The prayers, complaints, declarations,
and exaltations which David spoke in the Psalms are in reality
the prophetic utterances of the man Christ Jesus. Whether they are glad pronouncements
of praise or deep grievings and exclamations of sorrow, they
expose the soul of him who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. We can see a window into all
that he bore for his elect, as he was in all points tempted,
that is, tried, even as they are. Thus he, as their great
high priest, is touched with the feelings of their infirmities,
and they in turn are given some understanding of the great conflicts
which occur in the heart which is exercised by sin. He, having
no sin of his own and being perfectly unstained with any imperfection
or impurity, did nonetheless become sin for his people and
underwent the very burden which those who were laid under the
lash of the law and the weight of sin's condemnation do bear. He knows what it is to sink under
the crushing blame and guilt of a broken law, to lift up his
eyes to heaven and feel a sense of abandonment and darkness.
He experienced a need for mercy and a desperate hope that his
groanings might be heard by him in whom his soul could find a
place of respite and an expectation of deliverance. In this groaning
and desire for deliverance, those whom he has loved with an everlasting
love do share that yearning when they are awakened by his Spirit,
as they through much tribulation enter the kingdom of heaven which
he has opened for them. He ever stands for them as their
substitute in those things wherein the law demands satisfaction,
and their example and performer in all things pertaining to life
and godliness. This is no haphazard operation
which is left up to the free will of men to bring to pass.
Rather, it is accomplished by the work of His Spirit in the
sons of God. Thus they can no more be satisfied
to continue in the way of their flesh, as they once did, before
he was pleased to bring them out of darkness and into the
light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, than
the man who is walking in the flesh can desire to do all things
to the glory of God. In the very midst of the depths
of his sorrow, the Lord Jesus did not merely contemplate his
own suffering, though he was marred more than any man, but
rather looked to the triumph which was his, as he brought
salvation to that people which he loved with an everlasting
love. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. The Lord had a set time when
He would accomplish this victory as He declared that He was sent
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance
of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that
mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of
joyful mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. A set time requires
a particular purpose. All that the Lord does, He does
for a specific reason. Nothing in all of His creation
is left to chance, nor is any activity or action not ordained
according to His purpose. He has determined to manifest
the glory of His grace in the redemption of a people which
He has loved from the beginning. And to that end, He has ordained
every action to bring about that desired result. A set time requires
that there is someone who has the authority and power to establish
such an appointment. And a set time requires that
there is someone who has power to keep that appointment. When
men make appointments, they may or may not be honored. But whenever
the Lord establishes a set time, that appointment will be kept. because he hath appointed a day
into which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.