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Scripture Reading: Psa. 73, 80
I. The intrinsic reason for the desolation of God’s house was that Christ was not properly appreciated and exalted by God’s people; they did not give Him the preeminence, the first place, in everything — Psa. 74:1-11; 2 Chron. 36:19; Col. 1:18; Rev. 2:4:
А. Their failure to give Christ the preeminence and to honor and exalt Him was the cause of their becoming sinful and evil — Jer. 2:13.
B. The desolation of the church as the house of God always issues from the negligence of the experience of Christ — 1 Cor. 1:9-13, 23-24, 30; cf. 3 John 9.
C. The real revival in the church depends upon everyone in the church life giving Christ the first place in everything — Psa. 73:25; 80:15, 17; cf. Hab. 3:2; Hosea 6:1-3:
1. To give the Lord the first place in all things is to love Him with the first love, the best love, regarding Him as everything in our life — Rev. 2:4; Col. 1:18; 3:11.
2. We must not love anyone or anything above the Lord, including our soul-life — Matt. 10:37-39; Rev. 12:11.
3. We love the Lord because He first loved us, infusing His loving essence into us and generating within us the love with which we love Him — 7-8, 16, 1 John 4:19:
a. Christ’s love of affection constrains us to live and to die to Him — 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9.
b. Christ’s love makes the believers martyrs for Him — Rev. 2:10; 12:11; Rom. 8:35-37.
4. We love the Lord according to the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity as love — 5:5; 8:39, 35; 15:30.
D. The enjoyment of God in the house and city of God can be maintained and preserved only when Christ is properly appreciated and exalted by God’s people:
1. An idol is anything within us that we love more than the Lord and that replaces the Lord in our life — Ezek. 14:3.
2. Any thing, matter, or person that preoccupies us and keeps us from the full enjoyment of Christ is an idol — 1 John 5:21.
II. Psalm 73 is on the sufferings of the seeking saints and unveils God, Christ, as our unique portion and desire — 1 Cor. 1:2:
А. Psalm 73:2-16 records the sufferings and puzzles of the God-seeking psalmist:
1. The psalmist was nearly stumbled by the situation concerning the prosperity of the wicked — vv. 2-3.
2. The psalmist said that he had purified his heart in vain and that he had been plagued all day long — vv. 13-14.
3. If the psalmist had spoken to others about his situation, they would have been stumbled — v. 15.
4. The more the psalmist considered his situation, trying to understand it, the more he was troubled and perplexed—v. 16.
B. Through the revelation given in the sanctuary of God, the psalmist obtained the solution to his troubling and perplexing situation — vv. 17-28:
1. The sanctuary of God is the place where we may obtain the revelation that we need — Lev. 24:2-4; Dan. 2:17-23 cf. 5:12, 14.
2. God’s sanctuary is in our spirit and in the church — 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:22.
3. We enter into the sanctuary of God by exercising our spirit and living in the church — 1 Tim. 4:7; 3:15.
4. Once we are in the sanctuary — in the spirit and in the church — we receive another view, a particular perception — Psa. 73:17-20:
a. Certain secrets in the Bible were not made known to us until we came into the twofold sanctuary — our spirit as the personal sanctuary and the church as the corporate sanctuary.
b. God’s way is made known in the sanctuary; when we exercise our spirit and live in the church, God’s way becomes clear to us — 77:13.
C. Psalm 73:25-26 is the revelation given in the sanctuary of God to the suffering and seeking saints:
1. “Whom do I have in heaven but You? / And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth” — v. 25:
a. Verse 25 reveals that God’s pure seeker would have God as his only possession in heaven and his unique desire on earth:
1) God was the psalmist’s unique goal; the psalmist did not care for anything except God and gaining Him.
2) In this matter Paul was the same as the psalmist, counting all things as refuse in order to gain Christ — Phil. 3:8.
b. The psalmist was pure in heart — Psa. 73:1:
1) To be pure in heart is to have God as our one goal — Matt. 5:8.
2) A pure heart is one that is set on nothing but God:
a) God Himself is the reality; anything other than God is vanity.
b) If we continue to seek something other than God, our heart is set on vanity.
c) Only a seeker with a pure heart can say that he has nothing but God and desires nothing besides God.
2. “My flesh and my heart fail, / But God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever” — Psa. 73:26:
a. The psalmist realized that God was working to deprive him of all material things so that he might enjoy God in an absolute way:
1) Through the revelation given in the sanctuary, he learned why God does not allow the seeking saints to prosper as the worldly people do.
2) God intends that nothing should distract us from the absolute enjoyment of Himself.
3) God’s intention with the seeking saints is to remove all material blessings and physical enjoyments so that they may find everything in God.
b. When the psalmist went into the sanctuary of God, he received the revelation that nothing in heaven or on earth can be his enjoyment but God Himself, and he took God as his all — the rock of his heart and his portion forever — Deut. 32:4, 15, 18, 30-31; Psa. 18:2, 31, 46; 31:2-3; 61:2; 62:2, 6-7; 71:3; 78:35; 89:26; 92:15; 94:22; 95:1; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 3:17a; Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8.
III. Psalm 80 reveals that restoration comes by exalting Christ:
А. In verses 1 through 7 the psalmist prays that the Shepherd of Israel would give ear (v. 1); in both verses 3 and 7 he prays, “O God, restore us; / And cause Your face to shine, and we will be saved.”
B. In verses 8 through 13 the psalmist speaks regarding God’s dealing with Israel as His vine, which He brought out of Egypt and planted; whereas the vine once was flourishing, it eventually became desolate.
C. In verses 14 through 19 the psalmist asks God to visit His vine (Israel) for the sake of Christ as the man of His right hand:
1. Son in verse 15 refers to the Lord Jesus; when He became a man, He joined Himself to Israel — He is “the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself” — Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15.
2. In Psalm 80:17 the psalmist goes on to say, “Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, / Upon the son of man whom You have strengthened for Yourself”; this verse reveals that Christ is at the right hand of God, the highest place in the universe; the first place, the highest position, the preeminence, has been given to Christ — Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; 5:31; Phil. 2:9-11.
3. The way to be restored from desolation is to exalt Christ as the full solution to every problem — 1 Cor. 1:9, 24, 30:
a. Whenever God’s people do not give Christ the preeminence, the house of God, signifying the church, becomes desolate.
b. Whenever God’s people exalt Christ, giving Him the preeminence in every aspect of their living, there is restoration and revival — Psa. 80:18-19.
4. Christ is now at the right hand of God (Rom. 8:34; Col. 3:1; 1 Pet. 3:22), and whoever calls upon Him as such a One will be restored and revived (21, Acts 2:33; Rom. 10:12-13).
5. As regenerated people, we need to come together in the meetings of the church to exalt Christ by praising, singing, and shouting — 1 Cor. 14:26:
a. Instead of being silent, we should exercise our spiritual birthright to exalt Christ.
b. The more we exalt Christ, giving Him the preeminence in everything, the more we will be revived and restored.
