What does it mean that God inhabits the praise of His people (Psalm 22:3)?

And this brings me to say a few words as to praise, which will serve as a connecting link with the next branch of our subject. When our blessed Lord, by His Spirit, was expressing the sorrows of the cross in the twenty-second psalm, He answers His own question — "Why hast Thou forsaken me?" — in the words, "Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel" (Ps. 22:3). It was because of the holiness of God, who cannot endure sin, that He was compelled to forsake the spotless sin-bearer. But another thought is added, God inhabits, or dwells amid, the praises of His people. He must be known in such a way that His very presence produces praise. Most beautifully does this accord with the former fact. Our Lord was forsaken, in order that redemption might be accomplished, and as a result praise issue forth from hearts forever delivered by grace. God must have a willing and a joyful people, and it is only as this is the case that there can be power.

"God inhabits the praises of Israel" (as we read in Ps. 22:3). Praise is His becoming environment. "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee" (Ps. 84:4). Praise is their delightful and constant employment.

“God inhabits the praises of Israel” (as we read in Psalm 22:3). Praise is His becoming environment. “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee” (Ps. 84:4). Praise is their delightful and constant employment.

His agony was deeper than we could possibly understand, crying in the daytime and in the night (v. 2), for He prayed in agony even before His crucifixion (Luke 22:41-44), but how much greater was His agony in the three hours of "the night." In verse 3, however, He provides the answer Himself, "But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel." What does He mean? He had voluntarily offered Himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, and God, being absolute in holiness, could not show the least fellowship with the sin the Lord Jesus was bearing on that cross. In fact, since the Lord was willingly bearing our sins, God must punish Him just as He punishes sin. How deeply must the heart of God the Father be affected as well as the heart of the Lord Jesus!

In the third verse, Messiah provides the answer to His own inquiry, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” The answer is, “Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” The holiness of Jehovah required the judgment of sin before either His people or the praises of His people could be acceptable to Him. Propitiation for sins is the foundation of worship and praise, because the place where Jehovah dwells is holy.

But thus we see that it was not only necessary that the Lord should die. Never mistake — never think of it as if mere death would satisfy. Look at the twenty-second psalm, and you will find His was such a death as never was before. It was the death of a righteous one; yet when was a righteous one ever forsaken? which of the righteous had God turned His face from? Outwardly, indeed, He might give them up to their enemies, — aye, let them go through death in its worst form; but after all, only to make their triumph more assured. For He was there to minister to them, to turn the shadow of death into morning. He was there to sustain their souls, and with His rod and His staff to comfort them. Yet here was He in whom God had proclaimed His delight, and, in the hour of His unequaled need, He was forsaken. Why, beloved? Faith surely can give the answer. You will find, if you look closely, that the psalm itself gives it. Is it not the answer, when after that "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" the Sufferer. exclaims, "But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." Thus alone could a holy God dwell amid the praises of His people.

Why, indeed, was He forsaken? The One who utters the cry alone can give the answer — “But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” God is holy: there is the sublime answer to the forsaking of the Cross: it is not simply that man is evil, but that God is holy. It was God, not man, that the righteous One had before His holy soul when He went into the awful forsaking of the Cross. It is God's great purpose to dwell in the midst of a praising people — a people made suited by the work of Christ to stand before the face of God. To gain this people for the pleasure of God, Christ went into the forsaking. When His soul was made an offering for sin, the pleasure of the Lord began to prosper in His hand. Throughout the ages there will be a people to the praise of the glory of His grace standing within the veil, because once in the ages that are gone Jesus went into the forsaking without the camp.

We have said to one another more than once in private conversation that there are portions of Scripture in relation to which we do well to hold our tongues, and one would seek in the anointing of the Spirit to speak but a word as to this holy exclamation from the lips of our Lord. That precious holy Victim, that blessed Man, who never in one single thought, or movement, or word, was found in any way contrary to the holy will of God, went to Calvary's cross for you and for me. There is one thing that should touch our hearts more than all else, the fact that our sins, our guilt, in love divine were confessed and borne by Him. Let us listen with subdued spirits to that cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Beloved brethren, if those holy features which were seen in perfection in Christ were to be formed in you and in me, it was necessary that the blessed God should maintain inviolate the holiness of His character. Hence it is Christ Himself who prophetically gives us the answer to that most solemn question, "Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel," (Psalm 22:3). As a result of the death of Christ God lives in the praises of His people without having surrendered one iota of His holiness. This cry of abandonment was wrung from the very depths of His holy soul, as He, the holy One of God, "suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God," (1 Peter 3:18). The only One who had a right to be in the sunshine of the favour of God was abandoned that we might be brought into a pathway in which we could have the knowledge of God and enjoy nearness to Himself.

But there is another aspect of the work of atonement that we must never forget. Because of man's sin God's glory was at stake. God's eternal attribute of justice was in question. Was God the Holy One Who abhorred sin? or was He One Who would favour sin and overlook its due penalty? the Lord Jesus supplies the answer in His Person, and upon the cross He upheld the immutable holiness of God. There he declared in the ears of the universe, 'Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel,' witnessing to that holiness by the confession of His own abandonment.

But "Judah is my ruler;" and this, too, carries us back to Jacob's blessing. The spirit of worship, of which Judah speaks, is that which alone gives God. Himself His throne among men. How these psalms themselves, which the arrogant folly of a critic like Cheyne would deny to David, show this character — a praise which ever enthrones God! And this is what fits him for his own place on that representative throne, which was, as such, the "throne of Jehovah" (1 Chron. 29:23). Thus also the "Son of David" who is also David's Lord, is He whose voice is heard saying, "In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee." In Him the two thrones come together in a perfect concord, never to be broken.