Christ rejected and cast off, yet Creator of heaven and earth
Psalm 102 is one of the most, perhaps the most, remarkable of all the Psalms, and presents Christ in a way divinely admirable. Verse 10 gives the occasion of the cry with which the psalm begins. Christ is fully looked at as man chosen out of the people and exalted to be Messiah, and now, instead of taking the kingdom, He is rejected and cast off.1 The time is the immediate approach of the cross, but was, we know, perhaps often, anticipated in thought, as John 12. He looks to Jehovah, who cast down Him whom He had called to the place of Messiah, but who now meets indignation and wrath. We are far, here, beyond looking at sufferings as coming from man. They did, and were felt, but men are not before Him in judgment; nor is it His expiatory work, though that which wrought it is here if we take it in its full effect on the cross-the indignation and wrath. It is Himself-His own being cut off as man. He is in trouble; His heart smitten like a pelican of the wilderness and an owl of the desert; His days as a shadow that declines, withered like grass. Such was Messiah, to whom all the promises were. Jehovah endured forever. His promises were certain. He would arise, and have mercy on Zion, and the set time was come.
(1. Note, there is no bringing in of “me” in connection with indignation and wrath, as in Psalm 22, though Christ realizes it in spirit. But personally He is lifted up and cast down. It is a key which opens up much in the Psalms.)
The whole scene, from Christ on earth to the remnant in the last days, is one. When Zion was restored, the heathen would fear the name of Jehovah. Jehovah will appear, and, when He builds up Zion, hear and answer the poor remnant, and thus declare His name in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when all nations would be gathered together there. But where was Messiah then? His strength had been weakened in His journey, His days shortened. He had cried to Him able to deliver, to save from death. Was Zion to be restored and no Messiah-He weakened and cut off? Then comes the wondrous and glorious answer: He was Himself the creator of the heavens and the earth. He was ever the same. His years would not fail when the created universe was rolled up like a garment. The children of His servants would continue and their seed be established before Him. The Christ, the despised and rejected Jesus, is Jehovah the Creator. The Jehovah we have heard of coming, is the Christ that came. The Ancient of Days comes, and Christ is He, though Son of Man. This contrast of the extreme humiliation and isolation of Christ, and His divine nature, is incomparably striking.
But it is Christ’s personal sense of rejection, and that in connection with the remnant, not His bearing the judgment of sin in His soul for men. Look at the difference of the consequences in Psalm 22, though that perfect work was needed for “the nation,” too, or their deliverance could not have taken place.
Summary of Psalms 103-106
Psalms 103-106 give us the results-and the covenant-in grace and in responsibility, of Israel’s history.
Psalm 103 is the voice of Messiah in Israel in praise according to God’s dealing with them; Psalm 104, the same in creation; Psalm 105, God’s ways in grace, from Abraham up to the giving of the land (now to be possessed in peace); Psalm 106, the acknowledgment of Israel’s ways from first to last, but owning Jehovah’s mercy, and looking for it, for it endures forever. Grace and favor are the one foundation on which hope can be built leading to obedience. This closes the book.