Scripture Reading: Psa. 5:7; 11:4; 18:6; 20:2; 23:6; 26:8; 27:4-6; 34:8; 36:7-9
In this message we want to see the revelation of the enjoyment of God in the house of God in Book One of the Psalms, which includes Psalms 1—41. Thus far in our fellowship, we have seen four major stations concerning Christ — Psalms 2, 8, 16, and 22—24. We all need to see the particular aspects of Christ revealed in these psalms. Psalm 2 tells us that Christ is God's anointed One. Psalm 8 reveals Christ as the incarnated and crowned One, the excellent One in all the earth. Psalm 16 reveals Christ in His human living. It shows that Christ lived on this earth as a God-man, died on the cross, resurrected, and then ascended to the right hand of God. Psalm 22 shows us Christ crucified and resurrected to produce His brothers to constitute His Body, the church. Then in resurrection in Psalm 23, He became our Shepherd, shepherding us through five stages of enjoyment. Eventually, He will come back to be the King of glory, as revealed in Psalm 24. These psalms present us a completed Christ.
After these first four stations concerning Christ in the Psalms, Psalms 25—41 follow as a group of psalms showing us the mixed expressions in the psalmist's sentiment in his enjoyment of God in God's house. In these seventeen psalms, the main point, the major point, the crucial point, is the enjoyment of God in the house of God.
We have to realize that God is located! On the one hand, He is not a wandering God, but on the other hand, He is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Thus, He is the universal God, yet the universal God today is located! The house in which we live has an address, which indicates that we are located. People can write us letters if they know our street address and the city in which we live. Because we are located, people can contact us. Today our God is located. He has an address, and we can contact Him. In Psalms 25—41 we can see the location of God. This location is also mentioned in the foregoing psalms. The universal God is located in His house, His dwelling place.
The revelation of the Psalms begins with the psalmist stressing the law and with the Spirit turning the psalmist to Christ (Psa. 1—2). When the psalmist began in Psalm 1 by stressing the law, he was going in the wrong direction. In the first psalm, the psalmist seeking after God was driving on the wrong highway, so the Spirit came in to turn him to the right way.
In Psalm 2 the psalmist began to enjoy Christ — to take refuge in this Christ and to kiss this Christ (v. 12). The highest and best enjoyment of human life is kissing. When a child is born, the parents and grandparents enjoy kissing this child. If a person had no one whom he could kiss, he would surely be one of the most miserable people on earth. Psalm 2:12 commands us to "kiss the Son." Kissing Christ is the enjoyment of Christ.
Some may wonder where the word enjoyment is in the Bible concerning our relationship with Christ. Although this word is not in the Bible, the fact of the enjoyment of Christ is there. It is the same with the words trinity and triune. Although these words are not in the Bible, the early church fathers discovered the fact in the Bible that our God is triune, that He is the Divine Trinity. In like manner, the word enjoyment is not found in the Scriptures, but the fact is there. In Psalm 2 we are told to kiss the Son. The Son is a pleasant title. Kissing the Son is enjoying the Son.
The enjoyment of Christ in the Psalms begins with kissing the Son in Psalm 2. This enjoyment continues in Psalm 8, in which the psalmist declares, "How excellent is Your name/In all the earth!" (vv. 1, 9). Psalm 16 is also full of enjoyment. Verse 11 of this psalm says, "You will make known to Me the path of life;/In Your presence is fullness of joy;/In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." Psalm 22 gives us a very vivid picture of Christ's death on the cross. It also shows us His church-producing resurrection (v. 22). In Christ's resurrection His God is our God, His Father is our Father (John 20:17), and we are His brothers. The apostle Paul quoted Psalm 22:22 in Hebrews 2:12, pointing out that the Lord's brothers are the church.
Psalm 23 is full of the enjoyment of Christ as our Shepherd. Many Christians love Psalm 23, but not many have the realization that in this psalm they need to kiss Christ as the Shepherd. We saw in the previous message that Christ as the Shepherd leads us through five stages of enjoyment. The first stage is that of the green pastures and the waters of rest (v. 2). The second stage is the paths of righteousness (v. 3), and the third stage is the experience of Christ's presence through the valley of the shadow of death (v. 4). The fourth stage is the deeper and higher enjoyment of the resurrected Christ, in which we enjoy the Lord's table in the presence of our adversaries (v. 5). This implies that we are enjoying the Lord on the battlefield. The fifth and final stage is the lifelong enjoyment of the divine goodness and kindness in the house of Jehovah (v. 6). Psalm 24 goes on to show that the victorious Christ as the King of glory is coming to reign as the King in God's kingdom. All these points in the Psalms indicate that Christ is enjoyable.
The enjoyment of Christ leads the psalmist to another state of enjoyment — the enjoyment of God in the house of God (Psa. 25—41). God Himself is enjoyable, and His dwelling place is also enjoyable. Psalm 27:4 says, "One thing I have asked from Jehovah;/That do I seek:/To dwell in the house of Jehovah/All the days of my life,/To behold the loveliness of Jehovah,/And to inquire in His temple." The one thing that David asked from God and sought was to dwell in the house of God to behold His beauty. Psalm 27:4 shows us that our God is a lovable person with a lovely dwelling. Psalm 36 also tells us that we can be abundantly satisfied with the fatness, the abundance, of God's house (v. 8).
The universal God is located in His house — His dwelling place. The Scriptures reveal that God is located! Outside of Christ, we cannot find God (Col. 2:9). Christ is God's location, and the address of God is just one word — Christ. Christ is the street address and the city of God. If we say, "O God, where are You?" He will say, "I am in Christ." If we come to Christ, we will meet God. Whenever we call, "Lord Jesus," we have the sensation that God is present with us.
The revelation of God's house, His dwelling place, is not that simple. In the Old Testament time, God had His residence in the heavens (1 Kings 8:30b, 39a, 43a), and He also had a "retreat place" on Mount Zion in the center of Jerusalem in Palestine (Psa. 76:2b; 135:21; Isa. 8:18). In the center of Jerusalem, there was a temple, which could be considered as God's retreat place. A number of rich people have a residence and a retreat place. The residence is quite common, whereas the retreat place is very particular. If the weather is too hot or too cold, a person will go to his retreat place. The temple on Mount Zion within Jerusalem was God's retreat place.
It seems that our God did not feel satisfied with remaining in the heavens, so He came down to His temple on Mount Zion to have a retreat. He desired to leave the millions of angels in the heavens and come down to earth to stay with human beings for awhile. The end of Exodus tells us that when the tabernacle was raised up, the glory of God filled the tabernacle (40:33-35). Later, when Solomon built the temple, the glory of the Lord filled the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). God was very happy when the tabernacle and temple were built. When a rich man gets his retreat place prepared, he is happy to go there. This retreat place may be a little smaller than his residence, but that smaller place is more pleasant to him. God felt pleasant when He came down to stay in the temple in Jerusalem.
In the Old Testament, both God's residence in the heavens and His retreat place on Mount Zion in Jerusalem were physical. But in the New Testament, God's residence is spiritual. In the New Testament, Christ is the tabernacle of God and the temple of God (John 1:14; 2:21).
Christ has been enlarged, and the enlarged Christ is the church as God's enlarged temple. The church as the enlargement of Christ is God's enlarged temple, His dwelling place. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul said that the believers corporately are the temple of God; in Ephesians 2:22 he said that we are being built together into a spiritual dwelling place of God; and in 1 Timothy 3:15 he said that the church is the house of the living God. First, God is in Christ. When we call on the name of Christ, we get God. Furthermore, God is in the church. The church, of course, is not a physical building. We believers are the church.
When we are meeting together, we are the church in practicality, and God is dwelling in and among us. Often when I am in a meeting, I do not want to be dismissed. I am happy and feel so pleasant when I am with the saints in a meeting. When we are at home and not in the meetings, we may not feel that pleasant. There is no comparison between how we feel at home and how we feel in the meetings. Some of the saints have to drive a long distance to get to the meetings. Why do they do this? They are not crazy. They do this because they want to enjoy God in the house of God, the church. God is in Christ and in the church.
Sometimes we have problems and become puzzled, not knowing what to do. We may pray in our desire to know God's will, but it seems that our prayer is to no avail. Then we may come to the church meeting, and in the meeting we receive the light, and everything becomes clear to us. This is because God is in the church.
In the ultimate consummation, the New Jerusalem will be God's redeemed people to be the tabernacle to God for Him to enjoy His redeemed people, and the redeeming Triune God to be the temple to God's redeemed people for them to enjoy their redeeming Triune God in eternity. Revelation 21:2 and 3 tell us that in eternity future we, God's redeemed people, will be a tabernacle to God for God to enjoy us. Then verse 22 says that the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. This indicates that the Triune God will be the temple to us for us to enjoy Him as our redeeming Triune God in eternity. Therefore, the New Jerusalem is a mutual dwelling of both God and man for their mutual enjoyment. The New Jerusalem will be a composition of God and of us. To God, we will be the New Jerusalem as the tabernacle for Him to dwell in and enjoy. To us, God will be the New Jerusalem as the temple for us to dwell in and enjoy. The enjoyment in the New Jerusalem is both God's enjoyment and our enjoyment.
We need to see the enjoyment in the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem there is a flowing river, which is the river of water of life. This river is bright as crystal (Rev. 22:1). In this crystal clear river, the tree of life grows and produces twelve fruits yearly (v. 2). In the New Jerusalem, there is new fruit every month. The fruits of the tree of life will be the food of God's redeemed for eternity. Eating the fruits of the tree of life will be our enjoyment.
Today God's location is in Christ and in the church. In the coming age and in eternity, God will be located in the New Jerusalem. Do we want to see God, to find God, to meet God, and to visit God? We need to go to Christ, the church, and the New Jerusalem. To enjoy God in His house means that we must be in Christ, in the church, and eventually in the New Jerusalem. Otherwise, we will miss God.
At the beginning of the Psalms we see the psalmist's initial experience of the enjoyment of God's house.
In Psalm 5:7, the psalmist said to God, "I will bow down toward Your holy temple/In fear of You." This was his experience outside of God's house.
Then the psalmist spoke of entering into God's house in the abundance of His lovingkindness (Psa. 5:7). If someone had the privilege of entering into the temple on Mount Zion, he had to be under the abundance of God's lovingkindness. Actually, to enter into the temple in itself was an enjoyment of the abundance of God's lovingkindness. When we enter into God's house, we might say, "What love, what kindness, and what grace it is for me to be here in God's dwelling!" This is the enjoyment of God in His house.
Psalm 11:4 says that God is in His holy temple on His throne in heaven discerning with His eyes and trying the sons of men. He tries the sons of men just as people put gold into the furnace to try it and purify it. The sufferings and trials of mankind are in God's sovereignty to try people. Psalm 11:4 says that His eyelids try the sons of men. When we are gazing at something, we are exercising our eyelids. God's gaze tries the sons of men.
In Psalm 18:6 the psalmist appreciated that God from His temple heard his cry in his distress. It is difficult to say whether the temple here refers to the residence of God in the heavens, or the physical temple on Mount Zion, His retreat place on earth. At any rate, this verse describes the initial, elementary, enjoyment of God related to His house.
The psalmist enjoyed God in His house, so he blessed others with his experience. He blessed others with God's sending them His help from His sanctuary and His strengthening from Zion (Psa. 20:2). The word Zion here refers to the temple in Jerusalem. When God came and stayed in His retreat place, the temple on Mount Zion, He sent help and strength to those who trusted in Him.
The psalmist as the one who enjoyed God in His temple, in His house, made a big mistake in understanding in Psalm 15:1-5 and Psalm 24:3-6. Both times he asked concerning who could be in God's holy sanctuary on His holy mountain. According to his concept, this one was the perfect man according to the law, who had clean hands and a pure heart. This is a wrong concept. This shows that David was like us in making mistakes.
Now we come to the psalmist's improved experience of the enjoyment of God's house with the enjoyment of God. We may illustrate the enjoyment of God in God's house by considering the enjoyment in a wedding room. In traditional Chinese weddings, a wedding room is decorated and prepared for the bride and groom in order to make that room a very pleasant place. However, that pleasant room without the bride would be vanity. The enjoyment of the wedding room must be with the enjoyment of the bride. In the same way, the enjoyment of God's house must be with the enjoyment of God.
In Psalm 23:6 the psalmist spoke of dwelling in the house of God for the length of his days. We have seen that in Psalm 23 Christ as the Shepherd leads the church as His flock through five stages of enjoyment. Eventually, the sheep enjoy the Triune God as their goodness and kindness. Verse 6 says, "Surely goodness and kindness will follow me/All the days of my life,/And I will dwell in the house of Jehovah/For the length of my days." This includes the coming age, the age of the kingdom, and also eternity, the age of the new heaven and new earth.
In Psalm 26:8 the psalmist said, "O Jehovah, I love the habitation of Your house,/And the place where Your glory abides." To abide means to remain for manifestation. When the people of Israel raised up the tabernacle and when they built up the temple, the glory of God descended upon the tabernacle and the temple to abide there, to remain there, to be manifested to the people. The psalmist told the Lord that he loved the habitation of His house and the place where His glory abode, remained, to be manifested to His people.
We have to say, "O Lord, I love Your church, and Your church is Your habitation. Your church is the place where Your glory abides to be manifested today." Psalm 84 expresses the psalmist's love for the house of God, which is the kind of love we should have for the church today. We have a hymn in our hymnal based on the psalmist's expression in Psalm 84 of his love for God's dwelling place (see Hymns, #851).
David said that he sought to dwell in the house of God all the days of his life (Psa. 27:4-6).
In Psalm 27:4 David said that he desired to behold the beauty of Jehovah in His house. The Hebrew word for beauty implies loveliness, pleasantness, and delightfulness. When we are beholding God's beauty, we are in a very pleasant atmosphere. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we can have an unveiled face to behold the glorious face of the Lord in glory. In our time with the Lord in the morning, it is best to have short prayers with a number of "selahs" so that we can behold the Lord, look at the Lord.
The psalmist also inquired of God in His temple (Psa. 27:4b). This means that we can check with God about everything in our daily life.
In Psalm 27:5 David said, "For He will conceal me in His shelter/In the evil day." God conceals His saints in His shelter in the evil day.
The psalmist also said that God would hide him in the hiding place of God's tent. We need to differentiate between the notions of concealing and hiding. When evils, calamities, are taking place, we can be concealed in God's shelter, and the evils cannot "see" us, cannot affect us. When someone is trying to capture us, there is a hiding place in God's tent where no one can find us. To be concealed is for getting away from the damage of calamities. To hide is for getting away from the ones who want to get us. The house of God is both a shelter and a hiding place.
I can testify that throughout the years, I have been concealed in God's shelter in the evil day and hidden in the hiding place of God's tent. According to my experience, I should have died at least three times. But on the one hand, the Lord concealed me, and on the other hand, the Lord hid me from the ones who were trying to get me.
David also said that God would raise him up upon a rock and that he would have his head lifted up by God (27:5c, 6a). Most of the time, we drop our heads. We do not have our heads lifted up. When we walk, we mostly walk with our heads down. We need to be raised up and have our heads uplifted. We are earthly people, always looking upon the earth. It seems that we have lost something valuable and that we are looking on the ground for it. But when Abraham heard God's promise in the night, God told him to look toward heaven at the stars. Then God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars (Gen. 15:5). We need to forget about all of the earthly things. Instead, we need to look up. We need to lift up our heads and say, "Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!" This is a glory to Him.
Psalm 24:7 says, "Lift up your heads, O gates;/And be lifted up, O long enduring doors;/And the King of glory will come in." The gates are of the cities of the nations. The doors are of the houses of the people. We need to lift up our heads because our King is coming. We lift up our heads when we dwell in Christ and in the church, praising God and enjoying Him. Then we are raised up persons, and we have our heads lifted up by God.
Psalm 27:6b says, "And I will offer in His tent/Sacrifices of shouts of joy:/I will sing and psalm to Jehovah." This all should be experienced by us in the house of God — in Christ and in the church. Surely we will also be like this in the New Jerusalem. We will behold God's beauty in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem will be our shelter for us to be concealed and our hiding place for us to be hid. We will be raised up with our heads lifted up, praising, singing, psalming, and offering Christ to God. This is the enjoyment of God in the house of God.
In Psalm 28:2 the psalmist said that he lifted up his hands unto the innermost sanctuary.
The psalmist also said that in Jehovah's temple all say, "Glory!" (29:9).
Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that Jehovah is good." I did not see before that this verse is in the portion of the Psalms which reveals the enjoyment of God in God's house. This kind of tasting and seeing must be in the house of God. God is in His house. If we are not in His house, how can we taste Him and see Him? We taste and see that God is good in His house, that is, in Christ, in the church, and eventually in the New Jerusalem.
Psalm 36:7-9 reveals the psalmist's enjoyment of the riches in God's house.
The psalmist took refuge in the shadow of God's wings under His lovingkindness (36:7). I experienced taking refuge in the shadow of God's wings in 1938, after Japan had invaded China. I was arrested by the Japanese and placed in prison for one night, and the Lord did a marvelous thing to rescue me. Then five years later, in 1943, they arrested me again and put me into prison for thirty days. When I was in prison at that time, I took refuge in the shadow of God's wings.
Psalm 36:8 says that those who enjoy the riches in God's house are saturated with the fatness (the abundance, the riches) of God's house. God's house is full of the riches of God, the fatness. I have been in this house for over sixty years, and I have enjoyed many riches.
Psalm 36:8 also says that we can drink of the river of God's pleasures — not just one kind of pleasure, but many pleasures. In God's house, there is a river. The end of the Bible reveals that there is a river flowing in the New Jerusalem, the holy city, and that river spirals from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the whole city (Rev. 22:1).
In God's house, we also share of the fountain of the life of God (Psa. 36:9a). Psalm 36 speaks of the river of God's pleasures and of the fountain of life. In the New Jerusalem, the tree of life is growing in the river of water of life. Thus, the fountain of life in Psalm 36 implies the tree of life growing in the river of the life of God.
Psalm 36:9b says, "In Your light we see light." Thus, in the house of God, we enjoy the river of life, the tree of life, and the light of life. These three things are strongly stressed in the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21 and 22 reveal that the light of the New Jerusalem is God in Christ. Christ is the lamp (Rev. 21:23), and God is the light in the lamp (22:5). The lamp with the light is in the New Jerusalem. This shows us again that God is located. God is located in Christ, and Christ is located in the New Jerusalem, where the Triune God will be the light. In that light, we see light.
It is amazing that in the ancient time, the psalmist, David, could utter such wonderful things in Psalm 36 according to the revelation of the Spirit, not according to his human, natural concept. Psalm 36 reveals the fatness for us to be saturated, the river of life for us to drink, the tree of life for us to share, and the light of life for our living and walking.
This is the enjoyment of God in His house, which is Christ, the church, and the New Jerusalem. Our God is located in these three persons: in Christ, in the church as a corporate person, and in the New Jerusalem as a corporate person. In these three persons, we can enjoy the located God as the fatness to saturate us, the river of life to quench our thirst, to satisfy us; the tree of life to feed us; and the light of life to enlighten us.
