The Divine Programme of The World’s History Chapter V. The Davidic Programme. – Part II.
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Continued from Chapter V. The Davidic Programme. – Part I..
IV. THE DAVIDIC PROGRAM FORETELLS, FURTHER, THAT THE ANOINTED KING OF DAVID’S LINE WOULD, BEFORE HIS EXALTATION, UNDERGO A PRELIMINARY EXPERIENCE OF REJECTION AND SUFFERING, OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION.
The Davidic Scriptures which might be quoted in illustration of this point are legion. The Book of Psalms is full of passages in which the contrasted elements of the sufferings and glories of the King are presented in succession and always in this order. The attentive reader cannot fail to be struck with the constant recurrence of this theme. We must allude in detail to only two or three of the most conspicuous illustrations.
The 22nd Psalm is perhaps the most perfect and typical specimen of these pictures of startlingly contrasted shadow and light, but the 69th and many others resemble it more or less closely. A careful perusal will show that it consists, first, of a long and bitter wail elicited by complicated sufferings, spiritual, mental, and physical; by soul distress and heart-breaking sorrow at apparent desertion by God; by shame and anguish of spirit; by cruel mockery and contempt of men; by agonizing conflict of mind caused by God’s dealings with His righteous servant; by the rough and brutal treatment of enemies; by bodily weakness and anguish; and by a sense of approaching death.
It is a blending of prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears which is absolutely unequalled in earth’s literature. It conveys a degree of pain, grief, and distress of body, mind, and spirit which are inconceivable to ordinary men. The strength of the poetic imagery labors in vain to embody the complicated anguish it strives to depict; the verses follow each other like the downward steps of a ladder which leads from the light of day to the depths of the bottomless pit. The expressions are singularly specific; definite speeches and gestures and actions of surrounding enemies are predicted. We meet, for instance, with the words: “They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. … They pierced My hands and My feet…. They part My garments among them, and cast lots for My vesture.”
The mournful minor notes of this melancholy dirge of death follow each other with an ever-deepening tone of misery down to the middle of the twenty-first verse. Then comes a sudden change: the minor key is resolved into the cheerful major, and from the words, “Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns” (or out of death itself), starts a glad paean of victory, a psalm of triumph, a vision of glory, and the description of a world-wide kingdom succeeds the graphic picture of rejection and cruel death. “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee…. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and He is the governor among the nations.”
The rejection and sufferings of Messiah prior to His exaltation are described also with much fullness and precision in Psalm lxix. He cries for deliverance from those who hate Him without a cause, and are wrongfully His enemies. He mourns that He has become a stranger to His brethren and an alien to His mother’s children; that, because of His zeal for God’s house, the reproaches of the ungodly fall upon Him; that He was the song of the drunkard, and a proverb to the people; that reproach had broken His heart, and none pitied Him; that He looked for comforters and found none; that the floods were about to swallow Him, and the pit to shut her mouth upon Him; and says, “they gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.”
The 16th Psalm goes further than any other—speaks of death not only as impending, but as accomplished. It presents the contrast between the blackest of all shadows and the brightest of all glories—that between the tomb and Hades, and the presence of God in heaven. We know the Psalm to be Messianic—that is, to treat of the great promised Son of David, from the apostolic quotations of it in the New Testament.
But quite apart from this, its prophetic character is proved by its absolute non-applicability to David himself. He, of course, expected to die and to see corruption. He writes of one who, though he was to die and be laid to rest in a tomb, would never see corruption, but be raised to tread the path of life, and to enjoy the presence of God and the pleasures at His right hand. “For Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Apart from actual suffering and death, the Davidic program makes it plain that the anointed king would encounter incessant and tremendous opposition from enemies before his enthronement. The Psalms relating to him abound with complaints of the determined opposition of the wicked to this righteous ruler and man after God’s own heart. The idea of enemies and foes occurs incessantly.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet I have set My king upon My holy hill of Zion. {Ps 2:6}
“Dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” {Ps 22:16}
“Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.” {Ps 45:5}
“They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty.” {Ps 69:4}
“The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” {Ps 110:2}
This is the spirit that breathes through the Messianic Psalms, and, indeed, through the whole Book of Psalms, and it is evident from the context that moral antagonism is the cause of the opposition experienced by the Righteous Sufferer. He says:—
“For Thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me.” {Ps 69:79}
The Righteous One destined to be the Ruler of the world is represented as experiencing, first, an opposition which gave Him an ever-present, all-pervading consciousness that He was surrounded by the wicked, and had to appeal to God’s righteousness against man’s iniquity. As a man, He is solitary among men, He is morally against the world, and the world against Him. He suffers from it instead of ruling it; endures its evil instead of putting a stop to it—anticipating all the time a different state of things, when the meek shall inherit the earth, the righteous flourish, the fear of God be universal, and all the workers of iniquity be fallen, cast down and unable to rise.
The question, of course, occurs: Does the program assign any reason for the strange preliminary experience of the great King—His experiences of cruel and successful opposition even unto death? Why should such a being stoop to such a life, and, above all, to such a death? If the double nature of David’s son was mysterious, not less so the double experience predicted. Why should He that was destined to rule and reign first suffer and die? Nay, why should the Son of God become man? Does the program go at all beyond facts, and hint at reasons? The 40th Psalm answers the question, and gives us the reply of the Messiah Himself to this inquiry. It is the one who, in verse 2, speaking of resurrection, says:
“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings, and hath put a new song into my mouth;” who in verse 6, adds, as accounting for his humiliation, “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.”
This passage shows the unsatisfactoriness of the Levitical sacrifices and offerings to Him who had appointed them for a time. They were only temporary and only typical. It also shows that under these circumstances One whose ears God had opened—or, as it is translated in the Septuagint, and quoted in Hebrews, for whom God had prepared a body comes forward expressly to accomplish His will. Moved by his delight in doing the will of God, Messiah volunteered to be a sacrifice, and to put away human sin by becoming a sin offering.
V. THE PROGRAM FORETELLS, FURTHER, THAT IN THE INTERVAL PRIOR TO HIS ASCENT TO HIS EARTHLY THRONE, THE SON OF DAVID WOULD BE CALLED TO OCCUPY A HEAVENLY THRONE, AND RULE FROM THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD IN HEAVEN.
“Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit thou at My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Here is a throne that is clearly neither on the earth nor of the earth; it is the throne of the majesty in the heavens—Jehovah’s throne. And yet David’s son, whom he calls here “my Lord,” is invited to take his seat thereon. It is not his own throne, not the predicted throne of David which he is to occupy for ever on earth. It is God’s throne, and the invitation to sit thereon at God’s right hand has its chronological limits. It is “until” something else be done—until I make thy foes thy footstool. This temporary enthronement in heaven must not be confounded with the promised permanent enthronement on earth. The difference between the two is wide, conspicuous, unmistakable. The program presents, not two aspects of one kingdom, but two kingdoms, two reigns, two widely different exercises of power. The one rule is exercised on earth, from Zion, over Jews and Gentiles for ever. The other is exercised from heaven, and for a time only. The heavenly reign is at a certain point to give way to the earthly. David’s son is to leave Jehovah’s throne, and assume his own throne, receiving the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, and being established as king on God’s holy hill of Zion.
Note: I can’t agree with the author’s “two kingdoms, two reigns” statement. There’s only one reference to two kingdoms in the entire Bible, and it says just the opposite of what Rev. Guinness is teaching! Ezekiel 37:22 says,
“And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:”
It seems to me that Rev. Guinness picked up the concept of two kingdoms from Darby’s dispensationalism. Darby taught there are two kingdoms! Quote from Darby’s The Dispensation of the Kingdom of Heaven. “…to understand fully the ground on which the kingdom of heaven now stands. We have here two other kingdoms-” the kingdom of their Father,” i.e., of the righteous; and “the kingdom of the Son of man.” In my opinion, that statement is nothing more than twisting Scripture.
That the anointed king, after his preliminary experience of rejection and death on earth, and prior to his final enthronement, should enjoy a heavenly exaltation, is a distinct feature of the Davidic program. Psalm xxiv. gives another view of it. The question is asked, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?” And the answer is given: “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” And then follows a vision of this righteous man ascending. The everlasting doors of heaven are swung open to admit him; he is welcomed as king of glory; he is hymned as having proved himself strong and mighty in battle, and welcomed to the world above as Lord of hosts and King of glory.
The same feature recurs in Psalm lxviii: “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” The exaltation of the rejected one is again foretold in Psalm cxviii: the opposition of enemies, the deadly struggle with evil men, the sore thrusts of the wicked are described, and the delivering help of God. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death,” is the glad cry that follows; and then the challenge: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord…
The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
VI. IT IS ALSO REVEALED THAT THE KING WAS TO EXERCISE A PRIESTLY AS WELL AS A KINGLY SWAY.
To the one who sits at God’s right hand in heaven during his rejection on earth are addressed the words: “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Now this is an additional feature of the program quite distinct from any that precede it. It is also one not founded on any fact in the life of David. He was never a priest; he ordered the courses of the priests, but could never assume priestly functions; he belonged to the tribe of Judah, of which Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. Now, a priest is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer sacrifice for sins, have compassion on the ignorant and on them who are out of the way, and be a mediator between God and man. A priest is one who makes intercession for the erring, and bestows sympathy and benediction. The above words show that David’s royal son was to be a priest as well as a king,—was to reign from heaven over human hearts, as well as from Zion over happy nations,—was to bless men religiously and spiritually, as well as by a righteous rule; he was to be a kingly priest, a priestly king, like Melchizedek, who was a king “first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace,” and also priest of the Most High God. It was in this capacity that He blessed Abraham, the patriarch bowing as the less before the greater. So the coming king was to exercise priestly functions as well as a kingly sway. This is a very notable point, and as plain in the program as it is singular.
VII. IT FORETELLS THAT THE EARTHLY KINGDOM OF DAVID’S SON WOULD BE INTRODUCED BY HIS RETURN IN GLORY FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH, AND BY THE EXECUTION OF TERRIBLE JUDGMENTS ON HIS FOES.
Whatever else the Davidic predictions included, or did not include, whether on earth or in heaven, it is unquestionable that they did include one thing—the government of his glorious Son over His own people, the nation of Israel, and His everlasting dominion over the land of promise. Unless this its primary idea be ultimately realized, the program will not have been fulfilled. This was the special point solemnly confirmed by an oath of Jehovah, and it was this which David styled “an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.”
Note: This is clearly based on the doctrine of Darby’s dispensationalism. He made a distinction between the Church and Israel. The Bible makes no such distinction! Galatians 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
It is perfectly clear, also, that the present spiritual kingdom of Christ does not include this distinctively Jewish element. It does not comprise any dominion over Israel nationally, or over the promised land territorially. The kingdom of God described in the 72nd Psalm has no resemblance whatever to the existing state of things, nor to any that ever has existed, or could exist, while the present dispensation lasts. The leading characteristic of these times is that they are “the times of the Gentiles”; that during their course the kingdom of God is given not to Jews, but to Gentiles. No extension, therefore, of what we call Christianity, could ever answer to the promised kingdom of David’s Son over the people of Israel in Palestine. (Note: But the first followers of Jesus of the early Church were nothing but Jews! Paul didn’t start to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles until after the stoning of Stephen or about three and a half years after Jesus was crucified.) No conversion and incorporation into the Church of individual Jews, however numerous, could fulfil the distinctive, solemnly confirmed promises of the Davidic covenant. And, further, never yet, even in the most Christian countries in their best and brightest days, have the perfected righteousness, peace, and blessing that are to characterize the coming kingdom of David’s Son, prevailed. No one can read the description of this without feeling at once that it pertains to the future, and not to the past or present. (Note: here again we see the influence of Darby’s doctrines of dispensationalism in Rev. Guinness’ book.)
Now, this future universal and eternal reign of David’s Son and Lord is anticipated not only in the 72nd Psalm, but in many others, and especially in the series xciii. to xcix.
“It is well known that the Messianic interpretation of each and every psalm, which is claimed as directly and exclusively predictive of Christ, was received by the Hebrews long before our Lord’s coming, and without any misgiving, or any trace of antagonistic opinion. The Rabbins, who are recognized as most faithful to old traditions, carry this system to quite as great an extent as the early Christian writers. A belief in Messiah, founded upon the prophecies, and specially upon typical or direct predictions in the Psalms, was one of the fundamentals of faith. This point is not contested by any critics; they may treat it as a superstition, as a mere delusion, but the fact remains, and it is certainly without a precedent or parallel in the history of religions. We must also bear in mind that the system was retained for centuries after the Hebrew teachers were fully aware of the difficulty which it presented in carrying on the controversy with Christians.”(Speaker’s Commentary p. 164.)
A glance at these Psalms will show that their theme is the establishment of the theocracy in its final form on earth. Their keynote is the sentence, THE LORD REIGNETH, or “has begun to reign.”
“O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: He shall judge the people righteously.” {Ps 96:9, 10}
“The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory. For Thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all gods.” {Ps 97:16, 9}
“The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: He sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and He is high above all the people…. The king’s strength loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity; thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob” (Ps. xcix. i, 2, ard 4).
It is the kingdom come at last—the universal and eternal earthly kingdom of the Son of David. Its sphere is terrestrial, for the word is, “Let the earth rejoice.” He is called “The Lord of the whole earth,” and it is stated that all people see His glory. All the earth is called upon to make a joyful noise to the Lord, the world, and they that dwell therein; the people are told to tremble, and the earth to be moved, because the Lord is great in Zion. There is nothing heavenly in the description. It is a vision of the realization of the universal earthly kingdom so long foretold.
Two prominent features must be especially noted in these triumphant Psalms. There is in them the element of a personal appearing to introduce the reign, and cause the joy and bliss described; and there is in them also the element of the execution of judgment on enemies.
1. The introduction of this kingdom is by the coming of the King to earth. HE COMETH, He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.{Ps 96:13} And, again, it is repeated, “He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity.” {Ps 98:9} The King who had ascended up on high, leading captivity captive, and who had taken His seat at God’s right hand in heaven, arises from that seat—the period until which He was to occupy it having been fulfilled — and descends in glory to rule and reign, not as before, to suffer and die.
2. And, secondly, let it be noted that the establishment of the kingdom is effected by means of judgment. “A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about.” “Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Thy judgments, O Lord.” “His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory.”
“Whatever historical allusions may be contained in Ps 93:3 to the past or present assaults of the world-powers upon Israel, this psalm, the first of a remarkable series of theocratic psalms, anticipates the period of Jehovah’s personal manifestation of Himself as the King of the whole earth. (Cf Rev. 11:15, 17, and xix. 6.)
The Lord reigneth. Rather, “Jehovah is King,” i.e. He now reigns: His kingdom is visibly established, His foes being made His footstool: Prayer-Book version, “The Lord is King.” The verb in the same tense is commonly used to denote the beginning of a new reign. (Cf. Kings i. 18: “Adonijah reigneth.” Cf. also 1 Kings 22:41 2 Kings 3:1, 15:13; 2 Chronicles 29:1; in all of which places it is rendered in the Authorized Version, “began to reign.”) The theocracy, as has been observed by Delitzsch in his introduction to this psalm, had its first manifestation when Jehovah became the King of Israel, {Ex 15:18} and it will receive its completion when the King of Israel becomes the King of a whole world subdued, both outwardly and inwardly, to Himself. The verb which is here rendered “is (or has become) King,” or, as Delitzsch renders it, “is now King,” is here used in reference to the inauguration of the theocracy in its final and complete manifestation. This is the watchword of the theocratic psalms. (Cf. Psalms xcvi. in, xcvii. m, xcix. i.)
Whether the first and second advents of the Messiah be or be not regarded here, as in other Old Testament prophecies, as parts of one connected whole, this psalm has reference to the coming of the Messiah as David’s Lord—not as David’s Son; as Jehovah, the Lord and King of the whole earth—not as the “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” . . .
The Psalmist is here again carried onward by the inspiring Spirit into the great day of the Lord, and calls upon the faithful to proclaim the personal advent of Jehovah, and His assumption of the kingdom.
The psalm itself contains conclusive evidence that it reaches forward not only to the first advent of Christ, but also from thence to “the consummation of all things.”—(“Speaker’s Commentary,” 382, 389, 390-I.)
This is the period to which apply also the statements of the Messianic Psalms we have before considered:—
“Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” {Ps 2:9}
“Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, 0 Most Mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty. And in Thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall tinder Thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre.” {Ps 45:3-6}
“The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries.” {Ps 110:5, 6}
When we reach our last section, we shall see that this future earthly kingdom of Christ is by no means all that is foretold in Scripture. It is not by any means the highest or fullest conception which inspiration gives us of the “ages to come.” We could not expect to gather the whole truth from the Davidic program, any more than from the earlier revelations. It was given three thousand years ago, in the midst of the Jewish dispensation. It revealed immensely more than had been previously revealed, but it did not reveal all that we now know. It presented a blissful future to the faith of believing Israelites, and taught, moreover, that in the Divine Messiah who should come and restore all things lay the hope, not of Israel only, but of humanity. It gave also a glimpse of the present reign of the priestly king from God’s right hand in heaven, but it did not make known what Paul calls the mystery of God’s will.{Eph 1:9} The Messiah King is to wear “many crowns,” amongst which that of earth will be only one. Later on we shall see the outshining of this New Testament light. A clear conception of this revelation to David about the earthly kingdom of his Son will, however, prepare us to estimate with greater correctness the varied aspects of the many-sided kingdom of God.
Such then was the seven-fold program given to David. It foretold, first, the career of Solomon and the permanence of the Davidic dynasty on the throne of Judah; and then, passing from the near and easily credible future to a more distant and almost incredible one, it announced that a lineal descendant of David was destined, in the purposes of God, ultimately to succeed to his throne in Zion, and from it to exercise a righteous, peaceful, glorious, blessed, universal, and eternal sway over mankind; that this royal son of David would be also the begotten Son of God, uniting thus in His own person divinity and humanity, with their respective attributes and responsibilities; that He would experience inveterate opposition from the kings and peoples of the earth; and that, prior to His exaltation over His enemies, He would endure at their hands the utmost humiliation and suffering, be hated without a cause, betrayed by His own familiar friend, mocked, insulted, and persecuted by His foes; that He would at last be put to death by crucifixion, and laid in a grave, though His body would not remain in the tomb long enough for His flesh to see corruption; that, on the contrary, God would show Him the path of life, and, raising Him from the dead, invite Him to sit at His own right hand, and rule from heaven in the midst of His enemies, promising that ultimately they should be made His footstool, and His throne be established in Zion.
It foretells that the risen, earth-rejected but heaven-accepted King would, when thus ascending on high, “lead captivity captive,” or take others also, redeemed from the power of death, with Him; that He would “receive gifts for men, even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them”; that He would be like a stone refused by the builders, yet made the head of the corner. It foretells that the rule He would exercise from heaven, and afterwards even for ever, would be that of a royal priest, or priestly king, like Melchizedek; and that, at last, leaving His position in the heavens, rising up from His seat at the right hand of God, He would appear in His glory on earth to build up Zion, assume the throne of His father David, destroy for ever all His foes, and establish His everlasting kingdom.
Now it is needless to say that the last part of this program is not yet fulfilled; for the manifested kingdom of God on earth we are still patiently waiting, praying daily, “Thy kingdom come.” But it is equally clear that a very large part of this Davidic program has actually already become fact. Unlikely of fulfillment as it seemed when given, incomprehensible and almost inconceivable as were some of its particulars, they have come to pass, and the lapse of well-nigh two thousand years since they did this has so familiarized them to the minds of men that they scarcely realize or observe them as fulfillments of Davidic prophecy.
Some of the leading features of the program were fulfilled in the first advent of Christ, others are now being fulfilled in this Christian age, while others remain to be fulfilled at His second coming and kingdom. The evidential argument we are developing, arises, of course, exclusively from the past and the present fulfillments. In due time the future will add its confirmation, though for the present it is matter of faith rather than of sight. The accomplishment of two-thirds of the program is, however, good ground for expecting with calm confidence the fulfillment in its season of the remaining third.
And first as to the past events which have fallen out as indicated by the Davidic program. Solomon, we know, reigned in peace and prosperity, building, as foretold, the splendid temple of God at Jerusalem; a long series of nineteen kings of his lineage and blood succeeded him, and reigned in Jerusalem for nearly four centuries. The usurper Athaliah sought on one occasion to destroy the royal seed, but she miserably failed. David’s sons continued to occupy David’s throne until the day of the captivity of the land, when for their sins God allowed them to fall before Nebuchadnezzar, and the great week of “The times of the Gentiles” began. But Israel knew that the covenant and oath of God could not fail, and they waited for the promised coming of “Messiah the Prince” to restore the throne of David. In the fullness of time He came; “Jesus Christ our Lord was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” {Ro 1:3} He was born of a virgin of the house of David, heralded beforehand by the angelic announcement: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David. and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”
Continued from Chapter V. The Davidic Programme. – Part I..
IV. THE DAVIDIC PROGRAM FORETELLS, FURTHER, THAT THE ANOINTED KING OF DAVID’S LINE WOULD, BEFORE HIS EXALTATION, UNDERGO A PRELIMINARY EXPERIENCE OF REJECTION AND SUFFERING, OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION.
The Davidic Scriptures which might be quoted in illustration of this point are legion. The Book of Psalms is full of passages in which the contrasted elements of the sufferings and glories of the King are presented in succession and always in this order. The attentive reader cannot fail to be struck with the constant recurrence of this theme. We must allude in detail to only two or three of the most conspicuous illustrations.
The 22nd Psalm is perhaps the most perfect and typical specimen of these pictures of startlingly contrasted shadow and light, but the 69th and many others resemble it more or less closely. A careful perusal will show that it consists, first, of a long and bitter wail elicited by complicated sufferings, spiritual, mental, and physical; by soul distress and heart-breaking sorrow at apparent desertion by God; by shame and anguish of spirit; by cruel mockery and contempt of men; by agonizing conflict of mind caused by God’s dealings with His righteous servant; by the rough and brutal treatment of enemies; by bodily weakness and anguish; and by a sense of approaching death.
It is a blending of prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears which is absolutely unequalled in earth’s literature. It conveys a degree of pain, grief, and distress of body, mind, and spirit which are inconceivable to ordinary men. The strength of the poetic imagery labors in vain to embody the complicated anguish it strives to depict; the verses follow each other like the downward steps of a ladder which leads from the light of day to the depths of the bottomless pit. The expressions are singularly specific; definite speeches and gestures and actions of surrounding enemies are predicted. We meet, for instance, with the words: “They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. … They pierced My hands and My feet…. They part My garments among them, and cast lots for My vesture.”
The mournful minor notes of this melancholy dirge of death follow each other with an ever-deepening tone of misery down to the middle of the twenty-first verse. Then comes a sudden change: the minor key is resolved into the cheerful major, and from the words, “Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns” (or out of death itself), starts a glad paean of victory, a psalm of triumph, a vision of glory, and the description of a world-wide kingdom succeeds the graphic picture of rejection and cruel death. “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee…. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and He is the governor among the nations.”
The rejection and sufferings of Messiah prior to His exaltation are described also with much fullness and precision in Psalm lxix. He cries for deliverance from those who hate Him without a cause, and are wrongfully His enemies. He mourns that He has become a stranger to His brethren and an alien to His mother’s children; that, because of His zeal for God’s house, the reproaches of the ungodly fall upon Him; that He was the song of the drunkard, and a proverb to the people; that reproach had broken His heart, and none pitied Him; that He looked for comforters and found none; that the floods were about to swallow Him, and the pit to shut her mouth upon Him; and says, “they gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.”
The 16th Psalm goes further than any other—speaks of death not only as impending, but as accomplished. It presents the contrast between the blackest of all shadows and the brightest of all glories—that between the tomb and Hades, and the presence of God in heaven. We know the Psalm to be Messianic—that is, to treat of the great promised Son of David, from the apostolic quotations of it in the New Testament.
But quite apart from this, its prophetic character is proved by its absolute non-applicability to David himself. He, of course, expected to die and to see corruption. He writes of one who, though he was to die and be laid to rest in a tomb, would never see corruption, but be raised to tread the path of life, and to enjoy the presence of God and the pleasures at His right hand. “For Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Apart from actual suffering and death, the Davidic program makes it plain that the anointed king would encounter incessant and tremendous opposition from enemies before his enthronement. The Psalms relating to him abound with complaints of the determined opposition of the wicked to this righteous ruler and man after God’s own heart. The idea of enemies and foes occurs incessantly.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet I have set My king upon My holy hill of Zion. {Ps 2:6}
“Dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” {Ps 22:16}
“Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.” {Ps 45:5}
“They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty.” {Ps 69:4}
“The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” {Ps 110:2}
This is the spirit that breathes through the Messianic Psalms, and, indeed, through the whole Book of Psalms, and it is evident from the context that moral antagonism is the cause of the opposition experienced by the Righteous Sufferer. He says:—
“For Thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me.” {Ps 69:79}
The Righteous One destined to be the Ruler of the world is represented as experiencing, first, an opposition which gave Him an ever-present, all-pervading consciousness that He was surrounded by the wicked, and had to appeal to God’s righteousness against man’s iniquity. As a man, He is solitary among men, He is morally against the world, and the world against Him. He suffers from it instead of ruling it; endures its evil instead of putting a stop to it—anticipating all the time a different state of things, when the meek shall inherit the earth, the righteous flourish, the fear of God be universal, and all the workers of iniquity be fallen, cast down and unable to rise.
The question, of course, occurs: Does the program assign any reason for the strange preliminary experience of the great King—His experiences of cruel and successful opposition even unto death? Why should such a being stoop to such a life, and, above all, to such a death? If the double nature of David’s son was mysterious, not less so the double experience predicted. Why should He that was destined to rule and reign first suffer and die? Nay, why should the Son of God become man? Does the program go at all beyond facts, and hint at reasons? The 40th Psalm answers the question, and gives us the reply of the Messiah Himself to this inquiry. It is the one who, in verse 2, speaking of resurrection, says:
“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings, and hath put a new song into my mouth;” who in verse 6, adds, as accounting for his humiliation, “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.”
This passage shows the unsatisfactoriness of the Levitical sacrifices and offerings to Him who had appointed them for a time. They were only temporary and only typical. It also shows that under these circumstances One whose ears God had opened—or, as it is translated in the Septuagint, and quoted in Hebrews, for whom God had prepared a body comes forward expressly to accomplish His will. Moved by his delight in doing the will of God, Messiah volunteered to be a sacrifice, and to put away human sin by becoming a sin offering.
V. THE PROGRAM FORETELLS, FURTHER, THAT IN THE INTERVAL PRIOR TO HIS ASCENT TO HIS EARTHLY THRONE, THE SON OF DAVID WOULD BE CALLED TO OCCUPY A HEAVENLY THRONE, AND RULE FROM THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD IN HEAVEN.
“Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit thou at My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Here is a throne that is clearly neither on the earth nor of the earth; it is the throne of the majesty in the heavens—Jehovah’s throne. And yet David’s son, whom he calls here “my Lord,” is invited to take his seat thereon. It is not his own throne, not the predicted throne of David which he is to occupy for ever on earth. It is God’s throne, and the invitation to sit thereon at God’s right hand has its chronological limits. It is “until” something else be done—until I make thy foes thy footstool. This temporary enthronement in heaven must not be confounded with the promised permanent enthronement on earth. The difference between the two is wide, conspicuous, unmistakable. The program presents, not two aspects of one kingdom, but two kingdoms, two reigns, two widely different exercises of power. The one rule is exercised on earth, from Zion, over Jews and Gentiles for ever. The other is exercised from heaven, and for a time only. The heavenly reign is at a certain point to give way to the earthly. David’s son is to leave Jehovah’s throne, and assume his own throne, receiving the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, and being established as king on God’s holy hill of Zion.
Note: I can’t agree with the author’s “two kingdoms, two reigns” statement. There’s only one reference to two kingdoms in the entire Bible, and it says just the opposite of what Rev. Guinness is teaching! Ezekiel 37:22 says,
“And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:”
It seems to me that Rev. Guinness picked up the concept of two kingdoms from Darby’s dispensationalism. Darby taught there are two kingdoms! Quote from Darby’s The Dispensation of the Kingdom of Heaven. “…to understand fully the ground on which the kingdom of heaven now stands. We have here two other kingdoms-” the kingdom of their Father,” i.e., of the righteous; and “the kingdom of the Son of man.” In my opinion, that statement is nothing more than twisting Scripture.
That the anointed king, after his preliminary experience of rejection and death on earth, and prior to his final enthronement, should enjoy a heavenly exaltation, is a distinct feature of the Davidic program. Psalm xxiv. gives another view of it. The question is asked, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?” And the answer is given: “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” And then follows a vision of this righteous man ascending. The everlasting doors of heaven are swung open to admit him; he is welcomed as king of glory; he is hymned as having proved himself strong and mighty in battle, and welcomed to the world above as Lord of hosts and King of glory.
The same feature recurs in Psalm lxviii: “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” The exaltation of the rejected one is again foretold in Psalm cxviii: the opposition of enemies, the deadly struggle with evil men, the sore thrusts of the wicked are described, and the delivering help of God. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death,” is the glad cry that follows; and then the challenge: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord…
The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
VI. IT IS ALSO REVEALED THAT THE KING WAS TO EXERCISE A PRIESTLY AS WELL AS A KINGLY SWAY.
To the one who sits at God’s right hand in heaven during his rejection on earth are addressed the words: “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Now this is an additional feature of the program quite distinct from any that precede it. It is also one not founded on any fact in the life of David. He was never a priest; he ordered the courses of the priests, but could never assume priestly functions; he belonged to the tribe of Judah, of which Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. Now, a priest is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer sacrifice for sins, have compassion on the ignorant and on them who are out of the way, and be a mediator between God and man. A priest is one who makes intercession for the erring, and bestows sympathy and benediction. The above words show that David’s royal son was to be a priest as well as a king,—was to reign from heaven over human hearts, as well as from Zion over happy nations,—was to bless men religiously and spiritually, as well as by a righteous rule; he was to be a kingly priest, a priestly king, like Melchizedek, who was a king “first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace,” and also priest of the Most High God. It was in this capacity that He blessed Abraham, the patriarch bowing as the less before the greater. So the coming king was to exercise priestly functions as well as a kingly sway. This is a very notable point, and as plain in the program as it is singular.
VII. IT FORETELLS THAT THE EARTHLY KINGDOM OF DAVID’S SON WOULD BE INTRODUCED BY HIS RETURN IN GLORY FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH, AND BY THE EXECUTION OF TERRIBLE JUDGMENTS ON HIS FOES.
Whatever else the Davidic predictions included, or did not include, whether on earth or in heaven, it is unquestionable that they did include one thing—the government of his glorious Son over His own people, the nation of Israel, and His everlasting dominion over the land of promise. Unless this its primary idea be ultimately realized, the program will not have been fulfilled. This was the special point solemnly confirmed by an oath of Jehovah, and it was this which David styled “an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.”
Note: This is clearly based on the doctrine of Darby’s dispensationalism. He made a distinction between the Church and Israel. The Bible makes no such distinction! Galatians 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
It is perfectly clear, also, that the present spiritual kingdom of Christ does not include this distinctively Jewish element. It does not comprise any dominion over Israel nationally, or over the promised land territorially. The kingdom of God described in the 72nd Psalm has no resemblance whatever to the existing state of things, nor to any that ever has existed, or could exist, while the present dispensation lasts. The leading characteristic of these times is that they are “the times of the Gentiles”; that during their course the kingdom of God is given not to Jews, but to Gentiles. No extension, therefore, of what we call Christianity, could ever answer to the promised kingdom of David’s Son over the people of Israel in Palestine. (Note: But the first followers of Jesus of the early Church were nothing but Jews! Paul didn’t start to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles until after the stoning of Stephen or about three and a half years after Jesus was crucified.) No conversion and incorporation into the Church of individual Jews, however numerous, could fulfil the distinctive, solemnly confirmed promises of the Davidic covenant. And, further, never yet, even in the most Christian countries in their best and brightest days, have the perfected righteousness, peace, and blessing that are to characterize the coming kingdom of David’s Son, prevailed. No one can read the description of this without feeling at once that it pertains to the future, and not to the past or present. (Note: here again we see the influence of Darby’s doctrines of dispensationalism in Rev. Guinness’ book.)
Now, this future universal and eternal reign of David’s Son and Lord is anticipated not only in the 72nd Psalm, but in many others, and especially in the series xciii. to xcix.
“It is well known that the Messianic interpretation of each and every psalm, which is claimed as directly and exclusively predictive of Christ, was received by the Hebrews long before our Lord’s coming, and without any misgiving, or any trace of antagonistic opinion. The Rabbins, who are recognized as most faithful to old traditions, carry this system to quite as great an extent as the early Christian writers. A belief in Messiah, founded upon the prophecies, and specially upon typical or direct predictions in the Psalms, was one of the fundamentals of faith. This point is not contested by any critics; they may treat it as a superstition, as a mere delusion, but the fact remains, and it is certainly without a precedent or parallel in the history of religions. We must also bear in mind that the system was retained for centuries after the Hebrew teachers were fully aware of the difficulty which it presented in carrying on the controversy with Christians.”(Speaker’s Commentary p. 164.)
A glance at these Psalms will show that their theme is the establishment of the theocracy in its final form on earth. Their keynote is the sentence, THE LORD REIGNETH, or “has begun to reign.”
“O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: He shall judge the people righteously.” {Ps 96:9, 10}
“The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory. For Thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all gods.” {Ps 97:16, 9}
“The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: He sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and He is high above all the people…. The king’s strength loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity; thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob” (Ps. xcix. i, 2, ard 4).
It is the kingdom come at last—the universal and eternal earthly kingdom of the Son of David. Its sphere is terrestrial, for the word is, “Let the earth rejoice.” He is called “The Lord of the whole earth,” and it is stated that all people see His glory. All the earth is called upon to make a joyful noise to the Lord, the world, and they that dwell therein; the people are told to tremble, and the earth to be moved, because the Lord is great in Zion. There is nothing heavenly in the description. It is a vision of the realization of the universal earthly kingdom so long foretold.
Two prominent features must be especially noted in these triumphant Psalms. There is in them the element of a personal appearing to introduce the reign, and cause the joy and bliss described; and there is in them also the element of the execution of judgment on enemies.
1. The introduction of this kingdom is by the coming of the King to earth. HE COMETH, He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.{Ps 96:13} And, again, it is repeated, “He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity.” {Ps 98:9} The King who had ascended up on high, leading captivity captive, and who had taken His seat at God’s right hand in heaven, arises from that seat—the period until which He was to occupy it having been fulfilled — and descends in glory to rule and reign, not as before, to suffer and die.
2. And, secondly, let it be noted that the establishment of the kingdom is effected by means of judgment. “A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about.” “Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Thy judgments, O Lord.” “His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory.”
“Whatever historical allusions may be contained in Ps 93:3 to the past or present assaults of the world-powers upon Israel, this psalm, the first of a remarkable series of theocratic psalms, anticipates the period of Jehovah’s personal manifestation of Himself as the King of the whole earth. (Cf Rev. 11:15, 17, and xix. 6.)
The Lord reigneth. Rather, “Jehovah is King,” i.e. He now reigns: His kingdom is visibly established, His foes being made His footstool: Prayer-Book version, “The Lord is King.” The verb in the same tense is commonly used to denote the beginning of a new reign. (Cf. Kings i. 18: “Adonijah reigneth.” Cf. also 1 Kings 22:41 2 Kings 3:1, 15:13; 2 Chronicles 29:1; in all of which places it is rendered in the Authorized Version, “began to reign.”) The theocracy, as has been observed by Delitzsch in his introduction to this psalm, had its first manifestation when Jehovah became the King of Israel, {Ex 15:18} and it will receive its completion when the King of Israel becomes the King of a whole world subdued, both outwardly and inwardly, to Himself. The verb which is here rendered “is (or has become) King,” or, as Delitzsch renders it, “is now King,” is here used in reference to the inauguration of the theocracy in its final and complete manifestation. This is the watchword of the theocratic psalms. (Cf. Psalms xcvi. in, xcvii. m, xcix. i.)
Whether the first and second advents of the Messiah be or be not regarded here, as in other Old Testament prophecies, as parts of one connected whole, this psalm has reference to the coming of the Messiah as David’s Lord—not as David’s Son; as Jehovah, the Lord and King of the whole earth—not as the “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” . . .
The Psalmist is here again carried onward by the inspiring Spirit into the great day of the Lord, and calls upon the faithful to proclaim the personal advent of Jehovah, and His assumption of the kingdom.
The psalm itself contains conclusive evidence that it reaches forward not only to the first advent of Christ, but also from thence to “the consummation of all things.”—(“Speaker’s Commentary,” 382, 389, 390-I.)
This is the period to which apply also the statements of the Messianic Psalms we have before considered:—
“Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” {Ps 2:9}
“Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, 0 Most Mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty. And in Thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall tinder Thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre.” {Ps 45:3-6}
“The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries.” {Ps 110:5, 6}
When we reach our last section, we shall see that this future earthly kingdom of Christ is by no means all that is foretold in Scripture. It is not by any means the highest or fullest conception which inspiration gives us of the “ages to come.” We could not expect to gather the whole truth from the Davidic program, any more than from the earlier revelations. It was given three thousand years ago, in the midst of the Jewish dispensation. It revealed immensely more than had been previously revealed, but it did not reveal all that we now know. It presented a blissful future to the faith of believing Israelites, and taught, moreover, that in the Divine Messiah who should come and restore all things lay the hope, not of Israel only, but of humanity. It gave also a glimpse of the present reign of the priestly king from God’s right hand in heaven, but it did not make known what Paul calls the mystery of God’s will.{Eph 1:9} The Messiah King is to wear “many crowns,” amongst which that of earth will be only one. Later on we shall see the outshining of this New Testament light. A clear conception of this revelation to David about the earthly kingdom of his Son will, however, prepare us to estimate with greater correctness the varied aspects of the many-sided kingdom of God.
Such then was the seven-fold program given to David. It foretold, first, the career of Solomon and the permanence of the Davidic dynasty on the throne of Judah; and then, passing from the near and easily credible future to a more distant and almost incredible one, it announced that a lineal descendant of David was destined, in the purposes of God, ultimately to succeed to his throne in Zion, and from it to exercise a righteous, peaceful, glorious, blessed, universal, and eternal sway over mankind; that this royal son of David would be also the begotten Son of God, uniting thus in His own person divinity and humanity, with their respective attributes and responsibilities; that He would experience inveterate opposition from the kings and peoples of the earth; and that, prior to His exaltation over His enemies, He would endure at their hands the utmost humiliation and suffering, be hated without a cause, betrayed by His own familiar friend, mocked, insulted, and persecuted by His foes; that He would at last be put to death by crucifixion, and laid in a grave, though His body would not remain in the tomb long enough for His flesh to see corruption; that, on the contrary, God would show Him the path of life, and, raising Him from the dead, invite Him to sit at His own right hand, and rule from heaven in the midst of His enemies, promising that ultimately they should be made His footstool, and His throne be established in Zion.
It foretells that the risen, earth-rejected but heaven-accepted King would, when thus ascending on high, “lead captivity captive,” or take others also, redeemed from the power of death, with Him; that He would “receive gifts for men, even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them”; that He would be like a stone refused by the builders, yet made the head of the corner. It foretells that the rule He would exercise from heaven, and afterwards even for ever, would be that of a royal priest, or priestly king, like Melchizedek; and that, at last, leaving His position in the heavens, rising up from His seat at the right hand of God, He would appear in His glory on earth to build up Zion, assume the throne of His father David, destroy for ever all His foes, and establish His everlasting kingdom.
Now it is needless to say that the last part of this program is not yet fulfilled; for the manifested kingdom of God on earth we are still patiently waiting, praying daily, “Thy kingdom come.” But it is equally clear that a very large part of this Davidic program has actually already become fact. Unlikely of fulfillment as it seemed when given, incomprehensible and almost inconceivable as were some of its particulars, they have come to pass, and the lapse of well-nigh two thousand years since they did this has so familiarized them to the minds of men that they scarcely realize or observe them as fulfillments of Davidic prophecy.
Some of the leading features of the program were fulfilled in the first advent of Christ, others are now being fulfilled in this Christian age, while others remain to be fulfilled at His second coming and kingdom. The evidential argument we are developing, arises, of course, exclusively from the past and the present fulfillments. In due time the future will add its confirmation, though for the present it is matter of faith rather than of sight. The accomplishment of two-thirds of the program is, however, good ground for expecting with calm confidence the fulfillment in its season of the remaining third.
And first as to the past events which have fallen out as indicated by the Davidic program. Solomon, we know, reigned in peace and prosperity, building, as foretold, the splendid temple of God at Jerusalem; a long series of nineteen kings of his lineage and blood succeeded him, and reigned in Jerusalem for nearly four centuries. The usurper Athaliah sought on one occasion to destroy the royal seed, but she miserably failed. David’s sons continued to occupy David’s throne until the day of the captivity of the land, when for their sins God allowed them to fall before Nebuchadnezzar, and the great week of “The times of the Gentiles” began. But Israel knew that the covenant and oath of God could not fail, and they waited for the promised coming of “Messiah the Prince” to restore the throne of David. In the fullness of time He came; “Jesus Christ our Lord was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” {Ro 1:3} He was born of a virgin of the house of David, heralded beforehand by the angelic announcement: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David. and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”
The common people and the little children, with truer instincts, might indeed shout: “Hosanna to the Son of David! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Pilate in mockery might announce the truth in the exclamation: “Behold your King”; but the nation, represented by its chief priests, rulers, and scribes, denied the Holy One, and said: “We will not have this man to reign over us.” They chose Barabbas the robber, and shouted: “We have no king but Caesar! As to this son of David, crucify Him. Whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar.” They were offended by Pilate’s inscription over the cross; alleging that the title, though claimed by Christ, did not belong to Him. Yet there it remained in spite of their protest, a public recognition that the rejected Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the King of the Jews.
Then lastly, and still in accordance with the Davidic program, even down to the minutest particular—piercing His hands and His feet, casting lots for His vesture, and in His thirst giving Him vinegar to drink—they killed the Prince of life. And here their action and their power ended, and God’s action began. In harmony with the outline in the Psalms, Messiah’s soul was not left in Hades, nor did His body see corruption. God raised Him from the dead, and exalted Him to His own right hand in heaven. The earthly kingdom was postponed for a time, but only postponed, not finally set aside for something different.
Jesus Himself admitted that He was a king, and born to rule and reign on earth and over Israel; but He said to Pilate: “Now is My kingdom not from hence”; and He bowed His head to receive from man the crown of thorns, and submitted to the soldiers’ mockery, saying, “Hail King of the Jews.” Earth offered Him no throne at that time, and still “we see not yet all things put under Him” in this world—but do we therefore see no exaltation? Have the predicted sufferings of Christ come true, and have the glories that should follow failed? Far, very far from it! “We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. {Heb 2:9} “When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down (as predicted in the program) on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” {Heb 1:3} The apostles saw Him ascend: “While they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. (Acts 1:9-11)
Stephen beheld heaven open, and saw the Son of man in glory at the right hand of God, Saul of Tarsus heard His voice from out the ineffable glory; John saw Him in His superhuman radiance, and was overwhelmed by the vision. The records leave no room to doubt that He “ascended up on high” as predicted; and He led captivity captive when He did so.
In proof of His power to rifle the grave and rob death of his victims, He said to the dying thief: “To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” When He died, the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints arose. He received also gifts for men; Peter said, “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins.”
And He received a greater gift still, the supremest gift of all. Before His ascension He had said: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” Peter, speaking of the effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, said of Christ: “Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” (Acts 2:33)
And it must be noted that these were gifts for “the rebellious also,” according to the program. They were given to those who had rejected and murdered Him; the first church was composed of Jerusalem sinners: and they were in order “that the Lord God might dwell among them,” by His Holy Spirit. He did so, and in a short time, through this mighty indwelling power, thousands and tens of thousands had become disciples of the ascended Savior, and the early Church had turned the world upside-down. In less than three centuries it had overthrown the paganism of the mighty Roman empire; in a few more it had evangelized the Gothic barbarians; and now the religion of Christ is the religion of the civilized world. Year by year it is spreading in the heathen world. Already a third of the human race has received it, and bows the knee to the once crucified Jesus. Whence all this power and progress? Whence this strange spectacle of the creed of Christ spreading evermore by its own indestructible vitality, while other faiths are languishing and dying out? Is it not because the ascended Savior is working with and through His people according to His word: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age?” His Divine co-operation alone can account for the spread of such a religion in such a world, in spite of all the obstacles that opposed and still oppose it. Christ is ruling even now in the midst of His enemies, as well as governing His own people, who willingly obey Him. The second great feature of the program—the exaltation of the crucified King—is as clearly fulfilled as the first. The sufferings have been followed by glory. Jehovah has appointed Him a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek; for He is the ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN—the great High Priest of humanity.
The third section of the program, the second advent in glory to govern the world in righteousness, is confessedly future; and we do not consequently treat of it here. He Himself said, “I will come again,” and the final revelations of the apostolic age confirm the unfulfilled part of the program in the amplest way. Our present theme is, however, fulfilled and not unfulfilled prophecy, so we do not dwell further on this.
There is thus no difficulty in demonstrating the marvelous fulfillment of the Davidic program to those who accept the Gospel narrative as true. There is both a broad general correspondence and a minute specific agreement between the predictions and the facts which, taken together, are irresistible. It is not merely that we have the inspired testimony of apostles to the fulfillment of some of the prophetic sayings, and the still more authoritative assertions of the Savior Himself, that David wrote of Him; but it is that the outline of the Davidic program as a whole is met by Christianity, and by it alone. Nothing else in the wide world has even the remotest resemblance to it. Consider! An individual man, member of a certain definite family, of a certain definite tribe of the Jewish nation, was to become the ruler of the world for ever, exercising first a spiritual, priestly power from the heavens to which He ascends from a cross and a grave, and then a regal power on earth to which He again descends in judgment and glory. This broad outline corresponds in all its strange sublimity with Christian doctrine, experience, and hope, and with nothing else. Yet David knew nothing of Christianity. Incarnation was a thing of which he never dreamed. The session of a risen man at God’s right hand in heaven was a conception impossible to the Jewish mind; and a spiritual, priestly reign over a people gathered out of all Gentile nations was a providence which no Israelite would have anticipated! How came the sweet psalmist of Israel to embody such conceptions in his prophetic poems? That is the first question. And, secondly, How came history to realize them?
The Jews did not intentionally frustrate their own Messianic anticipations by crucifying their King. Pilate and Herod little thought that they were fulfilling ancient Jewish predictions in their cruel and unjust treatment of the innocent Man arraigned at their bar. The Roman soldiers who pierced His hands and His feet, gave Him vinegar to drink, and parted His raiment among them, had never heard the twenty-second Psalm. There was and there could be no collusion in the case! A thousand years had intervened since the prophetic words were written. Empires had risen and passed away; the kingdom of David had become a province of the Roman empire; the temple of Solomon had been burned, that of Ezra and Nehemiah had arisen on its ruins, and in its turn fallen into decay, and been restored by Herod. Judah had been carried captive and had returned to her land, the ancient predictions were all the while read and sung in the synagogue of the Jews, and at last a startling and inexplicable series of events fulfilled them both in the letter and in the spirit.
As, however, not a few in these days hesitate as to the measure of credence which may be safely accorded to the Gospel narratives, and will scarcely feel the force of any proof of the fulfillment of the Davidic program drawn from the New Testament records, we must remind them that no events of Roman history are better attested than the events of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Looking at them simply as historical incidents which occurred eighteen hundred years ago, they are abundantly evidenced by just the same sort of proof as that on which we base our belief in other events of authentic history. And the fact that we have, besides all this, four copious and almost contemporaneous biographies of Christ, together with an original account of the acts of His apostles, may be regarded in this sense as so much superfluous evidence. If this latter did not exist at all, it would be easy to make out the whole of the Gospel story as to its outline, as well as that of the early spread of Christianity, from other writings of the period—pagan, controversial, and Christian; from monuments and imperial decrees, from ancient inscriptions in the catacombs and elsewhere, and from similar sources. Those who prefer doing so may therefore leave the Gospels out of account, and compare the Davidic program, which we have been studying, with the facts of the Christian era as attested by other authorities.
And there is even a simpler way still of regarding the subject. Christianity is unquestionably in the world to-day; it is the most widespread and influential religion that exists, or ever has existed, on earth; it commands the intelligent assent and the more or less sincere reverence of the foremost nations of the world; and it has done this for many long ages. It is the parent of modern civilization, and its influence in the earth spreads every year. Its existence is a fact of gigantic importance—a very king of facts—the most conspicuous fact in the whole history of the human race; and it is, moreover, a fact which is evident to our senses, as well as to our intelligence. The foremost nations of the world, to the number of at least four hundred millions of mankind, bow at the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and confess it to be the only one given under heaven or among men whereby they can be saved. Speaking broadly, and passing over exceptions which only prove the rule, this is the case. Much of this widespread Christianity may be, and is, apostate in character; much of it may be, and is, a mere profession rather than a reality; but this does not alter the fact of its existence, which is the thing that has to be considered and accounted for.
However corrupt and apostate, its professors hold their own form of Christianity to be the primitive one, and vehemently repel the accusation that it is anything else, or anything new.
Now every effect has a cause, and every great effect a great cause. This is a great effect—great, not only by reason of its extent, but by reason of its duration; for this fact is not observable now only, but it has been observable for the last fifteen hundred years. Christianity has been the leading religion of the world ever since Constantine proclaimed it the faith of the Roman empire. We have, therefore, to find an adequate cause for a fact which not only exists to-day but has existed for fifteen centuries, all through which the state of things has been in this respect what it is to-day. Since the time when the gorgeous and venerable, established and endowed paganism of the old Roman world, together with the benighted philosophies of Greeks and Romans alike, were overthrown by the young faith which less than three centuries previously had been born in Judea—since then, Christianity has unquestionably held the highest place among the nations that make history, and exerted the greatest power over them.
Now, as sensible and reasonable beings, we have to find a cause sufficient to account for this unquestionable and long-enduring fact. That cause must be sought in a comparatively short period of time; that is, between the days of Constantine (AD. 306-337), when the supremacy of Christianity was evidenced for the first time to the world, and the days of its Founder and His apostles. This is not a very long period, it is one of about the same length as that which has elapsed since James the First reigned over England; and it must be borne in mind that these first centuries are no terra incognita, they constitute no dim region of mythical legends or vague traditions like the days of the flood. We are not dependent on the New Testament for a clear conception of what was going on in the world at that time. The eight writers in that book Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, and Jude were by no means the only writers of that great era. Historians, essayists, satirists, poets, and philosophers in abundance were living and writing, for the period was one of unusual intelligence. It was the Golden Age of Augustus. Cicero, Sallust, Virgil, Horace, Strabo, Philo, Seneca, Ovid, Livy, Tacitus, Plutarch, Pliny, Suetonius, all lived in, or immediately before, the first century, when Christianity came into existence; and many others only a little less celebrated, in the two succeeding centuries.
Now of these clever and observant writers, none who were contemporary with the birth and early growth of Christianity, deny or impugn in the slightest degree the Gospel narrative of its origin. Does not this look as if it were the true account? One of our strongest reasons for believing the Gospels to be true is that their story was never disputed by any of those who had the most ample opportunity to show up its falsehood, had it been false. No other account of the origin of Christianity was ever even suggested. The facts stated in the Gospels were public events, which occurred in populous places; the actors in the scenes described (especially in the Acts of the Apostles) were numbered by thousands; the witnesses, of course, by tens of thousands. Their lineal descendants must have been still living in the days of Constantine, their martyr tombs were still fresh; the churches they had formed all over the empire were still in existence, in many cases the very buildings in which they had worshipped were still standing; family and local traditions were still strong and clear; early copies, and even the very original manuscripts of the sacred writings were still extant, and preserved with the most scrupulous veneration; and secular writers not only do not deny but most clearly recognize the facts of the case. If it was impossible to deny them then, is it not unreasonable to doubt them now?
Profane historians and secular writers naturally did not go into detail on the subject of Christianity, which was a comparatively obscure phenomenon in their day, and, to some extent, outside the scope of their writings; but they allude to it in precisely the way one would expect. Tacitus, for instance, in his annals (which were written A.D. 100), mentions the Christians incidentally in connection with the burning of Rome in the reign of Nero. He explains who and what they were by a retrospective glance in which he outlines the story, distinctly mentioning their connection with Christ as founder; His death, and the time, place, and manner of it; the wide and rapid spread of this faith throughout the Roman empire: and Gibbon, in quoting this testimony, admits that the most skeptical cannot question its authenticity or authority.
“But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration. Hence, to suppress the rumour, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. CHRISTUS, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow, from all quarters, as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly, first those were seized who confessed they were Christians: next, on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of hating the human race. And in their deaths they were also made the subjects of sport, for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when day declined, burnt to serve for nocturnal lights. Nero offered his own gardens for that spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian (circus) game, indiscriminately mingling with the common people in the habit of a charioteer, or else standing in his chariot. Whence a feeling of compassion arose towards the sufferers, though guilty and deserving to be made examples of by capital punishment, because they seemed not to be cut off for the public good, but victims to the ferocity of one man.”—(Tacitus, Bk. xv., ch. 44.)
Tacitus says that there were already in his day a vast multitude of Christians scattered in various parts of the empire, even in Rome itself. Pliny again, in his well-known correspondence with Trajan, mentions the great number of Christians in his own jurisdiction, and the severe persecutions they had suffered. Indeed, it is evident, on careful examination, that nearly all the secular writers of the first three centuries, whose works have come down to us, make allusions more or less full to Christianity, its origin, its rapid growth, its distinctive tenets and practices, the opposition it encountered, and the sufferings of its professors. Nor are these writings the only proofs of the early and rapid spread of Christianity. The persecuting edicts of the emperors of these three centuries, the Christian literature of the time (controverting the false teachings of the heretics), the apologies addressed by the leading Christian Fathers to the reigning governors and emperors, the monumental remains, the catacombs of Rome and their inscriptions, all these and many similar proofs confirm in the fullest way the conclusion that the Gospel account of the origin of Christianity is the true and only one.
Now if this be so, if the New Testament as we have it presents the very story whose proclamation had already revolutionized the world in the days of Constantine, and has continued ever since to mould the development of our race, then the things related, however hard to believe, must have occurred; otherwise we should have a gigantic result without a cause—a mighty moral movement without any adequate initiatory force—a great fire kindled without even a spark to ignite it! This is impossible! If this Gospel story produced Christianity, common sense argues that the story must be a true one. What! Could a silly fable or a wicked lie accomplish the mighty results which Christianity has produced? Could a mere delusion, or a myth, magnified and distorted by human imagination, do what the Gospel has done and is doing in the world? Fact is mighty; falsehood is weak. The Gospel statements, regarded as facts, are enough to account for everything that has happened.
They may be summed up in the two great leading doctrines of Incarnation and Resurrection and Ascension, the latter accompanied by the Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Ghost. This means a personal revelation of God; it means that God has been “manifest in the flesh” to redeem mankind. Clearly, if that is a fact, it is no wonder the world has been revolutionized! If that is a fact, we have a moral cause sufficient to account for the past and the present, and to lead to glorious anticipations for the future in full harmony with the Davidic program. And, that a religion the Founder of which was ignominiously executed as a criminal, and the apostles of which were thereby plunged into hopeless despair, should have suddenly and immediately after this fatal crisis risen up and gone forth with a courage and faith that braved shame and loss, suffering and danger, defeat and death, that it should have marched straight from the cross and the grave and the upper chamber in Jerusalem to the conquest of all-conquering Rome, and to a seat on the very throne of the Caesars, that it should have gone on from that day to this subjugating the minds and hearts of the most intelligent races of men, changing human laws and customs, inspiring all that is good and true, pure and noble, and creating, in fact, a new moral world, that it should have done all this shows that it was a fact.
If so, we may boldly say that two-thirds of the Davidic program were in a most astonishing manner fulfilled about a thousand years after it was given. Its mysterious and apparently contradictory prophecies were explained and reconciled in the person, character, and career of the Messiah of Israel, the Christ of the Gospel, the Savior of the lost, the priestly King who has already for eighteen hundred years reigned over myriads of willing hearts, and who shall yet reign for ever over the happy nations of a redeemed humanity, in the glorious kingdom of God on earth.
Now this is fulfilled prophecy on the greatest and widest scale. No one can question that the Psalms came down to us from the days of David. No one can read them without perceiving that they contain statements which were never fulfilled in David’s experience, and therefore are not history. He never had his hands and feet pierced, or his raiment parted among executioners, as in Psalm xxii.; he was never invited to sit at Jehovah’s right hand, or appointed to be a priest for ever, as in Psalm cx.; he was not raised from the dead, as in Psalm xvi. These statements cannot possibly be history. What are they, then? Mere imagination or poetry? They are far too peculiar and too definite for that. What should cause a Jewish poet’s imagination to take such a strange, non-natural form?
David knew perfectly well that he himself would die, for on the death of his infant child he said, “I shall go to him.” Could he then, even as a poet, express the anticipation that his flesh would never see corruption? Why should he in imagination picture himself as being put to death by having his hands and feet pierced? Crucifixion was not a Jewish form of punishment, but a Roman one; and his poems date from centuries prior to the foundation of Rome. Such an idea in David’s writing can be nothing else than prediction. They who refuse to recognize his character as a prophet, or to see inspiration in these utterances, are bound to suggest some explanation of the words, which has at least an appearance of plausibility which they cannot do. And even if they could, the difficulty would remain, because it is on record as a matter of history that a thousand years after he wrote, a great Son of David did actually undergo these experiences, fulfilled these very predictions, did suffer death by crucifixion at the hands of Romans, was raised from the dead, and was exalted to God’s right hand.
The predictions then do not fit David; they are not history, and they cannot be mere poetry. As such they would be utterly unnatural. They must be inspired prophecy, for they were fulfilled a thousand years after they were written both in the spirit and in the letter, fulfilled exactly and literally, and quoted as fulfilled predictions by the generations that witnessed the fulfillment.
Grasp clearly the argument. We have before us three things:—
I. The Book of Psalms—a collection of Hebrew poems, published three thousand years ago, and in constant use from that day to this in Jewish ritual worship. Most of these hymns proceeded, as is universally acknowledged, from the pen of David, king of Israel, though they describe experiences that he never tasted, and express anticipations which he can never have indulged. These poems are regarded by the Jews as prophetic.
II. We have a series of most remarkable facts which happened about two thousand years ago, and which were very fully recorded by reliable eye-witnesses at the time, in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles. These facts exactly fulfil the Davidic predictions embodied in the Psalms a thousand years previously.
III. We have a condition of things around us in the world now which can be accounted for only on the hypothesis that the story of the Gospels, which fulfils the Davidic program, is in the main true. Christianity as it exists at this day—a vast and all-influential system, growing stronger year by year, and spreading continually among men—rests on the basis of the Gospel facts, and is itself a reflex witness to their truth.
Hence we have palpable present evidence that the Davidic program was fulfilled. David spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, and the sufferings and glories of Christ were before the Mind that inspired the Messianic Psalms. This conviction should not be lightly accepted as a matter of opinion merely, but allowed to sink down into the heart. The scene on Golgotha, even to its minutest incidents, lay naked and open before the Omniscient Eye; every physical, moral, and spiritual feature—whether in the victim or the executioners or the crowd—was foreseen. The items foretold are but specimens—samples of what might have been predicted. All was noted. The self-sacrifice of Christ, oh, how deliberate! how long contemplated!—how thoroughly anticipated! And as surely as the sufferings came in their season, as surely as the Melchizedek session at God’s right hand has succeeded them, so surely will the throne of David be hereafter re-established on earth, and occupied by the Lord’s Anointed.
Continued in Chapter VI. The Daniel Programme – Part I.
All sections of The Divine Programme of The World’s History By H. Grattan Guinness
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