Psalm 84.
Christian Friend vol. 19, 1892, p. 57.
What answers now for the Christian to the "tabernacles," in the fullest sense of the term, is the Father's house. God has His habitation through the Spirit on earth, and many instructive applications might be made from this psalm to it; but never until the Father's house is reached shall we enter upon the perfect blessedness of the eternal occupation of praise. It is then the antitypical significance of the tabernacles, with the added thought of relationship, revealed only in Christianity, which is to be kept in view in our meditations on this beautiful psalm.
Let it then be observed, first of all, that the essential thing for us, while passing through the wilderness, is to have our hearts on the Father's house. This is, in fact, the key to the psalm, as it commences with the words, "How amiable," how beloved, (as the word is) "are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!" It is indeed an immense thing for the soul to know that it does not belong to this scene, but to the place where Christ is - in the Father's house, and consequently to have the heart already there. This indeed is the blessed secret of being morally outside of everything by which we are surrounded here. Stopping short at the benefits we receive through the work of Christ, and not pressing on to the joy of knowing Him by whom the work has been accomplished, the heart will scarcely ever travel outside of this world. But when we follow Christ to the place where He has gone, meditate upon, delight in, and adore Him there, our hearts will constantly turn to Him as their one and only satisfying portion.
* * *
As a consequence, we shall desire to be where Christ is. As the psalmist proceeds, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." God dwelt there, and the Psalmist longed to be where He was; not to obtain relief from the sorrows of the wilderness, or even to enter upon the joys and blessings that filled the place, but simply because the living God dwelt there. So now the soul that knows Christ most intimately desires to be where He is, in order to be with Himself. Like Paul, he desires to depart, if death be in prospect, to be with Christ, assured that, if absent from the body, he will be present with the Lord. And this is in accordance with the Lord's own mind; for when promising to return for His own, He said the object was, "That where I am, ye may be also"; and again, when speaking to the Father, "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." It could not be otherwise than that if Christ possesses our hearts, we should long to be with Him where He is.
* * *
Entering into this, the blessedness of dwelling in the house is at once apprehended. (v. 4.) It is ever true that we live in spirit where our hearts' objects are. So that dwelling by faith in the Father's house is entirely a question of the affections. It is so, as we have seen, in this psalm. First, the heart is on the tabernacles; then there is the desire to be where the living God is; and next we have the blessedness of dwelling in the house. Does any one enquire, What is it to dwell in spirit in the Father's house? It is the mind, the mind of the new man, the thoughts, the desires, and the affections being continually there, ever reverting to the place where the Father is, and where His beloved Son is. Remark, moreover, that those who dwell in the house have but one occupation, and that is praise - incessant praise. As we read of the singers in the temple, "They were employed in that work day and night." (1 Chr. 9:33.)
* * *
To have our hearts in the Father's house makes this world a desert, and ourselves pilgrims and strangers in it. But there is blessedness also in this, if, as will surely be the case, our strength is in God, and the "ways," the ways to the house above, are in our hearts. For the soul that has already found its true object and rest is a chastened soul; it has ceased from self-occupation, after many a weary trial and experience; and it has learnt that it has no strength save in Christ. It is a dependent soul, and as such cherishes the "ways" that lead to the possession and realization of all its hopes and desires. But there will be exercises while treading the ways; yea, such a soul will find the scene through which it is passing to be the valley of Baca - of weeping. Weeping must endure through the moral night of this world, and even the sower must sow in tears. There will be exercises innumerable; but sorrowful as these must be, they will become a well - a well-spring of life; for "by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of the spirit." Moreover, the rain, God's blessed and fertilizing rain, will also descend and fill the pools. He will bless the tearful pilgrim by the ministrations of His Spirit within, and from above He will bestow heavenly blessings.
* * *
Although the journey of the pilgrims lies through the valley of Baca, they will yet go from strength to strength. This does not mean that they will acquire an increase of strength in themselves, but that, at every step of their wilderness-path, they will learn ever more fully their own utter weakness, and together with this, that their strength is in the Lord. An increased realization of dependence must bring increased strength; only it must always be remembered that the strength is never in us - never in us as a fund on which we can draw, but always in the Lord, and only to be received moment by moment according to the need. This is the blessed lesson the Lord taught Paul when He said to him, "My strength is made perfect in weakness." Supported thus by divine strength, every pilgrim "in Zion appeareth before God." Not one can ever perish by the way. Every child, through whatever trials he may be passing, must reach the Father's house.
"Let cares, like a wild deluge, come
And storms of sorrow fall;
Yet I shall safely reach my home,
My God, my heaven, my all."
Under the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ, in the enjoyment of heavenly relationship to the Father, in association with Christ, no power on earth nor in hell can hinder a saint from reaching his eternal home.
* * *
We learn also, that as praise is the occupation of those that dwell in God's house, so prayer will characterise the pilgrim in the wilderness. In truth, a dependent soul is ever a praying one; but if he prays, he presents not himself, but Christ, as the only efficacious ground on which he can expect the answer to his cries. "Behold, O God," he says, "our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed." How blessed to be sheltered in Christ, to present Him as our security, and to pray that God would look upon the glorious face of His anointed! Yea, it is in the Beloved that we are accepted, and to know it gives boldness and confidence. Next, the praying saint pours out the delights of his own heart in the contemplation of the courts of the Lord. "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in [sit at the threshold of] the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Liberty to look in upon the joys of the Father's house were infinitely preferable to all the pleasures to be found in the abodes of worldlings. And nothing so weans the heart from present things, or so strengthens for the pilgrim path, as the anticipation of the blessedness of our Father's house.
* * *
All is based upon three things. First, what God is in Himself. He is a sun and a shield. He is the source of life and light to His people. In His rays of glory as concentred and displayed in Christ as seated at God's right hand, in Christ glorified, is the fountain of life, and in His light we see light. Secondly, He will give grace and glory. He will give grace for all the journey. We can never be in circumstances of any kind - of trial, sorrow, or temptation - for which His grace will not be sufficient. And remark, that He will give it; and thus, as in Hebrews 4, we have only to come boldly to the throne of grace to receive (not obtain) it. As James also says, He giveth more grace - ever more; for it is grace upon grace out of His inexhaustible fulness, like wave flowing in after wave, one succeeding the other, from the bosom of the ocean. What a provision! Then, too, He will give glory at the end, and the very same glory which He Himself has received of the Father. (John 17:22.) Lastly, in His present government, He will withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly. Many things the Lord is compelled to withhold from us because of our practical condition; and hence, as we learn here, our capacity of reception is made dependent upon our walk. It is ever in His heart to bestow good things upon us, and hence we need to be exercised to maintain an upright walk, that there may be no hindrance to our reception of His gifts of blessing. (See Psalm 81:13-16.)
* * *
The last verse is almost a burst of adoring wonder; for it is after the consideration of all the details of the blessedness connected with Jehovah's tabernacles, and their effect upon the soul, that the psalmist overflows with admiration in the presence of such ineffable grace, and tells out the emotions of his heart in this one word, "O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee." And surely we, with more light, and even larger blessing, according to the fuller revelation God has been pleased to make of Himself in Christ, can endorse this utterance of the psalmist with our hearty AMEN.
* * *
The more you make of Christ, the more precious He becomes to the soul, the more you will enjoy His presence and company.