In the past two years, we have released messages on Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, and Jeremiah. It is not easy to see Christ in these four books. How many people see God's economy in these four books with Christ as the centrality and universality? Whenever we study a book of the Bible, we must keep the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible. Then the light comes. If we read the Bible without seeing the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we will not know what it is talking about.
When we study the Psalms in the light of the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we can see the human concept and the divine concept. We can see Christ in God's economy versus the law in man's appreciation. We may think that all of the psalms are good psalms, since they are psalms of prayer, psalms of thanksgiving, and psalms of praise. But when we see the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we will see that many of the psalms may be good, but they are good in a wrong way.
David said that because of his righteousness, God heard him. This is not just wrong, but terribly wrong. This is against the principle of the Bible. How could God hear us because of our righteousness? The Bible says that even our best righteousness is as a soiled garment (Isa. 64:6). No flesh can be justified before God by the works of the law. This is the principle. We cannot be justified and please God by our righteousness.
Cain offered the fruit of his labor to God. It seemed that this was a kind of worship to God, but actually this was an insult to God. This was an insult to God because God does not need us to do something for Him. We need Him to do everything for us. He wants us to stop our doing, rest in Him, and take refuge in Him. By doing this, we honor God. This is the principle.
We may love people and help people, but our love and help can be an insult to God. Do we love people and help people by ourselves or by Christ? If it is by ourselves, this is the good of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If we hate people, this is the evil of the same tree. The fruits are different, but the source and the result are the same. We may say that we do everything with the best knowledge. This means that our doing is according to the tree of knowledge, not the tree of life.
We should have the attitude that even though we can do something by ourselves, we would not do it. We do not like to act by ourselves because God hates this. God hates anything out of us, anything by us, and anything through us. We need to stop our doing and rest in Him, trusting in His doing. This honors God and brings in His blessing.
Many times good things can be a real temptation, a snare, and a trap to us. When we are doing good things, we have to check who is doing them. Are we doing them or is Christ doing them? Even the best thing done merely by man is an insult to God. Only the things done by Christ as our life and only the things accomplished by God as our enjoyment are in the line of the tree of life. When we act in the line of the tree of life, this is in the proper line, in the keeping of the proper principle, and in the spirit of exalting Christ.
When we see the lines, the principles, and the spirit of the Bible, we have the boldness to say which psalms are of the tree of life and which psalms are not. Regardless of how good something is, God only cares for who does it. God wants us to live Him, but not by ourselves. God wants us to express Him, but not by ourselves. We have to stop our expression. We have to put our trust in Him and let Him live in us and out of us. Then whatever we do will be an honor and a glory to God. Otherwise, whatever we do, even though it may be good, is an insult to God.