mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 84.xml

<div2 id="Ps.lxxxv" n="lxxxv" next="Ps.lxxxvi" prev="Ps.lxxxiv" progress="50.95%" title="Chapter LXXXIV">
<h2 id="Ps.lxxxv-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.lxxxv-p0.2">PSALM LXXXIV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.lxxxv-p1">Though David's name be not in the title of this
psalm, yet we have reason to think he was the penman of it, because
it breathes so much of his excellent spirit and is so much like the
sixty-third psalm which was penned by him; it is supposed that
David penned this psalm when he was forced by Absalom's rebellion
to quit his city, which he lamented his absence from, not so much
because it was the royal city as because it was the holy city,
witness this psalm, which contains the pious breathings of a
gracious soul after God and communion with him. Though it be not
entitled, yet it may fitly be looked upon as a psalm or song for
the sabbath day, the day of our solemn assemblies. The psalmist
here with great devotion expresses his affection, I. To the
ordinances of God; his value for them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.1" parsed="|Ps|84|1|0|0" passage="Ps 84:1">ver. 1</scripRef>), his desire towards them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.2-Ps.84.3" parsed="|Ps|84|2|84|3" passage="Ps 84:2,3">ver. 2, 3</scripRef>), his conviction of the
happiness of those that did enjoy them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.4-Ps.84.7" parsed="|Ps|84|4|84|7" passage="Ps 84:4-7">ver. 4-7</scripRef>), and his placing his own happiness
so very much in the enjoyment of them, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.10" parsed="|Ps|84|10|0|0" passage="Ps 84:10">ver. 10</scripRef>. II. To the God of the ordinances;
his desire towards him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.8-Ps.84.9" parsed="|Ps|84|8|84|9" passage="Ps 84:8,9">ver. 8,
9</scripRef>), his faith in him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.11" parsed="|Ps|84|11|0|0" passage="Ps 84:11">ver.
11</scripRef>), and his conviction of the happiness of those that
put their confidence in him, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.12" parsed="|Ps|84|12|0|0" passage="Ps 84:12">ver.
12</scripRef>. In singing this psalm we should have the same devout
affections working towards God that David had, and then the singing
of it will be very pleasant.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84" parsed="|Ps|84|0|0|0" passage="Ps 84" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.1-Ps.84.7" parsed="|Ps|84|1|84|7" passage="Ps 84:1-7" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.84.1-Ps.84.7">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.10">The Pleasures of Public Worship; Benefit of
Public Worship.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.lxxxv-p1.11">
<p id="Ps.lxxxv-p2">To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm for the sons of
Korah.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxxv-p3">1 How amiable <i>are</i> thy tabernacles, O
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxv-p3.1">Lord</span> of hosts!   2 My soul
longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxv-p3.2">Lord</span>: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the
living God.   3 Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the
swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
<i>even</i> thine altars, O <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxv-p3.3">Lord</span> of
hosts, my King, and my God.   4 Blessed <i>are</i> they that
dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.  
5 Blessed <i>is</i> the man whose strength <i>is</i> in thee; in
whose heart <i>are</i> the ways <i>of them.</i>   6 <i>Who</i>
passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also
filleth the pools.   7 They go from strength to strength,
<i>every one of them</i> in Zion appeareth before God.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p4">The psalmist here, being by force
restrained from waiting upon God in public ordinances, by the want
of them is brought under a more sensible conviction than ever of
the worth of them. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p5">I. The wonderful beauty he saw in holy
institutions (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.1" parsed="|Ps|84|1|0|0" passage="Ps 84:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>):
<i>How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!</i> Some think
that he here calls God the <i>Lord of hosts</i> (that is, in a
special manner of the angels, the heavenly hosts) because of the
presence of the angels in God's sanctuary; they attended the
Shechinah, and were (as some think) signified by the cherubim. God
is the Lord of these hosts, and his the tabernacle is: it is spoken
of as more than one (<i>thy tabernacles</i>) because there were
several courts in which the people attended, and because the
tabernacle itself consisted of a holy place and a most holy. How
amiable are these! How lovely is the sanctuary in the eyes of all
that are truly sanctified! Gracious souls see a wonderful, an
inexpressible, beauty in holiness, and in holy work. A tabernacle
was a mean habitation, but the disadvantage of external
circumstances makes holy ordinances not at all the less amiable;
for the beauty of holiness is spiritual, and their glory is
within.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p6">II. The longing desire he had to return to
the enjoyment of public ordinances, or rather of God in them,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.2" parsed="|Ps|84|2|0|0" passage="Ps 84:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. It was an
entire desire; body, soul, and spirit concurred in it. He was not
conscious to himself of any rising thought to the contrary. It was
an intense desire; it was like the desire of the ambitious, or
covetous, or voluptuous. He longed, he fainted, he cried out,
importunate to be restored to his place in God's courts, and almost
impatient of delay. Yet it was not so much the courts of the Lord
that he coveted, but he cried out, in prayer, <i>for the living
God</i> himself. O that I might know him, and be again taken into
communion with him! <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:1John.1.3" parsed="|1John|1|3|0|0" passage="1Jo 1:3">1 John i.
3</scripRef>. Ordinances are empty things if we meet not with God
in the ordinances.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p7">III. His grudging the happiness of the
little birds that made their nests in the buildings that were
adjoining to God's altars, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.3" parsed="|Ps|84|3|0|0" passage="Ps 84:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>. This is an elegant and surprising expression of his
affection to God's altars: <i>The sparrow has found a house and the
swallow a nest for herself.</i> These little birds, by the instinct
and direction of nature, provide habitations for themselves in
houses, as other birds do in the woods, both for their own repose
and in which to lay their young; some such David supposes there
were in the buildings about the courts of God's house, and wishes
himself with them. He would rather live in a bird's nest nigh God's
altars than in a palace at a distance from them. He sometimes
wished for <i>the wings of a dove,</i> on which to <i>fly into the
wilderness</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.55.6" parsed="|Ps|55|6|0|0" passage="Ps 55:6">Ps. lv. 6</scripRef>);
here for the wings of a sparrow, that he might fly undiscovered
into God's courts; and, though to <i>watch as a sparrow alone upon
the house-top</i> is the description of a very melancholy state and
spirit (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.102.7" parsed="|Ps|102|7|0|0" passage="Ps 102:7">Ps. cii. 7</scripRef>), yet
David would be glad to take it for his lot, provided he might be
near God's altars. It is better to be serving God in solitude than
serving sin with a multitude. The word for a sparrow signifies any
little bird, and (if I may offer a conjecture) perhaps when, in
David's time, music was introduced so much into the sacred service,
both vocal and instrumental, to complete the harmony they had
singing-birds in cages hung about the courts of the tabernacle (for
we find the singing of birds taken notice of to the glory of God,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.104.12" parsed="|Ps|104|12|0|0" passage="Ps 104:12">Ps. civ. 12</scripRef>), and David
envies the happiness of these, and would gladly change places with
them. Observe, David envies the happiness not of those birds that
flew over the altars, and had only a transient view of God's
courts, but of those that had nests for themselves there. David
will not think it enough to sojourn in God's house <i>as a
way-faring man that turns aside to tarry for a night;</i> but let
this be his rest, his home; here he will dwell. And he takes notice
that these birds not only have nests for themselves there, but that
there they lay their young; for those who have a place in God's
courts themselves cannot but desire that their children also may
have in God's house, and within his walls, a place and a name, that
they may <i>feed their kids beside the shepherds' tents.</i> Some
give another sense of this verse: "Lord, by thy providence thou
hast furnished the birds with nests and resting-places, agreeable
to their nature, and to them they have free recourse; but thy
altar, which is my nest, my resting-place, which I am as desirous
of as ever the wandering bird was of her nest, I cannot have access
to. Lord, wilt thou provide better for thy birds than for thy
babes? <i>As a bird that wanders from her nest</i> so am I, now
that I wander from the place of God's altars, for that is my place
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Prov.27.8" parsed="|Prov|27|8|0|0" passage="Pr 27:8">Prov. xxvii. 8</scripRef>); I shall
never be easy till I return to my place again." Note, Those whose
souls are at home, at rest, in God, cannot but desire a settlement
near his ordinances. There were two altars, one for sacrifice, the
other for incense, and David, in his desire of a place in God's
courts, has an eye to both, as we also must, in all our attendance
on God, have an eye both to the satisfaction and to the
intercession of Christ. And, <i>lastly,</i> Observe how he eyes God
in this address: Thou art the <i>Lord of hosts, my King and my
God.</i> Where should a poor distressed subject seek for protection
but with his king? <i>And should not a people seek unto their
God?</i> My King, my God, is Lord of hosts; by him and his altars
let me live and die.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p8">IV. His acknowledgment of the happiness
both of the ministers and of the people that had liberty of
attendance on God's altars: "<i>Blessed are they.</i> O when shall
I return to the enjoyment of that blessedness?" 1. Blessed are the
ministers, the priests and Levites, who have their residence about
the tabernacle and are in their courses employed in the service of
it (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.4" parsed="|Ps|84|4|0|0" passage="Ps 84:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>): <i>Blessed
are those that dwell in thy house,</i> that are at home there, and
whose business lies there. He is so far from pitying them, as
confined to a constant attendance and obliged to perpetual
seriousness, that he would sooner envy them than the greatest
princes in the world. There are those that bless the covetous, but
he blesses the religious. <i>Blessed are those that dwell in thy
house</i> (not because they have good wages, a part of every
sacrifice for themselves, which would enable them to keep a good
table, but because they have good work): <i>They will be still
praising thee;</i> and, if there be a heaven upon earth, it is in
praising God, in continually praising him. Apply this to his house
above; blessed are those that dwell there, angels and glorified
saints, for they <i>rest not day nor night from praising God.</i>
Let us therefore spend as much of our time as may be in that
blessed work in which we hope to spend a joyful eternity. 2.
Blessed are the people, the inhabitants of the country, who, though
they do not constantly dwell in God's house as the priests do, yet
have liberty of access to it at the times appointed for their
solemn feasts, the three great feasts, at which all the males were
obliged to give their attendance, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.16.16" parsed="|Deut|16|16|0|0" passage="De 16:16">Deut. xvi. 16</scripRef>. David was so far from
reckoning this an imposition, and a hardship put upon them, that he
envies the happiness of those who might thus attend, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.5-Ps.84.7" parsed="|Ps|84|5|84|7" passage="Ps 84:5-7"><i>v.</i> 5-7</scripRef>. Those whom he
pronounces blessed are here described. (1.) They are such as act in
religion from a rooted principle of dependence upon God and
devotedness to him: <i>Blessed is the man whose strength is in
thee,</i> who makes thee his strength and strongly stays himself
upon thee, who makes thy name his strong tower into which he runs
for safety, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Prov.18.10" parsed="|Prov|18|10|0|0" passage="Pr 18:10">Prov. xviii.
10</scripRef>. <i>Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord his
God,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.40.4 Bible:Ps.146.5" parsed="|Ps|40|4|0|0;|Ps|146|5|0|0" passage="Ps 40:4,146:5">Ps. xl. 4; cxlvi.
5</scripRef>. Those are truly happy who go forth, and go on, in the
exercises of religion, not in their own strength (for then the work
is sure to miscarry), but in the strength of the grace of Jesus
Christ, from whom all our sufficiency is. David wished to return to
God's tabernacles again, that there he might strengthen himself in
the Lord his God for service and suffering. (2.) They are such as
have a love for holy ordinances: <i>In whose heart are the ways of
them,</i> that is, who, having placed their happiness in God as
their end, rejoice in all the ways that lead to him, all those
means by which their graces are strengthened and their communion
with him kept up. They not only walk in these ways, but they have
them in their hearts, they lay them near their hearts; no care or
concern, no pleasure or delight, lies nearer than this. Note, Those
who have the new Jerusalem in their eye must have the ways that
lead to it in their heart, must mind them, their eyes must look
straight forward in them, must ponder the paths of them, must keep
close to them, and be afraid of turning aside to the right hand or
to the left. If we make God's promise our strength, we must make
God's word our rule, and walk by it. (3.) They are such as will
break through difficulties and discouragements in waiting upon God
in holy ordinances, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.6" parsed="|Ps|84|6|0|0" passage="Ps 84:6"><i>v.</i>
6</scripRef>. When they come up out of the country to worship at
the feasts their way lies through many a dry and sandy valley (so
some), in which they are ready to perish for thirst; but, to guard
against that inconvenience, they dig little pits to receive and
keep the rain-water, which is ready to them and others for their
refreshment. When they make the pools the ram of heaven fills them.
If we be ready to receive the grace of God, that grace shall not be
wanting to us, but shall be sufficient for us at all times. Their
way lay through many a weeping valley, so Baca signifies, that is
(as others understand it), many watery valleys, which in wet
weather, when <i>the rain filled the pools,</i> either through the
rising of the waters or through the dirtiness of the way were
impassable; but, by draining and trenching them, they made a road
through them for the benefit of those who went up to Jerusalem.
Care should be taken to keep those roads in repair that lead to
church, as well as those that lead to market. But all this is
intended to show, [1.] That they had a good will to the journey.
When they were to attend the solemn feasts at Jerusalem, they would
not be kept back by bad weather, or bad ways, nor make those an
excuse for staying at home. Difficulties in the way of duty are
designed to try our resolution; and <i>he that observes the wind
shall not sow.</i> [2.] That they made the best of the way to Zion,
contrived and took pains to mend it where it was bad, and bore, as
well as they could, the inconveniences that could not be removed.
Our way to heaven lies through a valley of Baca, but even that may
be made a well if we make a due improvement of the comforts God has
provided for the pilgrims to the heavenly city. (4.) They are such
as are still pressing forward till they come to their journey's end
at length, and do not take up short of it (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.7" parsed="|Ps|84|7|0|0" passage="Ps 84:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): <i>They go from strength to
strength;</i> their company increases by the accession of more out
of every town they pass through, till they become very numerous.
Those that were near staid till those that were further off called
on them, saying, <i>Come, and let us go to the house of the
Lord</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.122.1-Ps.122.2" parsed="|Ps|122|1|122|2" passage="Ps 122:1,2">Ps. cxxii. 1,
2</scripRef>), that they might go together in a body, in token of
their mutual love. Or the particular persons, instead of being
fatigued with the tediousness of their journey and the difficulties
they met with, the nearer they came to Jerusalem the more lively
and cheerful they were, and so went on <i>stronger and
stronger,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.17.9" parsed="|Job|17|9|0|0" passage="Job 17:9">Job xvii. 9</scripRef>.
Thus it is promised that those that <i>wait on the Lord shall renew
their strength,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.10" osisRef="Bible:Isa.40.31" parsed="|Isa|40|31|0|0" passage="Isa 40:31">Isa. xl.
31</scripRef>. Even where they are weak, there they are strong.
They go <i>from virtue to virtue</i> (so some); it is the same word
that is used for the virtuous woman. Those that press forward in
their Christian course shall find God adding grace to their graces,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.11" osisRef="Bible:John.1.16" parsed="|John|1|16|0|0" passage="Joh 1:16">John i. 16</scripRef>. They shall be
changed from glory to glory (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.12" osisRef="Bible:2Cor.3.18" parsed="|2Cor|3|18|0|0" passage="2Co 3:18">2 Cor.
iii. 18</scripRef>), from one degree of glorious grace to another,
till, at length, <i>every one of them appears before God in
Zion,</i> to give glory to him and receive blessings from him.
Note, Those who grow in grace shall, at last, be perfect in glory.
The Chaldee reads it, <i>They go from the house of the sanctuary to
the house of doctrine; and the pains which they have taken about
the law shall appear before God, whose majesty dwells in Zion.</i>
We must go from one duty to another, from prayer to the word, from
practising what we have learned to learn more; and, if we do this,
the benefit of it will appear, to God's glory and our own
everlasting comfort.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.13" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.8-Ps.84.12" parsed="|Ps|84|8|84|12" passage="Ps 84:8-12" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.84.8-Ps.84.12">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxxv-p8.14">Delight in God's Ordinances.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxxv-p9">8 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxv-p9.1">O Lord</span> God of
hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.   9
Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
  10 For a day in thy courts <i>is</i> better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness.   11 For the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxv-p9.2">Lord</span> God <i>is</i> a sun and shield: the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxv-p9.3">Lord</span> will give grace and glory: no good
<i>thing</i> will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.  
12 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxv-p9.4">O Lord</span> of hosts, blessed
<i>is</i> the man that trusteth in thee.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p10">Here, I. The psalmist prays for audience
and acceptance with God, not mentioning particularly what he
desired God would do for him. He needed to say no more when he had
professed such an affectionate esteem for the ordinances of God,
which now he was restrained and banished from. All his desire was,
in that profession, plainly before God, and his longing, his
groaning, was not hidden from him; therefore he prays (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.8-Ps.84.9" parsed="|Ps|84|8|84|9" passage="Ps 84:8,9"><i>v.</i> 8, 9</scripRef>) only that God would
hear his prayer and give ear, that he would behold his condition,
behold his good affection, and look upon his face, which way it was
set, and how his countenance discovered the longing desire he had
towards God's courts. He calls himself (as many think) <i>God's
anointed,</i> for David was anointed by him and anointed for him.
In this petition, 1. He has an eye to God under several of his
glorious titles—as <i>the Lord God of hosts,</i> who has all the
creatures at his command, and therefore has all power both in
heaven and in earth,—as the <i>God of Jacob,</i> a God in covenant
with his own people, a God who never said to the praying seed of
Jacob, <i>Seek you me in vain,</i>—and as <i>God our shield,</i>
who takes his people under his special protection, pursuant to his
covenant with Abraham their father. <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.15.1" parsed="|Gen|15|1|0|0" passage="Ge 15:1">Gen. xv. 1</scripRef>, <i>Fear not, Abraham, I am thy
shield.</i> When David could not be hidden in the secret of God's
tabernacle (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p10.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.27.5" parsed="|Ps|27|5|0|0" passage="Ps 27:5">Ps. xxvii. 5</scripRef>),
being at a distance from it, yet he hoped to find God his shield
ready to him wherever he was. 2. He has an eye to the Mediator; for
of him I rather understand those words, <i>Look upon the face of
thy Messiah,</i> thy anointed one, for of his anointing David
spoke, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p10.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.45.7" parsed="|Ps|45|7|0|0" passage="Ps 45:7">Ps. xlv. 7</scripRef>. In all
our addresses to God we must desire that he would look upon the
face of Christ, accept us for his sake, and be well-pleased with us
in him. We must look with an eye of faith, and then God will with
an eye of favour look <i>upon the face of the anointed,</i> who
does show his face when we without him dare not show ours.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p11">II. He pleads his love to God's ordinances
and his dependence upon God himself.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p12">1. God's courts were his choice, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.10" parsed="|Ps|84|10|0|0" passage="Ps 84:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>. A very great regard he
had for holy ordinances: he valued them above any thing else, and
he expresses his value for them, (1.) By preferring the time of
God's worship before all other time: <i>A day spent in thy
courts,</i> in attending on the services of religion, wholly
abstracted from all secular affairs, <i>is better than a
thousand,</i> not than a thousand in thy courts, but any where else
in this world, though in the midst of all the delights of the
children of men. Better than a thousand, he does not say
<i>days,</i> you may supply it with years, with ages, if you will,
and yet David will set his hand to it. "A day in thy courts, a
sabbath day, a holy day, a feast-day, though but one day, would be
very welcome to me; nay" (as some of the rabbin paraphrase it),
"though I were to die for it the next day, yet that would be more
sweet than years spent in the business and pleasure of this world.
One of these days shall with its pleasure <i>chase a thousand, and
two put ten thousand to flight,</i> to shame, as not worthy to be
compared." (2.) By preferring the place of worship before any other
place: <i>I would rather be a door-keeper,</i> rather be in the
meanest place and office, <i>in the house of my God, than dwell</i>
in state, as master, <i>in the tents of wickedness.</i> Observe, He
calls even the tabernacle a house, for the presence of God in it
made even those curtains more stately than a palace and more strong
than a castle. It is the house of my God; the covenant-interest he
had in God as his God was the sweet string on which he loved dearly
to be harping; those, and those only, who can, upon good ground,
call God theirs, delight in the courts of his house. I would rather
be a porter in God's house than a prince in those tents where
wickedness reigns, rather lie at the threshold (so the word is);
that was the beggar's place (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.3.2" parsed="|Acts|3|2|0|0" passage="Ac 3:2">Acts iii.
2</scripRef>): "no matter" (says David), "let that be my place
rather than none." The Pharisees loved synagogues well enough,
provided they might have the uppermost seats there (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Matt.23.6" parsed="|Matt|23|6|0|0" passage="Mt 23:6">Matt. xxiii. 6</scripRef>), that they might make
a figure. Holy David is not solicitous about that; if he may but be
admitted to the threshold, he will say, <i>Master, it is good to be
here.</i> Some read it, <i>I would rather be fixed to a post in the
house of my God than live at liberty in the tents of
wickedness,</i> alluding to the law concerning servants, who, if
they would not go out free, were to have their ear bored to the
door-post, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Exod.21.5-Exod.21.6" parsed="|Exod|21|5|21|6" passage="Ex 21:5,6">Exod. xxi. 5,
6</scripRef>. David loved his master and loved his work so well
that he desired to be tied to this service for ever, to be more
free to it, but never to go out free from it, preferring bonds to
duty far before the greatest liberty to sin. Such a superlative
delight have holy hearts in holy duties; no satisfaction in their
account comparable to that in communion with God.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p13">2. God himself was his hope, and joy, and
all. <i>Therefore</i> he loved the house of his God, because his
expectation was from his God, and there he used to communicate
himself, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.11" parsed="|Ps|84|11|0|0" passage="Ps 84:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>. See,
(1.) What God is, and will be, to his people: <i>The Lord God is a
sun and shield.</i> We are here in darkness, but, if God be our
God, he will be to us a sun, to enlighten and enliven us, to guide
and direct us. We are here in danger, but he will be to us a shield
to secure us from the fiery darts that fly thickly about us.
<i>With his favour he will compass us as with a shield.</i> Let us
therefore always <i>walk in the light of the Lord,</i> and never
throw ourselves out of his protection, and we shall find him a sun
to supply us with all good and a shield to shelter us from all
evil. (2.) What he does, and will, bestow upon them: <i>The Lord
will give grace and glory.</i> Grace signifies both the good-will
of God towards us and the good work of God in us; glory signifies
both the honour which he now puts upon us, in giving us the
adoption of sons, and that which he has prepared for us in the
inheritance of sons. God will give them grace in this world as a
preparation for glory, and glory in the other world as the
perfection of grace; both are God's gift, his free gift. And as, on
the one hand, wherever God gives grace he will give glory (for
grace is glory begun, and is an earnest of it), so, on the other
hand, he will give glory hereafter to none to whom he does not give
grace now, or who receive his grace in vain. And if God will give
grace and glory, which are the two great things that concur to make
us happy in both worlds, we may be sure that <i>no good thing will
be withheld from those that walk uprightly.</i> It is the character
of all good people that they walk uprightly, that they worship God
in spirit and in truth, and have their conversation in the world in
simplicity and godly sincerity; and such may be sure that God will
withhold <i>no good thing from them,</i> that is requisite to their
comfortable passage through this world. Make sure grace and glory,
and <i>other things shall be added.</i> This is a comprehensive
promise, and is such an assurance of the present comfort of the
saints that, whatever they desire, and think they need, they may be
sure that either Infinite Wisdom sees it is not good for them or
Infinite Goodness will give it to them in due time. Let it be our
care to walk uprightly, and then let us trust God to give us every
thing that is good for us.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxv-p14"><i>Lastly,</i> He pronounces those blessed
who put their confidence in God, as he did, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxv-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.12" parsed="|Ps|84|12|0|0" passage="Ps 84:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>. Those are blessed who have the
liberty of ordinances and the privileges of God's house. But,
though we should be debarred from them, yet we are not therefore
debarred from blessedness if we trust in God. If we cannot go to
the house of the Lord, we may go by faith to the Lord of the house,
and in him we shall be happy and may be easy.</p>
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