'He reproved kings for their sakes; 15. Saying, Touch not Mine
anointed, and do My prophets no harm.'--PSALM cv. 14, 15.
The original reference of these words is to the fathers of the Jewish
people--the three wandering shepherds, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The
Psalmist transfers to them the great titles which properly belong to a
later period of Jewish history. None of the three were ever in the
literal sense of the word 'anointed,' but all the three had what
anointing symbolised. None of them were in the literal or narrow sense
of the word 'prophets'--that is to say, predicters of future events--but
one of them was called a 'prophet' even in his lifetime. And they all
possessed that intimacy of communion with God which imparted the power
of _forth-speaking for_ Him. Insignificant as they were, they were
bigger than the Pharaohs and Abimelechs and the other kinglets that
strutted their little day beside them. Astonished as the monarch of
Egypt would have been, or the king of the Philistines either, if he had
been told that the wandering shepherd was of far more importance for the
world than he was, it was true. 'He suffered no man to do them wrong:
yea, He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed,
and do My prophets no harm.'
Further, as Judaism, with its anointings and prophecies was a narrower
system following upon a wider one, so a wider one has succeeded it; and
we step into the position occupied by these patriarchs--on whose heads
no anointing oil had been poured, and into whose lips no supernatural
gifts of prediction had been infused. It is no arrogance, but the
simplest recognition of the essential facts of the case, if we take
these words of the Psalmist's and transfer them bodily to the whole mass
of Christian people, and to each individual atom that makes up the mass.
All are anointed; all are prophets; of all it is true that God suffers
no man nor thing to do them wrong. And kings and dynasties and the
politics of the world are all in the hands of One whose supreme purpose
is that through men there may be made known to all mankind the
significant tidings of His love. Therefore, His Church is founded upon a
rock, and earth is the servant of the servants of God.