See note on the superscription of Psa. 8.

Psa. 42 title

This psalm, concerning the psalmist’s love for the house of God with Christ, follows the psalms on the stripping of God’s seekers and the desolation of God’s house, beginning with Psa. 73. In the recovery and restoration (Psa. 80) the loveliness and sweetness of God’s house is intensified.

The intrinsic content of Psa. 84 is the secret revelation concerning the enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God, the God-man. The center of this secret revelation is the house of God (vv. 4, 10), typified by the tabernacle (Exo. 40:2-8) and the temple (1 Kings 6:1-3; 8:3-11). Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) is the fulfillment of the types of the tabernacle and the temple. This fulfillment commenced in His incarnation as the individual Christ (John 1:14; 2:21) and will continue until it consummates in the New Jerusalem as the corporate Christ, the great God-man (Rev. 21:2-3, 22). The New Testament, from Matthew through Revelation, covers the entire span of the incarnation of the Triune God and is a record of the divine incarnation. The enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God in God’s house is portrayed by the arrangement of the tabernacle and its furnishings (see note Psa. 84:3¹, note Heb. 9:4¹ and note Heb. 9:4^3c).

See note Psa. 84:4¹.

The psalmist’s longing and even fainting to be in God’s tabernacles indicates to what extent the psalmist loved God’s tabernacles. This love was matured through many trials.

The bronze altar for the sacrifices and the golden altar of incense. The two altars signify the leading consummations of the work of the incarnated Triune God, who is Christ as the embodiment of God for His increase. The mentioning of these two altars together in Exo. 40:5-6 indicates that they are closely related in our spiritual experience. At the bronze altar, a type of the cross of Christ, our problems before God are solved through the crucified Christ as the sacrifices. This qualifies us to enter into the tabernacle, a type of Christ as the incarnated and enterable Triune God, and to contact God at the incense altar. At the golden altar of incense in front of the Holy of Holies (see note Heb. 9:4¹), the resurrected Christ in His ascension is the incense for us to be accepted by God in peace. Through our prayer at the incense altar we enter into the Holy of Holies — our spirit (Heb. 10:19) — where we experience Christ as the Ark of the Testimony with its contents. Through such an experience of Christ we are incorporated into the tabernacle, the incarnated Triune God, to become a part of the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12) as God’s testimony for His manifestation. See note Exo. 16:33^1a and note Jer. 31:33¹, par. 2.

Signifying the believers, who are small and frail.

A home is a place of rest, and a nest is a place of refuge. Through the two altars God’s redeemed can find a nest as their refuge and a home with God in rest. The cross of Christ, typified by the bronze altar, is our “nest,” our refuge, where we are saved from our troubles and where we “lay” our young, i.e., produce new believers through the preaching of the gospel. When we experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension, typified by the golden altar of incense, we are accepted by God in such a Christ and find a home, a place of rest, in the house of God. This house is the processed and consummated Triune God united, mingled, and incorporated with all His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect (John 14:1-23) to be the Body of Christ in the present age and the New Jerusalem as the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed in eternity (Rev. 21:3, 22).

In type, the house is the church as a totality (1 Tim. 3:15), and the tabernacles (v. 1) are the local churches (Rev. 1:11).

The highways to Zion signify our intention to enter into the church as the house of God and to seek the incarnated Triune God in His consummations, typified by the furniture in the tabernacle (see note Psa. 84:3¹ and note Heb. 9:4^3c). On the one hand, we have entered into God; on the other hand, we are still on the highways to enter into God. That the highways are in our heart means that we need to take the way of the church internally, not merely externally.

Meaning weeping. On the one hand, those on the highways to Zion are strengthened in God (v. 5); on the other hand, they are opposed by Satan, who causes them to suffer persecution. The trouble and persecution caused by Satan can make the highway a valley of weeping. This special term indicates that the psalmist had been disciplined by God and had been stripped by Him (see note Psa. 73:26^1b and note Job 3:1^1a).

When we pass through the valley of Baca, God makes this valley a spring (cf. Col. 1:24; Heb. 10:34). This spring is the Spirit (John 4:14; 7:38-39). The more we weep on the highways to Zion, the more we receive the Spirit. While we are weeping, we are being filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes our spring.

Those who come into the church life by passing through the valley of weeping find that this weeping eventually becomes a great blessing to them. This blessing is the Spirit (Gal. 3:14). The tears they shed are their own, but these tears issue in a spring, which becomes the early rain, the Spirit as the blessing.

In the church as God’s house, although we are on earth, we are nonetheless in the heavenly Zion (Heb. 12:22). See note Gen. 22:2^2a and note Psa. 48:2^1b.

Referring to David the king, who typifies Christ as the shield to God’s people and as God’s Anointed.

The blessings of our dwelling in the house of God are our enjoyment of the incarnated and consummated Triune God as our sun to supply us with life (John 1:4; 8:12), as our shield to protect us from God’s enemy (Eph. 6:11-17), as grace for our enjoyment (John 1:14, 17), and as glory for the manifestation of God in splendor (Rev. 21:11, 23).

Probably referring, in the complex sentiments of the psalmist, to those who keep God’s law. See note Psa. 18:20¹ in and note Psa. 73:2¹.

Probably referring, also in the complex sentiments of the psalmist, to the man who dwells in God’s house.