answered to the place without the camp where the sin-offering was burned; and the man that led him away was, in like manner, required to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water before reentering the camp. Lev. 16:26.
17. The _distinctions between clean and unclean_ in respect to articles of food and various other particulars, had also a typical meaning. That the regulations in regard to these matters were promotive of physical purity and health is undoubtedly true; yet we are not to consider them as simply a sanitary code. They reached to the inner man. Through these physical distinctions of clean and unclean G.o.d educated the people to an apprehension of the difference between moral purity and impurity.
The Levitical view of sickness and every bodily infirmity is deep and fundamental. All is referred to sin as the primal cause. The sufferer from leprosy and various other infirmities (Lev. chaps. 12-15) is regarded not as a sinner above other men (Luke 13:1-5), but yet as suffering in the character of a sinner. Hence the ceremonial uncleanness of such persons, and the expiatory offerings required in the case of those who have been healed.
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.
INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY.
1. The scriptural idea of prophecy is widely removed from that of human foresight and presentiment. It is that of _a revelation made by the Holy Spirit respecting the future_, always in the interest of G.o.d"s kingdom.
It is no part of the plan of prophecy to gratify vain curiosity respecting "the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Acts 1:7. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your G.o.d"--this is its key-note. In its form it is carefully adapted to this great end. Its notices of the future are interwoven with exhortations and admonitions, encouragements and warnings, promises and threatenings.
These const.i.tute, indeed, the great bulk of the prophetical writings that have come down to us. The subject of the interpretation of prophecy may be conveniently considered under the following heads: prophecies relating to the near future; prophecies relating to the last days; the question of double sense; the question of literal and figurative meaning.
I. PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE NEAR FUTURE.
2. The Bible contains many prophecies relating to the comparatively near future. These are all _specific_ in their character, and have a _single_ exhaustive fulfilment. Examples are: the prediction to Noah of the approaching deluge, and to Abraham of the bondage of his posterity in a strange land; the disclosure through Pharaoh"s dreams of the coming famine in Egypt; Joseph"s announcement of the future deliverance of Israel from Egypt; the token given to Moses that G.o.d had sent him: "When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve G.o.d upon this mountain" (Exod. 3:12); G.o.d"s threatened judgments upon the house of Eli with the accompanying sign (1 Sam. 2:34); the warning that David received by Urim and Thummim of Saul"s approach to destroy him (1 Sam.
23:9-12); the prediction that Josiah should defile Jeroboam"s altar at Bethel with men"s bones (1 Kings 13:2); etc. Minute events, in themselves unimportant, sometimes come within the sphere of prophetic revelation, but always in connection with and subserviency to important transactions affecting the interests of G.o.d"s people. Thus when Samuel anointed Saul as the future king of Israel, he foretold to him the incidents of his journey homeward (1 Sam. 10:2-7). But this was in order that Saul might be a.s.sured of Samuel"s prophetic office, and consequently of the divine sanction to the transaction. An event in the immediate future is frequently predicted as a pledge that some prophecy of more distant fulfilment shall be accomplished. Thus the death of Eli"s two sons in one day was to be a token of the fulfilment of all the evils threatened against his house. The same end may be accomplished by a miraculous sign. 1 Kings 13:3; 2 Kings 20:9, 11. Prophecies of the kind now under consideration are in general very plain and simple, and their recorded fulfilment is to us a sufficient interpreter of their meaning.
II. PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE LAST DAYS.
3. In Old Testament usage, "the last days," or "the latter days" ("in the latter years," Ezek. 38:8) denote not simply the distant future, but that future as including the kingdom of the Messiah, which extends to the consummation of all things Gen. 49:1; Numb. 24:14; Deut. 4:30; 31:29; Isa. 2:2; Jer 23:20; 30:24; 48:47; 49:39; Ezek. 38:16; Dan.
10:14; Hos. 3:5; Mic. 4:1. We are not, however, to conceive of these "last days" as totally separated from the preceding ages. In the plan of G.o.d the history of the world const.i.tutes a whole, all the parts of which are closely connected. Hence the prophecies relating to the latter days include, more or less distinctly, the events which precede them, and prepare the way for them. In such prophecies we are not to look for exhaustive details. They give, as a rule, only general views relating to the conflicts of G.o.d"s people and their final triumph. Where minute incidents are introduced (Psa. 22:18; 69:21; Zech. 9:9; 11:13) it is apparently for the purpose of identifying to future generations the Messiah as their main subject. See below, No. 9.
Prophecies relating to the days of the Messiah are introduced in other more indefinite ways, thus: "Behold the days come" (Jer.
23:5; 31:31; etc.): "And it shall come to pa.s.s afterward" (Joel 2:28); "In that day" (Isa. 4:2, Jer. 30:8; Ezek. 39:11; Amos 9:11, and elsewhere); or they are sufficiently indicated by their contents, as Isa. chaps. 40-66.
These prophecies naturally fall into two cla.s.ses: those in which the _succession of events_ is distinctly indicated, and those which give only _general views_ of the future, without any clear order of succession.
4. To the first and smaller cla.s.s belong especially certain of Daniel"s prophecies. The four great monarchies, for example, that are to bear rule over the earth are symbolized first by a great image (Dan. chap.
2), then by four beasts rising out of the sea (Dan. chap. 7). Of these monarchies the fourth, represented by the legs of iron and feet part of iron and part of clay (Dan. 2:33), and by the fourth beast with his ten horns (Dan. 7:7), belongs in part to the latter days of the Messiah.
The fourth kingdom, represented by the "legs of iron and feet part of iron and part of clay," is at the beginning "strong as iron" (chap. 2:40); afterwards it is "partly strong and partly broken" (ver. 42); it is, moreover, the last great monarchy that oppresses the world. All these characters point to the Roman empire, first in its pagan, afterwards in its papal form. From the nature of the symbol, the prophet sees the _whole_ image standing till it is smitten in its feet of iron and clay. This does not mean that the four monarchies are contemporaneous, but that they const.i.tute one great system of oppression, in which the power pa.s.ses successively down from the head to the feet. It is in its feet that the stone smites it, for it is in this its last form that the kingdom set up by the G.o.d of heaven shall encounter and destroy it. The toes, part of iron and part of clay, well represent the kingdoms that grew up out of the old Roman empire, with an intermixture of the northern nations.
These could never unite into a compact whole, like the original pagan empire, yet they const.i.tuted a continuation of it in a divided form.
That the fourth beast again (chap. 7:7-14, 19-28) represents the same Roman empire appears from the following considerations: (1.) Both here and in the second chapter a succession of four great monarchies is represented, of which the first three are admitted to have been universal. It is altogether reasonable, therefore, to look for a universal empire in the fourth; but that empire can be no other than the Roman. (2.) The fourth beast is represented as the strongest and most terrible of them all, which cannot apply to any other than the Roman power. (3.) All its characters agree with those of the Roman empire, and cannot be made to agree with those of any other power. Those who understand by the little horn of the fourth beast Antiochus Epiphanes, must consider the fourth beast as representing the Syrian monarchy, or perhaps Syria and Egypt. But these belong to the _third_ beast. They are two of the four divisions into which his empire was broken, and which have just been represented by the four heads and four wings of the leopard. (4.) No persecuting power comes after this beast. Its dominion is destroyed by that of the Messiah, who takes the kingdom and holds it for ever. This can apply only to the Roman power as perpetuated in its papal form in the ten horns, which correspond to the ten toes of the image. Chap. 2:41-43. All the characters of the little horn agree with those of the papal power; and considering the vast influence which this has wielded, and still wields, over G.o.d"s church, we should naturally expect that it would be included in a comprehensive view like this of the world"s history.
The prophecies of the book of Revelation relative to the great red dragon--pagan Rome (chap. 12), the two beasts that succeeded to his seat and power (chap. 13), and (what is identical with these two beasts) the woman riding upon a scarlet-colored beast (chap. 17), are so intimately related to the fourth kingdom of Daniel, that whatever view be taken of this kingdom must apply to them also. In these prophetic symbols we have again all the characters of pagan Rome as continued in papal Rome. Chap. 32, No. 4. To the cla.s.s of prophecies now under consideration belong also, according to the most probable principle of interpretation, those of the seven seals, the seven trumpets included under the last seal, and the seven vials of the last trumpet (Rev. 6:1 _seq._); for in these the succession of events is distinctly marked.
The _numbers_ of the books of Daniel and Revelation, particularly the "time and times and dividing of time"--three years and a half--during which the little horn is to have dominion (Dan. 7:25), and (what is equivalent to this number) the "forty-and-two months" during which the Gentiles are to tread down the holy city (Rev. 11:2), and the beast that succeeds to the dragon is to have power (Rev. 13:5); or in days, the thousand two hundred and threescore days of the two witnesses (Rev. 11:3), and of the woman"s sojourn in the wilderness (Rev. 12:6), have furnished for centuries matter of curious speculation and computation, upon the a.s.sumption that a day here represents a year (Chap. 35, No. 9); but hitherto history has not verified the results as to time which the students of these prophecies have given. The failure of their computations might have been antic.i.p.ated. It seems to be the plan of G.o.d to throw such a vail over even exact dates of prophecy, that their place in a chronological chart of history cannot be accurately marked out beforehand. Either the time _from_ which the reckoning is to proceed, or the symbolism of the dates, or the place which the whole series holds in relation to other prophecies, is left in obscurity. The experience of those who have busied themselves with the computation of these dates teaches, not that we should wholly withdraw ourselves from inquiries of this kind, but that to pursue them in a confident and dogmatic spirit, as if we had been admitted to the council-chamber of heaven, and had there learned the exact day and hour on which the papal throne must fall, or our Lord reappear on earth, is a mark, not of wisdom, but of weakness and folly.
5. In the _second_ and larger cla.s.s of prophecies relating to the last days, the element of time, and especially that of succession in time, is either wholly wanting, or is indicated in only a vague and general way.
Examples of this cla.s.s of prophecies are almost innumerable. A remarkable specimen is found in the fourth chapter of Isaiah, viewed in connection with the preceding context. The prophet"s position is that of his own day. He writes at a time when heavy calamities are impending over his countrymen. With these calamities he begins: "Behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Judah and Jerusalem the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator." Chap. 3:1-3. So he proceeds, in terms which must apply primarily to the Babylonish captivity, to the end of the third chapter, which closes with the terrible denunciation: "Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty men in war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she, being desolate, shall sit upon the ground" (ver. 25, 26). To complete the picture of desolation, it is added in the beginning of the fourth chapter: "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach." The obvious meaning of this last threatening is, that the ma.s.s of the men shall perish in war, so that the surviving women cannot find husbands. Seven of them, therefore, ask of one man the privilege of being called each his wife, while they offer to forego all the usual advantages of that relation. Thus far the prophet proceeds in a strain of threatening. But now, with the single formula, "in that day," there is a sudden transition to promise, and promise of such a character that it must cover the whole future period of the Messiah"s kingdom: "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel" (chap. 4:2); and so he goes on to describe the glory of the latter days, when the Lord, having "purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning," "will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her a.s.semblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence" (ver. 4, 5). Here we have, in a certain sense, an indication of time, but it is wholly indefinite. No date is given for the fulfilment of the prophecy, nor any exact chronological order of succession. The prophet began with the judgments that impended over his countrymen. He ends with the full glory of the Messiah"s reign, without any indication of the intervening interval of time.
Another striking example is furnished by the eleventh chapter of Isaiah in connection with the preceding context. The tenth chapter of Isaiah contains an account of the a.s.syrian monarch"s progress through the land of Judea, ending with a figurative account of his overthrow: "Behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one" (ver. 33, 34). Immediately upon this prediction, and with reference to the a.s.syrian bough and the thickets of Lebanon--Sennacherib with his host--that have been hewn down, follows a prophecy of the Messiah"s advent: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Chap. 11:1. The prophet represents these two events, the overthrow of the a.s.syrian and the advent of the Messiah, as so connected that the latter follows as a natural sequel to the former, pa.s.sing over in silence the many intervening centuries. He represents, again, the Messiah"s kingdom as one of continuous victorious progress, till "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," without pausing to indicate any intervening period of darkness and depression.
Still a third pure specimen of this form of prophecy occurs in the fifty-ninth and sixtieth chapters of Isaiah. The former of these two chapters is occupied with a description in very dark lines of the sins of G.o.d"s covenant people (ver. 1-15), and of G.o.d"s interposition in awful majesty to vindicate his own cause (ver. 16-21). Immediately upon this follows, in the sixtieth chapter, a vision of the latter-day glory that has no parallel in the Old Testament for brightness, extending down to the full establishment of the millennial age. But _when_ shall these things be? How long shall the present age of iniquity endure?
And when Jehovah appears to save the cause of truth and righteousness, shall it be by a single interposition or a series of interpositions? If by the latter, how widely shall they be separated, and what dark scenes shall intervene? When shall the promised Redeemer appear, and how long shall his work be in progress before that blessed consummation contained in the promise: "Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended?" On all these points which involve the element of time the prophecy maintains a majestic silence. The closing promise indeed is: "I the Lord will hasten it in his time;" but with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The time for the consummation of G.o.d"s plan to rescue this apostate world from the dominion of Satan--how many slowly revolving centuries may it include, and what fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.saults of the adversary, compelling G.o.d"s suffering people to cry out: "O Lord, how long!"
The whole of the prophecy of Joel belongs to the cla.s.s now under consideration. It begins with impending judgments, and closes with the conflict and triumph of the last times: "Mult.i.tudes, mult.i.tudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your G.o.d dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pa.s.s through her any more." Chap. 3:14-17.
Many more examples might be adduced from the other prophets, but the above will be sufficient.
6. But let no one infer, from this absence of dates and of the exact succession of events, that the view which the prophet gives of the future is loose and confused. Times and successions belong rather to the outward machinery of G.o.d"s providential government. They are, so to speak, the wheels and bands and shafts which connect the different movements. But the _perpetual living power_ that dwells in the church is above all time and succession. In this lies the guarantee of her final triumph, and with this the prophets are mainly occupied. They take the deepest view of the progress of G.o.d"s kingdom, for they unfold to our view the indestructible divine life and power which animate it throughout, and which are steadily bearing it onward towards its final destiny--victory complete and eternal over all the powers of darkness.
If we examine more particularly the manner in which the prophets of the Old Testament represent the future of the kingdom of heaven, we shall find that it has its foundation in the _unity_ of the plan of redemption, the _end_ towards which it is tending, the _indications_ of that end which are perpetually given in its progress, and the fact that _the end itself is the chief object of interest_ in prophetic vision.
(1.) The _unity_ of the plan of redemption lies not in its times and seasons, but in the higher connections of cause and effect, which, under G.o.d"s supernatural presence and agency, bind the whole together laterally, so to speak, as well as backward and forward. It may be compared to the unity of a web, in which each thread of the warp extends from its beginning to its end, and each thread of the woof from one margin to the other; so that every part of the texture is connected with every other part without respect to nearness or distance. So in the plan of redemption, events thousands of years apart and taking place in regions thousands of miles from each other, are as really connected as if they belonged to the same year and country. And since they are thus connected in G.o.d"s plan, it is natural that prophecy should exhibit them in this connection, pa.s.sing over, it may be, many centuries in silence; for it is the _salient points_ of the church"s future history, the great crises in the process of her development, that the spirit of inspiration will naturally bring to view. Prophecy relating to the last times is not a _map_, in which the distance from one point to another, with all the intervening mountains, rivers, and towns, is accurately marked; but rather a _prospective view_, which exhibits only the great features of the region that lies before the traveller. He sees far off in the horizon the goodly mountains rising one behind another, and bathed in the pure light of heaven, with no ability to discern, much less to measure, the intervening valleys and plains. Nay more, mountain ranges that are widely separated may appear to his eye as one and indivisible.
(2.) The plan of redemption has not only complete unity, but _continual progress towards a high end_. It may be compared to a majestic river, fed by thousands of perennial springs, that cannot stay a moment in its course towards the ocean. Its path is not always straight, but it is always onward. Its current is not always rapid and broken, for it is not always obstructed. Sometimes, like the Arar described by Caesar, it winds through level plains with a current so gentle and noiseless, that the eye cannot discern its direction. Then it plunges over some Niagara, roaring, boiling, and foaming, and shaking the very earth with its mighty cataracts. But it _has_ all the power in the level meadows that it _manifests_ on the fearful brink of the precipice. To arrest its current in one place is as impossible as in the other. Resistance cannot overcome its strength, but only bring it to view. Let any number of t.i.tans build up ever so high a wall across the level meadow, and the stream, every particle of which is pressed forward by an inward force, will quietly rise above their vain rampart, and then it will begin to thunder. Since then G.o.d"s kingdom--this river of G.o.d that is full of water--is continually tending towards a high end, and since every event of his providence contributes something towards its progress, what wonder if we find in prophecy events separated by many centuries of time immediately connected as cause and effect? Does the prophet predict the overthrow of Sennacherib"s army, or the coming desolation of Jerusalem by the Chaldean armies; he connects these calamities immediately with the advent of Christ, for this is the end towards which they look.
Desolating judgments prepare the way for the King of glory to appear.
After the storm of thunder and hail there follows a serene light, "as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender gra.s.s springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." The mind of the inspired bard hastens onward towards the glorious _end_ of G.o.d"s judgments, without pausing to give us, what it is not necessary that we should know, the chronological distance of that end.
(3.) The progress of G.o.d"s kingdom gives continual _indications of the end_ towards which it is tending. The first great interposition of G.o.d in behalf of Israel contained in itself a pledge of all needful help for the future, and thus of a final triumph in the future; for it was a manifestation of both G.o.d"s absolute power to save his people, and his absolute purpose to save them. The full idea embodied in this interposition is summed up in the closing words of their triumphal song on the sh.o.r.e of the Red sea: "_The Lord shall reign for ever and ever_."
What was true of this deliverance was true of every subsequent deliverance. In each of them separately, and in the whole of them collectively, lay the promise: "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold I will make thee [make thee to be] a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel." Isa. 41:14-16.
The _chastis.e.m.e.nts_, moreover, which G.o.d inflicted on the covenant people through the temporary ascendency of their enemies, and in other ways, gave in like manner indications of a final triumph of the cause of truth and righteousness. However great their severity, they were always so ordered that G.o.d"s people were _never destroyed, but always purified_ by their power, and thus the way was prepared for their future enlargement. This purifying tendency the divinely illumined eye of the Hebrew prophet clearly discerned. What wonder, then, that he should have constantly connected with present or impending judgments glorious promises respecting the future. The destruction of Sennacherib"s army by the destroying angel, and afterwards of Jerusalem itself by the Chaldean armies--the former event so joyous in its outward form, the latter so sad--these were both alike to the prophet"s vision parts of the preparation through which G.o.d was carrying his people for the future glory and blessedness of the latter days. He accordingly connected both with bright visions of the future, without pausing to notice the intervening centuries, respecting the duration of which he had no commission to speak.
(4.) _The end itself_ towards which the plan of redemption tends _is the chief object of interest_ in prophetic representation. To nourish the faith and hope of the church, to invigorate her in her present struggles by the a.s.surance of final victory--this, and not the gratification of a prurient curiosity respecting the exact dates of "times and seasons," is the main design of prophecy. That it has other subordinate ends need not be denied. It challenges for itself the attribute of omniscience, and its fulfilment is, to those who live after it, a proof of the validity of its claim. But to become absorbed in calculations beforehand respecting its dates is to elevate the subordinate and circ.u.mstantial in prophecy to the place of the essential. The bright _end_ of the present conflict with the powers of darkness is what prophetic vision is continually presenting for our encouragement. To those who love G.o.d, this is the point of chief interest; and accordingly the prophets make it, not the exact number of years that is to elapse before the final consummation with the details of their history, the prominent point.
Some great crises in the church"s history are indicated so clearly that they who can discern "the signs of the times" may understand beforehand that they are near. The general expectation of the Messiah"s advent at the time when he actually appeared had its foundation in a sober comparison of the prophecies with the existing condition of the covenant people. The present universal belief among Christians that the time for the final overthrow of the triple league between Satan, wicked kings, and wicked priests for the suppression of the gospel is at hand rests, we doubt not, on the same solid ground. But farther than this we cannot go. We cannot say that it shall be in such a year of the present century, or even in the century, in harmony with the true spirit of prophecy. It is enough for us to know that G.o.d "will hasten it in his time"--that the victory is certain, and that every believer from Abel to the trump of the archangel shall have his share in it.
III. THE QUESTION OF DOUBLE SENSE.
7. The so-called _double sense_ of Scripture, especially of prophecy, concerning which there has been so much discussion among biblical writers, must be distinguished from the double sense of pure allegory, which all admit. In allegory, the first or literal meaning is only a cover for the higher spiritual sense, which alone is of importance. That we may have a true example of double sense, the obvious literal meaning must have its own proper significance, irrespective of the higher sense belonging to it, and this higher sense must be intended by the Spirit of inspiration. The question now to be considered is: Do such examples occur in Scripture, by whatever term we may choose to designate them?
To avoid logomachy, arising from the use of the same phrase in different senses, we prefer the expression _literal_ and _typical sense_.
8. If, as has been shown above (chap. 37, No. 4), examples of _historic types_ are found in the Old Testament, these contain a twofold sense.
The priesthood of Melchizedek and the transactions between him and Abraham were true historic realities, having their own proper office and meaning. Yet the word of inspiration teaches us that the circ.u.mstances connected with Melchizedek"s priesthood and his meeting with Abraham were intended by G.o.d to shadow forth the higher priesthood of Melchizedek"s great Ant.i.type. He brought forth bread and wine, the very symbols that should afterwards represent Christ crucified as our spiritual food and drink, blessed him that had the promises, and received at his hand t.i.thes of all (Gen. 14:18-20), thus exercising the prerogatives of one higher than Abraham, and consequently higher than all his posterity. Heb. 7:4-10. In the intention of the Holy Ghost, the higher typical meaning lay in this transaction from the beginning, but it was not revealed to the apprehension of believers till the Christian dispensation had begun. So also the rest of the covenant people in the land of Canaan is represented in the New Testament as typical of the true heavenly rest. Heb. 4:7-11. Other examples might be adduced, but these will serve as an ill.u.s.tration of the principle now under consideration.
9. The most striking examples of a literal covering a typical meaning are furnished by the so-called _Messianic psalms_, a part of which describe the victories and universal dominion of a mighty King whom Jehovah himself establishes on Zion to reign there for ever (Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110, etc.); another part, the deep afflictions of a mighty Sufferer and his subsequent deliverance, which has for its result the conversion of all nations to the service of Jehovah. Psalms 22, 40, 69, 109, etc. That such psalms as the second and seventy-second, the twenty-second, fortieth, and sixty-ninth (not to mention others), have a true reference to Christ"s person and work, cannot be denied without imputing either error or fraud to the writers of the New Testament. Nay more, our Lord himself said, after his resurrection: "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44); whence we learn that it was our Lord"s custom to refer to the psalms as containing prophecies of himself. If the psalms, when legitimately interpreted, contain no such prophecies, then, when the writers of the New Testament quoted them as referring to Christ, they either believed that they were making a true application of them according to the mind of the Holy Spirit, or they simply accommodated themselves to what they knew to be the groundless prejudices of the age. Upon the former supposition they were in error; upon the latter, they were guilty of fraud. Such is the dishonor which the modern principles of rationalism put upon the word of G.o.d. In the interpretation of these psalms, then, we must a.s.sume as a fundamental truth that they contain a true reference to Christ. The only question is, whether they contain a lower reference also.
(1.) One cla.s.s of interpreters understand these psalms simply of Christ; that is, they a.s.sume that the writer speaks wholly in the name of Christ, without reference to himself or any merely human personage.
There are psalms--the hundred and tenth, for example--that may be very well explained in this way. The opening words of that psalm--"The Lord said unto my lord"--seem to exclude David as the subject, and it is difficult to see in what sense David could speak of himself as made by a divine oath "a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (ver. 4).
But in the attempt to carry this principle consistently through all the Messianic psalms, one meets with serious difficulties. They contain, at least some of them, historic allusions of a character so marked and circ.u.mstantial that it is hard to believe that the writer had not in view his own personal situation. In some of them, moreover, the writer makes confession to G.o.d of his sins. Psa. 40:12; 69:5.
They who apply these psalms exclusively to Christ a.s.sume that these confessions of sin are made in a _vicarious_ way, the Messiah a.s.suming the character of a sinner because "the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all." Isa. 53:6. But the form of these confessions forbids such an interpretation. When the psalmist says: "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me;" "O G.o.d, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee," we cannot understand such language of any thing else than personal sinfulness. It is true that the Messiah bore our iniquities, and that G.o.d "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;" but the Saviour nowhere speaks or can speak of "mine iniquities," "my foolishness," and "my sins."
(2.) According to another cla.s.s of interpreters, the subject of these psalms, particularly of those which describe the Messiah as a sufferer, is an _ideal personage_, namely, the congregation of the righteous considered not separately from Christ, but in Christ their head; or, which amounts to the same thing, Christ considered, not in his simple personality apart from the church, but Christ with his body the church.
The contents of these psalms are then applied, _according to their nature_, to Christ alone, to believers alone who are his members, or to Christ in the fullest sense and believers in a subordinate sense. Much might be said in favor of this view; yet it labors under the difficulty already indicated, that one cannot well read the psalms in question, with their marked historic allusions, without the conviction that the author had in view--not indirectly, but immediately--his own personal situation.
(3.) There remains a third, and perhaps preferable view, which may be called the _typical view_, maintained, as is well known, by Melanchthon, Calvin, and many later expositors. This begins with the well-established principle that David (in a less eminent degree his successors also on the throne, so far as they were true to their office) was a divinely-const.i.tuted type of the Messiah, not only in his office as the earthly head of G.o.d"s kingdom, but in the events of his history also; that the psalms in question, whether they describe his victorious might or his deep suffering at the hand of his enemies, had a true historic origin; that their first and immediate reference was to the writer"s own situation and the events which befell him; but that, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he was carried beyond himself to describe the office and history of the Messiah; that consequently these psalms have a lower fulfilment in David the type (the seventy-second in Solomon), and a higher in Christ the Ant.i.type.