The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
The humble who witness God's saving deliverance rejoice, and those who seek God receive renewed life with strength and courage in the heart. The verse is a simple record of David's experience. The psalm relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, with portions quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, yet not every verse of the psalm can be applied to Christ.
The psalm is spoken by David personating Jesus Christ, the far greater King to come, and its petitions, entreaties and statements prefigure conditions, experiences and occasions in the life of Jesus of Nazareth and in due time become petitions of mighty significance upon Him. Its prophecies refer to Christ and apply to His betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion. It prophesies Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon Him. It is prophetic of the experience Jesus passed through, and the triumph He won is also won for His children.
One prophecy can apply partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, and the psalm has a literal application to Christ expressly affirmed in the New Testament, yet not every part applies to Him in the same sense, since requiring the whole psalm to be literally of Him would make Christ a sinner. The psalm belongs with prayers that contain severe language against the wicked and is predictive of tribulation on the enemies of God's church, expressing God's retributive justice rather than urging people to commit cruelty. The prayer that enemies be blotted out of the book of the living means that the many powerful enemies of Christ will be erased and be as though they had not been, and it is of vast interest to the human race and to the universe that this happen, for it would be woful should the names of Lucifer and his misled host remain inscribed with the righteous. Their names were recorded with the righteous before the revolt in heaven, but that history erased them, for God's rule is that whosoever sins against Him He will blot out of His book.
The verse does not apply to Jesus any more than to anyone in the present day who happens to be hated without a cause and whose history is tangent to David's in certain points. It shows the condition of mercy under the one Gospel of Jesus Christ, the same in Josiah's time as today: the one who humbles himself and seeks God will be exalted, made glad, and live. It may be appropriated by Christians whose history runs parallel to David's, taking his experience upon themselves to be glad and to have their heart live as they seek God, and such appropriated quotation is a fulfillment of Scripture in a different sense from fulfillment of prediction.
The humble who witness God's saving deliverance rejoice, and those who seek God receive renewed life with strength and courage in the heart. The verse is a simple record of David's experience. The psalm relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, with portions quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, yet not every verse of the psalm can be applied to Christ.
The psalm is spoken by David personating Jesus Christ, the far greater King to come, and its petitions, entreaties and statements prefigure conditions, experiences and occasions in the life of Jesus of Nazareth and in due time become petitions of mighty significance upon Him. Its prophecies refer to Christ and apply to His betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion. It prophesies Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon Him. It is prophetic of the experience Jesus passed through, and the triumph He won is also won for His children.
One prophecy can apply partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, and the psalm has a literal application to Christ expressly affirmed in the New Testament, yet not every part applies to Him in the same sense, since requiring the whole psalm to be literally of Him would make Christ a sinner. The psalm belongs with prayers that contain severe language against the wicked and is predictive of tribulation on the enemies of God's church, expressing God's retributive justice rather than urging people to commit cruelty. The prayer that enemies be blotted out of the book of the living means that the many powerful enemies of Christ will be erased and be as though they had not been, and it is of vast interest to the human race and to the universe that this happen, for it would be woful should the names of Lucifer and his misled host remain inscribed with the righteous. Their names were recorded with the righteous before the revolt in heaven, but that history erased them, for God's rule is that whosoever sins against Him He will blot out of His book.
The verse does not apply to Jesus any more than to anyone in the present day who happens to be hated without a cause and whose history is tangent to David's in certain points. It shows the condition of mercy under the one Gospel of Jesus Christ, the same in Josiah's time as today: the one who humbles himself and seeks God will be exalted, made glad, and live. It may be appropriated by Christians whose history runs parallel to David's, taking his experience upon themselves to be glad and to have their heart live as they seek God, and such appropriated quotation is a fulfillment of Scripture in a different sense from fulfillment of prediction.