Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
And when was that fulfilled? Fulfilled in a fashion that at first sight
seems the greatest contrast to all this vision of grandeur, of warlike
strength, of imperial power and rule with which we have been dealing;
but which yet was not the contrast to these ideas so much as the highest
embodiment of them. For, although at first sight it seems as if there
could be no greater contrast than between the lion might of the Jehovah
of the Old Testament, and the lamb gentleness of the Jesus of the New,
if we look more closely we shall see that it is not a relation of
contrast that exists between the two. Christ is all, and more than all,
that this psalm proclaimed the Jehovah of the Old Covenant to be. Let us
look again from that point of view at the particulars already referred
to.
He is the highest manifestation of the divine rule and authority. There
is no dominion like the dominion of the loving Christ, a kingdom based
upon suffering and wielded in gentleness, a kingdom of which the crown
is a wreath of thorns, and the sceptre a rod of reed; a dominion which
is all exercised for the blessing of its subjects, and which, therefore,
is an everlasting dominion. There is no rule like that; no height of
divine authority towers so high as the authority of Him who rules us so
absolutely because He gave Himself for us utterly. This is the King, the
Prince of the kings of the earth, because this is the Incarnate God who
died for us.
Christ is the highest raying out of the divine Light, or, as the Epistle
to the Hebrews calls it, 'the effulgence of His glory.' The true glory
of God lies in His love, and of that love Christ is the noblest and most
wondrous example. So all other beams of the divine character, bright as
their light is, are but dim as compared with the sevenfold lustre of the
light that shines from the gentle loving-kindness of the heart of
Christ. He has glorified God because He shows us that the divinest thing
in God is love.
For the same reason, He is the mightiest exhibition of the divine
power--'the Lord strong and mighty.' There is no work of God's hand, no
work of God's will so great as that by which we are turned from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. The Cross is God's
noblest revelation of power; and in Him, His weakness, His surrender,
His death, with all the wonderful energies that flow from that death for
man's salvation, we see the divine strength made perfect in the human
weakness of Jesus. The Gospel of Christ 'is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth.' _There_ is divine power in its
noblest form, in the paradoxical shape of a dying man; in its noblest
effect, salvation; in its widest sweep to all who believe.
''Twas great to speak a world from nought,
'Tis greater to redeem.'
This 'strong Son of God' is the arm of the Lord in whom live and act the
energies of omnipotence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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