A Servant King
“I am the Door.”
The second part of both the Covenant and matrix structures concerns the authority of the transcendent God being delegated to His servant. Very often, a book of prophecy begins with a vision of the Lord, which promptly knocks Adam onto his face as a dead man, and the destroyer passes over him in the darkness. He is “waters divided.” He is called to be separate from the world, and this sanctification begins with mortification. [1] So Psalm 112, as the second in this Covenant song-cycle, concerns the outcome in the world of the faithful use of God’s authority by His Adam.
Psalm 112
Garden – Most Holy Place
Praise the LORD! (Creation)
…..Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, (Division)
……….Who delights greatly in His commandments. (Ascension)
……………His descendants will be mighty on earth; (Testing)
……….The generation of the upright will be blessed. (Maturity)
…..Wealth and riches will be in his house, (Conquest)
And his righteousness endures forever. (Glorification)
This “Garden” cycle reflects what the result of Adam’s Testing should have been. It also supports my theory that Satan’s main aim was to hijack Adam’s offspring. [2] The mighty descendants here are the ruling lights, the sun, moon and stars, just as the mighty men were in Genesis 6. Except they failed to rule over sin, and these ones are not the offspring of compromise. They go into the ark as plunder, instead of receiving the plagues or perishing in the flood. The final line, as is often the case, concerns Covenant succession. There has been some discussion on the BH list concerning the meaning for the Hebrew word for “forever.” In every case its use depends on the context, but the main idea is that it will continue until God says otherwise. Usually this means until the end of the next cycle, (like farming!) when He tears the old Covenant apart and renews it with a better one.
Land – Holy Place
Unto the upright (Sabbath)
…..there arises light in the darkness; (Passover)
……….He is gracious, and full of compassion, (Firstfruits – Law given)
……………and righteous. (Pentecost – Law opened, in the flesh)
……….A good man deals graciously and lends; (Trumpets – Law received)
…..He will guide his affairs with discretion. (Atonement)
Surely he will never be shaken; (Booths)
The Holy Place is the court in which God’s “clean” Mediator governs. We see the progression from Light from God through the Man to those whom He governs as God’s vassal. He is a servant-king, a faithful steward, and not a tyrant. Just as the Man in verse 1 was “un-Adam”, the Man is verse 2 is “un-Cain.”
This last verse seems to be the application of the Covenant to the World. My first thought was Hezekiah’s reaction of the threatening letter from the Assyrians. He took the scroll and unrolled it before God, and God rolled the false “Covenant/firmament” up like a scroll. God’s faithful man is given the nations as His inheritance.
I tried it as two verses but it didn’t seem to fit the subject matter. It seems that it follows the five point model but points 2 (Hierarchy) and 4 (Sanctions) have their own chiastic structure. These points are the Covenant scroll given (the robe/veil), and the Covenant scroll assessed (the bloodied robe/veil). What is interesting is that it is now God’s Man, the faithful Mediator from verse 2, who has the attributes of God. Following the Garden/Land/World pattern, this would be a reversal of Genesis 6. I think we see this reflected in Solomon’s kingdom. (Samuel – Garden / David – Land / Solomon – World). There is also the mention of horn/ivory in the fourth section, which commonly refers to rulers.
Remember, the overall theme of this Psalm within the seven is Passover: the immovability of God’s faithful Man while the destroyer passes over. It is God’s man who becomes a human Covenant, a “firmament of flesh,” the blood on the door. Solomon’s throne had a circular “dome” above it. He was God’s vassal, sitting just below the crystal sea, enthroned above the kingdom of beasts as a new Adam.
The basic heptamerous matrix theme seems to be in there as well, with the mention of plunder/money at Maturity/Trumpets. and the wicked melting away at Conquest/Atonement. See what you think.
World – Gentile Courts
The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. (Transcendence)
…..He will not be afraid of evil tidings; (Heirarchy)
……….His heart is steadfast,
……………trusting in the LORD.
………His heart is established;
…..He will not be afraid,
……………Until he sees his desire upon his enemies. (Ethics)
…..He has dispersed abroad, (Sanctions)
……….He has given to the poor;
……………His righteousness endures forever;
………………..His horn will be exalted with honor.
……………The wicked will see [it] and be grieved;
……….He will gnash his teeth and melt away;
The desire of the wicked shall perish. (Succession)
Of course, when the kings who succeeded Solomon failed to remember they were only vassals under God, and became serpent-kings, they themselves eventually came under these Covenant curses.
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[1] Just as the first three days of Creation were forming and the next three were filling, the first three steps of the matrix are the death, resurrection and exaltation of the Covenant head, and the next three are the death (martyrdom), resurrection and exaltation of the Covenant body. They are united on a throne of rest on the final day.
[2] See Fighting Over The Children and Emancipation of Eve.
Art: King Solomon by Leon Gaspard.
