(The following texts highlighted in this color of blue is
taken from
The Treasury
of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon – that in
black is from the King James Version
and from the Pulpit Commentary)
"Excerpted
text Copyright AGES Library, LLC. All rights
reserved.
Materials are
reproduced by permission."
Psalm
84
This psalm,
attributed (see title) to the “sons of Korah,” or the
Korahite
Levites
(see I Chronicles 26:1; II Chronicles 20:19), describes the
blessedness of their position as dwellers in the house of
God, and keepers
of its thresholds. Its date is uncertain, but must fall
earlier than the
Captivity,
since the temple is standing (vs. 1-4, 10), and there is an
anointed king upon the throne (v. 9).
The psalm
falls into three equal stanzas or strophes, each of four verses,
the ends of the first and second stanzas being shown by the
pause mark,
“selah.”
Title and Subject. To the Chief Musician upon Gittith. A
Psalm for the
sons of Korah. This Psalm well deserved to be committed to the noblest
of
the sons of song. No
music could be too sweet for its theme, or too
exquisite in sound to
match the beauty of its language. Sweeter than the
joy of the wine
press, (for that is said to be the meaning of the word
rendered upon Gittith), is the joy of the holy assemblies of the Lord's
house; not even the favoured children of grace, who are like the sons of
Korah, can have a richer subject for song than Zion's
sacred festivals. It
matters little when
this Psalm was written, or by whom; for our part it
exhales to us a
Davidic perfume, it smells of the mountain heather and the
lone places of the
wilderness, where King David must have often lodged
during his many wars.
This sacred ode is one of the choicest of the
collection; it has a
mild radiance about it, entitling it to be called The
Pearl
of Psalms. If Psalm 23 be the most popular, Psalm 103 the most joyful,
Psalm 119 the most
deeply experimental, Psalm 51 the most plaintive, this
is one of the most sweet
of the Psalms of peace. Pilgrimages to the tabernacle
were a grand feature
of Jewish life. In our country, pilgrimages to the shrine
of Thomas of
Canterbury, and our Lady of Walsingham, were so
general
as to affect the
entire population, cause the formation of roads, the erection
and maintenance of
hostelries, and the creation of a special literature; this
may help us to
understand the influence of pilgrimage upon the ancient
Israelites. Families
journeyed together, making bands which grew at each
halting place; they
camped in sunny glades, sang in unison along the roads,
toiled together over
the hill and through the slough, and as they went
along, stored up happy memories which would
never be forgotten. One
who was debarred the
holy company of the pilgrims, and the devout
worship of the
congregation, would find in this Psalm fit expression for his
mournful spirit.
Division. We
will make our pauses where the poet or the musician placed
them, namely, of the Selahs.
1 “How amiable” - or, How lovely! He does not tell us
how lovely they
were, because he
could not. His expressions show us that his
feelings were
inexpressible. Lovely to the memory, to the mind, to the heart, to the
eye,
to the whole soul, are
the assemblies of the saints. Earth contains no sight
so refreshing to us
as the gathering of believers for worship. Those are
sorry saints who see
nothing amiable in the services of the Lord's house -
“are thy
tabernacles,” - The plural is used, as in Psalm 43:3; 46:4 (also
Korahite); and 132:7, either because the temple was made
up of several
compartments, or as a
“plural of dignity.” The tabernacle had
been pitched in
several places, and,
moreover, was divided into several courts and portions;
hence, probably, the
plural number is here used. It was all and altogether lovely
to David. Outer
court, or inner court, he loved every portion of it. Every cord
and curtain was dear
to him. Even when at a distance, he rejoiced to
remember the sacred
tent where Jehovah revealed Himself, and he cried out
with exultation while
he pictured in fond imagination its sacred services,
and solemn rites, as
he had seen them in bygone times. Because they are
thy tabernacles, “O Lord of hosts!” - therefore are they so dear to thy people.
Thy pavilion is the
center of the camp, around which all thy creatures gather,
and towards which
their eyes are turned, as armies look to the tent of the king.
Thou rulest all the companies of creatures with such goodness,
that all their
Hosts rejoice in thy
dwelling place, and the bands of thy saints especially
hail thee with joyful loyalty as Jehovah of
hosts. (compare
vs. 3, 8, 12).
A Test of Our
We may not
find Davidic associations with this psalm. It was composed by
one of the musically gifted family known as the “sons of Korah;” and may
be compared with Psalms 42 and 44. They were a family of
Levites whose
inheritance lay on the eastern side of the
side of
the river swelled and rose with the melting snows of winter, or
with the
heavy tropical rains which fell on the northern hills
and mountains, the
fords of the
though their turn of duty had come round, were unable
to go up to the
house of the Lord. So, too, when the armies of
were encamped round the city, and no Hebrew was
permitted to pass the
line of siege, they were shut out from the worship
of the temple through all
the summer months. Many, if not most, of their psalms appear to
have been
composed at such times as these.” The point suggested is
that the spiritual
condition of this writer can be tested by his feeling when
deprived of
religious privileges. Was he glad of the ease and relief?
Or did he pine for
restoration? So it may be shown that when Christians,
through sickness or
traveling, are separated from their usual worshipping
associations, their
spiritual state may be appraised by their feeling. Do
they pine for them;
regretfully remember them, and wish they had made better
use of them?
thing for a man to live a religious
life without ever taking part in any public
services. He is a rara avis (a
rarity) indeed who succeeds in accomplishing it.
Most men not only yield to Divine command
and invitation, by sharing
in
sanctuary services, but they feel also
the positive necessity for such
services (“Not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some...), in the culture of their religious life, and
the satisfaction
of their religious wants. When souls are alive
unto God, they are sure to
desire to worship and praise Him along
with others. This is the natural
religious instinct. But it should be
pointed out that the interest in God’s
worship may cease to
be spiritual; it may become aesthetic; it may even
sink down to be a merely “formal habit.”
ALONGING
FOR THE SENSE OF HIS NEARNESS? The expression in
v. 2, “for the living God,” suggests the deep spirituality of the writer. It
was not the ritual he longed for, or the songs; it was the conscious
PRESENCE OF GOD, as the living
Helper, Guide, and Comforter.
Compare the Christian yearning for the close and conscious presence of
the living Christ as Saviour and
Sanctifier.
2 “My soul longeth,”
- it pines, and faints to meet with the saints in the
Lord's house. The
desire was deep and insatiable— the very soul of the
man was yearning for
his God - “yea, even fainteth;” - as though it could
not long hold out,
but was exhausted with delay. He had a holy lovesickness
upon him, and was
wasted with an inward consumption because he was
debarred the worship
of the Lord in the appointed place - “for the courts of
the Lord:” - These expressions do not imply
that the writer is absent from the
temple, but only that his delight in
it is never satiated.To stand once again
in
those areas which
were dedicated to holy adoration was the soul longing of the
psalmist. True
subjects love the courts of their king - “my heart and my flesh
(i.e. my whole
nature) crieth out for the living God.” rather, rejoiceth; or “sings
out a note of joy” unto the living
God. So Hengstenberg, who says,
“The verb רִנֵּן
is of frequent occurrence in the Psalms, and always signifies to
rejoice.” It was
God Himself that he
pined for, the only living and true God. His whole nature
entered into his
longing. Even the clay cold flesh grew warm through the intense
action of his fervent
spirit. Seldom, indeed, does the flesh incline in the right
direction, but in the matter of Sabbath services our weary body sometimes comes
to
the assistance of our longing heart, for it desires the physical rest as much as
the
soul desires the spiritual repose. The psalmist declared that he could not remain
silent in his
desires, but began to cry out for God and His house; he wept, he sighed,
he pleaded for the
privilege. Some need to be whipped to church, while here is
David
crying for it. He needed no clatter
of bells from the belfry to ring him in,
he
carried his bell in his own bosom: holy appetite is a better call to worship than
a full chime.
God the Living One (v. 2)
The precise
expression here used is only found besides in Psalm 42:2.
In the New
Testament the name ‘living God’ is found
in Matthew’s
and John’s Gospels, in the speech of Paul and Barnabas in the
Acts
(Acts
14:15), in several of Paul’s Epistles, four times in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, and once in the Revelation. It is difficult to
treat this
subject as a universal experience, because our hearts
are so full of the risen
and living
Christ, God manifest in the flesh, God manifest in the spirit. He
is God, the
living God, ever with us, as Helper, Inspirer, Comforter, and
Sanctifier; but we may helpfully try to take the position of
a “son of
Korah,” and begin
by considering what the “living God” was to
him.
suffice this writer to read his
Bible, study and think about God, in the land
beyond the
refreshing, in the privacy of his home, and
in the midst of God’s handiwork
in nature. And every man ought to have such
thoughts of God; nourish and
cherish them. But here is the fact
of
human experience — God
thought has
never wholly sufficed and satisfied
any human being yet, because man is a
composite being. He is not all thought.
He has a body. And this very
thinking is dependent on the help that
symbols — relative to the body —
can bring. Devotees may strive to become all
thought. They do not thus
transcend human nature, they degrade
it. We must have more concerning
our God than mere thinking about Him; and therefore this Korahite longs
for His revealed Presence in the
temple.
have always recognized a sense in which God is
specially present in His
sanctuaries, and in His sacraments. God
taught this to all the ages by the
manifestation of His
Presence in Jewish tabernacle and temple, by the
brooding cloud and the Shechinah light. What the psalmist dwells on is,
that he used to realize God’s nearness
when he looked on His dwelling
place, shared in His worship, and
heard His priests. Urge that only at
spiritual peril can men neglect the
symbols of the presence and working of
the living God.
realization of God as the Living One, living and working in us. Show this
is
an advance on sentiment, or mere
thought of God, and on formalism, or
mere outward worship of God. It is God in us, the inspiration of all good.
It is “Christ our Life.”
3 “Yea, the sparrow hath found an
house,” - He envied the sparrows
which lived around
the house of God, and picked up the stray crumbs in
the courts thereof;
he only wished that he, too, could frequent the solemn
assemblies and bear away a little of the heavenly
food - “and the swallow
a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,” - He envied also the
swallows whose nests
were built under the eaves of the priest's houses, who
there found a place
for their young, as well as for themselves. We
rejoice not
only in our personal
religious opportunities, but in the great blessing of taking
our
children with us to the sanctuary. The church of God is a
house for us
and a nest for our little ones – Both sparrows and swallows abound in Palestine.
Canon Tristram found the nest of a sparrow “so closely allied to
our own that it is
difficult to distinguish it,” in a chink of the Haram wall at
Golden Gate
(‘
shows that sparrows built about the Greek temples.
The general meaning of the
figure in this place seems to be, “If even birds love
to build their nests, as they do,
in the sacred precincts, how much more reason has the
believing heart to find its
home in the house of its God!” But the psalmist
thinks it enough to suggest
the parallel, and does not stop to carry it out.“even thine altars, O Lord of hosts,” –
To the very altars
these free birds drew near, none could
restrain them nor would
have wished to do so,
and David wished to come and go as freely as they did.
Mark how he repeats
the blessed name of Jehovah of Hosts; he found in it
a sweetness which
helped him to bear his inward hunger. Probably David
himself was with the
host, and, therefore, he dwelt with emphasis upon the
title which taught
him that the Lord was in the tented field as well
as within
the holy curtains - “my King and my
God.” Here he utters his loyalty
from afar. If he may
not tread the courts, yet he loves the King. If an exile,
he is not a rebel.
When we cannot occupy a seat in God's house, He shall
have a seat in our memories and a throne in our hearts. The double "my" is
very precious; he lays hold upon his God with both his hands, as one resolved
not to let him go
till the favor requested be at length accorded.
(compare
Psalm
5:2). (If interested, a Spurgeon Sermon
on this verse can be found
in your browser by typing in – The Sparrow and the Swallow by C.H. Spurgeon –
CY –
2017)
Sanctuary Birds (v. 3)
The sparrow
and the swallow told of here are apt types of those servants of
God who find in Him what these birds found in the temple. The
comparison
of the soul of one of God’s people to a bird is not unusual
(see Psalm 11.).
Note:
Ø
Such as are negative. They are not
distinguished, like the eagle and
many others, but of a very humble and lowly sort; nor powerful and strong;
nor beautiful; nor valuable — “Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing?”
(Matthew 10:29) — nor
numerous, that is, in comparison with the vast
multitude of birds generally; nor, in themselves, attractive and beloved, like
the dove. But neither are they cruel like the eagle, nor “foul like the
vulture,
nor greedy as the cormorant, nor bloodthirsty as the hawk, nor hardhearted
as the ostrich, nor depending upon men for support as the fowls of the
farmyard, nor loving darkness like the owl” (Spurgeon). All these negative
qualities suggest the opposite ones in those who delight in God. But there
are also:
Ø
Such as are positive. They are the lowly ones, restless till they find their
home; seekers, — they “find” the rest they desire; true to their homes;
trustful, — in what strange places their nests are often found, under the
eaves of cottages, and in all manner of accessible places, where any one
could reach them, but they seem
to trust that no one will harm them! Are
not these characteristics like those of the souls of whom these birds are
the
types?
Ø There are the altars of God for them; they have not to provide such
home.
Ø
When they come they are never driven away.
Ø A habitation, strong,
comfortable, abiding.
Ø A home. The Church
is a home for the soul.
faithful servants of God seek that
their offspring shall find their home in the
sanctuary of God should be the nursery of the young.” Happy those
children whose parents seek for this above all else!
Envy at the Birds (v. 3)
The man
prevented from sharing in the public worship of the temple thinks
enviously of the very sparrows and swallows that flit
through its courts and
build their nests under its eaves. Sparrows are very
abundant in the East.
Swallows
make their nests, not only in the verandas, but even in the
rooms, within the mosques, and in the sacred tombs.
Josephus tells us that
the outer courts of the temple were planted with trees. “It is
a singularly
natural and beautiful conception which makes the
psalmist think of the
birds haunting there, as seeking the protection of
God’s altar for their
young, and so enjoying a privilege which as yet he
has not.” Evidently what
is chiefly in his mind is the sense of peace
and security which the birds have
who make their
homes within the precincts of God’s temple. No one
disturbs them. There are too many people about for birds
of prey to
venture near. In the temple courts the poet thinks of
them as away from all
the “stress and strain” of life. Compare “He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
(Psalm
91:1)
he wrote when the land was in a disturbed state, and
there was no
restfulness or safety for any one
anywhere. And he must have felt this even
more in the open and exposed districts beyond the
the idea of “sanctuary,” which was,
in old times, attached to the temples.
Once within them, no foe could assail. Dr. Turner tells us
that in
the manslayer flies to the house
of
the chief of the village; and in nine cases
out of ten he is perfectly safe, if only he remains there. See how jealously
Jews guarded their temple from the intrusion of strangers.
In
the olden time, Whitefriars,
for all criminals except traitors. This feeling of
security the Christian gains
out of his daily apprehension of
the Divine presence and defense. Round
about him are the everlasting arms. He lives within the overshadowing
spiritual temple. “What can harm us, if we be followers of that which is
good” (I Petere 3:13), and have God upon our side? (“The Lord is on
my side; I will not fear: what
can man do unto me?” – Psalm 118:6)
dwelling fully on that strange, yet delightful quietness, restfulness,
solemnity, which come upon us when we enter a cathedral. We feel as we
feel nowhere else in the world. Our feeling answers to that
of the Jew when
entering his temple. Show how
nourishing to all the finest elements of soul
life that atmosphere of peace is.
4 “Blessed are they that dwell in thy
house:” - As the Korahite Levites did, being
“keepers of the gates” of the
Lord’s house (I Chronicles 9:19; 26:1). Those he esteems
to be highly favored who are constantly engaged in divine
worship—the canons
residentiary, yea, the pew openers, the menials who sweep and
dust. To
come and go is
refreshing, but to abide in the place of prayer must be
heaven below. To be
the guests of God, enjoying the hospitalities of
heaven, set apart for
holy work, screened from a noisy world, and familiar
with sacred
things—why this is surely the choicest heritage a son of man
can possess - “they will be still praising thee.”
It is their
privilege to be always
praising thee. The speaker regards the temple as
predominantly the house of
praise. So near
to God, their very life must be adoration. Surely their hearts and
tongues never cease from magnifying the Lord. We fear
David here drew rather a
picture of what should be than of what is; for those
occupied daily with the offices
needful for public worship are not always among the
most devout; on the contrary,
"the nearer the
church the further from God." Yet in a spiritual sense this is
most true, for those
children of God who in spirit abide even in His house,
are also ever full of
the praises of God. Communion is the mother of adoration.
They fail to praise
the Lord who wander far from Him, but those who dwell in
Him are always
magnifying Him. “Selah.” In such an occupation as this we
might be content to remain
for ever. It is worth while to pause and meditate
upon the prospect of dwelling with God and praising Him
throughout eternity.
5 “Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee;” - God is the“Strength” of all
who trust in Him. The psalmist seems to mean that mere dwelling
in the house of
God is not
enough for blessedness. Trust in God — having God for one’s Strength —
is also requisite (compare v. 12). Having spoken of the blessedness of those
who
reside in the house of God, he now speaks of those who are favored
to visit it at
appointed seasons, going upon pilgrimage with their
devout brethren: he is not,
however, indiscriminate in his eulogy, but
speaks only of those who heartily attend
to the sacred festivals. The
blessedness of sacred worship belongs not to half-
hearted, listless worshippers, but to those who throw all
their energies into it.
Neither prayer, nor
praise, nor the hearing of the word will be pleasant or
profitable to persons
who
have left their hearts behind them. A company of
pilgrims who had left
their hearts at home would be no better than a
caravan of carcasses,
quite unfit to blend with living saints in adoring the
living God - “in whose heart are the ways of
them.” - literally, in
whose heart
are highways. The “highways” intended are probably those of
holiness (compare
Proverbs 16:17 and Isaiah 35:8) - or far better, in whose heart are
thy ways. Those
who love the ways of
God are blessed. When we have God's ways
in our hearts,
and our heart in His ways,
we are what and where we should be, and hence we shall
enjoy the divine
approval.
6 “Who passing through the valley of
Baca make it a well;” - rather, through
the valley of weeping (τὴν
κοιλάδα τοῦ κλαυθμῶνος – taen koilada
tou klauthmonos -
into the valley of the place
of weeping - Septuagint). So Hupfeld. Hengstenberg, Kay,
and the Revised Version; compare Hosea’s “
the righteous pass through a time of suffering or calamity,
they turn it into a time of
refreshment. Traversing
joyfully the road to the great assembly, the happy pilgrims
found refreshment
even in the dreariest part of the road. As around a well men
meet and converse
cheerfully, being refreshed after their journey, so even
in the vale of tears,
or any other dreary glen, the pilgrims to the skies find
sweet solace in
brotherly communion and in anticipation of the general
assembly above, with
its joys unspeakable. Probably there is here a local
allusion, which will
never now be deciphered, but the general meaning is
clear enough. There
are joys of pilgrimage which make men forget the
discomforts of the road - “the rain also filleth
the pools.” - rather, the early
rain (Joel 2:23) covereth
it with blessings. The rain of God’s grace mantles
all the valley with a luxuriant vegetation; in other words, the
blessing of
God rests
on those who act as above described, and causes them ever to
increase in righteousness and true
holiness. God gives to
His people the
supplies they need while traversing the roads which He
points out for them.
Where there were no natural supplies from below,
the pilgrims found an
abundant compensation in waters from above, and
so also shall all the
sacramental host of God's elect. Ways, which otherwise
would have been deserted
from want of accommodation, were made into
highways abundantly
furnished for the travelers' wants, because the great
annual pilgrimages
led in that direction; even so, Christian converse and
the joy of united
worship makes many duties easy and delightful which
else had been
difficult and painful.
The Joy of the Pilgrims (vs. 5-6)
In these
verses there is a blending of the real and the figurative; the actual
journey towards
peace and refreshment. The poet has thought of the blessedness of those
who dwell
constantly in God’s house. Now he thinks of the blessedness of
those who are permitted to go there, and to tarry
there for a while. And
this leads him to recall what happy times
he had known, even in the
journeys to
of the familiar road, every station at which they have rested,
lives in their
heart. The path may be dry and dusty, through a
lonely and sorrowful
valley, but nevertheless they love it. The pilgrim
band, rich in hope, forget
the trials and difficulties of the way; hope changes the rugged and stony
waste into living
fountains.” The
up from
balms. The thought for our consideration is this — the hearts that are truly
set on God, and
filled with desire to join in God’s worship, will cheerfully
bear, and
successfully master, all the difficulties that may be in their way.
They make
the very “
VALLEYS OF
BACA. Two explanations of this valley are given. Some
say it means “wet, marshy places;” others say,
“dry, sandy places.” Clearly
it means something
trying and difficult for pilgrims. We know well that
there are difficulties in the way
of our effort to live the godly life; valleys of
Baca in our pilgrim route to the eternal temple
of the holy.
Ø There are valleys
of weeping; sorrows, both outward and inward
(valleys of balsam, or weeping).
Ø Valleys of
unrelieved want; desert places. Illustrate the ever-varied,
ever-unquenchable thirst of
the spiritual life. (“O God, thou art my
God; early will I seek thee;
my soul thirsteth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land, where no water is.” - Psalm
63:1)
THESE
VALLEYS OF BACA. Times of trouble we must have, but
everything depends on the spirit in
which we approach them, and deal with
them. The true heart is helped to triumph over the
difficulties of the way,
by keeping ever in mind the end it has in view.
Lead on to show how the
heaven of established holiness, and near communion with God, becomes
the inspiration to overcoming the
difficulties of the way.
OF BACA. If they
dig pools in the desert, God will be sure to fill them
with His genial rains. God is to us
in blessing as we are to Him in trust.
Living Water from Hidden Springs (v. 6)
“Passing… a well.” “The
The image
is of a company of pilgrims towards the holy city, whose way
lies through a desolate, sterile valley. In that “dry and thirsty land” (Psalm 63:1)
many a traveler has fainted with thirst. On those
rugged rocks many a feeble or
heedless foot has slipped, many a pilgrim fallen. But if
“the blessings of
heaven above” and “the precious things of the earth”
(Deuteronomy 33:16),
be denied, there is yet “the blessing
of the deep that worketh under.” (Genesis
49:25) The pilgrims gird
their loins, pitch their tents, and dig deep. Cool treasures
of living water from hidden springs reward their toil. At
morning they go on their
way with a new song of praise, and leave a blessing for those
who follow.
THROUGH THE
bitterly (in either case
ungratefully), this name is applied to human life as a
whole. Untrue and
unreasonable. If life has its dangers and
deserts, weary
wastes, gloomy gorges, perilous passages, it has also breezy sunny uplands,
smiling valleys, fields of happy fruitful labor, quiet resting places,
cheered
by bright hopes, warm affections, pleasant memories. Many a
light-hearted
company marches for leagues with
unbroken ranks. It is as untrue that life
is all sorrow, as that it is all joy. But the valley of weeping has to be
crossed. There are lives whose whole course is within its shadow.
The
happiest path runs so near its border
that at any moment we may enter it;
perhaps soon to emerge; perhaps not
till the pilgrimage be ended. No
unfrequented spot. If
we take account of bleeding or broken hearts and
shadowed hair all over the world — a
life failing with each sound — we
shall acknowledge that in this wide
sense earth may not untruly be called
“the
valley of tears.”
PROVIDED
BY GOD FOR HIS CHILDREN WHEN
PASSING
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF WEEPING. Comfort under
trial,
blessing through trial, hope beyond trial.
Ø
Sorrow for sin is the condition of the joy of forgiveness (Matthew 5:4).
Violent emotion is not necessary; but a true
sense of the guilt, as well
as evil, of sin. Peace with God precedes PEACE
IN GOD! The deeper the
sorrow, the sweeter the joy. Shallow views of sin are one of the chief
dangers of our day; begetting shallow
views of atonement,
and of the
relation of Christ’s death to our sins and “the sin of
the whole world”
(John 1:29; I John 2:2).
Ø
God’s presence and love, our Saviour’s
sympathy, the power of the
Holy Spirit as “the
Comforter,” are felt in trouble as
at no other time. In
the night the stars shine (Psalm 46:1). To bear trouble patiently is the
part of a wise brave man, Christian or not; but comfort in trouble is the
exclusive privilege of the Christian.
Ø
The discipline of sorrow produces rich fruits — stronger
faith, deeper
humility, a new sense of the value of prayer and of
the preciousness of
God’s
promises; patience, courage, detachment from the world, power to
sympathize (James 1:2-3; I Peter 1:6-7; Hebrews 12:10; Psalm 119:67, 71).
Ø
“We are saved by
hope.” (Romans 8:24.) There is no grief so heavy as
despair. None intolerable if hope shines ahead. A hidden well
(Colossians 3:3), but whose streams can refresh
the dreariest, weariest
stages of pilgrimage (II Corinthians 4:16-18). Christ’s
atonement lifts
from our heart the
burden of the past. His sympathy and mediation bring
every moment of the present into living happy
relation to God. But His
resurrection and ascension bind
our own earthly life to THE
GLORIOUS
IMMORTAL
FUTURE! (John 14:1-3, 19; Hebrews 6:19).
7 ‘”They go from strength to
strength,” - Their spiritual course is
one of continually greater vitality and vigor. So far from being wearied they
gather strength as
they proceed. Each individual becomes happier, each
company becomes more
numerous, each holy song more sweet and full.
We grow as we advance
if heaven be our goal. If we spend our strength in
God's ways we shall
find it increase - “every one of them in Zion appeareth
before God.” Either “Each in his turn appears to render thanks
and praise before God’s holy seat on
shall appear before God’s throne in
the true
the pilgrim's march,
the center where all met, the delight of all hearts. Not merely
to be in the assembly,
but to appear before God was the object of each devout
Israelite. Would to
God it were the sincere desire of all who in these days mingle
in our religious
gatherings. Unless we realize the
presence of God we have done
nothing; the mere
gathering together is nothing worth.
The Glory of Worship (vs. 1-7)
“How lovely are thy
dwellings!” or “the house where thou dwellest.”
HEART AND
SOUL. (v. 2.)
He is at a distance from the sanctuary; and the
birds of the air seem
nearer God than he is.
(v. 4.)
GOD. (v. 5.)
WILDERNESS. In the weeping vale (v. 6). “The early rain cometh in
with blessings.”
SPIRITUAL
STRENGTH. (v. 7.)
HEAVEN. (v. 7.)
Stages of Spiritual Progress (v. 7)
The very
journeys to the temple, often toilsome and hazardous, take on a
certain sacredness from memory, imagination, and
desire, insomuch that
they can say that ‘the highways
to
how they wept with vague, almost joyful emotion as they passed
through
the
grew stronger and stronger, more and more joyful, as
they topped the hills
round about
nearing home after a time of prolonged absence. Every
mile finds us more
and more anxious to catch a sight of familiar scenes. It might
be reasonably
expected that the long and trying journey would make the
pilgrims feel
weary and indifferent. Instead of that, their souls
master their
circumstances, and they are
brighter and more cheerful at the end than at
the beginning. So do we
see aged Christians who, for sunny faces and
happy ways altogether, put to shame young beginners
in the pilgrim path.
They have
evidently gone “from strength to strength.”
of the text, they must not be stopping, or idling,
or taking up any interests
on the way; day by day, persistently, they must be
going forward; every
day getting a day’s march nearer
we are called to “patient
continuance in well doing” (Romans 2:7), to
day-by-day persistent goodness; and this of itself may become wearisome.
It is the hardest thing given us to do, this keeping on, day by day, in the same
scenes, and doing the same work. But it is never really a mere
keeping on.
We may not realize the joy of it, but the fact is that, in keeping on, we are
going “from strength to
strength.”
EVER
BETTER ABLE TO KEEP ON. Every difficulty overcome means a
higher strength to overcome difficulties. Every joy
felt in a spiritual
triumph is cheer for dealing with new
anxieties. Every day of Christian life
is a step; from it we get power to take a step
higher. (I remember
at a time.
CY – 2017) The
man who has lived well his Christian life today
is in fact, and ought to be in feeling, a stronger man to live his Christian life
tomorrow. And so, making the day’s experience a step up, he finds power and
joy increasing as he nears the city of
life may be exhausting for the body, but “as the outward man perishes, the
inward man is renewed day by day.”
(II Corinthians 4:16)
8 “O Lord God of hosts, hear my
prayer:” - The prayer of v. 9. Give me to go
up to thy house, or if
I may not do so, yet let my cry be heard. Thou listenest
to
the united
supplications of thy saints, but do not shut out my solitary petition,
unworthy though I be - “give ear, O God of Jacob.” (compare Psalm 20:1;
46:7, 11;
75:9; 76:6; 81:1, 4).Though Jehovah of
hosts, thou art also the
covenant God of solitary pleaders like Jacob; regard
thou, then, my plaintive
supplication. I wrestle here alone with thee, while
the company of thy people
have gone on before me to happier scenes, and I
beseech thee bless me; for I am
resolved to hold thee till thou speak the word of
grace into my soul. The repetition
of the request for an answer to his prayer denotes
his eagerness for a blessing.
What a mercy it is that if we cannot gather with the
saints, we
can still speak to
their Master. “Selah.” A
pause was needed after a cry so vehement, a prayer so
earnest.
9 “Behold, O God our shield i.e. ‘ ‘our Protection
and Defense” (compare Psalm
33:20;
59:11; 89:18). , and look upon the
face of thine anointed.” Regard our
king with favor; let the light of thy countenance
shine upon him. Here we have
the nation's prayer for David; and the believer's prayer for the
Son of David. Let but
the Lord look upon our Lord Jesus, and
we shall be
shielded from all
harm; let Him behold the face of His Anointed,
and we
shall be able to
behold His face with joy. We also are anointed by the Lord's
grace, and our desire
is that He will look upon us with
an eye of love in
Christ Jesus. Our
best prayers when we are in the best
place are for our
glorious King, and
for the enjoyment of His Father's smile.
The Shield Figure (v. 9)
In this
psalm we find three names for God:
Ø “God of hosts,”
Ø “God of Jacob,”
Ø “God our Shield.”
To Abraham
God had said, “Fear not, I am thy Shield,
and thy exceeding great
Reward.” (Genesis
15:1) And in Psalm 5:11, we read, “Thou, Lord, wilt bless the
righteous; with favor
wilt thou compass him as with a shield.” Moses exclaims
(Deuteronomy 33:29), “Happy art thou, O
O people saved by the Lord, the Shield of thy
help?” And one of the later psalms,
has this for a
refrain, “O
their Shield.” (Psalm 115:9 The prayer of
the text is urged by two metaphors:
Ø “Thou my Shield;”
Ø “I thine anointed.”
peculiar to the hand-to-hand warfare
of ancient times. They were of two
kinds — one very large, protecting
the whole body; another smaller, used
by light-armed troops very skillfully. They were
sometimes made of light
wood, covered with bull’s hide of two or three thicknesses, plated with
metal; sometimes they were studded
with nails or metal pins. They were
smeared with oil, both to prevent
them from injury by weather, and to
render them so smooth that missiles
might the more readily glance off.
So varied and so complicated is religious life that we are
glad of the
help of all kinds of metaphor. As Christ is set under many names, so God is
set under many relations. Christian life, conceived as a warfare, has its
defensive and offensive
sides.
Under the shadow of God, as a Shield, men
find defense. Compare figure of the “strong Tower,” into which “the
righteous runs and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10) There are times in our Christian
warfare when we can only act on the defensive.
Then God is our Shield. Under
the shadow of God, as a Shield, attacks were made.
Describe the ancient mode
of attacking a fortress, under shields placed
together so as to make a
protecting roof, which secured the
soldiers from hostile missiles. There is
“offensive war” sometimes in
Christian life. Prevailing evils must be
vigorously attacked. WE MAY BE SURE OF GOD’S
SHIELD IN ALL
ACTIVE SERVICE! The psalmist here is writing as a civilian,
and a
Levite, and thinks lovingly of GOD AS HIS DEFENSE from the perils
of the pilgrim way.
though the psalmist had said,
“Recognize the face that is uplifted to thee.”
Though the term “anointed” will suit David, it will equally
suit the priest
and the Levite, as set apart, anointed for the
special service of God’s
temple. If God has
brought us into close and loving relations
of service to
Him, He has
given us a plea to use in prayer. We may say, “Look upon the
face of thine anointed.”
10 “For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand.” - ie. than any number
of days elsewhere. It is difficult to trace any connection
between these concluding
verses. They appear to consist of distinct thoughts,
which arise in the writer’s mind,
and are jotted down as they occur to him. One is a thought of
loyalty, which finds
vent in a prayer for the king (v. 9). Another is a
reflection of the main thought of
the psalm, the incomparable
blessedness of dwelling in God’s house. A third
(vs. 11-12) is the joy and glory of perpetual
communion with God and trust in
God. Of
course the psalmist means a thousand days spent elsewhere. Under
the
most favorable circumstances in which earth's pleasures
can be enjoyed, they
are
not comparable by so much as one in a thousand to the delights of the
service
of God. To feel His love, to
rejoice in the person of the anointed
Saviour, to survey the promises and feel the power of the
Holy Ghost in
applying precious
truth to the soul, is a joy which worldlings cannot
understand, but which
true believers are ravished with. Even a glimpse at
the
love of God is better than ages spent in the pleasures of sense.
“I had rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God” - literally, at
the
threshold; but the meaning is well expressed by the
Authorized Version.
“Doorkeepers in the house of
their God” was exactly what the Korahite
Levites were (I Chronicles 9:19; 26:1, 12-19)., than to dwell in
the tents of
wickedness.” As their
ancestor, Korah, had done
(Numbers
16:26).The lowest station in
connection with the Lord's
house is better than the highest position among the
godless. Only to wait at
His threshold and peep within, so as to see Jesus, is
bliss. To bear burdens
And open doors for the Lord is more honor than to reign
among the wicked.
Every man has his
choice, and this is ours. God's worst is better than the
devil's best. God's doorstep is a happier rest than
downy couches within the
pavilions
of royal sinners, though we might lie there for a lifetime of
luxury.
Note how he calls the tabernacle the house of my God; there's where
the sweetness lies:
if Jehovah be our God, His house, His altars, His doorstep,
all become precious
to us. We know by experience that where Jesus is within,
the outside of the
house is better than the noblest chambers where the
Son of God is not to
be found.
Delight in God’s Worship and Service (v. 10)
“A day in thy courts,” etc. Of all the
hundred and fifty holy songs
composing the Psalter, none breathes a more intense
spirit of exalted
devotion than this, or in language and imagery more
poetical and musical.
It shares
this character with other psalms ascribed to “the sons of Korah.”
Their ancestor Korah perished miserably in his
rebellion against Moses and
Aaron, at the very door of the tabernacle (Numbers 16.). Yet his
descendants had the charge of guarding the temple gates, no
mean office
(I
Chronicles 9:17-19; 23:5; 26:1, 12); and were likewise leaders of the
temple music, Heman being
one of them (ibid.
ch. 6:33-37; 25:1, 5).
Although it
often happens that the father’s sins are visited on the
children, yet there is no unchangeable doom, no bar sinister (being of
illegitimate birth) on their
escutcheon, no barrier against their renewed
consecration and acceptance.
The sentiment of the text is — Delight in
God’s worship and service. “A day,” etc. Secondly,
a single day so spent —
in worship, such as every devout Israelite partook, and service, the
privilege
of a Levite — outweighs in true joy and solid worth all the time spent in
mere worldly
business or pleasure.
GOD. Not every one
can say this. For a worldling it would be rank
hypocrisy. In Malachi’s day there were
those who said, “What a
weariness!” (Malachi 1:13). Are there not even real
Christians for
whom such a sentiment is an
exaggeration; whose sense of duty exceeds
their sense of privilege; to whom the sabbath brings the shadows of
constraint rather than the lamp of joy? Their worship has a slightly
penitential flavor rather than a rich
fragrance of joy. They have not
learned the secret of the son of Korah (Psalm 63:4), or of David
(ibid. vs. 1-3). Joyless service is neither profitable nor acceptable.
These are heart-searching considerations. If we can venture
to think of
anything as bringing sadness to our
heavenly Father’s heart, would it not
be this — that His
children take small delight in drawing near to Him?
We
live at too low a level, among the clouds, when we might
be in the
sunshine and pure air of the mountain top.
Ø
The joy of praise, worship, adoration. Notice how
inseparably praise
and rejoicing are united
in the Bible, especially in this Book of Psalms.
“That God is what He is” (says John Howe) is the source of
infinite joy to
His children.
Ø The joy of
personal communion
with God. He is:
o “our God” (Psalm 48:14);
o “my God” (Psalm
42:1-2, 6; Philippians 4:19).
Ø The joy of fellowship with God’s
people. (I John 1:3.) Common
prayer, harmonious praise, public
worship, have blessings and promises
distinctively their
own. It was when all the hundred and twenty
“continued
with one accord in prayer and supplication,” THE
BLESSING OF PENTECOST
CAME! When “many were
gathered praying,” Peter was set free (compare
Acts 4:24, 31).
Ø The joy of service. A
Christian, whether a minister or private Church
member, can be more than “a doorkeeper” — a door opener:
o setting wide the gate of the city of refuge to the refugee
from sin;
o opening the door of the
kingdom to the young, and
o leading them through the gate Beautiful into the temple;
o helping fellow believers to enter with boldness “into the
holiest” (Hebrews 10:19-20).
All that the ancient psalmist found in the
temple, we have, not in
shadow, but reality:
o the one sacrifice (Hebrews 10:2, 4,10,12);
o the Divine Priest (Hebrews 8:1-2);
o the true holy of holies (Hebrews 9:8-12, 24);
and in place of the ceremonial service of the
Levites, to maintain
which the free will offerings of
the people were dedicated,
o the ministry of truth,
o the relief of need and suffering the wide world over, and
o the spread throughout the world of the gospel and kingdom
of Christ (I Peter 2:5).
Which way does the balance incline? which has really our heart’s
devotion and yields supreme delight — GOD’S SERVICE or
THE WORLD’S?
Strange Preferences (v. 10)
Ø
That a day spent in God’s courts is better than a thousand anywhere
else.
But such preference makes it certain that not any day in God’s courts
can be meant; for too many days are spent there which might just as well
be spent elsewhere. They bring no good to any one, but rather harm. For
the worship on such days is but formal, hypocritical, has no heart in it. But
the day the psalm tells of must be one in which
the soul really communes
with God, in which God is worshipped in spirit and
in truth.
Ø
That the humblest service in the house of God is better than the most
rich and luxurious life in the tents of wickedness. But here again the
service meant must be the reverse of formal, perfunctory, grudging; for if
the service were of such sort, one might almost as well be in the tents of
wickedness. And that dwelling in those tents cannot mean an unwilling, a
forced dwelling, like that told of in Psalm 120:5. Many servants of God
have had and still have so to dwell amongst wickedness; they are not happy
in it, would not be where they are could they help it, but they cannot.
Hence if they be “lights
shining in the darkness,” then they are rendering
high service to God, and great shall be their reward. But the dwelling told
of is one which is chosen and loved. But, the psalmist says, the meanest
place in God’s house is better than that. “I
had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God!”
with them; even good people might be slow to make
such affirmation
about a single day in God’s house
being better than a thousand anywhere
else. Most people think that those who make such
choice are either
madmen or fools. They are despised
as enthusiasts, or hypocrites, or
fanatics.
He who wrote this psalm was but one of myriads more. He who
does not
put God first may have much good about him, as had
the young ruler told
of in the Gospels, but he cannot have eternal
life.
Ø
The first-named can — the one day over the thousand. For what gives
value to time? Not its duration, but its employment, what you do with it.
Which do we deem most worth — the comparatively
short-lived empire of
There may be
one day in your life which you remember more than whole
years beside, for it more influenced and blessed you
than all the myriad
other days which have gone by and are forgotten. It is the day filled with
energies of the mind, heart, spirit; with memories of inspiring deeds; with
influences which tell upon you and others. Compare King Henry V.’s address
to his soldiers at
“He that outlives this day and comes
safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is
named,” etc.
But the day of real worship and communion with
God is a day more filled
with energies, memories, influences, than can any others be. How many of
these others only drag down the soul! BUT A DAY WITH GOD!
Ø
And so the humblest service for God is to be preferred. For such service
is shared in by the noblest, unites us to God, breaks the chain of sin,
prepares for heaven, robs care
of its sting, etc. Therefore the psalmist’s
choice is right; LET IT BE
OURS!
The Joy of Doing Little Things for God (v. 10)
“I had rather be a doorkeeper;” literally, “stand or lie on
the threshold.” A
missionary tells us that in
and confidential. Doorkeepers of temples are men of the
greatest dignity
and power; whereas the psalmist was thinking of the lowliest
and most
humble situation. “I would
rather choose to sit at the threshold.” This is the
situation of the devotee and the beggar. “Excuse me, sir,
I pray you; I had
better lie at the threshold than do that,” is a
frequent mode of expression
among Orientals. The psalmist
prefers the situation and attitude of a
beggar, at the
threshold of the house of the Lord, to the most splendid
dwellings of the wicked. From I Chronicles 26:12-19 we learn that the
sons of Korah, or Kore, were the porters of the gates of the Lord’s house.
“To these
ministers of the sanctuary none seem so blessed as they who
dwell in God’s house, and are forever praising Him. To
these keepers of the
temple gates one day in the sacred courts is better
than a thousand spent
elsewhere; and they would rather be doorkeepers in the
house of God than
sit and be served as chiefs in alien tents.”
They are necessary in their places. They are fitted to those
of moderate or
small capacities. To God the little things of service
are as acceptable as the
great things. Find any earthly sphere, and take the little
things of it away.
What an upset of the whole would result! The doorkeeper at
the gate was
as important in his way as the priest at the
altar. We can do our “little
things” for God cheerfully, when we
can fully realize that they are service
—
just our service.
GREAT ONES. A little
pool can mirror the sun as truly as the
widespreading lake. A
dewdrop can refresh the earth, in its way, as truly as
the thundershower in its. God is the reader of
motives, and accepts the
actor rather than
the act. It often, indeed, takes more and nobler character
to do a small deed well than to do a large one.
There is much to help a
priest to be noble; there is but
little to help a mere doorkeeper, and he has
to fall back upon principle. Let but a
man rightly esteem doing anything for
God, and he will be full of holy joy
in being permitted to do some “little
thing.”
11 “For the Lord God is a sun and
shield:” - i.e. not only a “Shield” or protection,
as He has been already called (v. 9), but also a “Sun,” the source of life and light,
of joy and happiness (compare Isaiah 60:19-20; Malachi 4:2). Pilgrims
need both
as the weather may be, for the cold would smite them were it
not for the sun, and
foes are apt to
waylay the sacred caravan, and would haply destroy it if it
were without a
shield. Heavenly
pilgrims are not left uncomforted or
unprotected. The pilgrim nation found both sun and shield in that
fiery
cloudy pillar which
was the symbol of Jehovah's presence, and the
Christian still finds
both light and shelter in the Lord his God. A sun for
happy days and a
shield for dangerous ones. A sun above, a shield around.
A light to show the
way and a shield to ward off its perils. Blessed are they
who journey with such
a convoy; the sunny and shady side of life are alike
happy to them - “the Lord will give grace and
glory:” - Inward
grace,
outward splendor and glory (Revelation 21:11-24). Both in due time,
both as needed, both
to the full, both with absolute certainty. The Lord has
both
grace and glory in infinite abundance; Jesus is the fullness of both,
and, as His chosen
people, we shall receive both as a free gift
from the
God
of
our salvation. What more can the Lord give, or we receive, or desire -
“no good thing
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (see
I Corinthians 2:9; I Timothy 4:8; and Psalm 34:10). Grace
makes us walk
uprightly and this secures every covenant blessing to us.
What a wide promise!
Some apparent good may be withheld, but no real
good, no, not one.
"All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is
God's." God has
all good, there
is no good apart from Him, and there is no
good which He either
needs to keep back or will on any account refuse us,
if we are but ready
to receive it. We must be upright and neither lean to
this or that form of
evil: and this uprightness must be practical, —we must
walk in truth and holiness, then shall we be heirs of all things,
and as we
come of age all
things shall be in our actual possession; and meanwhile,
according to our
capacity for receiving shall be the measure of the divine
bestowal. This is
true, not of a favored few, but of all the saints for evermore.
What God is to His People (v. 11)
Ø
God is to them a Sun and Shield. These figures refer to our moral state
as dark and dangerous. Alienation of the soul from
God is a state of
darkness. God is the Source of our light and life and joy. Our danger is —
life is a great battlefield. We have protection from God if we are on His
side. The battle is His.
Ø
He gives to them grace and glory. Grace is unmerited favor. The
favor of God to man has been in THE EXERCISE OF HIS
MERCY!
“He hath not
dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:10) GLORY is
the perfecting the work of
grace, in the revelations and rewards of eternity. The BEGINNING, the
CONTINUANCE, and THE END OF LIFE ARE FROM GOD!
(“For of Him,
and through Him, and to Him, are all things:
to whom be
glory for ever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
Ø
He holds back from them no good thing. This includes the bestowment
of all real good. And He has
given us a proof and pledge in the gift of
Christ. “If God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS!”
(Romans 8:32)
THESE
PROMISES.
Ø
Because
their characters do not answer to the description of the text.
They do not walk uprightly,
or only do so very imperfectly. None of us
translates the theory of the Christian
life into our actual practice.
Ø They often mistake what are the good things of life. Many
things,
accounted good by the false judgments
of the world, are bad. (“Woe
unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and
sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah
5:20) Things good for some men are bad
for others. Things good for us at one time are bad
at another. But the
absolutely good things — good independently of all circumstances —
are meant in the text.
o To walk in God’s light;
o to see all things in the light that falls
from His character;
o to enjoy His help and protection from spiritual
danger;
o to HAVE HIS GRACE NOW, and
o HIS GLORY IN PROSPECT,
these are THE GOOD THINGS THAT THEY ENJOY WHO
WALK UPRIGHTLY!
12 “O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.” compare
Psalm 2:12). Here is the key of the Psalm. The worship is that of faith,
and the
blessedness is peculiar
to believers. No formal worshipper can enter into this secret.
A man must know the Lord by the life of real faith, or he can have no true
rejoicing in the
Lord's worship, His house, His Son, or His ways. Dear
reader, how fares it
with thy soul?
The Soul’s Sweet Home (vs. 1-12)
This is one
of the Korahite psalms, like Psalms 42 and 43., and some eight
others. The late Dean Plumptre,
in his ‘Biblical Studies,’ pp. 163-166,
gives reasons for concluding that they all belong to
the reign of Hezekiah,
and were written by members of the Levitical
family of Korah. One or
more of them, it may be, hindered by the presence of
the army of
Sennacherib
from going up to the temple, as they had been wont to
do,
pours out his grief in these psalms. It may have been
so: we cannot
certainly say. There have been two great interpretations
of this psalm —
that which reads in it:
WORSHIP
OF THE SANCTUARY. This is the most general meaning
found in it, as well as the most obvious.
To this day the sparrows fly round
the Mosque of Omar as they flew about the precincts
of the temple which
once stood on that same spot, as the writer of the
psalm had often noticed.
There was:
“No jutting frieze.
Buttress, nor coigne
of vantage, but these birds
Had made
their pendant bed.”
The Korahites were (I Chronicles
9:17) keepers of the door of the
tabernacle, and, in in
Moses’ time, watchmen at the entrance of the
Levites’ camp, and afterwards (ibid. ch. 26:1-19) were appointed
as guardians of the temple doors (see v. 10,
here). The writer longs
to be again at his loved work in the courts of the
Lord. Hence he tells:
Ø
Of
the loveliness of God’s house, in his esteem.
Ø Of his intense desire for it. (v. 2.) His
soul yearning told upon his
body, that he was as one in pain, and cried out.
Ø Of the birds, the common
sparrow, the restless swallow, — even they
seemed to him happier than himself,
for they were where he would but
could not be. They were not
banished, as he was, from the courts of the
Lord. They dwelt and had their home there, as he fain would.
Ø Of the blessedness of His service. It was a
life of praise, and there is no
life so blessed as this. They are made strong by
God; the joy of it
brightened the long journeys, reached to
the very roads, arid, bare, and
terrible, as many of them were. Yet
nevertheless, in their hearts were
ever these “ways.” The joy of
the service to which they were going
made the vale of weeping a place of joy, the sandy
waste a place of
fountains; yea, God did so bless them
with His grace as with the soft
autumnal rains the cornlands
are blessed after the seed is sown. And
the looked-for gladness made their numbers swell
and grow by
additions that came in from all sides
as the happy pilgrims went
along, until every one of them
appeared before God in
Then follows:
Ø The fervent prayer that these
hallowed seasons may be again given;
the names by which he appeals to God telling
probably of the hosts of
enemies arrayed against the people of
God.
Ø
He
declares the reason wherefore he thus importunes the Lord of hosts.
It was because he counted the meanest service for God better
than the
best pleasures of sin. The worst of the Church is
better than the best
of the world. And because of
what God Himself is!.
Ø From all this learn — that the
love of God’s house is one sure mark of
God’s people; that true worship is a well of delight, which gladdens all
our life; but that only they know it who have knowledge of God in their
own personal experience as their Sun and
Shield.
BLESSEDNESS OF LIFE IN GOD:
Ø v. 1
distinctly affirms this: the earthly tabernacle being the type of
the soul in which God dwells.
Ø v. 2 declares that he cannot live without God.
Ø v. 3: he
joyfully asserts that he lives in God; his soul, though like
the sparrow, restless as the swallow, has yet found a rest,
a dwelling place, a home in God — in God as seen in
His altar, atype of
the sacrifice of Christ.
Ø v. 4: he
celebrates the blessedness of such — their life is
one continued
song.
Ø v. 5: and
of those whose strength — their confident trust — is in God,
in whose heart are “ways” for God;
he has full right of way in them,
they belong to him (Isaiah 40:3-4).
Ø v. 6: their
sorrow is turned into joy.
Ø v. 7: their
trust strengthens evermore; they see God as they worship.
Ø vs. 8-11
are one fervent prayer that he who has told of this blessedness
may know it for himself: “Hear my
prayer.” And all this
is true:
the life in God is blessed.
Conditional Bestowments (vs. 1-12)
What God is
to His people, and what He does for them, may be put into two
figures, and expressed in two plain statements. But
what He is to them, and
what He does for them, depend on what they are in
themselves, and what
they are toward Him. This the
sincerely good man is always willing to
recognize.
Ø Suggested by two figures.
o
“The Lord
God is a Sun.” This figure for God is only used in this
place. The sun in nature is the
source of light, life, warmth, beauty,
fruitfulness. The psalmist seems, even in
this figure, to have God’s
defendings chiefly in mind. GOD IS LIGHT against darkness,
which Easterners so greatly fear.
o
“The Lord
God is a Shield.” See this figure treated in the homily on
v. 9. We may add the picture of the tents of the
army ranged in circles
round the king’s tent, and forming an almost impregnable shield;
“As the
mountains are round about
about His people from
henceforth even for ever.” (Psalm 125:2)
Some have suggested making one figure of the
two, and reading it,
“The Lord God is a bright and shining Shield.” They
think reference
may be to the brazen shields, which were kept polished, so that,
catching the sun’s rays, they might dazzle the enemy.
Ø Suggested by two statements.
o
“The Lord
will give grace and glory.” We may think of Divine
bestowment exactly according with human necessities. Grace fits
into all present needs; glory fits into all future needs. But
the psalmist
probably used the terms as figures for the two things he needed —
help and success.
o
“No good
thing will He withhold.” A
carefully qualified promise.
It does not say, “Nothing will He withhold.” It
is “no good thing;”
and no one can decide what is
good for us as He can who has the
infinite knowledge, and is the infinite Wisdom and
Love.
being regarded as the sure sign
that the heart is right with God. A man may
walk uprightly before his fellows who is not heart
right with God. But this
is quite certain — if a man does not walk
uprightly, HE CANNOT BE
RIGHT WITH GOD! God is an
unstinted Giver; we put the limitations
by the failure of our:
Ø faith,
Ø love,
Ø submission, and
Ø obedience.
God would have His bestowmeuts to
be the best possible blessing to us; and
therefore they are withheld until it is
quite plain that we are prepared to make
the best of them.
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