Many people love the Psalms because when they read the Psalms, “they speak to their heart”, matching their inward condition and their sentiments in seeking after God. But have you ever wondered what is the center, the reality, and the characteristic of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms? Is it the seeking one’s sentiments, comfort in sufferings, the cultivation of godliness, etc?
According to the entire revelation in the Bible, the spirit, the reality, the characteristic, of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is Christ as the centrality and universality of the eternal economy of God!
The spirit and the reality of the Psalms
Revelation 19:10 tells us that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy, and Luke 24:44 says that the Psalms – along with the Law and the Prophets – prophecy and speak about Christ. Christ is the center of God’s eternal economy, and He is the focus and the subject of the entire Bible.
In the Psalms we see specifically that Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, then He is the house of God, the habitation of God (as signified by the temple of God), the kingdom of God (as signified by the city of Jerusalem), and the Ruler of the entire earth (from the house of God and in the kingdom of God) (see (Psa. 2:6-8; 36:8-9; 46:4; 48:1-2; 72:8, 19). What a Christ!
When we read the Bible and especially when we read the Psalms we need to see what is the characteristic and the reality of the book of Psalms. Among all the sentiments of the psalmists in their seeking after God we see that there’s a very high revelation of the Christ of God as the center of God’s economy. Christ is all and in all according to God’s desire and for God’s good pleasure.
Christ is the center not only of the New Testament but of the entire Bible, including the book of Psalms. It is crucial for us to have a clear understanding of what the extract, the spirit, of the book of Psalms is.
Man was created to express and represent God
Whenever we read the Bible and in all our Christian life and living we need to know what God’s desire is, what is His purpose, His goal. God desires not only many Christians to be His people on the earth, but He desires a corporate expression among man, which will eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem.
For this, God created us in His image and according to His likeness (see Gen. 1:26) so that we may express Him and represent Him on the earth.God gave us His image so that we would look like Him and express Him. He made us in such a way that He would come into us as life and everything and be expressed through us.
Also, God created us not only with His image but also have us His dominion to represent Him over all things on the earth. God has an enemy, and He does not deal directly with His enemy – He wants man to subdue Satan, to recover the earth, and to exercise God’s dominion over the earth so that God’s will may be done on earth and God’s glory may be manifested on the earth (Matt. 6:10, 13).
We were created for this – to express God in His image and represent God with His dominion over all the earth. Even though the first man fell, Christ as the second man fulfilled God’s purpose and now the church expresses God and represents Him on the earth!
God is obtaining His corporate expression!
Today God is in the process of obtaining His corporate expression on the earth! If you look at humanity in general, man has failed God – this has only delayed the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Through the Body of Christ with Christ as the Head and the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11) God is being expressed and His dominion is being exercised.
The fulfillment of God’s desire to have a corporate group of people who express Him in His image and represent Him with His dominion is fulfilled in the overcoming believers in this age and in the age of the kingdom (see Phil. 1:19-26, Rev. 2:26-27).
Praise the Lord, we have a part in God’s purpose – we are God’s corporate expression on the earth! We as believers in Christ are God’s organic habitation on the earth by being terminated through Christ’s death and germinated through Christ’s resurrection. Christ is everything to us, and in the Body of Christ, He is all and in all so that He might be fully expressed.
Daily, Christ is becoming our reality in big and small things, and we learn to enjoy Him in all things so that He might practically be our all. Eventually, we will become the New Jerusalem, the glorious city where God’s image and dominion is seen in full (Rev. 4:3; 21:11, 18, 24; 22:5).
Thank You Lord for creating us in Your image and likeness to express You and represent You. Lord, save us from the fall of man and make us part of Your corporate expression on the earth. Thank You for including us in Your purpose by regenerating us and making us members of Your organic Body on the earth. Gain Your expression and Your dominion through the church. Gain the overcomers, Lord, who express You with Your image and represent You with Your dominion on the earth!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, Life-study of the Psalms (msg. 45), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 23.
- Recommended reading: see Gen. 1:26 and footnote 5, 1 Cor. 15:47b and footnote 2, Eph. 2:15 and footnote 8, 1 Cor. 12:12 and footnote 2;
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh, I’m a man – I’m the meaning of the universe. / God made me such.
# God created us His vessels / His expression to achieve;
# God’s intention in this universe is with humanity; - Picture source: the Psalms.
Amen! Hallelujah…What abounding grace we see in God's creation of man!
According to the entire revelation in the Bible, the spirit, the reality, the characteristic, of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is Christ as the centrality and universality of the eternal economy of God! Amen
Eventually, we will become the New Jerusalem, the glorious city where God’s image and dominion is seen in full Amen