DECLARING HIS NAME AND HIS PRAISE
Verse 21: “That men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem.” This verse mainly stresses the city rather than the house. The city is greater than the house, although within it is the house. If we still conduct our meetings in the old way of Christianity with the silence, the pews, the forms, and the special speakers, I do not think that is a declaration of the name of the Lord or of His praise. Rather, when we proclaim, “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” we are, at least to some extent, declaring the name of the Lord and His praises. “Jesus is Lord! Hallelujah!” This also is a declaration of the name of the Lord and of His praise. Men must declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem.
After going through all the Psalms, I cannot find a single verse which says that the house or the city is a place to receive teachings. But there are many verses in the Psalms which tell us that the house or the city of God is the place to praise the Lord. “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be praising thee all the day long” (Psa. 84:4). We must not only praise Him, but declare His praises. We must make our praises a kind of declaration.
When shall we do this? “When the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord” (v. 22). Again we see how the Lord needs Zion in order to recover the earth. When men declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem, then the peoples and the kingdoms will be gathered together to serve the Lord. All these verses show us in poetic language how the recovery of the Lord’s right over the whole earth depends upon the situation of the local churches. It is not a small matter. When we as the local church come together and call, “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” it is not a light thing. It is very much related to the Lord’s recovery and His right over the entire earth.
My wife and I were walking a few blocks from the meeting hall one day when a little girl surprised us by saying so sweetly, “Hallelujah!” We had never met her before, and she had never met us, yet somehow she knew that we are the “Hallelujah people.” Oh, brothers and sisters, let us say more and more, “Hallelujah,” and, “Jesus is Lord.” Let us declare His name and His praise. We are in the heart of Satan’s kingdom. To say “Hallelujah” and “Jesus is Lord” in such a place is full of significance and impact.
It is due to Christ and the building up of the house of God that peoples will be gathered and the kingdoms will serve the Lord. We all must be turned from the religious concept of keeping the law to Christ Himself, that the house and the city may be built up. Then we may declare His name and His praise, the peoples will be gathered to serve Him, and God’s legal right over the earth will be recovered.
THE ETERNAL ONE
The last section of Psalm 102, verses 23 to 28, is concerned with the eternity of Christ. In the first section of this Psalm, He was the suffering and afflicted man, but at the end of the Psalm, He is the eternal One, the very God, from eternity to eternity, the everlasting One, who will never change. “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end” (vv. 25-27).
THE HALLELUJAHS BEGUN
Following Psalm 102, we have Psalm 103, concerning Christ the Lord as the Redeemer. “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (v. 4). Next, in Psalm 104, we see Christ the Lord as the good and kind Creator of so many things. The last two Psalms of Book IV, Psalms 105 and 106, tell us that Christ is the very Lord who has made a covenant with His people, and who is continually dealing with His people according to His covenant. He is the Redeemer (Psalm 103), He is the Creator (Psalm 104), and He is also the Maker and Keeper of the covenant with His people (Psalms 105 and 106).
Notice now that by the end of Book IV the “Hallelujahs” have begun, with the first instance at the end of Psalm 104. The King James Version reads, “Praise ye the Lord,” but in Hebrew it is “Hallelujah.” At the end of Psalm 105 we have another “Hallelujah,” and at the beginning of Psalm 106, still another. Then at the end of Psalm 106, that is, at the close of the entire Book IV of the Psalms, there is the fourth “Hallelujah.” “Hallelujah” has not been used in Book I, nor in Book II, nor even at the end of Book III. At those stages the earth had not yet been fully recovered. But now in Book IV, because the earth has been fully recovered by God, the Psalmists break forth with four “Hallelujahs.” Not only has Christ been given His rightful position and the church built up as the house and the city, but the earth has been recovered by the Lord and brought fully under Christ’s dominion. There is nothing to say but “Hallelujah!” At the end of Psalm 106 we have to say with the Psalmist, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
Later, in Book V, we will see many more “Hallelujahs.” Now we are only at the end of Book IV. But, hallelujah, Christ is here in the church as the house and the city, and the recovery of God’s title over the earth has been accomplished. Now the earth is the Lord’s, and all the peoples are gathered with the kingdoms to serve Him. Amen, Hallelujah!
(Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms, Chapter 18, by Witness Lee)
