Scripture Reading: John 4:14b; Micah 5:2; Hosea 11:4a; Psa. 68:1, 5-6a, 11-13, 18-20, 26-35
Ⅰ
We need to see the Lord's recovery of the central revelation of God for the ultimate move of God to carry out the economy of God for the building of God; the Lord's recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem—Acts 26:16-19; Ezek. 1:1-3; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6; cf. Matt. 1:23; Ezek. 48:35:
A
The entire Bible is the autobiography of the journeying Triune God, the flowing Triune God; the flowing Triune God needs us to be His open vessels so that He can be fully mingled and incorporated with us to become the New Jerusalem—John 1:1, 14; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 4:14b; Psa. 36:8-9; Jer. 2:13; 2 Cor. 4:7; Rom. 9:21, 23; Rev. 22:1.
B
Man moves in God's move, and God moves in man's move by the divine Spirit in our human spirit mingled together as one spirit; learn to touch, to live by, to follow, to do everything, and to face every situation by the divine Spirit in your spirit; this is the Christian life, the Christian work, the move of God in man, and the move of man in God to fulfill God's economy—Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 5:25; Phil. 3:3; Rom. 1:9; Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10.
C
Although Christ came from Bethlehem, His goings forth are from ancient times, from the days of eternity; Christ's going forth, His appearing, is a continuous matter—Micah 5:2:
１
At the time of His incarnation He began to come forth and continued to go forth through His human living, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His dispensing of Himself into His believers, and His spreading through the preaching of the gospel to the whole inhabited earth—Matt. 5:3, 8; 24:14.
２
Christ's going forth, His manifestation, will consummate when He comes back with the overcomers as the mighty ones to defeat Antichrist and to cast him into the lake of fire, when Satan is cast into the abyss, and when Christ sets up His throne to reign as King—Joel 3:11; Rev. 19:19-20; 20:2-3; Matt. 25:31, 34, 40.
D
God's love is divine, but His love reaches us through Christ's humanity—"I drew them with cords of a man, / With bands of love"—Hosea 11:4a:
１
God's predestination of us in eternity past unto the divine sonship was motivated by His love—Eph. 1:4-5.
２
His divine love reaches us from eternity by His traveling across the bridge of time in humanity through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; these processes are the "cords of a man" to bind us to Himself in His humanity and the "bands of love" to draw us to Himself in His divinity in order to redeem us judicially and save us organically to be His glorious church, His beautiful bride—Rom. 5:10; Eph. 5:25-27.
Ⅱ
Psalm 68 reveals Christ as the center of God's move on earth; God's move in the tabernacle with the Ark from Sinai to Zion typifies the Triune God's move in Christ as His all-inclusive embodiment from Christ's incarnation to His ascension and God's move in and through the church with Christ as the center of the church—John 1:17; Acts 16:6-7; Rev. 2:7:
A
"Let God arise; let His enemies be scattered; / And let those who hate Him flee before Him"—wherever the Ark, a type of Christ, went, the victory was won— Psa. 68:1; Num. 10:35; Psa. 68:12a, 14; Eph. 6:12; Mal. 4:2.
B
"A Father to the orphans and a Judge for the widows / Is God in His holy habitation. / God causes the solitary to dwell in a household; / He brings the prisoners forth into prosperity"—God causes the needy ones, the bound ones, and the solitary ones to dwell in the church—Psa. 68:5-6a; Eph. 2:22.
C
"The Lord gives the command; / The women who bear the glad tidings are a great host"—these women of Israel signify the weak ones who publish the gospel by loving God with the love of God, praying to God with the prayer of God, giving to God by the giving God, and going with God by the acting God in the move of God—Psa. 68:11; 45:1; 2 Cor. 5:14; Luke 6:12, 38; Rev. 14:4; Dan. 11:32b.
D
"She who abides at home / Divides the spoil"—the spoil signifies all the gains of the accomplishment, consummation, attainment, and obtainment of Christ as the reapings of the victory of His death, resurrection, and ascension—Psa. 68:12b.
E
"There are dove wings covered with silver, / And its pinions, with greenish-yellow gold"—this verse reveals four items among the spoil—v. 13b:
１
The dove wings signify the moving power of the Spirit; silver signifies Christ in His redemption for our justification, which is indicated by the color white, the color of approval; pinions (the feathers at the end of a bird's wings giving it the strength to fly and soar) signify the flying and soaring power of the Spirit; the greenish-yellow, glittering gold with which the pinions are covered signifies God's nature glittering in the divine life and glory—Matt. 3:16; Isa. 40:31; 2 Pet. 1:4.
２
The contents of the above four items, as Christ's spoil in His victory for the enjoyment of God's elect, are actually the Triune God with all the items of His complete, full, and all-inclusive salvation—cf. Rom. 5:10, 17, 21.
３
"Blessed be the Lord, who day by day loads us with good; / God is our salvation. Selah"—the good here is the Triune God—the dove wings covered with silver and its pinions covered with greenish-yellow, glittering gold; God's elect enjoy all the above items as their portion in Christ and announce them to others as the glad tidings—Psa. 68:19, 13b, 11; Rom. 8:28; Matt. 19:17; Phil. 1:19-21a.
F
"You have ascended on high; You have led captive those taken captive; / You have received gifts among men, / Even the rebellious ones also, / That Jehovah God may dwell among them"—Psa. 68:18:
１
Those taken captive refers to the redeemed saints, who were taken captive by Satan and imprisoned before being saved by Christ's death and resurrection; Christ defeated Satan and captured his captives (including us); then like a general leading his captives, Christ in His ascension to the heavens led us to the Father—cf. 2 Cor. 2:12-16a.
２
The Amplified New Testament renders "He led captive those taken captive" in Ephesians 4:8 as "He led a train of vanquished foes"; in Christ's ascension there was a procession of these vanquished foes, led as captives from a war, for a celebration of Christ's victory.
３
We have been captured by Christ, presented by Christ to the Father, and then given to Christ by the Father as gifts; the gifts received by Christ have become the gifted believers, whom He gave to His Body for its building up—Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:7-8, 11-12.
G
"God is to us / A God of deliverance, / And with Jehovah the Lord / Are the goings forth even from death"—when we enjoy God as our saving life, the God of resurrection, we escape death—Psa. 68:20, 24; Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:16-18.
H
"Bless God in the congregations, / Even Jehovah, O you who are of the fountain of Israel. / There are little Benjamin, who rules them, / And the princes of Judah in their company, / The princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. / Your God has commanded your strength; / Strengthen, O God, that which You have done for us"—Psa. 68:26-28:
１
As the son of affliction, Ben-oni typifies Christ, who, as the man of sorrows in His incarnation and human life on earth, accomplished God's eternal redemption for His full salvation; as the son of the right hand, Benjamin typifies Christ, who, as the Son of the right hand of God in His resur-rection, victory, and ascension, ministers in the heavens to carry out the application of God's redemption for His salvation—Gen. 35:18; Isa. 53:3.
２
Judah typifies Christ as the victory for God's people (the lion with the power and the scepter) and the peace (Shiloh) to God's people; from His incarnation to His ascension, He is Benjamin; from His reigning with divine authority to His return as the Prince of Peace, He is Judah—Rev. 5:5a; Gen. 49:8-10.
３
Zebulun typifies Christ as the "haven" of the evangelists for the trans-portation and spreading in the preaching of God's gospel; on the day of Pentecost, at least one hundred twenty gospel "ships," all of whom were Galileans, set out to spread the gospel—v. 13; Acts 1:14.
４
Naphtali typifies Christ as the One who is released from death in resur-rection, signified by the "hind let loose" (Gen. 49:21; Psa. 22, title; 18:33;S. S. 2:8-9), and gives beautiful words for the preaching of His gospel (Matt. 28:18-20); in typology Zebulun and Naphtali form a group for the spreading and the propagating of the glad tidings of Christ's redemption for God's salvation.
I
"Strengthen, O God, that which You have done for us. / Because of Your temple at Jerusalem"—following God's strengthening of what He has done for His elect, the influence of the enjoyment of God in His house spreads to the entire city of Jerusalem—Psa. 68:28b-29a; cf. Eph. 3:16-17a; John 16:13.
J
The influence of the enjoyment of God in God's building as the house of God and the city of God will gain the whole earth for God—Psa. 68:29b-35; Matt. 19:28; Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 14:16-17; Rev. 21:24.
K
"You are awesome, O God, from Your sanctuaries. / The God of Israel, He gives strength and power to the people. / Blessed be God!"—Psa. 68:35.