It is so easy to read the Psalms and take them in an outward, natural way, for our comfort and our encouragement… but if we do this, we fail to see what the Psalms really reveal. In the Psalms there are four major words being developed and spoken of: Christ, the house, the city, and the earth!
What we see revealed in Psalms, if we have the divine view, is God’s Christ in His many aspects, processes, attainments, and all His attributes. Also, we see the church as God’s dwelling place – described with much love and appreciation. The Psalms also reveal the city of God, the kingdom of God, God’s reign and rule over the earth! God wants to gain the earth – not the heavens, but He wants to dwell with man, and His kingdom to expand until it fills the whole earth!
Actually, the whole Bible reveals only Christ, then the church, and then the reigning of Christ over the whole earth with the New Jerusalem as the center! We need to be turned in our view and our regarding of the Psalms from merely seeing the genuine experiences of the saints in the Old Testament concerning God’s mercy, kindness, love, faithfulness, power, and glory – to seeing Christ, the house, the city, and the earth!
According to the divine concept, from God’s point of view, the center and the content of all the praises and the experiences of the saints in the Old Testament(and our experiences also as the saints in the New Testament) is Christ, the house of God(which is the church), and the city of God(which is God’s kingdom, filling the whole earth).
Yes, in our praises we have the sentiments and the impressions gathered from our experience – but the center and the content of our praises are Christ and the church!
How much we need to have our view uplifted and changed when we read the Psalms and when we read the Bible! In the Psalms we see how the Holy Spirit turned the psalmists from the law (which they loved, treasured, read, and did their best to keep) to Christ(of whom they had no idea but they spoke of, prophesied, and looked forward to). The psalmists were seeking God, but in their seeking they made the law as the goal – and this is not what God desires! God wants us to turn from the law to Christ, a living Person!
This is why even while the psalmists were talking about the law, suddenly they had the realization that they can’t keep the law, they are sinners and full of sins, and so they turned to God! In their ignorant seeking of God, the psalmists spoke under God’s inspiration to minister Christ, to unveil the all-inclusive Christ in all His processes and in all His attributes.
We can say that we can see more of Christ in the Psalms – through their experience, description, and praises – than we see of Him in the New Testament! Christ is the center and the circumference of God’s economy, He is the hub and the rim, and He is everything to God and to man in God’s economy. Christ is everything – and He is in so many aspects!
He is not just simply “everything” – He is the centrality(He is the center of God and of everything) and the universality(He is filling all and in all, and everything positive in the universe is Christ). In the Crystallization-study of the Psalms there were some specific points and aspects of Christ listed and dug out from the Psalms, together with their New Testament correspondent / match, like:
- Christ in His divinity (Psa. 45:6; Heb. 1:8);
- Christ in His incarnation (Psa. 8:4; Heb. 2:6);
- Christ in His humanity (Psa. 8:4; Heb. 2:6);
- Christ in His human living (Psa. 16:1-8);
- Christ in His death (Psa. 22:1-21);
- Christ in His resurrection (2:7; 16:10; 22:22; Heb. 2:12; Acts 2:25-32; 13:33-37);
- Christ in His ascension (Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:8);
- Christ in His exaltation (Psa. 80:17; 110:1);
- Christ in His being crowned (Psa. 8:5; Heb. 2:9);
- Christ in His enthronement (Psa. 2:6);
- Christ in His dominion, kingship, and authority (Psa. 2:8, 8:6; 47:2; 72:8);
- Christ in His priesthood (Psa. 110:4);
- Christ in His fighting (Psa. 110:5-6; 45:3-5);
- Christ in His victory (Psa. 110:5-6);
- Christ in His indwelling (Psa. 22:22);
- Christ in His shepherding (Psa. 23);
- Christ as the stone for the building (Psa. 118:22);
- Christ in His coming (Psa. 72; 96; 110);
- Christ in His reigning (Psa. 93-101)
All these aspects of Christ are so richly described and developed in the Psalms, and fulfilled in their reality in the New Testament! We need to dig into these portions of the Word and enjoy our all-inclusive Christ as the center of the book of Psalms! [sharing inspired from Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms, as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of the Psalms]
Lord, uplift our view from seeing the natural things or the things that appeal to our natural man – to what is the divine view of the book of Psalms! May we see Christ as the centrality and universality of God! Unveil us to see the church as the house of God and the habitation of God and man. Cause us to see the city of God, God’s kingdom, as the enlargement and expansion of Christ on the earth. Lord, You desire to gain the earth and increase until You fill the whole earth – uplift our view and cause us to see this the way You see it! Make us fully one with You!