with other Parts of Scripture.

⁴⁰ Palestine Explored, chapter 7, Rev. James Neil, who says also “Comfort me with apples” should be translated “straw me with orange,” that is, with orange blossom. The strong perfume of the orange blossom, used to revive the Eastern brides, is the origin of our bridal wreath.