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Scripture Reading: Psa. 126:1-6; 127:1; 128:5; 129:5-8; 132:3-5, 7-8, 11, 13-18; 133:1-3; 134:1-3
Book Five, as we have seen, indicates how the house and the city of God become the praise, safety, and desire of the saints and how Christ comes to reign over the whole earth through the house and the city of God. This is the main theme of this book, and this is the ultimate issue of all the books. Now not only do we have Christ, the house, and even the city, but everything is ready for Christ to come, to take over the whole earth, and to reign as the King with His saints through the house and the city. Now what must we do? There is nothing left to do but to praise and shout our hallelujahs. Hence, Book Five is a book of hallelujahs, a book of hallelujah psalms.
The first section of Book Five is composed of the thirteen psalms from Psalm 107 to 119. We have seen in this section the two outstanding psalms of Christ, Psalms 110 and 118. The second section of Book Five is composed of the fifteen psalms of ascents, from Psalm 120 to 134. In this section the house and the city of God are the center. Therefore, in the first section of Book Five we reach the highest peak of Christ Himself, whereas in section two of Book Five the house and the city of God are the focal point. Some say that according to history these psalms of ascents were sung by the people of Israel while they were ascending from the plain to the mountain of Zion for worship. Others say that these psalms were used extensively by the captives when they returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. Whether they were used by one company or the other, both were ascending from a lower place to a higher one; both were going up to Jerusalem, the city of God. From the very content of these fifteen psalms of ascents, we have ground to believe that these songs were indeed sung either by the worshippers ascending to Zion or by the captives returning from Babylon.
We should never forget Psalms 110 and 118 in the first section of Book Five. Neither should we forget Psalm 122 in the second section of Book Five, the psalms of ascents — it is the first precious one in this group. “I rejoiced when they said to me, / Let us go to the house of Jehovah. / Our feet are standing / Within your gates, O Jerusalem” (vv. 1-2). It is wonderful!
Now we come to Psalm 126, another outstanding psalm in this section. It opens in this way: “When Jehovah turned again the captivity of Zion, / We were like those who dream” (v. 1). The turning of their captivity was like a dream because it was too good, too great, too wonderful, and it occurred so quickly. You remember the account of Peter’s release from prison in Acts 12. When he came to the door of Mary’s house, the people reacted as if they were in a dream. It seemed too good to be true. Peter himself, when he was first released, imagined that he was in a dream. But the release of Peter from prison is quite insignificant when compared with the return of the captivity. Many times when I have considered the recovery of the church life, I also have felt as if I were in a dream. It is so good. We never expected it, and it came so quickly. I believe that many of you feel this way also. You would say, “Now I am in the church life! Two years ago I would never have thought I would be here, and even a few months ago I never imagined this. But, Hallelujah, here I am. I must be dreaming!” It is too wonderful; it is too sweet; it is something which has transpired so quickly and unexpectedly. Hallelujah, we are the returned captivity, and we are all in a wonderful dream. Yet, praise the Lord, it is so real! The Lord has turned the captivity of Zion.
The psalmist continues, “At that time our mouth was filled with laughter / And our tongue with a ringing shout. / At that time they said among the nations, / Jehovah has done great things for them. / Jehovah has done great things for us; / We are joyful” (vv. 2-3). The saints rejoiced with a ringing shout for the return of the captivity. It was a great thing the Lord did for them. But the returned ones were still not satisfied. Something had taken place as in a dream, but they still needed more turning. Therefore, verse 4 says, “Turn again, O Jehovah, our captivity.” It is as if the psalmist were saying, “We are just partly turned; a great part is not turned yet. We may rejoice for ourselves, but we must cry to the Lord for others.” A great part of the captivity has not yet been turned. “Turn again, O Jehovah, our captivity” like the streams restored and like the sheaves brought in.
For many years I was familiar with the last two verses of Psalm 126: “Those who sow in tears / Will reap with a ringing shout. / He who goes forth and weeps, / Bearing seed for scattering, / Will no doubt come in with a ringing shout, / Bearing his sheaves with him” (vv. 5-6). I never realized, however, that these two verses are the psalmist’s words for the return of the captivity. When we cry to the Lord to turn our captivity, the tears flow down. Many dear saints in ancient times experienced this. They wept as they prayed for the return of the captivity. Then they went out to sow the seed, the seed of turning, the seed of recovery.
In the opening chapters of Ezra, the names of a good number of returning ones are recorded. But Ezra was not included in this group. It was years later that Ezra and others returned to Jerusalem. After the first group returned from captivity to Jerusalem, there needed to be another group to follow them out of captivity. Therefore, those who first returned sowed the seed of the recovery with tears. Then the day came when another group returned as the bringing in of dried sheaves from a dry land. So many returned to Jerusalem with the sheaves of the returned people. We must read these two verses in such a context.
Today we can shout Hallelujah for such a dream as in verse 1. We are in the local church life! But look at the situation: thousands of the Lord’s people are still in captivity. What shall we do? We may shout for ourselves, but we must weep for them. We must sow the seed of recovery with weeping. The captivity is just like the dried sheaves; therefore, we must water the captivity with our tears. If we do, it will not be long before more captives will be brought into the church life just like the bundles of sheaves.
What about the city where you live? Are there not many still in captivity? Do you not need to be burdened as a sower to sow the seed of the Lord’s recovery? We all should be so burdened; we all should weep with tears, saying, “Lord, turn the captivity just like the restoration of dried sheaves in a dry land.” If we sow like this, we will soon come in with a ringing shout, bearing our sheaves with us. We will come to the next conference with sheaves. Those who sow with tears will reap with a ringing shout. The sheaves will be brought to the temple of God as firstfruits.
Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless Jehovah builds the house, / Those who build it labor in vain. / Unless Jehovah keeps the city, / The guard watches in vain.” For years I was troubled by this verse. Now I understand it. All the returned captives will say, “Lord, now we have learned by our experiences that unless You build the house, we labor in vain; unless You keep the city, the guard who watches is useless. By the desolation, by the captivity, we have really learned that we are nothing, and You are everything. For the building up of the house, we trust in You; we can do nothing. For the keeping of the city, we trust in You. From all the captivity, from all the failures, we have come to know the Lord; we have learned to put our trust in Him.” The returned people praised the Lord with Psalm 127. May we today also praise the Lord in this way. We must put our trust in Him and praise Him by saying, “Lord, unless You accomplish the recovery, we can do nothing; unless You build, we can do nothing; unless You keep, we can do nothing.” Praise the Lord!
Now let us go on to Psalm 128:5: “Jehovah bless you from Zion; / And may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem / All the days of your life.” The Lord’s blessing is from Zion, and the prosperity is of the city Jerusalem. In these psalms of ascents, the concept is always of Zion, Jerusalem, the house and the city. “May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem [the prosperity of the city] / All the days of your life.” All my expectation is that I may see the prosperity of the local churches as the city all the days of my life. I have been seeing it for forty years now, and I hope to see it until the day I shall see Him. The Lord bless you, brothers; the Lord bless you, sisters, from the local churches! Oh what a blessing it is to see the prosperity of the local churches all the days of our life! We have only tasted a little, but according to this taste, suppose that there should be no more church life. I believe that many of us would be weeping. What a barren desert that would be! But, praise the Lord, we are in God’s recovery; we are living in the local churches.
Now let us go on to Psalm 129. Here we have a contrast. Psalm 129 is a negative psalm, yet it helps to enhance the city. Verse 5 says, “May all who hate Zion / Be put to shame and turned back.” These are the real backsliders. The hate of Zion brings in shame and turning backward. Anyone who hates the local churches will be put to shame and turned backward. I have witnessed many like this. In my entire Christian life I have never seen one Christian who, when he criticized and opposed the local churches, was ever blessed by the Lord from that time forth. I have observed that all those who have opposed the church life have become backsliders. There has not been one exception. Let them all be put to shame and turned backward. It is not a small thing. The psalmist continues, “May they be like grass on the housetops, / Which withers before it grows up, / With which the reaper does not fill his hand, / Or he who binds sheaves, his bosom” (vv. 6-7). If you hate the local churches, you will have no more growth of life. There will be no rich reaping and no rich harvest. “Nor may those who pass by say, / The blessing of Jehovah be upon you! / We bless you in the name of Jehovah” (v. 8). No growth, no rich harvest, no blessing.
We who have been in the church life in Los Angeles over the past years may look back over our history and see the condition of those who have opposed the local church. There is only shame and backsliding — no growth, no rich harvest, and no blessing. The Lord will vindicate Himself. He is for Zion; if you hate Zion, you are through. The Lord desires Zion. If you reject it, it is not a small thing; it is not a matter of doctrinal disputation. Let them all be put to shame and turned backward who hate Zion.
Now let us go on from this negative psalm to a positive one, Psalm 132. In Psalm 129 we have the haters of Zion, but in Psalm 132 we see the lovers of God’s dwelling place. David is the representative. He says, “I shall not go into the tent of my house; / I shall not go up onto the couch of my bed; / I shall not give sleep to my eyes, / Slumber to my eyelids; / Until I find a place for Jehovah, / A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob” (vv. 3-5). This means that he would not rest until the Lord obtained rest. If the Lord was homeless, David was homeless; if the Lord was wandering, he was wandering. David was referring to a situation which existed in his time, but this also was a kind of recovery. The Ark had been removed from the tabernacle and captured by the enemy, and even when the Ark was returned to the children of Israel, it was not yet put into its proper place, the tabernacle. A full recovery was needed. David was one who loved God so deeply, one who was devoted to God’s resting place, to God’s habitation. He said that he would not enter his house until the Lord could find a habitation; he would not take sleep until the Lord should find rest.
Verses 7 and 8 say, “We will go into His tabernacle; / We will worship at His footstool. / Arise, O Jehovah, unto Your resting place, / You and the Ark of Your strength.” This is figurative of the recovery of the church life. The Ark was separated from the tabernacle, which signifies Christ separated from the church life. Christ was with the church, but Christ has been separated from the church. This is the time when we must all say, “Lord, arise; return unto Your resting place, the local churches.”
Verse 13 says, “Jehovah has chosen Zion; / He has desired it for His habitation.” Zion, which represents the local churches, is the choice of God, the desire of God. This word in verse 13 is the word of the psalmist, but when we continue into verse 14, we see that it is also the word of the Lord Himself: “This is My resting place forever; / Here will I dwell, for I have desired it.” While the psalmist was speaking in verse 13, the Lord suddenly intervened to speak Himself in verse 14. David had said, “Jehovah has chosen Zion; / He has desired it for His habitation.” Then the Lord immediately continued, “This is My resting place forever; / Here will I dwell, for I have desired it.” This is the wonderful way in which the Psalms were written.
The Lord Himself spoke further concerning Zion: “I will abundantly bless its provision; / I will satisfy its poor with bread” (v. 15). This word exactly fits our present situation. When we come into the local churches, we sense that here we have an abundant food supply. We are enriched. We are the needy ones, yet we have found bread. Are you still hungry? If you come into the local churches, you will be satisfied. Hallelujah, there is a place today where the hungry and needy ones may be fed and fully satisfied!
Here in Zion the Lord not only satisfies us with food but also supplies us with clothing: “Its priests I will clothe with salvation, / And its faithful ones will shout with a ringing shout” (v. 16). This salvation is not just a salvation from hell but a salvation to the uttermost, a salvation of life. “Much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled” (Rom. 5:10). The Lord today is still clothing us with this wonderful life-salvation of His. He is satisfying us with bread, and He is clothing us with the salvation of life. Day by day we are being saved. What then shall we do? We can do nought else but rejoice with a ringing shout. We have a rich supply of food and glorious clothing. Hallelujah!
The Lord continues: “There I will cause a horn of David to shoot forth; / I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one” (Psa. 132:17). We not only have food and clothing but also a horn, the figure of strength, power, and victory. Furthermore, we have a lamp; we are not in darkness. There is yet more: “I will clothe his enemies with shame, / But on him his crown will shine” (v. 18). Many times in the church life I have the sense of a shining crown upon me. I have rich food, I have glorious clothing, and I have a horn, a lamp, and a shining crown. Then what about the enemies? The Lord clothes us with salvation, but He clothes the enemies with shame.
All this occurs in the house and in the city. The house is God’s choice, God’s desire, and God’s satisfaction. In the house God satisfies us and clothes us, so we have both satisfaction and beautification. In the local churches we have the horn, the lamp, and the crown, and here we see the enemies put to shame day by day. It is really good!
Therefore, as typified in this psalm, there is so much in the local churches: the desire and choice of God, the rest and satisfaction of God, the Christ (the Ark) of God’s strength, the throne of the Anointed (Christ), the rich food supply, the clothing of the priests, the worship and ringing shout of the saints, the horn, the lamp, the crown of God’s Anointed (Christ), and the defeat and shame of the enemies. Here Christ, the house, and the city are joined together.
After such a wonderful psalm as Psalm 132, we see a wonderful church life, the wonderful life of the brothers dwelling together in unity. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is / For brothers to dwell in unity!” (133:1). No one can explain how truly wonderful this is. You can only come and experience it yourself. To hear about it is not sufficient; to read and learn of it is not adequate; you simply must “come and see.” I am so very happy that nearly all the dear ones who have come and have seen have been captured. “Behold, how good!” Just behold! If you would like to know what is going on in the church in Los Angeles, you had better come and see. It is marvelous!
“It is like the fine oil upon the head / That ran down upon the beard, / Upon Aaron’s beard, / That ran down upon the hem of his garments” (v. 2). The unity is like the fine oil. This oil is the Spirit, the Spirit which includes all that Christ is and all that He has accomplished. It runs down from the Head to the entire Body. Now, praise the Lord, we are under His hem. Since we are all His members, we are all under His hem, under His garments. Hence, we all partake of the anointing oil. This is a picture of the Body.
Another aspect of the unity is that it is like the dew of Hermon that came down upon the mountains of Zion. Hermon, a high mountain, signifies the heavens, the highest place, from which the dew descends. The mountains are the local churches, and the dew is the refreshing Christ. In Psalm 110 we are the dew to Christ, but here in Psalm 133 Christ is the dew to the church. Praise the Lord, we are His refreshment, and He is ours. Day by day He is refreshed by us, and we are refreshed by Him. The refreshing element of Christ comes down upon all the local churches. Sometimes when we are in the meetings late in the evening, we experience the refreshing dew as in the dawn of the morning. Many times we are very tired in body but tremendously refreshed in spirit. We would like the meetings to continue through the entire night. Such unity is like the dew of Hermon that came down upon the mountains of Zion. It is not only like oil upon the Body of Christ but also like heavenly dew upon the local churches for our enjoyment. It is not only a Body life but also a local church life. Hallelujah for such unity!
It is here, in such a place of unity, that “Jehovah commanded the blessing: / Life forever” (v. 3). Note that it does not say, “Jehovah gave the blessing,” but, “Jehovah commanded the blessing.” The blessing is life, fullness of life, forever. How glad we are to hear of the local churches being full of life. This is the fulfillment of Psalm 133. Where the brothers are dwelling together in unity, the Lord commands the blessing, even life forever. The beauty, the joy, and the blessing of the unity of God’s people are with the Body of Christ and in the local churches.
We have one further psalm of ascents, Psalm 134. Both Psalm 133 and 134 have only three verses. They are short psalms, but how precious! Never before have I appreciated Psalm 134 as much as I do today. Psalm 133 is a continuation of Psalm 132, and Psalm 134 is the conclusion of Psalm 133. By the close of Psalm 132 God enters into His rest, and we obtain satisfaction in the habitation of God. Hence, following that, we have the church life in Psalm 133. Psalm 134 now is a conclusion to that wonderful church life presented in Psalm 133. “Bless Jehovah now, / All you servants of Jehovah / Who stand by night in the house of Jehovah. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, / And bless Jehovah” (vv. 1-2). This was the word of the people to the priests. All the people were telling the priests, “All you servants of Jehovah, you must bless Jehovah.” Then the last verse of Psalm 134 is the answer, the reply, of the priests to the people: “May Jehovah, who made heaven and earth, / Bless you from Zion.” God’s servants bless Him in His house, and God blesses His people from Zion. This little psalm means that we all must fellowship and communicate in this way. After a good meeting, after a rich enjoyment of Christ, some of us may say, “Bless the name of the Lord.” Then others may answer, “The Lord bless you from Zion.” How blessed! Let us try it. This is a good fellowship, a good communication, a good conclusion, to a meeting of the church.
Hallelujah for the church life!
