When we seek to rightly divide the Word of Truth we are very careful to remind ourselves that all scripture is profitable.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
-2 Tim 2:15
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...
-2 Tim 3:16
The irony of this charge against Paul's special revelation, which is sometimes leveled against dispensationalists, is that those who embrace Israel's promises as their own (such as the New Covenant) find no value in much of Israel's history or the dictates of the First Covenant. We have seen how the "forever" statutes of the Mosaic covenant are tossed aside as a remnant of a truth that no longer applies to them.
We want to stress here that we are not saying that the dictates of the Law "no longer" apply to us in the current age, but rather that those dictates never applied to us. They never applied to Adam. They never applied to Noah. They didn't apply to Moses until he was over 80 years of age. The Law only applied to Gentiles if they live among Israel and then only in a very limited way (that is, not the entire Law).
When we turn to the pages of the Hebrew Canon (The First [Old] Covenant), we hold every word to be true. And while we embrace these books as holy and good, we know they are not given directly to us today. A general truth (such as a truth about the nature of God) is applicable in all ages. And even in truths about how God dealt with individuals like Noah, Moses, and David we can find profitable things. But we would never claim all the promises or commands to those same men. We don't expect God to deal with all believers in the same way he dealt with those men.
That is not "tossing out" anything, it is simply embracing those truths in their contexts.
So, when we come to the wonderful Book of Psalms, we can find comfort in God's character even if we cannot claim everything in them as promises or expectation for The Body of the current age.
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
5 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.-Psalm 139:1-6
We don't hope as Abraham did ("for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God" - Hebrews 11:10), nor do we hope as David hoped as we shall see. But we surely do have a wonderful hope in God! And that hope is experienced in part now and will be fully realized in our resurrection to come.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell [Sheol], behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.-Psalm 139:7-12
We note the comfort the Psalmist has in knowing that even in Sheol God is with him. Now, if Sheol ("hell") is God's unending and fiery torture chamber (as tradition teaches), having him there would be the opposite of a comforting experience. Tradition tells us Sheol is a terrible place or unimaginable suffering. There is no comfort in their doctrine.
To try and explain this obvious contradiction, men try to teach us the "two chambers of hell" doctrine. This doctrine tries to extract from Luke 16 and the story of Lazarus and the Rich man. The story told by the Lord is a mockery of Pharisaical teachings, not some new revelation of truth. It teaches salvation by poverty and suffering. The idea of Sheol was always understood to be a state of the dead. When good king Hezekiah was dying he referenced not simply Sheol, but specifically "the gates of Sheol." These are "the gates of Hades (Hell)" the Lord speaks of in Matthew 16:18.
This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
I said,
“In the prime of my life
I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”-Isaiah 38:9-10
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
-Matthew 16:18
Does he look forward to these "gates of hell?" The KJV translates Sheol as "hell" in Psalm 139 and as "grave" in Isaiah 38. The proper translation is too inconvenient for the ecclesiastical systems dependent on a God who threatens most of his creation with fiery torture. But Sheol, and Hades refer to the state of being dead. This is a state from which only resurrection can conquer. And as we can never merit such a complete victory, Christ accomplished that for us.
When the real Lazarus was raised from the dead in John 11 (not resurrected), he makes no mention of such a chamber or of seeing anyone being tortured. I would imagine he wouldn't be able to shut up about either! But that is not the primary problem. What a cruelty bringing him back into a dying and sinful flesh! Imagine not only being in pure comfort and love, but being freed from the bondage of a sinful flesh only to be forced back into life and into a struggle with the old, wicked, carnal nature. It would be an act of cruelty on the Lord's part.
We may fear the night. We may fear darkness. We may fear the grave. The Psalmist comforts us (through inspiration of the Holy Spirit) by taking aim at all these in the context of God's omniscience, mercy, love, and care. One thing common to all ages and dispensations is death. It is the enemy. It has been defeated by the death, burial, lack of decay, and glorious resurrection of "the firstborn from the dead" (Col 1:18), our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! We will experience that victory in our own resurrection, fully paid for by him.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has resurrected together with Him, having forgiven you all sins.
-Colossians 2:13
Today, we only experience resurrection life in part in the new nature. But someday our bodies will be like his glorious body!
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
-1 Corinthians 13:12
There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies. The glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
-1 Corinthians 15:40
In this age, the hope is experiencing that new life in full in the heavenly places, not on the earth. So just as the believers in Israel looked forward to a new body in resurrection and the coming down to earth of the city whose builder and maker is God (cp Rev 21:2), so do we look forward to our new celestial bodies. But we will experience that hope in the far above the heavens. We reiterate this point as it is essential in understanding the expectations of the current age compared to the expectations David and Israel had when he wrote his psalms.
But our citizenship is in heaven, from where also we await for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our body of humiliation, so that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working of His power even to subdue all things to Himself.
-Philippians 3:20-21
We wait for that day with great anticipation and joy even if our current circumstances seem grim. That is how we can apply this Psalm to this age. We have no hope here. We have no expectation of God striking our enemies. We look for no city.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
-Psalm 139:13-18
Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
-2 Samuel 12:9-14
The Psalmist never doubted the Lord's presence or his eternal fate even as he suffered the fate brought on by the sins of the flesh. Even during those times when the Lord is correcting us and moving is to walk in the nature and not in the flesh, he comforts us. He chastises his own out of love for his children.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”-Hebrews 12:5-6
It may seem like a disappointment when we rightly divide the promises and commands to some of the patriarchs. But remember, just as we cannot claim the promise to David regarding the throne or even of God's immediate protection, neither do we suffer the harshness of his chastisements because of his exalted position.
David continues with prayer in Psalm 139:
Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
-Psalm 139:19-22
This is where we can clearly see a departure from the current age. We do not pray like this. This was perfectly acceptable for David as David was the representative of Israel. These were earthly enemies of God as they were earthly enemies of God's earthly people, Israel.
Does this mean we have no enemies in the current age? Certainly not. Our enemies are primarily not of flesh and blood, however. Our enemies are spiritual wicked beings, base men, as well as even fellow believers. Paul lamented that those who sought to make his imprisonment even worse were preachers of Christ. The enemies of the cross of Christ noted in Philippians were believers. All God's children for sure, but enemies of the revelation given to Paul for the current age. Some jealous (from the old nature) and some resistant to abandon earthly ordinances and the earthly hope.
In all their scheming against him, Paul praised the Lord, in that even though other believers sought to make his chains (imprisonment) more difficult, Christ was being preached (Phil 1:12,18). In the case of Alexander the Coppersmith mentioned by Paul to Timothy, we see the closest Paul comes in this age to directly addressing judgment upon his enemies.
Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works.
-2 Timothy 4:14
There is no open hatred here. There is no prayer for him to be slaughtered. Our enemies are personal and not national. While David was right to prayer for the destruction of those who sought to kill him or harm Israel, we have no such right. Israel and David are both central to God's earthly plan. And we should be careful with even Paul's practice as Paul alone was entrusted with the revelation of the Mystery of this age. Through his witness we are entrusted, but in a secondary way.
But rest assured, even though God may not act on our behalf in this life as he did in the life of David and Israel, he is well aware of our enemies.
We finish this Psalm with a recognition of failure in the flesh.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
-Psalm 139:23-24
We started this psalm acknowledging that God has searched and that he knows us. We marveled at how wonderful this thought is. But before leaving this ode to God's omniscience and care we stop here in the last two verses to implore God to search our hearts more deeply. We ask him to reveal to us (beyond simply to just know us) any wicked way in us. David is very personal here. This goes beyond his position as King and the progenitor of the Messiah. This strikes directly at the heart of the man.
This is a prayer we can take to our hearts. And in the midst of David seeking to root out any evil way in himself, he reminds himself that God is familiar with his fears and anxieties. God knows our frame and he knows that we are weak. Allow God to search your heart, mind, and life for harmful and wicked ways knowing all the time that he cares deeply and is well aware our fragile frame. He knows our fears.
There is comfort in all of these things.
As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him.For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.
-Psalm 103:13-14
