[aron]

Originally Posted by VoiceInWilderness

Brother Lee had this damaging concept of the Psalms early on and it bore ugly fruit later in his ministry. The result was that you couldn't trust the Bible, only W.Lee's expounding of it..

Yes; eventually Witness Lee's interpretation overrode the plain words in front of us.

Originally Posted by VoiceInWilderness

...here is [Lee's] msg on Psalm 34.
X. IN BLESSING AND PRAISING GOD
Psalm 34 shows us the mixed expressions of the psalmist’s sentiment in his enjoyment of God in God’s house in blessing and praising God. ....

True, David was mixed. But so is Witness Lee, and so am I. Jesus, however, as the fulfillment of David's type, was not mixed, but pure. This point is not raised.

Originally Posted by VoiceInWilderness

A. Written After David Disguised Himself as Being Insane before Abimelech
It is good to bless and praise God, but we should not forget that such a wonderful psalm was written after David put on a ‘‘mask.’’ He wrote this psalm after he disguised himself as being insane before Abimelech. This story is recorded in 1 Samuel 21:10-15. There David disguised himself before this Philistine king in order to escape from being killed.....

If you read Psalm 34, it says that the righteous cry out and that God delivers them from all their trouble. David was praying, and crying out to God, there as he scratched the wall in front of Abilimilech. And God delivered him. Just as the whale spit out Jonah after he began to praise God in its belly, just as Paul and Silas got freed by an earthquake when they praised God in the jail in Philippi, just as Jesus prayed to the Father in the heart of the earth after 3 days and was raised, so did David call on the Lord in his time of trouble, and the Lord delivered him. David says this plainly in verses 15 and 17.

This point seems to have escaped Witness Lee's cognizance.

Originally Posted by VoiceInWilderness

B. Because of God’s Answer and Deliverance
David blessed and praised God because of God’s answer and deliverance (vv. 1-6). In verse 1 he said, ‘‘I will bless Jehovah at all times; / His praise will continually be in my mouth.’’ This is good, but we have to remember the situation in which David said this. When he disguised himself before Abimelech, he surely was not blessing God at that time......

The reason Mr. Lee says this is because he didn't sing Psalm 34. He merely analyzed it as if it were an insect pinned to a cork board. How do you know David wasn't blessing God while he was there facing the wall? He was a type of Christ, wasn't he? I believe David was saying something like, "God, I will praise You. If I die here, I will die praising You."

And Abimilech said, "Get this madman out of here". Just like when David was mocked by his wife for dancing in front of the ark, just like Festus said "You are insane, Paul", for enjoying Christ while in chains, so was David doing his final death dance before the God of his life. Why, because David was righteous? No, because David was a type of the coming victorious Christ.

All of these pictures of Christ in Psalm 34 escaped Mr. Lee's notice. He only acknowledged verse 20.

Originally Posted by VoiceInWilderness

Verses 2-6 say, ‘‘My soul makes its boast in Jehovah; / The lowly hear and they rejoice. / Magnify Jehovah with me, / And let us exalt His name together. / I sought Jehovah, and He answered me; / And He delivered me from all that terrified me. / They looked to Him and were radiant; / And their faces will never be abashed. / This poor man called out, and Jehovah heard; / And He saved him out of all his troubles.’’ David said that Jehovah delivered him. But I would like to ask whether he was delivered out of the hand of Abimelech by Jehovah or whether he delivered himself. ......

Again, the assumption here is that David did the delivering, even though he plainly says that he sought God, who then saved him. Strange. Did David deliver Israel from Goliath's threats, or did God? Did David escape from Saul, or did God deliver him?

I will skip the intermediate verses, and come to this part:

Originally Posted by VoiceInWilderness

2. The Way to Fear God In Psalm 34 David spoke of the way to fear God (vv. 11-16; 1 Pet. 3:10-12). Verses 12-16 say, ‘‘Who is the man who desires life, / Who loves having days in order to see good? / Guard your tongue from evil, / And your lips from speaking deceit. / Turn away from evil and do good; / Seek peace and pursue it. / The eyes of Jehovah are set toward the righteous, / And His ears, toward their cry. / The face of Jehovah is against those who do evil, / To cut off the memory of them from the earth.’’ These verses were quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 3:10-12, but Paul did not quote such a word. Paul’s vision of the New Testament economy was clearer than that of all the other apostles.

When David asked, ‘‘Who is the man who desires life, / Who loves having days in order to see good?’’ he was not talking about the eternal life but about the physical life. David was a great saint in the Old Testament, and Peter was one of the great apostles in the New Testament, but I do not believe that what David said here is spiritual. Even among us, who dares ask the Lord to give him long days that he may enjoy many good things?

David said that if we love having days in order to see good, we should guard our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking deceit. But who has ever succeeded in guarding his tongue from evil? What David spoke here was according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Verse 15 says, ‘‘The eyes of Jehovah are set toward the righteous, / And His ears, toward their cry.’’ But who is righteous on this earth? Paul said that not one is righteous (Rom. 3:10), and Isaiah said that our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). If we depend upon our righteousness to enjoy God’s eyes and ears being set toward us, we will enjoy nothing, because we have no righteousness of our own.

Concerning the righteous man, David said, ‘‘He keeps all his bones; / Not one of them is broken’’ (v. 20). This is a verse concerning Christ because David was a type of the suffering Christ. When Christ was on the cross, the soldiers did not break His legs when they saw that He had already died (John 19:33). John said, ‘‘These things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘No bone of His shall be broken’ ’’ (v. 36).

There were times in describing his sufferings that David typified Christ. When we look at Psalm 34, we can see the mixed expressions of David’s sentiment. Verse 20 refers to Christ, but most of this psalm is not according to the tree of life. Our concept needs to be changed to the divine concept according to the tree of life. As we grow in Christ, our concept will be changed.

This really is strange to me. The previous verses, of loving life, seeing many good days, keeping one's tongue from evil, seeking peace, are called vain by Mr. Lee. He asks, "But who has ever succeeded in guarding his tongue from evil?" What a strange question for a minister of Christ Jesus to ask. The answer is that Christ Himself guarded His tongue from evil. Christ sought peace, Christ was righteous, and God heard the cry of Christ and delivered Him.

Then, suddenly, Mr. Lee sees Christ in Psalm 34. In verse 20. "None of his bones shall be broken." If this hadn't been quoted in the New Testament, I doubt he would have seen Christ here, either.

I surmise that the "young men were having visions" by the pouring out of the Spirit as they sang the Psalms (see Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17), and since this ministry wasn't from "the throne of the Oracle" (Mr. Lee) then it was stopped. Lee wouldn't sing the Psalms because a) someone got there before him and he didn't want to follow, and b) because it would "decentralize the revelation" and this would undermine his ministry/merchandising business.

So you get the plain words of Christ in the Psalms being ignored (vv. 1-19), and acknowledged only when absolutely necessary (v. 20).