Now notice who it is that divides the spoil: “The women that tarry at home...” (v. 12). Not the men, but the women; not by toiling, laboring, or fighting, but by tarrying at home. There is no need for us to toil and fight the battle; the battle is over, the victory is already won! We only need come and divide the spoil. Today in the local church, in God’s home, we are simply dividing the spoil day by day. On one hand we are publishing the tidings, and on the other hand we are dividing the spoil. Though we are lying among the sheepfolds (v. 13), yet we are dividing the spoils of Christ’s victory. You may say that those who lie among the sheepfolds are rather indolent. Yes, but when they get the spoils, the wings of the dove, they will no longer lie among the sheepfolds; they will fly, they will be transcendent.
Whenever you see the victory of Christ, you enjoy the spoils of His victory. Then what is the result? You are strengthened with the wings of a dove, covered with silver and gold. Whenever you share the spoils of Christ’s victory, some of the spoils are poured on you. You will have the spiritual strength of the Spirit with all the value of Christ’s death and the fulness of God’s divine life poured upon you. O what wings you will have! And what power there is in those wings, not to walk, but to fly. The more you enjoy the Lord’s victory, the more you will pick up all the enemies. You will say, “Aha Satan, aha flesh, the world, and lusts—you’re all under my feet!”
O brothers and sisters, what a basis and content for our praise! When we experience all these things, what an outflowing of praise there will be—not natural or religious praise, but praise full of the experience of Christ. Could we put all these things into our experiences? You may say that you have a little experience of this kind, but do not know how to utter it. I agree with you—we are not accustomed to this kind of praise. We are so used to natural and religious praises. We are so accustomed simply to praise and thank the Lord that He loves us and that He died on the cross for us—all the time it is like this. There is certainly nothing wrong with this kind of praise, but it is so religious. We need something new, something deeper. Firstly we must experience all these things: we must experience the victory of Christ over all His enemies; we must share and partake of the spoils of Christ’s victory; we must have the experience of the wings of the dove covered with silver and gold. Then, when we learn how to utter all these experiences, we will praise Christ not in a religious way, but in a new way out of the riches of experience.
Now let us go on to verse 24: “They have seen Thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.” By the accomplishments of verse 18, by the gifts received by the ascended One and given by Him to the Body, the habitation of God has been built up. So in verse 24 the enemies, the defeated foes, see the goings of God in the sanctuary. In the habitation God moves; in the habitation you can see the goings of God.
Then in verse 25 we have the praising procession: “The singers went before, the players on stringed instruments after, in the midst of maidens playing on timbrels.” This procession is made up mainly of maidens, the weaker ones. Psalm 8 deals with praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings; Psalm 68 also deals with praise, but this time by widows, by women, by maidens. In Matthew 14 we are told that the Lord fed five thousand men besides women and children. The women and children are not reckoned. They are not worthy to be reckoned, but they are worthy to praise. To obtain His praises, God does not need the strong ones, the reckoned ones; he needs the unreckoned, the women and the children. If we brothers are not women, we are not qualified. For the praises of God in the church we do not have brothers—we are all women with the little ones. For praising the Lord, there is no need for us to be strong. Just the weak ones—the babes, the sucklings, the women and the maidens—can praise. We are worthy for nothing, but we are worthy for praising. We do not know how to perform, but we know how to praise. All the women must learn how to publish, how to enjoy, and how to praise.
The singers precede and the singers follow, all of them in the midst of maidens playing on timbrels. This is a maiden procession, not a male procession. If we are fighting, we all must be men, but now we are learning to praise, not on the battlefield, but at home in the local church. Here there is no fighting, but praising by enjoying. We enjoy Him and then we praise Him.
Now we come to the praise of verse 27, a verse so full of meaning: “There is little Benjamin in the lead, the princes of Judah with their company, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.” We must learn to praise the Lord not just for His victory, but for all that He Himself is. Praise is a psalm, and psalms are a kind of poetry. In the writings of poetry, figures of speech are used; so in this verse we have figures—Benjamin, Judah, Zebulun, and Naphtali. These are not plain words; these are figures. There are twelve tribes in Israel, but only four of them are mentioned here. Why did the Psalmist select just these four? It is quite interesting. Today, with the enlightenment of the New Testament, we can see the entire history of Christ in these four figures.
Regarding Benjamin, we must read Genesis 35:18, “And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni [the son of my sorrow]: but his father called him Benjamin [the son of the right hand].” We have these two titles, these two names, ascribed to Benjamin—the son of sorrow, and the son of the right hand. The whole human history of Christ is the story of these two names. When He was incarnated, He was incarnated to be a man of sorrows. Isaiah 53 tells us that while Christ was on this earth, He was “a man of sorrows” (v. 3). The son of sorrow signifies Christ’s incarnation and human living on this earth. By His incarnation and by all His human living, He suffered every kind of trial and hardship—He was really the son of sorrow. But He died and was resurrected, and by His death and resurrection He was made the Son at the right hand of God. Just by this little name of Benjamin we can see the incarnated Christ, the Christ who lived on this earth, who died on the cross, who was resurrected, and who ascended to the heavens as the Son at the right hand of God.
But Benjamin is something more. In the prophecy of Jacob concerning Benjamin in Genesis 49:27 we read, “Benjamin... shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.” Benjamin was predicted to be such a warrior. The Lord while He was here on earth as the son of sorrow was in a sense very bold in fighting. He was kind to the miserable human beings, but he was exceedingly bold to His enemies. He was a warrior on this earth: He fought the battle and devoured the prey; He won the victory on the cross and got all the spoils. This is why He became in His ascension the Son of the right hand of God. Benjamin signifies all the life of Christ in His humanity and in His victory.