The basis for my speaking about the Psalms in this way is the New Testament with its twenty-seven books. The New Testament tells us that we have been crucified (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20). Since we have been crucified and even buried (Rom. 6:4), there is no need for us to fear God. However, many of us live day by day as if we have not been crucified and buried. If this is our situation, then we are today's psalmists holding mistaken concepts about such matters as trusting in God, keeping the law, and being righteous.

We need to see the vision in Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." Since we have been crucified and Christ now lives in us, it is no longer a matter of "I" fearing God or trusting in Him. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19) is not for us to fear God or to keep the law but for us to live Christ in order that Christ might be magnified (vv. 20-21). Christ must be our fear, our trust, our righteousness, our integrity, our perfection. To be perfect outside of Christ is wrong, and God condemns this kind of perfection just as He condemns imperfection. Only the living person of Christ is acceptable to God, justified by God, and approved by God.

I hope that one day your eyes will be open to see this. Then you will say, "God, now I know that You do not want anything of me. You want nothing but Christ. You want me to realize that I have been crucified, terminated, finished, so that I can live Christ and magnify Him."

In the upcoming Life-study of Job, we will see that much of what was spoken by Job, his wife, his friends, and Elihu was along the line of good and evil. This means that their speaking was according to the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. None of them, including Job, was along the line of the tree of life. At the end of the Bible, we see the tree of life (Rev. 22:2, 14). The tree of life is a matter of Christ, not of integrity or perfection.

May we all look to the Lord for His mercy that we may study the Psalms in the proper way. The Psalms present us a picture showing us that the human race is wrong in holding to the concept that God wants us to fear Him, to keep the law, and to be righteous, just, upright, and full of integrity. This concept is wrong; it is altogether the concept of the Old Testament under the law according to the knowledge of good and evil.

The concept in the New Testament is very different. The New Testament reveals that Christ came to die an all-inclusive death. When He died, we died; and when He was buried, we were buried. This is the reason that our believing in Christ needs to be followed by our being baptized into Christ and into His death (Rom. 6:3). The baptistry is our tomb, and we should remain in this tomb. Since we are dead and buried, how can we still fear God and keep the law? It is impossible for one who is dead and buried to do such things. Death has liberated us from the law (Rom. 7:1-6).