Living Stream Ministry

II. THE PSALMS WERE WRITTEN
ACCORDING TO TWO KINDS OF CONCEPTS

The Psalms were written according to two kinds of concepts. We also have to pick up this point. Otherwise, we cannot properly understand the Psalms.

A. The Human Concept of the Holy Writers

The first concept, according to which the Psalms were written, is the human concept of the holy writers. Their human concept was produced out of their good nature created by God, formed with the traditions of their holy race, constituted with the teachings of their holy Scriptures, promoted by their practice of a holy life, and uttered out of their holy sentiments and impressions. These are the constituents of the human concept of the holy writers of the Psalms. They were from a holy race, possessing the Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses. They were a greatly cultured people. The traditions of their holy race formed their human concept according to which many of the psalms were written.

B. The Divine Concept of God

The Psalms were also written according to the divine concept of God as the divine revelation. This divine concept of God as the divine revelation is concerning His eternal economy in Christ, taking Christ as its centrality and universality. It is also concerning Christ in His divinity, humanity, human living, all-inclusive death, life-imparting and seed-producing resurrection, glorification, ascension, appearing in glory, and reigning forever. All these points are clearly, and even in detail, revealed in the Psalms. The divine concept in the Psalms is also concerning God’s heart’s desire, His good pleasure in Christ as His centrality and universality, in the church as His fullness for His expression, in the kingdom for His eternal administration, and in the recovery of the earth for His eternal kingdom in eternity. This divine concept of God was uttered from the godly writers of the Psalms as a part of the utterance in their holy writings. The same writers uttered two kinds of concepts—the human concept and the divine concept.

We need to apply these two kinds of concepts to Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. Psalm 1 says:

1. Blessed is the man
   Who does not walk
   In the counsel of the wicked,
   Nor stand on the path of sinners,
   Nor sit in the company of mockers;
2. Rather his delight is in the law of Jehovah,
   And in His law he meditates by day and by night.
3. And he will be like a tree
   Transplanted beside streams of water,
   Which yields its fruit in its season,
   And whose foliage does not wither;
   And everything he does prospers.
4. The wicked are not so,
   But are like chaff,
   Which the wind drives away.
5. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment;
   Nor the sinners, in the assembly of the righteous.
6. For Jehovah knows the way of the righteous,
   But the way of the wicked will perish.

(Life-Study of Psalms, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)