Psalms 84

Subdivision 2. (Psalms 84:1-12; Psalms 85:1-13; Psalms 86:1-17; Psalms 87:1-7; Psalms 88:1-18; Psalms 89:1-52.) The holiness of God manifested by Christ as Mediator. The second subdivision completes the third book. It shows us this holiness of God, which the book speaks throughout, as maintained in the final salvation of Israel through Christ the Mediator. There are but six psalms, and these are divided into three sections of two psalms each. The first section shows us how in the salvation itself God’s attributes are displayed united (Psalms 85:1-13), the foundation of their blessing being that God looks upon the face of His Anointed (84: 9). In the second, Christ is seen taking the servant’s place for this, and owned of God in it as the Unique Man; while the voice of universal praise owns all springs of divine blessing to be in Him. In the third we have, in contrast, the curse under a broken law, and the “sure mercies of David” of which the prophet (Isaiah 55:3) and the apostle speak (Acts 13:34) mercies which are unchangeable, because in Christ. The detail we are presently to consider. Section 1. (Psalms 84:1-12; Psalms 85:1-13.)Christ uniting the divine attributes in the salvation of His people. The two psalms of the first section are both psalms of the sons of Korah, eight of which we had at the commencement of the second book, the suited witnesses of divine grace.

Psalms 84:1-12

Jehovah supreme and sufficient for the soul; and Christ the foundation. To the chief musician, upon the Gittith: a psalm of the sons of Korah. Israel are still away from the courts of Jehovah’s house, but their faces and their hearts are thitherward; and if they have not yet the blessedness they long for, they have that of those in whose heart are the ways which lead there. For such the vale of tears becomes a place of springs, and the rain overspreads it with blessings. They go from strength to strength until they all appear at last before God in Zion. But whence comes this security? whence this confidence of heart in God? It is revealed in this, that God is looking on the face of His Anointed. Indeed, we cannot but think, as we read the psalm; of Him who had left the glory which He had with the Father, and has returned to it; though here it is the earthly house of God’s rest in Israel that is the goal of these pilgrim feet.

Still, whatever be the surroundings. it is God Himself that is sought, as by every soul that has been touched by divine grace; and we have never found any difficulty in translating these intense longings into Christian speech. The Spirit of Christ breathes in them, and unites the hearts of His own in one desire, whatever may be the variety in its expression. Another testimony to what is in this psalm is found in the al-haggittith of the title; which here, as in the eighth and eighty-first psalms, speaks of the joy that springs out of sorrow, -nay, of the surpassing joy that has come to us out of the One great Sorrow (see p. 38). Thus again we recognize the “Anointed,” upon whose face Jehovah is besought to look. And this agrees with all that precedes and follows, while it gives fullness of meaning to much that otherwise would lack in definiteness and unity of purpose. This distinctness of outline shows when we have got the focus duly adjusted to the object before us.

1. The cry of heart is after the “living God” -a simple and even a poor expression; one would say; for the least truth to affirm about God is that He is “living.” But this only shows how poor are we, who need to remind ourselves that He is this. He, Jehovah of hosts, around Whom move the myriad forces of the universe in sympathetic obedience; -He in Whom we and all else His creatures, “live and move and have our being,” -He Himself lives! Yes we are poor enough even to need the being reminded and to find the consolation of this. And how good a thing is it, in the midst of a world in which evil seems oft to be gaining the day, and when He is silent and still, and we cry, “How long?” but He stirs not, -how good is it then to stay our souls with the assurance, “Yet God liveth”! The soul here knows, too, that this God is One who draws near to men; yea, in the memory of the past and in the sweet vision of the future, tabernacles among them. Lovely, indeed, the tabernacles of Jehovah of hosts! The very thought of it tells what He is, -that He is -how unspeakably! -gracious. Yet there is distance now, and he who speaks longs, yea, faints with desire, to pass it and to be with Him. His heart and his very flesh cry out for the living God: it is a longing so intense that the body feels and thrills with it.
2. It is a fact “well-known in history, that small birds lived undisturbed within the precincts of the temple” (Moll). How suited a testimony to the Maker of all, who dwelt there! The spirit of the psalmist carries him there now, as if he were one of those unchecked dwellers in Jehovah’s courts; and the sparrow and the swallow become figures by which he would have us know what answers there the longings of heart which he has been expressing. He himself is the sparrow that has found a house, the social bird which, as found alone upon the house-top, is the very image of desolation (Psalms 102:7), but which now has all that heart can desire in nearness to its Maker. How wonderful to know, as we now know, that He, in truth of manhood, has drawn near to us, to seek our companionship! and that we are to be with Him, in all that this implies, forever!

Who would not give Him -alas, rather, who does give Him aright, that which He seeks for from us and in us? and which we are not to wait for in eternity, but to yield Him now. “I call you not servants,” He says, “for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:15). Have we at all entered into this? What would the word of God be to us, if indeed we had! How would its “deep things” delight us, as the Spirit of God within us searched them out! How many of its inmost recesses would be left unpenetrated! And what ecstatic joy would there not be for us! what assurance of faith, of hope, of understanding, would we not gain! Yet the “sparrow” -two of which are sold for a farthing -speaks also of something else in us which the presence of God would work, and which is every way of the greatest importance, the sense of littleness, yea, of nothingness before Him. The abasing of pride is the surest accompaniment and sign of being brought nigh to Him; “the proud He beholden afar off.” The swallow is, according to the meaning of the word (deror) the bird of freedom. Its bold, dashing flight and migratory habits naturally speak of this. But this free-roaming bird can be held by its affections; and the “place where she may lay her young” claims her effectually. But the nest here is in a place where no swallow could place hers: faith finds its satisfaction and rest in Jehovah’s altars, and these have no prohibition for it, but a welcome and a home. Thus the link with the title becomes again apparent, and we find how truly it is a psalm “upon the Gittith” which is here. For every Christian heart knows surely what these altars of the sanctuary represent for us. The one efficacious work by which we are reconciled and brought to God is the work of the altar. The blood given upon the altar is that by which atonement for the soul is made; and thus Christ is seen as the answer to the deepest need that we can have, and the One by whom the priestly altar of incense becomes ours, with its sacrifices of praise and of a devoted life. The happy cry rings out then: “Jehovah of hosts! my King and my God!” How blessed to know that this is our God, on the absolute Throne eternal, changeless in all those attributes upon which faith triumphantly lays hold, and in which it shelters itself from all possible ill. 3. From this it is hardly a transition to the next verse, in which is contemplated the happiness of such dwellers in Jehovah’s house. Their constant occupation is that which certifies their blessedness: “they will still be praising Thee.” Praise is but overflowing happiness in the soul conscious of whence this comes; and this continually is but joy continual -a perpetual overflow of it. Such will heaven be: and here on earth we find the beginning of it. 4. Israel is not yet at home with God; but they are on the way there, and already experiencing a happiness which is the result of this. The psalmist proceeds to speak of this with assurance. The way with God is the way to God and the strength that is found in Him is found in and for the way with Him. “Happy is the man,” he says, “whose strength is in Thee: in whose heart are the ways,” -what ways the verses following make evident: “who, going through the valley of Baca, make it a place of springs; yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings. They go from strength to strength: every one appeareth before God in Zion.” The ways of pilgrims leading up to the city of God are certainly, therefore, what is meant. The valley of Baca is no literal place, but figurative, just as is that which is spoken of it. And so, if the name be taken from the baca-shrub, from which, if wounded, a tear-like liquid exudes, there is none the less clear an intentional connection with bacah, “weeping.” The “place of springs” and the “rain” are naturally also an antithesis to this; and altogether they furnish such a picture as will appeal to any one of God’s pilgrims in any dispensation. For all, His miracles of grace are wrought; just as for all who seek strength in Him alone, that strength must prove its sufficiency for all demands upon it. Trial is found, and sorrow, and humiliation; but amid all this are found the sources of plenteous refreshment. How but in a world of sorrow could we have fellowship with the Man of sorrows!

How else could we realize the perfection of His path who has “left us an example, that we should walk in His steps”? And then, what spiritual transformations are effected by the direct out-pouring of the rain of heaven! So “they go from strength to strength:” in the experience of strength all through, even while it leave us in ourselves the consciousness of perfect weakness -and it will, and ought; for so is it plain that the strength is ministered, and is of God; and the tenderness of divine love gains on us continually: -the power for us is also power over us. Divine grace is full and assured: “every one of them appeareth before God in Zion.” There is no uncertainty or ambiguity about this. 5. The last section shows us now, as it appears, a soul embarking on this pilgrimage. His face is set toward the house of God, and he starts with a prayer to Him on whom he realizes his dependence. He addresses Him moreover not only as “Jehovah, God of hosts,” whom he needs to be a defence about him; but also as “the God of Jacob,” recognizing his need of the grace which this term expresses. And now we come to see afresh the ground of his assurance: “Behold,” he says, “O God our shield; and look upon the face of Thine Anointed.” “The confirmation in ver. 11,” observes Delitzsch, “puts the fact that we have before us a psalm belonging to the time of David’s persecution by Absalom beyond all doubt. Manifestly, when his king prevails, the poet will at the same time be restored to the sanctuary.” Even taken in this way, the typical significance is not difficult to discern.

How much more when we realize the application to the latter days: for what anointed beside One can then be thought of? There will be no king in Israel then; and to speak, as some do, of Israel as this is entirely strange to Scripture. On the other hand, that the doctrine of acceptance in Christ should take the form of prayer in the Old Testament, is no real difficulty. Israel looked in hope for what we, more favored, see as already accomplished. Thus now the psalmist’s heart bursts out afresh with desire towards the sanctuary from which he is yet absent. He would rather stand even at the threshold of the house of God, than dwell in the tents -the mere temporary dwellings -of the wicked. “For a sun and a shield is Jehovah Elohim” -not a sun which smiles, but which shields: and this is true of the natural sun even; in a way we feebly realize. Cholera will take the sunless side of a street, and the other will escape it. But the image (only found here in Scripture) necessarily reminds us of Him in whom God has manifested Himself -in whom the glory of the Light has clothed a body, to become for us the Luminary of the day. Who can resist here the thought that Christ is again thus designedly brought before us? if not in that of the writer, yet in the thought of the Spirit, as moved of Whom he writes. Naturally it follows that “Jehovah giveth grace and glory”: only as grace could He give glory; and glory is the crown, not of our ways, but of His ways with us. Yet it is to the upright in heart and walk; for grace makes such: “no good will He withhold from those that walk uprightly.” Well may the conclusion be: “Jehovah of hosts; happy is the man that trusteth in Thee.”