[aron]

WL would look at the Psalms and typically see the well-meaning but "natural" psalmist declaring God's goodness and mercy. Occasionally WL look at the scripture would see the typified NT believer "enjoying Christ" there. And to some extent he was right: obviously God's goodness and mercy have reached us through His Sent Son, Jesus the Christ, of which God has furnished proof by raising Him from the dead and making Him Lord of all.

So neither of those views is on its face incorrect. Both can be seen. There once was a psalmist, obviously partly flawed, and holding "concepts", and today there are NT believers in Jesus Christ, enjoying God's grace. But where O where is the incarnated Christ? The "missing link" between the well-meaning psalmist and the NT believer enjoying grace is the incarnated, suffering, struggling, praying, hoping, fighting, and ultimately overcoming and victorious Jesus Christ. To what extent did the psalmist typify this? From the reception of the Psalms in the NT, quite a bit.

Now, it's possible to lean too far, and "see Christ" in every word. But it's also possible to lean too far the other way, and only "see Christ" where NT usage dictates, and pretty much pan everything else as "natural" and "fallen". Which is what I argue that WL typically did.

Let me give an example. "Get behind me, all you workers of unrighteousness, for I must obey my God". Two variants of this I've seen, in Psalm 6 and Psalm 119. Now we also see this in the NT, for example with Jesus' rebuke of Peter, with the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, and with the Narrow Gate of Luke 13 (see v. 27). That iconic image of the warm and fuzzy Jesus cuddling a lamb has another side, and if you disobey God you get it. No warm and fuzzy.

To see this is get a more detailed, balanced picture. We see Jesus, and we believe, and are saved. But WL didn't want us to see this. He wanted us to see the Processed and Consummated Triune God and God's New Testament Economy and the Body of Christ becoming the New Jerusalem. This interpretive lens controlled what WL saw, and what we saw through him. I believe that this view was deficient.

WL looked at the text and either saw the corrupted psalmist or the "normal church life" of the NT. He didn't see Jesus. But the Bible is arguably about Jesus. Our salvation is seeing Jesus, not seeing the normal church, so-called. The Bible shows us Jesus, and Jesus shows us the way home to the Father. And yes the way home includes gathering in the name of Jesus and receiving one another. But our focus should always be on Jesus. Not on any thing else. WN seems to have given WL a focus on the "church life" as the way home, and while WL there got a vision of "God's economy", and when it came time for WL to be the "seer of the age" and the "oracle of God" for the LC he just couldn't see Jesus. Probably he just had too much on his mind.