In this message we want to continue our fellowship on the mixed expressions of the psalmist's sentiment in his enjoyment of God in God's house. If we do not have a deep hunger to seek after the Lord with His Word, these messages may disappoint us. This is because what we may like according to our natural concept is exposed. What we see in the Bible and what the Bible is to us depend upon what kind of person we are. Our understanding of the Bible is always according to what we are. This is why we need to be adjusted and brought into the divine concept.
In this message we want to see the mixed expressions of the psalmist's sentiment in Psalms 34—36. The title of Psalm 34 says that this was a psalm of David "when he disguised his sanity before Abimelech, who drove him out, and he departed." We can see from this that the situation in which Psalm 34 was written was not an honorable one. David was not normal; he disguised himself as being insane because he was before a king who had the power to kill him. As a result of disguising himself, David was delivered from Abimelech (1 Sam. 21:10—22:1a). Afterward, he wrote Psalm 34. In this psalm he gave all the credit to God, but actually he delivered himself by disguising himself. To disguise oneself is a kind of falsehood.
In Psalm 35 David asked God to fight against his enemies with weapons (vv. 1-8). Then in Psalm 36 he asked God to deal with the wicked (vv. 1-4) and even gave God instructions as to how to deal with them (vv. 11-12).
We need to remember that the book of Psalms needs to be interpreted according to the divine concept of the divine revelation in the entire Bible. The Psalms is the longest book of the Bible, but it is not the only book. It must be interpreted in the light of the divine concept of God as the divine revelation concerning His eternal economy in Christ, taking Christ as its centrality and universality.
We need to be adjusted from our human concept to the divine concept. At the beginning of my Christian life, I came to the Bible with much of my own thought. Throughout the years I have been adjusted, and the adjustment which I have received in studying the Bible has taken away layer upon layer of my human concept.