JESUS CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (346-51) THE HYSSOP

JESUS CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (46-51)

THE HYSSOP

Tuesday Morning Bible Study

September 16, 2025

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

 

Psalms 46-48 are filled with much glory.  We may just take off to Heaven today before we get to God the Judge in Psalm 50.   

 

PSALM 46:1:  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 

 

“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.” The hymn was composed by Martin Luther between 1527 and 1529.  It is referred to as the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation.”  It is based on Psalm 46.

 

Verses 1-3 is God’s power over the tumult of creation. These verses are the challenge of confidence of the pilgrim faith in the midst of the tumult: Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.  SELAH

 

Verses 4-7 is God in His City and tells the strength of confidence of the pilgrim faith: There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved:  God shall help her and that right early.  The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved:  he uttered his voice, the earth melted.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. 

 

Verses 8-11 is God exalted in in the earth: Come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he has made in the earth.  He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder; Be still, and know that I am God:  I will be exalted among the heathen.  I will be exalted in the earth.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

 

 Elohim of Jacob is our refuge. Be still and know that I am God.”  We decree our God will make the Ukraine war to cease and the Gaza war to cease.  We come in agreement with this scripture and decree it.  We decree the war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman has already been won by THE SEED, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

“When Jesus comes again in kingly power and dominion, it is not to begin the Kingdom.  He came the first time to do that.  He remains there until the “precious fruit of the earth” is to be harvested.  Then He comes to cut down the fruitless trees, to root out the tares, to burn up the chaff, to consume the stubble, to bring to total devastation all the works of man: and “to gather the wheat in to his storehouse” (Matt. 12:24-31 13:37-43)

 

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of our God… There is a fountain full of grace and flows from Emanual’s veins…”

 

PSALM 47:1: O clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

 

This entire Song speaks of the coronation of the King of all the earths.  As is 46 and 48, the song is a Messianic Song of the Kingdom.  It is a song of the reign of God and the sovereignty of God.  In the Hebrew ceremony, it was pre-eminently the song of the New Year.   The sounding of the trumpets is repeated seven times announcing the Feast of Trumpets.   

 

It opens with an appeal to the nations to unite in adoration of one Supreme Ruler, our King, the conqueror:

 

47:2-4:  For the LORD most high is terrible, he is a great King over all the earth.  He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.  He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. SELAH.

 

47:5-7 is a royal march and royal welcome: God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.  Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King.  Sing praises.  For God is the King of all the earth.  Sing ye praises with understanding.   

 

47: 8-9:  A prophetic vision of the ultimate recognition of the throne of God, one throne, one world:   God reigns over the heathen.  God sits upon the throne of his holiness.  The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham; for the shields of the earth belong unto God.  He is greatly exalted.

 

PSALM 48:1: Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

 

This is the Song of the established Kingdom and the Church perfected.  It is the Psalm of Zion, the Glorious City of God.

 

48: 2-3: The King in Residence: Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the City of the great King.  God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

 

48: 4-8: The King in route:  For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.  They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, and hasted away.  Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.  You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.  As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God; God will establish it forever.  Selah.

 

49: 9-11: The chorus of praise: We have thought of your loving kindness, O God, in the midst of your temple.  According to your name, O God, so is your praise unto the ends of the earth.  Your right hand is full of righteousness.   Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of your judgments.

 

All hinges on His Name. 

 

“Zion is where the Throne of God is eternally established and sure against all attacks of an enemy.  Zion is the dwelling place of God, where He is gloriously praised, where His doings are known.  Zion is the place where God’s most glorious praise is known because there the fullness of salvation is known in the lives of the redeemed.  Zion is the source of continual salvation.  Those who discover Zion know the fullness of salvation, and yet learn day by day more of its increasing fullness.  Zion is the joy of the whole earth, experienced already by many, anticipated by others, travailed after by all.”

 

 

 

49: 12-14:   Walk about Zion and go round about her.  Tell the towers thereof: Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the generation following.  For this God is our God for ever and ever.  He will be our guide even unto death.

 

“Zion is the source of strength and support for the people of God, especially in the day of trouble.  Zion is the place of rejoicing in the judgments of God, for in Zion men come to know a true perspective of God’s judgment and righteousness.  Zion is the perfection of beauty, out from which the light of God shines.”

 

PSALM 49:1: Hear this all ye people, give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world.

 

The Psalmist begins by calling peoples of all castes and classes to give attention to his words. “Both low and high, rich and poor, together.”  This song denies the power of material wealth and affirms that of uprightness. 

 

This Psalm is of the vanity of riches and talks about those who trust in wealth and the flesh. 

 

49: 6-7:  They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.

 

There are two things that wealth cannot do.  It can neither help a man escape death, nor can it ensure the life of one possessing it.

 

 49:14-15:  Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.  But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for He shall receive me.  SELAH

 

The rich are those who are content in the deceit of their self-sufficiency.  Thus, mammon is “that which men put their trust in other than God” for their help.

 

49:11-12: Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations.  They call their lands after their own names.  Nevertheless, man being in honor abides not.  He is like the beasts that perish.

 

Only Jesus Christ can give to mankind eternal life. 

 

49:18-20:  Though while he lived, he blessed his soul, and men will praise you, when you do well to yourself.  He shall go to the generation of his father.  They shall never see light.  Man that is in honor, and understands not, is like the beasts that perish. 

 

Beasts that perish is repeated twice in this Psalm.  2 Pe. 2;12:  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.  

 

This is the spirit of antichrist, the humanistic alternative to the anointing.  Human wisdom and human strength, mark of the beast in the head and the hand instead of Christ.

 

PSALM 50:1-2: The Mighty God, even the LORD, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.  Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty has shined.

 

This is the first of the Psalms of Asaph.  He was a Levite, a son of Berachiah.  He was eminent as a musician and was appointed by “chief of the Levites” at the command of David with two others, Heman, and Ethan, to preside over part of the sacred choral services of public worship (1 Chr. 15: 16-19).  They had charge particularly of the worship as conducted with the cymbals of brass.  Asaph was celebrated in after times as a prophet and a poet (2 Chron. 29:30; Neh. 12:46).

 

This is the Psalm of the true nature of worship and God’s demands for Holiness.  The singer addresses himself in the Name of God to the whole earth. 

 

50:2-6:  THE JUDGE APPEARS:  Our God shall come and shall not keep silence.  A fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.  He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth, that he may judge his people.  Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.  And the heavens shall declare his righteousness; for God is judge himself.  Selah.

 

50:7-15:  God’s judgment of the religious who bring sacrifices, but not their hearts to God.

 

Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against you.  I am God, even your God.  I will not reprove you for your sacrifices of your burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.  I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats out of your folds.  For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills…If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.  Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?  Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay your vows unto the most High.

 

50: 16-21 – judges the hypocrites – You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit.  You sit and speak against your brother.  You slander your own mother’s son. 

 

50: 22-23 -  Consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.  Whoso offers praise glorifies me, and to him that orders his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.

 

PSALM 51:1: Have mercy upon me O God, according to your lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.  

 

This is a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in unto Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11-12). 

 

This Psalm of repentance is a prayer for mercy.  It is a prayer of one who is truly repenting with no excuses for their sin.  David has but one hope and that hope is in the mercy of God.  That is the only hope any of us have. 

 

It opens with a general cry for pardon that comes out of a deep sense of sin and an equally profound desire for forgiveness. 

 

51:2-4: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight, that you might be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge.

 

Suddenly, the intensity of conviction deepens as the act of sin is traced back to its reason in the pollution of his nature.  This leads to a deeper cry from David.  As the first was for pardon, the second is for purity, for cleansing of heart, and renewal of Spirit.  This is to be noted that we too, can cry out for deliverance from our sin nature and the impartation of Christ’s purity.

 

51: 5-11: Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, you shall make me to know wisdom.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

 

The Hyssop always relates to sacrifice...and therefore to humility, weakness, and contrition of heart.  At Calvary, when the supreme Sacrifice was being offered, Hyssop is part of the work of the Cross. 

 

David’s prayer touched the Cross of Jesus Christ.

 

You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin… (Exodus 12:22)

 

But how was the blood to be applied?  You shall take a bunch of hyssop…”  A temple would be built of Cedar in the centuries that lay ahead:    But the humble little hyssop that could make no boast of greatness or of strength would become, in the purposes of God, the instrument in the hands of the elders of Israel for the applying of the blood of the Passover lamb.

 

 

When I see the Blood, I will pass over you. This is the Blood of the Passover Lamb.

 

God takes special note of the “hyssop” because He is so great.  He tells us that He ‘dwells in the high and holy place,’ and then He is quick to remind us, I dwell also with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, (Isaiah 57:15).

 

19 28-30: After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled said, I thirst.  There was a vessel full of vinegar; and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth.  When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.

 

Lev. 14: 2-7: This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing:  He shall be brought unto the priest: and the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;  Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet and hyssop.  And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water (Or, in a clay vessel that contains fresh spring water)  As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:  And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy

 

  The Blood is mingled with the Living Water! How determined we are sometimes to get the cleansing of the blood without the use of the hyssop.  We would do anything in the flesh to rid ourselves of the weight and burden of sin, other than simply humbling ourselves in the sight of God. 

 

Behold you desire truth in the inward parts:

And in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

 

We all know it’s in the Blood that the hyssop touched at Calvary, not in the hyssop.  The Blood was mingled with the Living Water of the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

 

BLOOD AND WATER!  BLOOD AND WATER!  This is the stream that cleanses---Only the presence of the Spirit of God can make our baptism in water to be effectual and meaningful.

 

51: 12-19: Then will I teach transgressors your ways; and sinner shall be converted unto you.  Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, you God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.  O LORD, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise.  For you do not desire sacrifice, else I would give it.  You do not desire a burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  Do good in your good pleasure unto Zion.  Build the walls of Jerusalem.  Then shall you be pleased with sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering then shall they offer bullocks upon your altar.

 

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries Church, 10115 West Hidden Lakes Lane, Richmond, TX

www.eastgateministries.com

Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Principles of Present Truth of Psalms by Kelly Varner and The Hyssop that Springs out of the Wall. By: George H. Warnock; Sermon by Pastor Carolyn Sissom 4/1/2007.

 

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