Psalms 61

Subdivision 3. (Psalms 61:1-8; Psalms 62:1-12; Psalms 63:1-11; Psalms 64:1-10; Psalms 65:1-13; Psalms 66:1-20; Psalms 67:1-7; Psalms 68:1-35; Psalms 69:1-36; Psalms 70:1-5; Psalms 71:1-24; Psalms 72:1-20.)Christ the Restorer. The third subdivision now returns to Christ as its theme, but to present Him, in a very different way from the first. He is here the Restorer, as we see especially in the sixty-ninth psalm, which is in fact the trespass- or restitution-offering: He there restoring what He took not away. But from the very first psalm here we see Him identifying Himself with His people, taking up their lost cause, and ending with blessing for theta of which men unfallen never could have dreamed. In die sixty-eighth psalm; which closes the first series here, He ascends up on high, leading captivity captive, and receiving gifts for men; and on earth, we find in the sixty-fifth, Immanuel fulfilling His Name, and the resulting blessing. There are two sections in this subdivision: the first, of eight psalms, in which we have Christ as the Representative Head of His people, undertaking for them, and bringing them into the fruit of this: while the second shows once more, in the sixty-ninth, the Cross as the foundation of all for men; with, in the psalms following, Israel renewing her youth, and the glorious reign of her great King, which is the consummation of David’s prayers, and of the promise to him. With this the book ends. Section 1. (Psalms 61:1-8; Psalms 62:1-12; Psalms 63:1-11; Psalms 64:1-10; Psalms 65:1-13; Psalms 66:1-20; Psalms 67:1-7; Psalms 68:1-35.)The Head of Blessing. In the eight psalms of the first section we have the new covenant number; and they carry us fully into the new covenant blessing; while the Mediator of the New Covenant is seen throughout. Of the eight verses of the first psalm here the same thing may be said. It is the inspired introduction to it.

Psalms 61:1-8

The King’s vows. To the chief musician; upon a stringed instrument: [a psalm] of David. In this, accordingly, we find the King’s vows -vows taken up and fulfilled in place of Israel’s, which have failed so utterly of fulfillment. The thirtieth chapter of Numbers will be found instructive as to this (see the notes). The title of the psalm has significantly here, al neginah, “upon a stringed instrument,” instead of the usual plural, al neginoth. One Hand alone is upon the strings at this time. We may be assured, it is the hand of One who is a Master in harmony, amply sufficient to make all creation responsive. We have already heard Him say, In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee." And that this is in direct connection with His vow, both the twenty-second psalm (ver. 25) and the present one assure us: “So will I psalm unto Thy Name for aye: that I may daily perform my vows.”

1. The identification of the King with His people is the explanation of the first part of the psalm. The voice is like that with which the book began, as being the cry of an outcast, “from the end of the earth,” which may be of the land," but is perhaps better given its whole depth of meaning. We find as we go on, that the voices are not the same; but the connection between them is full of significance. The Speaker here is pleading to be heard, to gain attention, to be led to a Rock that is higher than He. As the Representative of those whose ease He has taken up, we can understand this, and we have heard Him thus crying out of lower depths than this. And immediately God is owned as His sanctuary-refuge, “a tower of strength from the face of the enemy.” As one exposed to danger, He finds His shelter where man must ever find it, “under the covert of Thy wings.” When we realize the Person that is here, there is a remarkable and blessed word which He utters, which cannot be left unnoticed. “I will sojourn in Thy tent for ever,” He says. The last word is olamim, “ages,” but which is applied to the ages of eternity; and there can hardly be a doubt of its meaning in this case. The use of the plural form is, I think, as we may say, pictorial, -to make emphatic that measureless duration; all the more significant in contrast with the thought of a “tent” and “sojourner,” in the same sentence. But the tent is God’s, and must contemplate that which He pitches among men, and which, though it be a “tent,” in view of the glory of Him who dwells in it, does not necessarily imply any transience of the abode of the glory in it. For in relation to the new earth, and therefore the eternal state, we have in Revelation exactly the same expression: “The tent of God shall be with men, and He will tent among them” (Revelation 21:3, Gk.): the thing said over twice, after the peculiar emphatic manner that we find in John, and which is the sweet divine assurance of what might seem for man too good to be true. Thus God abides forever in a “tent,” manifesting Himself in infinite condescension to His creatures in such a manner as that they shall know Him in the intimacy of perfect grace. This indeed the humanity of Christ already pledges to us. The Word made flesh could be no temporary condition, nor an isolated, however glorious, witness to the love of God. Rather must its witness be maintained and justified in all things being made conformable to it. The very throne is characterized thus as “the throne of God and the Lamb.” The Lamb thus governs all; and the tent of God among men shows how this is to be realized, not simply by the saints in heaven, but by the inhabitants of earth also, -when once the banishment of sin from the earth shall make this possible. But if this “tent” of God speak of final earthly blessing, how sweetly does the voice of Him who in this psalm is seen acquainted with the trials and sorrows of men, echo and confirm this grace! “I,” He says, “will sojourn in Thy tent for ever”: if Thou art pleased to have a tent, and sojournest, I too will be a sojourner; and not apart from this, but in the tent in which Thou sojournest, there will I sojourn! Blessed Lord, no wonder that when Thou wast born upon earth, the angels heralded Thee with “on earth peace, good pleasure in men”!
2. In the three verses following, which are thus the normal division of a seven, the eighth verse following not interfering with this, as we know, the same Speaker declares therefore the answer to His vows, in the “possession of those that fear God’s Name” being given to Him. His vows are in behalf of these; He takes His place as their Head and Representative; and their blessing comes through Him who has interposed for them. He openly takes accordingly the King’s place, with days “added” to the “shortened days” (Psalms 102:1-28) of a life that was for their sake “taken from the earth” (Acts 8:33). The prophet Isaiah, of whose words this is the Septuagint version, beautifully supplements and explains these “added days,” which at first have a strange look in connection with this glorious Person: “Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him: He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10). And these prolonged days are not to be simply the still limited days of a merely human life lengthened beyond the natural time: “His years shall be as those of successive generations.” The peculiar words show how He still clings to men. The next verse shows how the kingdoms of earth and of heaven, for so long separated, have come together. “He” -this blessed King -“shall dwell in the presence of God forever.” No fear of a breach any more. And the latter part of the verse intimates that this is the voice of the people breaking in. Well may they, not doubtfully, but with the full accord of hearts filled with the prospect before them, cry: “Appoint loving-kindness and truth to preserve Him!”* \
3. With the eighth verse the original voice takes up the word again, and the concord of different speakers has fitness and beauty. “So will I psalm unto Thy Name forever,” He says: “that I may daily perform My vows.” For it is to glorify God in the face of sin and rebellion that He has come in, lifting up the fallen and sustaining in its place the new creation, with henceforth no failure. Thus His “vows,” which began to be fulfilled in His life on earth, and then in His atoning death, shall still be performed by Him as the Leader of the unending praise that shall fill eternity. And there shall not be a dull note there: no heart but shall be tuned to full harmony with His. Blessed be God!