Witnessing God's Word in the Psalms, Book II

Introduction

A chunky white King James Bible with yellow-orange edges might not seem like an appropriate gift to place in the hands of a small child today, but this Bible not only set the course of a lifetime journey for me; it fed my natural childhood's curiosity. I felt from my earliest days the sacred weight of both duty and wonder in reading God's Word. The difficulty of doing so in itself spoke eloquently to the thrill of knowing God. I knew in my spirit that I needed God to understand God's Word. Not only did it not seem strange to me, therefore, to read multisyllabic words I didn't quite understand; a sense of mystery and wonder sustained me Sunday after Sunday when I also sang difficult words in the great hymns. I will be forever grateful that no one made knowing God seem easy to me. On the contrary, the complexity of these great hymns that depended so heavily upon the words of Scripture inextricably linked God's Word to music. I embraced the challenge of both from my earliest days--having given my heart to Jesus before I was four years old and having begun to read music when I was seven.

The Psalms in particular have only grown lovelier through the years as I have marked them up many times in multiple Bibles, purposing to find among the familiar words something I had missed before. Such is the sheer wonder of reading God's Word. It never changes, yet it is always new. This fact was proved to me this week in a fresh way after reading all 31 Psalms of Book II in one sitting during some time off from school for inclement weather. I had, of course, been aware all these years that the Psalms are divided into five books, but I never paid much attention to the divisions before, much less investigated their purpose. However, this time, I read Psalms 42 through 72 in Book II as a themed entity. Many of these Psalms are not only prophetic but Messianic, highlighting both the individual's longing for a Savior and a nation's promise of their coming King. Eighteen belong to David, while others are attributed to the sons of Korah. One was penned by Asaph, and the remainder are anonymous. Reading these Psalms as a unit left me with a thrilling sense of expectation: the glorious resolution is yet to come.

Book II Changes the Tone from Book I

As I began reading Book II from the simple red King James Bible I have loved and annotated since I was 13, I immediately noticed a sharp tone change from Book I. It is as if the sweet and plaintive lyre of Book I becomes a pipe organ in Book II, pulling out every stop from the 32-foot rumbling bass to the one-quarter-foot whistles. Having learned to play Bach preludes and fugues on a lovely organ in college, I was delighted a few years later to hear a live organ concert on the famous pipe organ in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Without a doubt, the lowest notes on the organ are more felt than heard, like a train running through your chest. Listen to this Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor to gain a sense of this power. This same tempest of melancholia not only opens Book II with the Psalmist's cry of thirst for God; it finds full expression in David's epic prayer for forgiveness and restoration in Psalm 51.

The range of "pipes" in Book II is massive and authentic, reaching from depression, desperation, and guilt to celebration, jubilation, and peace. Times of dejection in Psalm 42 resolve into prophecies of unparalleled deliverance and kingly dominion by Psalm 72. Far beyond giving tribute to God's Word, Book II functions as a workshop of faith, allowing us to witness the actual live process of Scripture being composed before our very eyes. Think of it! The process of translating pain to prayer to praise results in God's Word actually being written like a composer improvising a symphony. Put another way, the Psalmist who trusts in God's truth himself expresses truth out of the grand organ of his soul.

Book II Points to the Lord Jesus

Book II of the Psalms harmonizes the words "mercy" and "truth" multiple times as a motif anticipating our Lord Jesus who spoke with truth and grace. Our Deliverer does not rescue those who need no rescue or even those who deserve to be rescued. He is Jesus, Lover of My Soul, who lets me fly to His Bosom, as Charles Wesley would write, when I least deserve admittance. David's Psalm 51 stands at the heart of Book II for this reason. Who but God can transform with mercy and truth such horror of disobedience that David committed--not only adultery but also murder? The organ of David's soul pulls out all the stops--contrition, confession, repentance, renewal, and even revival--as he writes this most significant Psalm of Book II while looking to his Savior.

But long before we witness this soul-cleansing of Israel's king, we were plunged into the desperation of Psalm 42. Who has not read or even sung these most plaintive words opening Book II of the Psalter: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalm 42:1-2)? See these wonderful words put to music in "As the Deer." The soul satisfied by God alone need find nothing else. The candor and conviction of this Psalm not only call us but convict us. Can you and I say that we hunger and thirst after righteousness so much that we would rather die than go without sensing the Presence of the Lord?

With what a shameful casualness do far too many professing Christians dip their big toe, as it were, into the waters of grace, never allowing the Lord to plant them by rivers of living water--much less to baptize them from head to toe with His Presence! But why is the Psalmist of Psalm 42 so downcast? Despite rather obvious causes, he doesn't quite know, which is why he asks himself three rhetorical questions of equal weight but shifting meaning. In Psalm 42:5, the Psalmist asks himself, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." The wording here is remarkable--"for the help of his countenance." No one had looked on the face of God, and yet the Psalmist hopes in the light of God's Face, a light we see in Psalm 44:3 as "the light of thy countenance" which saved the fathers of old. We understand this light to be none other than our Lord Jesus!

And yet two more times the Psalmist asks a similar yet distinctly different question of himself, first in Psalm 42:11 and then in Psalm 43:5, which completes the cycle with intriguing variations, believed to be a continuation of Psalm 42: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope [thou] in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." The help of God's countenance becomes the health of my countenance! Why? Why not? For what is more beautiful than a face full of hope? And yet this hope is not a mere emotion, for the soul is cast down. It is an act of the will--a glorious truth we see all throughout the prayers of the Psalms and certainly in Book II. As emotional as the Psalms are, as devotional as their aspect, they are working contracts of faith in God, grounded in objectivity and in a faith activated by will power and obedience. We could rightly say that the very decision to place hope in God is an act of obedience, without which all prayer is but vain repetition.

This is why our souls turn again and again to the Psalms. In them we find the Psalmist's sense of conviction to spur us onward in our difficult journey when we might rather enjoy being down in the dumps. Some people actually do, but this sad fact finds no admittance in the Psalms, as rich with pain as they are. They are not mere expressions of self-pity or extravagant emotional indulgences. They are prayers wrung from the soul that go straight to the heart of God. And these are prayers that everyone can pray in times of distress and desperation. But these are not prayers for "things" as such; they are prayers for the soul's return to peace: for nations to end wars, for righteousness to prevail, and for evil to fail. These are prayers for ultimate justice in the world--the justice which only the Lord Jesus Christ can bring in His millennial reign--and the very justice which the judgments in Book I promise to the godly. This gives the Psalms of Book II not only their personal feel but their national appeal, for one and all of God's godly saints look forward to the coming Messiah!

And as we witness the Psalmist turning his prayers into praise, we see that praise actively codifying into Scripture. This process that turns prayers and praise into songs proves the very purpose of the Psalter. Raw personal calamities are seen in the context of national security and identity. If the theme of Book I is holiness as shown in the righteous man's walk, the theme of Book II is hope in the righteous nation's future.

Observations and Conclusions

Psalm 1 begins in objective tranquility promising the blessed fruitfulness of the godly man. Psalm 72 ending Book II presents a compelling picture of Christ's millennial reign of peace on earth as foreshadowed in the kingdom of Solomon, the son of David. Peace, justice for the poor and needy, and worldwide dominion are the hope realized that the Psalmists vocalize all throughout Book II. We arrive at a peaceful end, for Psalm 42 has been fulfilled. The "I shall yet praise Him" becomes "I will praise Him," for the Psalmist writes, "Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen" (Psalm 72:18-19). Just as Psalm 72 closing Book II ends with a double "Amen," so does Psalm 41 ending Book I, like truth reverberating from the very walls of the sanctuary.

Book I of the Psalter presents us with the beauty of the moral law and the way things should be. Book II shows us the beauty of deliverance and the way things will be when a fallen world is finally subject to full redemption. From holiness to hope; from judgment to justice; from beauty to bounty for the poor and needy in Psalm 72, Book II follows Book I of the Psalms as a dynamic and living witness to the Word of our God. The music of Book II of the Psalter arms the despairing with hope that will not be ashamed, for the voice of God rules the world yet, and His Word will never fail.

Motifs to Explore:

• Psalm 51:4--God desires truth in the inward parts--the only true antidote to depravity!

• Psalm 56:4--"In God I will praise his word" and verse 10: "In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise His word."--the action of the will

• Psalm 57:3--"God shall send forth his mercy and his truth" and verse 10, "For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds."

• Psalm 60:4--"Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth."

• Psalm 61:5--"Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name." See also verses 6 and 7, "Thou wilt prolong the king's life: and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him." Notice that the king is the embodiment of mercy and truth--prophetic of Jesus!

• Psalm 62:11--"God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work."

• Psalm 63:1--David is here virtually talking to his pen as he actively writes what will become part of God's Word. Almost it seems as if the Psalms here break the fourth wall in front of us. Verses 3 and 4 utter profound truth: David's spiritual thirst is here quenched in the very act of offering praise--and now his soul is "satisfied as with marrow and fatness."

• Psalm 64:1 and 7 show David's prayer and praise working together to become Scripture; we need to remember that Samuel anointed David as king before he slew Goliath; and David as anointed is divinely inspired to pen God's Word! Law and judgment in Book I become poetic justice in Book II.

• Psalms 66 and 67 show God's justice to all the nations; Psalm 66:10 is powerful: "For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried." How are we tried? By the Word of God tried as silver seven times (Psalm 12:6). What a beautiful flow of the rhetorical triangle occurs here from speaker to audience to message back to speaker!

• Psalm 68:8 and 11 allude to Sinai that moved at God's Presence as He gave the law: "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it," and verse 17 alludes to angels and chariots in a manner reminiscent of Deuteronomy 33:2, Scripture's first use of the word "saints." Psalm 68:28 is utterly magnificent: "Thy God hath commanded thy strength," and verse 33 likewise: "To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice." This is prophetic of Jesus the Word of God, but imagine being caught up in the chariot of God's voice and riding the heavens! Could there be any greater victory than that? The soul that was cast down in Psalm 42 rightly asked himself, "Why?" oh, why? This is a historic sweep of fulfillment of God's Word in the world.

• Psalm 69:30, 31, 32 show the praises of the humble virtually becoming Scripture because of David's song. The deep waters of life end in total salvation, and in this Messianic Psalm we see salvation coming out of suffering, exactly as it did for our Lord Jesus! This Psalm points to the Messiah who is the Word.

• Psalm 71:18--this is wonderful: "Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come." That's you and me! And that's exactly why the Psalms were written--to witness to God's Word in Scripture so that you and I can know Him as our forefathers did. And look at verse 20: "Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth." That's the resurrection! And then verse 22 shows again that in-process writing of Scripture: "I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel." This brings a whole new meaning to contemporary worship! We see the inseparable nature of truth and praise: the soul sings a song as a participant in truth. Verse 24 continues this theme.

• Final note: The Psalms not only praise Scripture; they become Scripture immediately upon being written. God's Word is not a product merely; it is a process, living and active in my life and in yours! God's Word is unchanging yet ever validated, and the Living Word is here foreshadowed in the Psalms as our Lord Jesus, who Himself translates suffering into song!