Scripture Reading: Psa. 84
Ⅰ
The deeper love and sweeter experience of the house of God in Psalm 84 comes after the experience of God's dealing and stripping and is recovered by the experience of God as our unique portion and by Christ being given the unique position—73:17, 25-26; 80:15, 17; Col. 1:17b, 18b:
A
God's purpose in dealing with His holy people is that they would be emptied of everything to receive only God as their gain and be rebuilt with the Divine Trinity to become the masterpiece of God, fulfilling God's eternal economy for His expression—Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9-11; 2:10.
B
God is faithful to take away all of our idols and to lead us into His economy for us to enjoy Christ so that He may have a recovery purely and wholly of the person of Christ—1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 5:21; cf. Jer. 2:13; Lam. 3:22-24.
Ⅱ
The intrinsic content of Psalm 84 is the secret revelation concerning the enjoyment of Christ, who is the incarnated Triune God, the God-man—Col. 2:9; 1:12:
A
The center of this secret revelation is the house of God (Psa. 84:4, 10a), typified by the tabernacle (Exo. 40:2-8) and by the temple (1 Kings 6:1-3; 8:3-11).
B
Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) is the fulfillment of the types of the tabernacle and the temple:
１
This fulfillment commenced in His incarnation (John 1:14; 2:21) and will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2-3, 22); the New Testament covers the entire span of the incarnation of the Triune God.
２
The individual Christ is the beginning of the incarnation of the Triune God, and the corporate Christ, the New Jerusalem, will be the conclusion and consummation—cf. 1 Tim. 3:15-16.
Ⅲ
"At Your two altars, even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God"—Psa. 84:3:
A
The two altars—the bronze altar for the sacrifices and the golden altar of incense—are the leading consummations of the work of the incarnated Triune God, who is Christ as the embodiment of God for His increase—Exo. 40:5-6:
１
The first altar is the bronze altar for the offering of all the sacrifices (Christ in His crucifixion) to solve all the problems of man before God.
２
The second altar is the golden altar of incense (the resurrected Christ in His ascension) for God's acceptance of the redeemed sinners to constitute us into God's testimony for the manifestation of God—Heb. 9:4.
B
Through these two altars God's redeemed, the "sparrows" and "swallows," find their home with God in rest—cf. Psa. 90:1; 91:1.
Ⅳ
"Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / They will yet be praising You. / Selah…O Jehovah of hosts, blessed is the man / Who trusts in You"—84:4, 12:
A
Praising the Lord should be our living, and our church life should be a life of praising—22:3; 50:23; 1 Thes. 5:16-19; Phil. 4:4, 11-13.
B
In the church life, we trust in God, not in ourselves or in our natural human ability to work out a solution to our difficult situations—2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12.
Ⅴ
"Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion"—Psa. 84:5; cf. Phil. 4:13; John 15:5:
A
The highways to Zion in our heart mean that we need to take the way of the church internally, not externally; when we are deeply in the inner life, we will certainly be in the way of the church; the highways to Zion will be within our heart—cf. 1 John 1:3-4.
B
Zion is the very spot where God is, the Holy of Holies; the overcomers become Zion, and the Lord's recovery is to build up Zion—Rev. 21:16; cf. Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20; cf. Rev. 2:7.
C
The highways to Zion are the blessed highways for seeking the incarnated Triune God in His consummations, typified by the furniture in the tabernacle—Heb. 10:19-22.
Ⅵ
"Passing through the valley of Baca, / They make it a spring; / Indeed the early rain covers it with blessings"—Psa. 84:6:
A
The highways to Zion are not external, superficial, or cheap; we must pay a price to take the way of the church—cf. Phil. 3:7-8; Rev. 3:18; 1 Cor. 1:2.
B
As we pass through the valley of weeping, our tears become a spring (John 4:14), and this spring becomes the early rain that covers the valley with blessings; the early rain is the Spirit as our blessing (Zech. 10:1; Gal. 3:14).
Ⅶ
"They go from strength to strength; / Each appears before God in Zion….For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand; / I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God / Than dwell in the tents of the wicked. / For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield; / Jehovah gives grace and glory"—Psa. 84:7, 10-11a:
A
The more we go on in the church life, the more strength we will gain—cf. Prov. 4:18; 2 Cor. 3:18.
B
If our service is intrinsically according to God's will in the church life, each day will be worth many days in God's eyes—Joel 2:25a.
C
The blessings of dwelling in the house of God are our enjoyment of the incarnated and consummated Triune God as our sun to supply us with life, as our shield to protect us from God's enemy, as grace for our inward enjoyment, and as glory for the outward manifestation of God—cf. Psa. 84:9.