PSALMS 81 TO 83—GOD’S INTENTION AND SATAN’S PLOT
Psalms 81 to 83 tell how Christ will judge and inherit the earth, and how the enemy desires to take God’s habitation in possession.
I must repeat again that the Psalms are written in the style of poetry, and for this reason it is really difficult to understand them. I believe that by this time the Psalms have become a different book to many of you. You thought they were merely a source of consolation, but now you see in them Christ, God’s dwelling place, the house and city of God, and the way God will gain the earth. In order to understand the Psalms we must enter the heart of the Psalmist and get into the spirit of all the seeking saints. In the spirit of the saints, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, was uttering something. We cannot just read the Psalms in an outward way. That is why we have spent so much time to see what is in the heart of all the Psalmists and what is hidden in all the Psalms. It is nothing but Christ and the church as the house and the city of God.
Do not be frustrated or troubled by so many verses and sayings in all the Psalms. Years ago in my home province, certain types of crystals were mined from the ground. I had seen these beautiful stones on the market for years, but one day I was shown their original condition in the form of a large, rough, and ugly stone. Then I was shown, after a cut was made into the very heart of that ugly mass, a crystal, so transparent, colorful, and beautiful. On the outside there were many unsightly layers, but after these were removed, a beautiful crystal appeared. In the Psalms there are many verses. I would not say that some are ugly, but that many of these verses do not seem so meaningful. Yet we need them. For example, Psalm 78 is a very long Psalm concerning the failure, unfaithfulness and dishonesty of God’s people. Many times when I was young, I grew tired of reading that passage of the Bible. I thought it would be far better to shorten it. But within that Psalm, there are at least these four verses, verses 65, 66, 68 and 69, which are as crystals. Verse 65 says that one day the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, as a mighty man. Verse 66 says that He smote all His enemies; verse 68 says that He chose Judah, the mount Zion; and verse 69 says that He built His sanctuary like high palaces and stable as the earth. These are the crystals. Do not be frustrated and troubled by all the other verses. We must go through them until we hit all these significant verses.
In Psalms 81 through 83 there are not many crystals, but there are two points which indicate that God’s intention is to inherit the earth. Psalm 82:8 says, “Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.” This is a crystal verse. God’s intention is to possess the earth through Christ. Then in Psalm 83, verse 12, the enemy says, “Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.” By putting these two verses together and comparing them, we see that God’s intention is to inherit the earth, and Satan’s plot is to take the houses of God in possession. Could you see the subtlety? Here is the struggle that has arisen. With whom will you stand? With God for the earth, or with Satan to take over God’s dwelling places?
God’s intention is to give Christ His right position throughout the local churches and then, through the churches, to take over the whole earth. Satan knows this, and so his goal is to take over God’s dwelling places and thus withhold the earth from God. But, according to Psalm 83, God will surely do something to show His enemies that He alone is the most High over all the earth. “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth” (v. 18). We have full assurance in these last days that God is going to defeat all His enemies. Regardless of how much desolation the enemy has wrought, regardless of how much he is still working to damage the local churches, God will defeat him. One day through the local churches the whole universe will know that God alone is the most High over all the earth.
(Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee)
