Notes on Psalm 1

The name of the Book of Psalms means praise in Hebrew. Had we more of the secrets of wisdom to see each psalm in its proper light, we might find each to be praise. It is a great secret to put things as God puts them. That which, viewed in one aspect, might be as a firebrand to the conscience, in another would be blessed light. Many of the Psalms begin with the word " blessed." It may be said of many of them, as of the beatitudes in Matt. 5, that if they are used as the probe of our soul, there will be anguish; but if we see that they express what CHRIST is, there will be blessing. Thus, " Blessed are the merciful:" if we see Jesus in this, I find just what I need, as a poor, ruined prodigal.
It is well to remark that these are called Asher psalms in the Hebrew-the name of one of Jacob's sons. The mother was so thoroughly delighted with her child, that she named him " Asher"-saying, " Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed."
These " Asher" psalms are of three distinct kinds-turning, as it were, on three distinct pivots. First, in Psa. 1 there is not the slightest allowance made for any evil. Secondly, in Psa. 32 it is the blessing of the poor sinner, who has not one shred of righteousness of his own. Thirdly, as in Psa. 119, we have the blessedness of the person, whose sins having been pardoned, he, as grafted into Christ, knows what it is to walk in His ways.
It is easy to see how entirely distinct are these grounds. In the first, it is one who can claim a right to his reward. But who can say it? None of us, doubtless, would take such ground; but still there may be the thought of getting better. But in this 1st Psalm it is Christ: not what He says of Himself, but what God says of Him. Here is the delight of God in that perfect One, that God-man, who never did anything amiss; so that He has given all things into His hands, and set Him upon His throne.
Though we may not be in danger of taking the ground of this first blessing, I do think there is danger of the saints confounding the second and third species of " blessedness," i.e., the blessedness of the poor prodigal, utterly lost and freely saved by Christ, with that of Him who has the joy of the Spirit in the sense of obedience.
Notes on Psalm 1
It is needful to have the foot firmly grounded on the Rock Christ, free grace being the ground on which we are saved. Then there will be the going on to walk " in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." The saints begin in free grace. Then they try, and they ought to try, to walk. But they are apt to forget that it is still the Rock on which the foot is planted.
It is common to many of the Psalms to see one righteous one and one unrighteous one. This wicked one is always either Satan or antichrist. Again, in other psalms, there is one righteous and there are many wicked.
There is a contrast between Christ as presented in psalm i. and in Eph. and John 17 Here it is simply Christ as man. This is not like the praise and the glory which God now gives to Christ at His right hand. It is true that God does still give Him this praise, as the One who was perfect here; but He is on much higher ground: for He was not only put into the furnace, and tried here where the wicked were-He was truly put into the furnace, and no evil was found in Him. He saw the path of the wicked, and the seat of the scornful, and still He remained the perfect pilgrim and stranger, " separate from sinners." But God had thoughts higher than these when He pointed out to His Son, from His eternal throne, that if He would take the cup of sorrow, receiving thus the penalty of sin, He would highly exalt Him, giving Him a name above every name. Here was all the largeness of the divine counsels as to Christ. As man, Jesus is seen in a narrow field, bounded off. God points to what His Son was there.
I do not think that the sinner finds true rest of heart, unless he sees what sort of person Christ was down here. God did not at first present His Son in all His exaltation; but showed Him as He walked on earth, saying, as it were, " Read my character by what you find in Him. Just as He is upon earth, you may suppose me to be as God." I suppose the very spring of our first comfortable thought about God, is the
being brought to see God's thoughts about CHRIST. When wearied with all that is in self, has it not been brought vividly before the mind, that God delights in Christ, having found in Him all that He can admire? There are two things: first, God has found one in whom lie can fully rest; secondly, He is so occupied with Christ, that I can draw near as accepted in the Beloved. I am sure that our near approach to God is inseparable from God's delighting in Christ. God is occupied with His Son, this perfect one; and I know it. This measuring of what Christ is to God is very different from being occupied about that of which I am the center-and it is the only ground of stable peace.
Ver. I. No provision being made in the first psalm for the slightest failure, it must present Christ. Of course it gives our moral characteristics, if we are saints; but none could take such ground for a moment but Christ. Could Paul, could Peter, have taken -up such language as this in psalm i.? No. It is the character of the way in which we try to walk, but no saint can say, " Here is that which abstractedly marks me." What was that which characterized Paul? That he had been a blasphemer, but bad obtained mercy. How careful was he even to take this ground! But God came in, in spite of all. This first verse tells our hearts, that we are indeed " blessed"-not on the ground of what we are, but altogether on the ground of what He is. We have the threefold character of man's evil here: first, without God, as the poor Gentiles; secondly, sinnership, every man wandering on in his own way, as the Jews; thirdly, antichrist in the seat of the scornful.
Ver. 2. This enters more deeply into what the blessed Lord Jesus was. I do believe there is a word of comfort for us here. There is a deep mine of comfort suited to meet our mind as down here, in looking at the Lord Jesus as man. (It is a subordinate position, lower than the glory, by which He sustains Himself in these positions.) Christ looks up to God, and says, " I love thee, and what is dear to thee." Look at the Lord Jesus as loving His neighbor- the poor Jew, or more generally man; the Gentiles, or the Church-as Elder Brother, firstborn from the dead. Thus it is that He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities-sympathizing with us down here. Let me ask you, Do you know what it is to be in Christ's presence, and to find your heart burdened?
The Jews, the Gentiles, the brethren, are all dear to Christ's heart. I am as sure of this as that He is in the heavens: and I cannot say otherwise to God than that " the one at thy right hand loves thee and the things which thou lovest." This is not merely a fact, but it is that which we should do well to lay to heart. Has not Christ's heart been occupied about you during the past night, and up to when? When did He begin to think about you? Ah! He begins where He was found-with His Father. Dark man turns to darkness, and thinks of Christ as beginning with us in our darkness: but it is not so with Christ; He begins with God, His brethren are God's. He loves His own, because God loves them. How should He but love them.?