SELECTED WRITINGS

BY DAVID BARON

The following short articles, by David Baron, are from “Watching and Waiting” -

a Magazine issued by the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony:

The Last Chapters of the Book of Isaiah

By David Baron

(This article is taken from Mr Barons book, ‘The Ancient Scriptures and the Modern Jew,’ written in 1900. Mr David Baron was born in Russia but ultimately came to London, where, in 1893, with Mr C. A. Schonberger he commenced the mission known as ‘The Hebrew Christian Testimony, to Israel.’ His own testimony, entitled, ‘Led of God from Darkness into Light,’ is still available from ourselves).

‘The Book of Consolations,’ as the Rabbis call the last chapters of the Book of Isaiah (40 -66), consists for the most part of the general announcement of a glorious future of salvation and peace, but often the salvation which the prophet foretells is defined and specified. he message embraces a two-old promise.

First, the certain restoration from the Babylonish captivity, which is portrayed in terms which far exceed what actually took place at that restoration, and which will only be exhausted and fulfilled in the greater restoration of Israel from all ‘the four corners of the earth,’ he very instrument who should be the means of the minor restoration (Cyrus) is foretold, and called by name more than 150 years before he was born.

But the theme with which the prophet’s soul is full and to which his thoughts ever recur, even while he deals with the minor deliverance, is the grand redemption and salvation to be accomplished by One greater than Cyrus, even by Messiah - a salvation of which Israel is the centre, and all the ends of the earth the circumference.

In dealing with this greater salvation the relation of time is not observed. Now, the prophet beholds the author of it in His humiliation and suffering, then the most distant future of Messiah’s kingdom presents itself to the enraptured eye - the time when Israel shall walk in the light of Jehovah and all the Gentile world will be converted to Him; when all that is opposed to God shall be destroyed; when inward and outward peace shall prevail and all evil caused by sin shall be removed. Elevated above time and space, his own soul full of rapturous enthusiasm for the Redeemer-King, Isaiah in these twenty-seven chapters surveys the whole development of the Messianic kingdom from its small beginning to its glorious end, and gives us the fullest portrayal of the Messiah’s person and mission, humiliation and exaltation to be found in the Old Testament.

On examining this glorious prophecy closely we find that the twenty-seven chapters range themselves into three equal smaller cycles of nine chapters each, all ending with nearly the same solemn refrain, ‘there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.’ The subject is the development and certain overthrow of the evil and the wicked, who are excluded from all the blessings of Messiah’s kingdom; and the sufferings but final glory of the righteous remnant who are the subjects of that kingdom, whose King is described as passing through the same path of suffering to the glory that should follow. The subject treated throughout the three sections becomes developed and intensified as we go along until it reaches its climax in the last chapter.

The first section is brought to a close at the end of chapter 48, where the blessedness of the righteous who are ‘redeemed’ (verse 20) and peacefully led and satisfied even in the desert is contrasted with the state of the wicked to whom ‘there is no peace.’

In the second division the same subject becomes intensified, there is development of both evil and good, righteousness and wickedness, and it ends with chapter 57, where ‘Peace! peace!’ is announced to the righteous, but the wicked have not only ‘no peace,’ but having grown in wickedness, have become like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

In the last division the destiny of both is brought to a climax and become fixed for ever. ‘Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name.’ This contrast is continued until finally we find the righteous dwelling for ever in the new heavens and the new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness, while as to the wicked who have transgressed against God, ‘their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.’

The heart and Messianic climax of the whole prophecy is to be found in its inmost centre, which, instead of a prophecy uttered centuries in advance, reads like an historic summary of the Gospel narrative of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Taking our position at this central point we are almost overwhelmed with the evidence of design in the very structure of this prophecy, for on closer examination we find that each book is sub-divided into three sections of three chapters each, nearly corresponding to the divisions in the Authorised Version. Thus the middle book is 49-57.

The middle section of the middle book is chapters 52, 53, 54, and chapter 53 is the middle chapter of the middle section of the middle book - forming, as it were the heart and centre of this wonderful Messianic poem, as well as the heart and centre of all Old Testament prophecy. The central verse of this central paragraph, which begins properly with chapter 52: 13, is, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement with the view to our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.’ The doctrine it enshrines (substitution) is the essence of the teaching in Old and New Testaments, as well as the central truth of the prophecy. It is moreover, the essence of the message of comfort with which the prophet begins (40: 1-2), solving the problem as to how ‘her iniquity is pardoned.’

* * *

The Prophecy of the Interregnum

By David Baron

(This article is taken from ‘The Morning Star,’ April, 1897. Being written over 100 years ago,

figures relating to dates should now be altered, but we have left the wording as originally given).

Hosea 3: ‘Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide, for me many days; thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.’

It is very important for us to have a proper understanding of the symbolical teaching of the first verse of this chapter. The language is realistic, and perhaps to Westerns the symbolism a little strange; but there is a deep truth underlying it in reference to God’s attitude to the Jewish nation. This woman was a very unworthy person; but to illustrate the infinite grace of God, the prophet was told to love her, and to make her his wife. Israel was in the condition in which the prophet found her. When God set His love upon Israel it was not because of anything in them. A very strange reason for it is given in Deuteronomy 7: 8, ‘Because He loved you’ - because God is Sovereign, and has chosen to set His love upon this unworthy people.

God entered into this relationship with Israel: their Maker became their Husband; betrothed them, and married them; but instead of abiding with their Husband, they turned away to the gods of the heathen. Yet God loves Israel. The difference between human love and the love of Jehovah is, that His is unchangeable; and in this respect the love of God to the Jewish nation is a type of His love to each one of us.

The love of God to Israel remains even when He was obliged to give her up to the enemy. ‘I have given (up) the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of the enemies’ (Jeremiah 12: 7); but still she is the dearly beloved of the Lord. No other prophecy gives in such a short compass as this chapter the whole truth with regard to the present condition and the future glory of Israel. It is the great prophecy of the Interregnum - especially the fourth verse -covering the period between the First Coming and the Second, between the departure and the return of the sceptre to Judah. Even Jewish commentators are agreed that verse 4 gives a graphic picture of the actual position of their people. ‘Many days,’ is the translation of a Hebrew idiom denoting a long, indefinite period, and the Jewish people still live to testify that no power on earth can root them out of existence.

It is due to no people that there is such a being as a Jew. For centuries, in whatever men did disagree, they were at one in saying, ‘Let us cut them off (destroy them) from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more (held) in remembrance’ (Psalm 83: 4). But the Lord answers, ‘The children of Israel shall abide:’ and they exist today in far larger numbers than ever before, increasing in comparison with some gentile peoples in the ratio of three or four to one. How shall they abide? There are three contrasts named to describe the condition: ‘without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.’

Without King, Without Prince

That means without king of God’s appointment, and without prince of their own choice. The prophet could almost hear the steps of the Assyrian army on its way to destroy the northern kingdom. The prophecy here is not limited, but embraces the whole Jewish nation. The geographical centre of prophecy is Jerusalem, except when a place is mentioned - as Samaria. Before the final overthrow of Judah, another prophet was sent with a very remarkable message (Ezekiel 21). The sceptre was to be taken away. God would not permit it to be there, and if any attempt should be made to re-establish the throne He would not allow it, until He came, ‘Whose right it is.’ As God has spoken, so it is. Several centuries elapsed before Christ came, and more than eighteen since; but there has been no reestablishment of that throne. Whenever any attempt has been made to re-establish a Jewish kingdom God has overthrown it.

The rightful king of the Jewish nation is God. The peculiarity of Israel is that it is a theocracy.

Whenever the advent of the Messiah is spoken of, it is as the advent of God. He set up a royal family, and said that One Who comes through it - Who shall be nothing less than God Himself - shall reign over Israel. One appeared in Whom this ideal was met exactly (Luke 1: 31), but instead of enthroning Him on Mount Zion, they crucified Him without the camp. So Israel abides without a king, a witness to the Messiah-ship of Christ; and as long as Israel bows not before Him they shall abide so.

Without Sacrifice, Without Image

Sacrifice stands here as the symbol of the true worship of Jehovah, and the image as that of idolatry. No word could so well summarise the true religion of Israel as sacrifice. There is a tendency to deny the Divine appointment of sacrifice, but the prominent outstanding object in the Old Testament is an altar, and the inscription over it is: ‘The blood that maketh atonement for the soul.’ In the New Testament the outstanding object is a cross, an altar on which the most stupendous of sacrifices took place. Over the cross there is an inscription: ‘Without shedding of blood there is no remission.’

It should move our hearts to pity, that the Jewish people all over the world to-day, having a great zeal, have no sacrifice, no blood of atonement, no means of drawing near to God. Let these prophetic scriptures move us to a great pity and interest, and lead us to evangelise them as a nation. God has a people to gather out of Israel for His name, as He has a people out of all nations.

* * *

A Germinal Prophecy

By David Baron

(This article is taken from ‘The Morning Star,’ October, 1896. Being written over 100 years ago, figures relating to dates

should now be altered and ‘Palestine’ should now be ‘Israel,’ but we have left the wording as originally given).

Deuteronomy 4: 25-31: ‘When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke Him to anger: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; Ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. And there Ye shall serve gods, the work of men s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto His voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God); He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them.’

This passage of Scripture is a germinal prophecy. It is a paragraph in the farewell speech of Moses spoken 3,300 years ago; and it is not much to say that from this prophetic Pisgah we have a vision through the centuries of Israel’s history.

Let me lead you to some of the mountain peaks of this Pisgah, and let us remember that Israel being a typical people, we have spiritual counterparts of this its literal history in the condition of the Church.

We see, then, first (verse 25) that, remaining long in the land, they were to corrupt themselves and become idolaters.

No one can rationally deny that Israel’s history is an outstanding refutation of the theory of evolution. Our higher critics, yea, our infidels of the materialistic school, tell us that Israel’s religion grew out of their natural bent towards monotheism. Anyone can see that this is false. Israel’s bent was ever towards a polytheistic idolatry. But we must guard against the idea that Israel was ever monotheistic, if we are to use the word in the modem sense. Israel’s religion as delivered to them was this: ‘That thou mightest know that Jehovah (the infinite, triune, gracious Lord), He is God’ (4: 35). Not, let it be observed, ‘that there is a God’ - or even that ‘there is one God;’ but that ‘Jehovah, He is God.’

How foolish, then, to say that Israel, being a people with a peculiar genius for monotheism, thus found their one God! Nay, nay; Israel never found God. It was God Who found Israel. Look at Deuteronomy 32: 10; Hosea 9: 10; and the God Who found and instructed them in the desert place has been keeping Israel in existence. The history of Israel is, let us not forget, beloved friends, the typical history of each one of us. It has been GRACE ABOUNDING - GRACE UPON GRACE. What do you think of the monotheistic genius of a people whose history includes the incident of the golden calf? Their whole story only teaches us that light, knowledge, experience without continued grace, would be of no avail - all weighed in the balances, and found wanting.

Sin Must Be Punished

Next, Israel’s history tells us that, because God is holy, sin must be punished.

‘I call heaven and earth to witness ... ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land’ (verse 26). Not off the earth, but off the land. They were most certainly not to perish off the earth, for they were to be miraculously preserved everywhere on its surface, though scattered, sifted in all parts of it. The extent of their dispersion is something wonderful. Many of them have been found recently in Central Africa, and wherever travellers go, Jews are to be found.

It should be remembered that the dispersion dated, not from the destruction of Jerusalem, but long before. In our Saviour’s days the bulk of the Israel people were living out of the land of Palestine. The cause of the ‘Diaspora’ was idolatry, i.e. the heart alienated from Jehovah. The punishment was because of this. The dispersion had its beginning at the destruction of the first temple; and to those who will look into this thing it cannot but be a marvel in the light of this prophecy to note the long-continued dispersion side by side with the manifest careful preservation of Israel as a distinct people.

Part of the punishment was according to the next clause of the prophecy.

Great Numerical Reduction

‘Ye shall be left few in number among the nations (heathen).’ Basnage estimated that about 200 years ago there were only about three millions of Israelites in the world, though in the palmy days of their kingdom there were probably seven or eight millions in the land. It is surely a sign of the times that within the last fifty years there has been a rapid and great increase of Jewish population everywhere. Kellog, in his very able work on the Jews, which was published thirteen years ago, tells us that the THEN lowest estimation of the Israel nation he could find was between six and seven millions: but he goes on to say that, according to the high authority of Herzog’s ‘Real-Encyklopadic,’ the whole number of the present Jewish dispersion is to be reckoned at no less than twelve millions. And this was written more than thirteen years ago, while the increase is continuing by leaps and bounds, the increase being in a much greater and more rapid ratio than the gentile populations among whom they have been scattered.

Now, I call your attention to verses 29 and 30, and a little word in them which appears in our text, but which [today’s anti-semitism says] has no right to be there.

It Is The Little Word ‘If’

In our expectation of God’s fulfilments we are ever putting in our ‘ifs.’ Not so Moses; not so God. The restoration and blessing [of the nation of Israel] are as absolute as the dispersion and tribulation. ‘From thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God.’

‘When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, thou SHALT turn to the LORD and SHALT be obedient to His voice; for the LORD thy God is a merciful God.’ Yes; because Israel’s God is what He is, the restoration and blessing are sure. Century after century has testified to Israel’s punishment, and the future is to testify to Israel’s restoration. This shall be.

Nay, rather, Jehovah is already beginning to fulfil verses 29 and 30 of this marvellous prophecy of three thousand years ago.

Two Special Landmarks

There are two special landmarks, so to speak, here.

1. When thou art in tribulation, or rather, the tribulation - for it is a special time marked by the definite article referred to in Jeremiah 30: 7 (read whole chapter for connection); also in Psalm 118: 5, where the word is translated ‘distress.’ ‘It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.’ This shows us that the great and final deliverance is still future, and that the prophecies of blessings, beginning to be fulfilled, are only marking the nearing approach to this final trouble and deliverance.

2. The words, ‘in the latter days’ (verse 30). This expression occurs only seven or eight times in the Old Testament. From Hosea 3: 4-5 we learn that in the latter days - the period definitely marked, all the passages concerning which should be carefully studied - Israel as a nation shall return and seek the LORD. This begins to close the many days during which they are to abide without a king and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without a pillar (margin), and without an ephod, and without teraphim.

Already there is a tide of a God-fearing and God-seeking spirit setting in among very large numbers of the poorer Jews - orthodox, but very ignorant. In this, too, we have a very definite sign of the nearing latter days. Well may we lift up our heads and rejoice! Surely ‘the Bridegroom cometh!’

One more thing. You will please notice that this remarkable prophecy from verses 25-30 is bracketed by verses 24 and 31 between the great Names of Jehovah, the God of Israel. It is ushered in by His assertion of His character as a ‘jealous God,’ and closes with His declaration and manifestation of His character as the ‘merciful God.’

Let it be well and prayerfully noticed that ALL God’s dealings are thus bracketed.

* * *

Israel’s Apostasy

By David Baron

(This is the second chapter of a small book entitled, ‘A Divine Forecast of Jewish History,’ by Mr Baron (1855-1926).

The first chapter was included in the previous issue of our magazine).

‘Ye ... shall corrupt yourselves’ (Deuteronomy 4: 25; see also 31: 29)

Let us now compare one or two of the outstanding points in the Divine forecast with the actual history of Israel. And first we notice that Israel's apostasy was foreseen and foretold.

‘Ye ... shall corrupt yourselves, and ... do evil in the sight of the LORD your God, to provoke Him to anger,’ - or, as we have it more definitely in Deuteronomy 31: 16, ‘Jehovah said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them.’ Now this, which once formed a subject of prophecy, is now a well-known and humiliating fact of history. Everybody knows about the sad failure and apostasy of Israel.

The history of Israel is utterly contrary to the favourite theory of the present day - viz., the theory of natural development and human progress in relation to things spiritual and Divine. In reading works on Biblical subjects by certain writers, one is struck with this fact, that when they speak of the Bible as a sacred book, it is not because they see in it a revelation which came down from God to man; but because they find in it, as they imagine, the very climax of human development in the moral sphere, and of man’s aspirations after God.

These writers are very fond of attributing to the Jewish people a genius for monotheism, or ‘a monotheistic genius,’ as Renan, who invented the phrase, expressed it; as if by this monotheistic genius Israel found God! It is not so very long ago since one of the Bishops read a paper at a Church Congress, in which he stated that, to begin with, Israel had nothing more than other Semitic peoples; but it was by their superior genius that they finally arrived at their monotheistic faith.

This theory will not stand historic investigation, and it is bound up with a number of fallacies. One of the great fallacies underlying this theory is that it confounds the faith of Israel with monotheism. There are forms of monotheism which, essentially, are not different from atheism. Such is the monotheism which reduced faith in God to an abstract formula. This is not the monotheism of the Bible; this is not the faith of Israel. In the chapter whence I have taken this passage, Moses, to impress Israel with the difference between them and all the nations of the earth, says, ‘Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know’ (4: 35).

This was the aim and end of God’s relations to them as a people. That thou mightiest know what? That there is a God? Or that God is one, which is the dead creed of the modern Synagogue and of a philosophic Unitarianism? - ‘That thou mightest know that Jehovah’ - the Infinite, Eternal, Unchangeable, but personal, living, holy, and gracious God, Who spoke to them, Who acted on their behalf, Who gave them promises, and Who entered into covenants; Who in His infinite grace and condescension took notice of every relationship and of every detail in the life of His people - ‘that thou mightiest know that Jehovah, He is God. There is none else beside Him. Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct thee: and upon earth He showed thee His great fire.’

And this Jehovah - was it by searching, was it by supposed monotheistic genius that Israel found Him? History and experience alike testify to the fact that it was not Israel who found God, but God Who found Israel.

In the song which Moses was instructed to put into the mouth of Israel as an everlasting memorial and testimony for God, we read: ‘He found him.’ God found Israel - ‘in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about (or literally, He encompassed him - He fenced him off and in from other nations), He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.’ Out of the gross darkness which history tells us covered the nations at that time, ‘the Glory of God’ appeared unto our father Abraham. The beginning of Israel’s history is in Genesis 12, and it commences with a miracle ‘Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house.’ That same voice which said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light,’ which brought the material universe into existence, now began to act in another sphere, and brought into existence the family and the people in whose midst the story of redemption was to be unfolded. ‘Jehovah had said.’ It was not that Abraham ascended and of his own self came to this knowledge; but the God of Glory descended, and His light broke upon the darkness of this world.

And it is ever so. Neither in his folly nor in his wisdom does man know God; nor can he arrive at a true knowledge of God by his own understanding. There has never been a man who has lifted up his heart to heaven and said, ‘Thy face, LORD, will I seek,’ to whom the voice of God came not first, saying, ‘Seek ye My face.’ Sometimes people speak of faith as independent of Scripture, and of Christianity as being independent of the Bible. These are all phrases. Faith, Christian faith, Bible faith, as Dr Saphir once expressed it, ‘is the echo of the Word of God in the soul of man.’ It presupposes a revelation. All that man is capable of, is to respond to God’s self-revelations.

When God comes down to us and tells us, we can say, ‘Yea, Amen,’ and act upon it. Experience shows that; and the history of Israel teaches us the same truth. It teaches us also a still more humbling truth, which men overlook: and that is, that not only is man, left to himself, incapable of arriving at a knowledge of the true God; but when that knowledge is Divinely communicated to him, man, left to himself, is incapable of retaining that knowledge in his heart: it requires the continual exercise of God’s power and God’s grace to keep it alive in his soul.

Look at this people, with the supposed genius of monotheism, which is meant to explain so much in the present day - so soon after the God of Glory appeared unto them, so soon after they heard that voice out of the midst of the fire, and saw all those wonderful things - dancing around a golden calf, and saying, ‘These be thy gods, O Israel.’

‘Ye shall corrupt yourselves,’ said Moses; and we know how, in later times, in spite of the warnings and remonstrances of inspired prophets and teachers, and in spite of the premonitory judgments of God, Israel utterly corrupted themselves, becoming worse and worse, so that the prophet, in realistic language, showing up idolatry as spiritual adultery against Jehovah, could truthfully say: ‘Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou has not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks’ (Jeremiah 12: 9).

Such is the natural tendency of man; and the lesson it teaches us as individuals is this: That we must ever seek and receive fresh supplies of grace in order to retain the knowledge of God in our souls, and to continue in His grace. With all the wisdom and knowledge and revelation of Himself, which the Lord may have given us, unless we keep in continual contact with the Living God we soon wander away and gravitate downward, because we are by nature ‘of the earth, earthy.’

* * *

Song of Ascents

By David Baron

(This exposition of Psalm 130 follows that of the previous Psalm in the July issue of Watching and Waiting. It is taken from the book ‘Types, Psalms, and Prophecies’).

From the outward deliverance of the Jews, and the terrible doom of their enemies, which is the subject of the preceding Psalm, we are next taken to the time when Israel’s heart shall be humbled, and when as a nation they shall turn to the Lord.

The 130^th Psalm is known as the 6^th of the ‘Penitential Psalms’ but there are very few who have seen in it the national repentance of Israel. The beginning is significant, ‘Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Jehovah,’ and yet it is inscribed, as we have seen, as a ‘Song of Ascents.’ But there is no inconsistency here; there is no way of ascent to the Mount of God except by a steep descent, and the higher we would ascend the lower we must descend.

Before we are fit for communion with God, or to enter into His thoughts, we must be brought to an end of ourselves; and the descent, as well as the ascent, is the result of the gracious work of His Own Holy Spirit. ‘The LORD killeth, and maketh alive’ (1 Samuel 2: 6). He bringeth down very low, but only in order to lift us up. In the case of Israel, ‘the depths’ of heart trouble on account of sin, and heart desire for God, will most probably be brought about by the depths of the outward sorrows and troubles of the culminating national ‘affliction,’ or tribulation, spoken of in the preceding Psalm. Blessed be God for those outward troubles, which drive us now, and will drive Israel by and by, into the arms and to the heart of God!

But when a man, or a nation, is brought into the depths, he is very much in earnest. It becomes a matter of urgency, and we want to be quite sure that we have God’s ear. This is seen in the 2^nd verse, ‘Lord, hear my voice: let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.’

It is also seen from the frequent use of the Name of God. No fewer than eight times are three different Names of God repeated in this short Psalm, as if the Psalmist, who in spirit here utters the soul of Israel, can do nothing else but wrestle with God, and cry, ‘O Jehovah’ (Thou Covenant, Faithful God); ‘O Adonai’ (Thou Sovereign Lord of all); ‘O Jah’ (Thou Self-existent, Living and Eternal God) - conscious that it is in His Own glorious Name that all their hope and strength lie.

‘If Thou, O Jah, shouldest mark iniquities’ (literally, watch), or take note of iniquity, so as to call man to account, without finding Thyself a way of escape for him, ‘O Adonai, who shall stand?’

This is a kind of challenge thrown down - let any son of Adam take it up. On the ground of sinlessness, on the ground of having no iniquity, there is not one who could stand before God. The blessings of innate purity and absolute innocence have never been tasted by the sons of man since the Fall, excepting by the One Holy One, in Whom there is no guile, neither was deceit found in His mouth. But He Who knew no sin took His stand before God as man’s substitute, bearing all the load of our sin upon Him, and since then we too may stand before Him, not indeed on the ground of our own righteousness, but on the ground of sin forgiven, and iniquity not imputed.

The word ‘Avon’ (iniquity) describes sin more in the radical sense, not so much the outward effects as the inward cause; not what we do, but what we are. It is not merely by reason of conscious or unconscious transgressions, but on account of the innate sinfulness of his nature, that man cannot ‘stand’ before God. But the same word is used in Psalm 32, where David speaks of ‘the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity,’ but instead, in consequence of the work of his Redeemer, knows the blessedness of having righteousness imputed to him apart from works (Romans 4: 6). This is something which Israel must yet learn, for at present, ignorant of God’s righteousness, they go about vainly seeking to establish their own righteousness, and think they can stand before God on the ground of their own merits or on the merits of their fathers.

But by and by, when they behold Him Who is ‘glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,’ and their eyes are opened to a sense of their own vileness, they will cry, ‘Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man (flesh) living be justified’ (Psalm 143: 2). Then they will be glad to take their stand before God on the ground of His grace expressing itself in forgiveness, as is seen in the next verse, ‘But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.’

This is one of the three or four passages in the Old Testament where the word rendered ‘forgiveness’ has a definite article before it. ‘There is the forgiveness with Thee.’ This will be a wonderful discovery made by Israel when their eyes are opened to look upon Him Whom they have pierced, and in the light of His wounded side, say, even as we do now, In Him ‘we have redemption (or literally, ‘the redemption,’ the redemption promised, the redemption typified now actually accomplished) through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace’ (Ephesians 1: 7).

There is only one way, and one ground of forgiveness, and we only deceive ourselves if it is not ‘according to the riches of His grace’ and ‘through His Blood.’ And those who read forgiveness written on the cross in the Blood of Christ can no longer think lightly of sin. Forgiveness after this manner, and at such a cost, creates a holy fear in man’s heart, a filial fear lest we fall again into that which our Father hates, and which the sacrifice of His Only-begotten Son could alone remove. The cross is a practical exhibition, not only of God’s love, but also of God’s holiness. It is only in the light of Calvary that we can form a right estimate, either of the love or the justice of God. ‘With Thee is the forgiveness that Thou mayest be feared.’

It will have this blessed effect upon Israel; for we read by and by, when as a nation they seek and find Jehovah their God, and David their king, and are reconciled and forgiven, that they shall fear toward the LORD and His goodness in the latter days (see Hosea 3: 5).

We now come to the 5^th verse, which is in keeping with what is told us in other prophecies of the attitude of the righteous remnant of Israel, when as a nation they are brought into ‘the depths’ - ‘I wait for Jehovah, my soul doth wait, and in His Word do I hope.’

This may be understood in a literal, personal sense. In Isaiah 25 and 26, which also deal with the events of the last days, we have similar language, ‘Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for Thee: the desire of our (my) soul is to (toward) Thy Name, and to (toward) the remembrance of Thee. With my soul have I desired Thee (my soul longs for Thee, for Thy personal interposition) in the night (of tribulation), yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early: (compare Hosea 5: 13), for when Thy judgments are in (overtake) the earth, (then) the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.’ And when at last, in the hour of their extremity, the heavens shall be rent and Messiah shall descend, and Israel’s eyes are opened to see in their deliverer none other than the long-rejected, crucified Jesus, they will cry in amazement and contrition, ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is (none other than) Jehovah, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation’ (Isaiah 25: 9).

And this waiting will not end in disappointment; this hope will not make ashamed, because it has the Word of the God of Truth for its foundation, ‘In His Word do I hope.’

There is, perhaps, no other subject which has so much of God’s Word for its basis, as the blessing and conversion of Israel. The whole Scripture is full of it, and God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent, ‘In God I will praise His Word, in God I have put my trust,’ will the remnant of Israel then say, and ‘I will not fear what flesh can do unto me’ (Psalm 56: 4). ‘In His Word do I hope.’ ‘He will turn again; He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old’ (Micah 7: 19-20).

Let us take care that we too have God’s Word for all our hopes and expectations, and let us too remember that we have to do with the same Jehovah, Whose faithfulness to Israel is a strong pledge of His faithfulness to us individually in Christ Jesus.

The intensity of the waiting is described in the next verse, ‘My soul waiteth for (is towards) the Lord more than they that watch (from the time of the watchers) for the morning.’

I believe that this verse is explained by the custom in connection with the Temple ritual. The morning sacrifice in the Temple had to be offered at a point of time between the first indications of dawn and actual sunrise; and during the last hours of the night a party of Levites, known as Shomerim la’bokker (watchers for the morning) used to take their stand on one of the higher pinnacles of the Temple to watch keenly for the first indications of approaching dawn. Meanwhile, at the altar of burnt offering everything was prepared and the priests stood ready.

At last the signal was given, in these words which are still preserved to us, ‘The sky is lit as far as Hebron!’ and when this cry was raised by the ‘watchers for the morning,’ the morning sacrifice was slain, and the daily routine of the Temple service commenced. Now with the same intentness as these Levites watched for the rising of the dawn, so, and ‘more than the watchers of the morning,’ will the remnant of Israel, ‘out of the depths’ look out for the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, Who is to bring them healing under His wings - for the breaking of the bright morning without clouds, which is to usher in the day of their national salvation, when the tears of their long night of trouble shall be all wiped away.

And this is our attitude also. We too are watching for the morning. The grace of God which appeared bringing salvation also teaches us that, denying ourselves in reference to ungodly or worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works (see Titus 2: 11-14).

In this passage the results of the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ are summed up in the words ‘grace and salvation,’ but we are looking ‘for the morning’ when grace shall be consummated in glory, when Israel’s Messiah and Deliverer shall descend also as the long-absent Bridegroom of the Church, and take His waiting people to be for ever with Himself. ‘Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus’ (Revelation 22: 20).

The last two verses are, as it were, God’s answer to Israel’s cry; they also show that the in verses 1 and 5 is Israel personified, ‘Let Israel hope in Jehovah,’ their hope will not put me to shame, ‘for with Jehovah (the covenant God of their fathers) there is mercy.’ Here again before the word ‘mercy’ or ‘grace’ there is the definite article - ‘the mercy’- the mercy stored up from everlasting; ‘the mercy’ displaying itself first of all in ‘the forgiveness’ (verse 4), procured by the life Blood of the Son of God; it is with Jehovah waiting to pour itself out on Israel on the first sign of repentance.

But you say, Has not the mercy of God already been exhausted by the many and long-continued apostasies of the gainsaying and disobedient nation? Oh, if you think or speak thus you know not the heart of Israel’s God, Whose mercy is infinite and everlasting, higher than the heavens, and unfathomable as the ocean. ‘With Jehovah there is mercy.’ Dear reader, is your heart in some measure like unto the heart of God? Is there mercy with you for the people whose temporary fall has occasioned your salvation, and the receiving of whom into God’s favour again shall be as life from the dead to the world?

Have you ever shown your mercy or compassion for Israel by pouring out your heart in prayer for their salvation, and by helping to take to them the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ - that message which gladdens your own heart, and is the only message of peace to man? If you have not, I can only say that you will be sorry for it ‘in the morning,’ by not being able, in this respect, to share the joy of your Redeemer Whose heart has never ceased to yearn ‘for them that are His flesh’ (Romans 9), and Who will soon return as your Lord and Israel’s King.

‘And with Him is plenteous redemption.’ The word translated ‘plenteous’ means also ‘much’ or ‘many,’ so that it can never be exhausted. It is the same word as is rendered ‘abundantly’ in Isaiah 55: 7, ‘Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto Jehovah, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.’

Yes, with Him is plenteous redemption - national and individual, temporal and spiritual. He redeemed Israel from Egypt, He brought a remnant back from Babylon, but He will again gather them from all parts of the world where they are now scattered, and better still, He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. The Redeemer shall come out of Zion and turn away the ungodliness from Jacob (see Romans 11: 26).

At the end of the Psalm 25 there is a prayer of David, ‘Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.’ This is how we often pray. We see Israel’s troubles and persecutions and we long and pray for deliverance, but God’s answer puts the matter in the right way, ‘He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.’ The underlying cause of Israel’s troubles is his iniquities, and when his iniquity shall be purged, and his relation to God is restored, then his troubles too will cease. Anyhow, it is well to note that God always puts that which is first, first.

In Psalm 103 the chief mercies of God are, so to say, catalogued, but that which heads the list is forgiveness, ‘Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,’ because that is the first and greatest of our needs. All other things follow, for ‘He that spared not His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ (Romans 8: 32).

So it will be with Israel. Once they look at Him Whom they have pierced, and wash at the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, then all earthly blessings shall be added unto them, and the land that has so long been waste shall again yield her increase and become the beauty of all lands.

THE END