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. Are thy tabernacles. 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. Because
they are thy tabernacles, O Lord
of hosts, therefore are they so dear to thy people. Thou rulest all the
companies of creatures with such goodness that all their hosts rejoice in thy
dwelling-place, and the bands of saints especially hail thee with joyful
loyalty as Jehovah of hosts.
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 wasted with an
inward consumption because he was debarred the worship of the Lord in the
appointed place. For the courts of the Lord.
To stand once again in those areas which were dedicated to holy adoration was
the soul-longing of the psalmist. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the
living God. It was God himself that he pined for, the only living and true
God. The psalmist declared that 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.
3. Yea, the sparrow hath found her 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 priests’ 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. Even
thine altars, O Lord of hosts.
To the very altars these free birds drew near; 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. My
King and my God. 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, resolved not to
let him go till the favor be at length accorded.
4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. Those he esteems to be highly favored who are constantly
engaged in divine worship. To come and go is refreshing, but to abide in the
place of prayer must be heaven below. They will be still praising thee.
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. Yet in a
spiritual sense this is most true, for those children of God who in spirit
abide ever in his house are also ever full of the praises of God. They fail to
praise the Lord who wander far from him, but those who dwell in him are always
magnifying him. Selah. Pause and meditate on the prospect of dwelling
with God and praising him throughout eternity.
5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee. Having spoken of the blessedness of those who reside in the
house of God, he now speaks of those who go on pilgrimage. The blessedness of
sacred worship belongs not to halfhearted, listless worshipers, but to those
who throw all their energies into it. In whose heart are the ways of them,
or far better, “in whose heart are thy ways.” 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. The happy pilgrims found refreshment even in the dreariest
part of the road. As around a well people meet and converse cheerfully, being
refreshed after their journey, so even in the vale of tears 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 people forget the
discomforts of the road. Christian converse and the joy of united worship make
many duties easy and delightful which else had been difficult and painful.
7. They go from strength to strength. 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. This was the end of the pilgrims’ march. 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 mingle in
our religious gatherings. Unless we realize the presence of God we have done
nothing; the mere gathering together is nothing worth.
8. O Lord God
of hosts, hear my prayer. 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.
Though Jehovah of hosts, thou art also the covenant God of solitary pleaders
like Jacob. 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. 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.
10. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. 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, than to dwell in the tents of
wickedness. 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. 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.
11. For the Lord
God is a sun and shield. The pilgrim
nation found both sun and shield in the fiery cloudy pillar, and the Christian
finds in the Lord his God a sun for happy days and a shield for dangerous ones.
The Lord will give grace and
glory. Both are needed, to the full. The Lord has 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. No good
thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Grace makes us walk
uprightly, and this secures every covenant blessing. Some apparent good may be
withheld, but no real good (1 Corinthians 3:22–23). There is no good apart
from God, 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 will 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
forevermore.
12. Here is
the key of the psalm. The worship is that of faith, and the blessedness is
peculiar to believers. No formal worshiper can enter into this secret. We must
know the Lord by the life of real faith, or we can have no true rejoicing in
the Lord’s worship, his house, his Son, or his ways.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
