Let us turn to God's word and
to the psalm that we read, Psalm 84 and directing your attention
for a while this evening to the words that we find in verses
5, 6 and 7. Psalm 84 and verses five, six, and seven. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them, who, passing
through the valley of Baker, make it a well. The rain also
filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength.
Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. And our theme is
that spoken of in verse six, the valley of Baker, the Valley
of Baker. When we look at this psalm, we
are able in some ways to ascertain the time when the psalm would
have been written. There is internal evidence enough
to give us some very definite indication as to the period when
the psalm was composed. was obviously before the building
of Solomon's temple. When David in 2 Samuel chapter
7 was minded to make a more permanent construction for the Ark of the
Covenant, he was very much aware of course that it was simply
housed in a tent, a tabernacle. and such was still the case at
the time of the writing of this psalm. In the first verse we
read, Our amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. The Ark of God
then at that time was still dwelling within curtains as David says. And it was also composed, we
know, after the Ark had been moved from Shiloh to Mount Zion. That's what David had done in
2 Samuel 6. He had sought to remove it from
the place where they first set up the tabernacle when they entered
into the possession of the Promised Land. That was at Shiloh. But
David wanted to bring it to Mount Zion. And you can read of what
happened there in the sixth chapter of the second book of Samuel. And we sang, of course, that
paraphrase of the 132nd Psalm. Psalm 132 as reference to the
removal of the ark to Zion. There in verse 3, David says, Surely I will not
come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed.
I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,
until I find out a place for the Lord, and habitation for
the mighty God of Jacob. And then he cries out in verse
8, Arise, O Lord, into thy rest thou and the ark of thy strength. That's associated with David
bringing the ark up to Mount Zion and establishing the tabernacle
there. And here in the psalm we have
mention of them going to Zion to worship God. They go from
strength to strength. It says in verse 7, Every one
of them in Zion appeareth before God." So, the Ark is still housed
in a tabernacle, a temporary dwelling, a tent, curtains, but
that has now been removed from Shiloh and established at Manzion. But then also at this time we
can see that David himself was exiled from Jerusalem. Although
he'd established his capital there when he took Jerusalem
from the Jebusites, remember how he'd had to flee in 2 Samuel
15, following we read of the terrible rebellion of his beloved
son Absalom. And David, alas, had had to flee
in order to preserve his own life. Look at the language there
in 2 Samuel, chapter Here in chapter 15 of 2 Samuel at
verse 13, there came a messenger to David saying, The hearts of
the men of Israel are after Absalom. And David said unto all his servants
that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, for we
shall not else escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart. lest he
overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city
with the edge of the sword. And the king's servants said
unto the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my
lord the king shall appoint. And so David has to flee away,
has to depart, and how he longed, how he longed to be there. Here
in verse 2 He says, My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts
of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. Verse 10, For a day in thy courts
is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Oh, David wanted to be there.
and yet now he was exiled. This gives us some idea then
of the circumstances and the history surrounding the composition
of Psalm 84. Now here, in verse 7, David says,
They go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth
before God. They were to appear at the place
where God had established his worship, initially at Shiloh
as we've said and then subsequently at Zion. They were to appear,
that is the males, every year. And they were to go up to that
place not just once, But they were to go there three times
in the year, the three great feasts that we read of there
in Deuteronomy chapter 16. They were to go up for the Feast
of Passover, spoken of at the beginning of that chapter. But
they were also to go up for the Feast of Weeks, the seven weeks,
or Pentecost, as it's called in the New Testament, and also
for the Feast of Tabernacles. And after speaking of those various
feasts, in that portion that we read in Deuteronomy 16, immediately
it says at verse 16, 3 times in a year shall all thy males
appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose,
in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. associated with Passover in the
Feast of Weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles and they shall
not appear before the Lord empty so they would make that journey
to the place where God was to be worshipped where the Ark of
the Tabernacle was established where the priest and the Levites
were to perform their various tasks and duties and we have
of course here in the book of Psalms that section from 120
to 134 called the songs of degrees or the songs of ascents and there's
some reference to that here in verse 7 they go from strength
to strength these are their ascents this is them as it were going
from every part of the promised land and making that journey
up to Shiloh or to Jerusalem for the worship of God. They go from strength to strength. The margin says they go from
company to company. It seems there that there's a
reference to the various watering places that had been established
over the years that the Israelites dwelt in the promised land. It tells us something then about
the manner of their traveling, the way in which they made that
journey, that they might worship God at the three great Jewish
feasts. But it was not enough. It was
not enough to be those who were outwardly in that way. We know
that the children of Israel were but atypical people, a type of
the true spiritual people of God, the spiritual Israel. And
there were those who were true spiritual Israelites. And they
were the ones who looked beyond the tabernacle And so, what it
was typical of the tabernacle, of course, is a type. It's a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. As Paul says in Hebrews 8, 2,
the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. That true tabernacle is the very
human nature of the Lord Jesus. When he says again in Hebrews,
a body is thou prepared. That is the true tabernacle.
which the Lord pitched, and not man." And those who were the
spiritual Israelites, they would look beyond the tabernacle, and
they would discern something of the glories that belonged
unto the One who was the promised Messiah. And what do we read
here in verse 5? "...Blessed is the man whose
strength is in thee, in whose hearts are the ways of them. These were those Israelites who
had a real heart religion. They had a true spiritual religion. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ.
We know how that God despises mere formalism and there was
much formalism amongst the Jews. There's much formalism, I suppose,
in Christian circles, and we have to look to ourselves. We
don't want to be nothing more than formalists, to have a form
of godliness, and yet know nothing of the power of those things
that we speak of. Remember how God speaks through
the prophet. Isaiah there in chapter 29, 13. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch
as his people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips
to honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and
their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men, therefore,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among these
people, even a marvellous work and a wonder. For the wisdom
of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their
prudent men shall be hid. Solemn words of God speaks against
those who are nothing more than formalists, who draw near with
the mouth, who honour God with the lips, but their hearts or
their heart is removed. The blessed man is a man in whose
hearts are the ways of them. We see the Lord Jesus himself
of course repeatedly in the course of his earthly ministry exposing
the hypocrisy of those scribes and those Pharisees so many times. the solemn words that we find
the Lord Jesus speaking against those men who were so set against
him, so hated and despised him. Look at the language that we
find in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 15, and there at verse 1 we're
told how it was scribes and Pharisees which came to him. And the Lord
speaks to them, verse 7, ye hypocrites, Well did Esaias prophesy of you,
saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and
honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments
of men. It's not the only occasion, again,
we see the Lord speaking against these men in that 23rd chapter. that chapter that is so full
of woes against the scribes and the Pharisees. Verse 27, Woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within
they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. The Lord himself then
speaks against the hypocrite and the formalist, the one whose
religion is nothing more than a pretense. The God's true children
are the spiritual Israelites. And where are they traveling?
Why they're traveling really to the heavenly Jerusalem. Every one of them, it says in
verse 7, appeareth before God. Remember how we read of those
of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, how there they are spoken of
as such as are pilgrims upon the earth. In that long chapter
that speaks of various individuals in the Old Testament Scriptures,
we're told, verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire
a better country, that is, a heavenly country. Wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them
a city. These are the pilgrims then,
the real pilgrims that are being spoken of in the psalm, these
spiritual pilgrims. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee. In his heart are the ways of
them who, passing through the valley of Baal, can make it a
well. The rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength
to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth
before God. Well, I want us to observe tonight
something of the marks of the spiritual pilgrims. And three particular marks I
want to try to highlight for you. First of all, to consider
the source of their strength. They're on a journey, they're
pilgrims. It's an arduous thing to make
this journey. From whence do they obtain their
strength? Well, it says in verse 5, Blessed
is the man whose strength is in thee. And the prayer, of course,
the psalm is in the form of a prayer. The words are being addressed
unto God. This man receives his strength only from God, whose
strength is in them. These pilgrims, they have no
innate ability, no innate strength. Spiritually speaking, they are
those who know that they are totally deprived. They can do nothing for themselves,
they can do nothing to help themselves, to strengthen themselves. They
are poor dependents, and they are dependents upon the grace
of God. They cannot, even of themselves,
begin to think right thoughts. What does Paul say, writing in
2 Corinthians 3, 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as of ourselves. What a confession! is the great
apostle making and a man really clearly a remarkable mind and
yet he acknowledges by the grace of God that he was not sufficient
of himself to think anything with regards to the things of
God to have a right concept of God a true understanding of the
nature of God He could not of himself begin to form a right
conception of the Almighty. Not sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves. And what was true of the Apostle
in the New Testament is true of the prophets in the Old Testament. Isaiah says there in Isaiah 26,
12, Thou also hast wrought all our works in us, O Lord our God.
Other lords besides Thee have had dominion over us, but by
Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. If we would make
mention of the name of the Almighty, if we would be those who are
true confessors of God and real believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's by Himself only. Thou also has wrought, says Isaiah,
all our works in us. And yet, what are we when we
consider our condition by nature as fallen men and women? Are we not those who are proud
and self-sufficient creatures? Or that accursed sin of pride? And we see it, and we've said
this so many times, it's there at the very beginning, We only
have to turn to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 5 and the way in
which the serpent is the instrument of Satan comes to the woman.
And what does he say? Ye shall be as gods. For God
had said to Adam, concerning that tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. In the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And Satan comes by his instrument
and tempts the woman and contradicts the word of God.
He shall not surely die, he says, rather he shall be as gods. He shall be as gods knowing good
and evil and it's in us. It's in us that pride, his pride,
accursed pride, that spirit by God abhorred. Do what we will.
It haunts us still and keeps us from the Lord. Our pride keeps
us from God. Heart says against it influence,
pray. It mingles with the prayer against
it, preach. It prompts the speech, be silent. Still it's there. Or even with
regards to spiritual things, we can congratulate ourselves
on our fine prayers. And how proud we are that accursed
sin, or that sin that, like unbelief, is forever besetting us. We see it, of course, in the
world all around us. Our men deny God. Men want to
be as gods, put themselves in the place of God. They'll invent
all sorts of weird theories in order to discount the idea of
any accountability to their Creator. They come up with ridiculous
schemes when one thinks about it, that all things can be made
out of nothing, with no creator, that gases can become solids,
and so on and so forth. The whole theory, of course,
of evolution is the denial of God, the folly of men, proud,
arrogant, self-sufficient creatures. But what does God do? This blessed
man, Blessed is the man whose strength is in the Lord. So how
does God deal with him? Well, the Psalmist says, Psalm
107 and verse 12, Therefore He brought down their heart with
labor. They fell down and there was
none to help. God has to bring us down and
bring down our heart. It's an inward work. And He brings
us down with labor. when he awakens us in our souls
and makes us to see something of what we are and we imagine
that we can surely do something to make our amends, to make ourselves
right with God, but there's nothing. We're just brought down, and
down, and down, and there's none to help. We cannot in any way
lift ourselves up. Again the psalmist says, Psalm
102, 23, He weakened my strength in the way." Oh, doesn't God
do that to us time and again? He makes us to feel our frailty,
causes us to understand that we are but mortal men and women. We're all weakness. It is God
alone who must be our strength. This is God's way with us. I'm
so taken by those words of Moses, the man of God, what he says
there, in his prayer in Psalm 90, thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, return ye children of men. Oh, only God can say
it. Only God can restore us. Only
God himself can lift us up. But it's not enough, is it, to
feel our weakness. It's good to feel our weakness.
It's good to know that we are but helpless creatures. and left
to ourselves, our situation is hopeless. But there must be something
more than that. We must also see One who is mighty
to save, One who is able to save us. Blessed is the man whose
strength is in Thee. Remember the language that we
find a little further on in Psalm 89, and verse 19, this great
Psalm on the Covenant, Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy
One and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have
exalted one chosen out of the people, I have found David my
servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him. Here is David,
that is David's greatest son, the beloved of the Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Anointed One. And God says, I
have laid help upon one that is mighty. It is the Lord Jesus
who is that one who is able to save, and able to save to the
uttermost. And we have to come and plead
with God in the words that we have here in our psalm at verse
9. Behold, O God, our shield, and
look upon the face of Thine Anointed or we have to direct our God
to Him who is our only Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is our strength. There is our strength. He gives
us power to the faint and to them that have no might He increases
strength. That blessed man the spiritual
pilgrim. His strength is only to be found
in his God. Again, in another psalm, Psalm
73, God, says the psalmist, is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. God is the strength of my heart.
And look at what we're told here In the seventh verse of our text,
they go from strength to strength. It's true at every stage of experience. It's not something that we learn
all at once at the beginning of our Christian profession.
It's something that we have to keep on learning. God has to
keep teaching us and showing us. So it is that we go from
strength to strength. we're unable to to continue in
the ways of what Paul certainly knew much of this and he speaks
of it of course that familiar passage in in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 12 where he speaks of how he speaks in the third person
we know but he's really speaking of himself how that he was so
fivered caught up to the third heaven and so forth and saw those
things that were unspeakable But then there was the thorn
in the flesh. It was that that he had to have to humble him
because he'd been so highly favoured of God. And he pleads with God,
beseeches God again and again that he would remove this thorn,
whatever it was, from him. But what does God say? My grace
is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. And we have to prove it. Just
as the apostle is a pattern, a pattern believer, a pattern
to them who should believe, hereafter, like him, we have to prove that.
God's strength is perfected in all the midst of our weakness. And it's true, I say, at every
stage, all our experience, all our life long, we're to be going
from strength to strength. if we're going to be those who
would appear in Zion and appear before God. The first mark then
of these spiritual pilgrims, the source of their strength,
And all their strength, all their ability, all their help, all
their salvation is found in the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And increasingly they prove that.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee and whose heart are
the ways of them. Now the second mark, the second
mark of these spiritual pilgrims is that they know something of
sorrow. they know something of sorrow." Verse 6, "...who passing
through the valley of Baca." They pass through this valley.
There it does appear, we're told by the commentators, to have
been some sort of perilous pass that so many had to pass through
as they made their way to Jerusalem for those great feasts of the
Lord. It was a difficult and it was
a very dangerous spot that they came to, and they must pass through
it. And to many of them it must have
been a place of sufferings, because the very word that used, the
Valley of Baker, literally means the Valley of Weeping, passing
through the Valley of Weeping. Or they were brought to weep,
And isn't it true with regards to that spiritual pilgrimage
that all believers are on? You know how Bunyan paints it
so wonderfully in The Pilgrim's Progress. That journey from the
city of destruction to the celestial city. And all that befalls Christian
as he's making that journey. How he has to learn the truth.
in his experiences. And often those experiences were
bitter experiences. Experiences that caused the child
of God to weep much, to mourn over his sins. And we increasingly
have to learn that truth. We have to learn the truth about
this world. We have to learn the truth about
Satan, that great adversary. We have to learn the truth about
ourselves. there are many things that we
have to learn that we discover we were so ignorant of this world
why it lies in the wicked one all that is in the world says
John the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life is not of the father but is of the world love not
the world and yet let us be honest there's so much love of the world
in our fallen hearts is there not our fallen natures we love
the world and we want the comforts of the world, and we want to
be popular in this world. We don't want to be despised
and rejected. Oh, how we have to learn hard
lessons in a fallen world that lies in the wicked one, and that
awful adversary Satan, how clever, how subtle he is. He is that
one who is the tempter, and he lies his snares. Oh, we see him
there, Even in paradise, in the Garden of Eden, when Eve is tempted. It's the devil in these things.
And we're tempted, oftentimes tempted. The Lord Jesus could
say, the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me.
We can't say that. There is much in us that the
tempter can take advantage of. Because we have a fallen nature,
and he does take advantage, and we fall. And then what does he
do? He's no friend, he turns accuser.
He is the accuser of the brethren, that accuseth them day and night,
it says. Day and night before God, he
accuses us, he wants to shut our mouths. How can we come and
make our confessions? How can we really acknowledge
our sins when we've had to make the same confession so many times
before? How can we be genuine in our
confession, in our repentance? This is how he deals with us,
he confuses us. And he shuts our mouths, he doesn't
want us to come. These are the experiences that
these pilgrims have to pass through. And then, of course, there's
self. We have to learn more and more about ourselves, what we
are by nature, the sin of our fallen nature. And how we see
Paul unfolding these things so remarkably in his epistle, that
great seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans. How we
have to say, thank God that ever that man of God was moved to
write such words as we find in Romans 7 when we feel the conflict
with our own fallen nature the good that I would he says I do
not the evil that I would not that I do and he feels it all
wretched man but then you see he sees where all his hope is
he thanks God he thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord These who
are on this spiritual pilgrimage then, they know something of
sorrow. They know something of weeping.
They are those of a mourning spirit. They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth weeping,
bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him. And that's, of course, one of
the songs of degree, Psalm 126. It was what they would sing as
they were making this journey, going from strength to strength,
from watering place to watering place, making their way towards
Zion. They'd sing. They'd sing of that. They would be able, in the midst
of all their sorrows and all their weeping, to rejoice, sowing
in tears, all but reaping in joy. The mark, the second mark
then of these spiritual pilgrims is that they know something of
sorrow. And then finally, the success. The success of these pilgrims. They pass through the valley
of Baker, it says, but they make it a well. The rain also filleth
the pool. They make it a well. They make
it a well. It's not really them, it's God.
And it's God as He works for them, and it's God as He works
within them. Again, the language of the prophet
Isaiah 41 and verse 17, when the poor and needy Seek water,
and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst. I,
the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places and fountains
in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a
pool of water and the dry land springs of water. all these exceeding
great and precious promises. They go through the Valley of
Baker, but it's made of well. God comes and God refreshes them,
even when they come to these perilous places and pass through
these bitter experiences. Again, there in Isaiah's prophecy,
we read, therefore, with joy shall we draw water from the
wells of salvation. What a precious word is that.
It's not just the well of salvation. It's the plural. There are wells,
wells of salvation. Just as there are exceeding great
and precious promises. This is how God deals with us.
And David, remember David, how he longed and said, oh, that
one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem. Who is the well of Bethlehem?
Why, He that was born of Bethlehem. The Lord Jesus Christ is one
of the names given to the Lord Jesus. He's the well of Bethlehem. And we have to live to prove
Him, you see, in the Valley of Baca. It's in the midst of all
those troubles that come from the world and from Satan and
from self that we find a well. Oh, the Lord Jesus, He comes
and He refreshes us. And then it says, the rain. The
rain also filleth the pools. What is the rain? Well, remember
how in Deuteronomy 32, Moses speaks
of his doctrine. My doctrine, he says, shall drop
as the rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew. as the small rain upon the tender herbs and as the showers
upon the grass. All that doctrine. The rain descending,
but that's the doctrine as it comes by the Holy Spirit, as
these things are dropped, as it were, into our hearts, as
God shows us these precious truths, these great doctrines of the
Gospel. And so these pilgrims are encouraged
and strengthened as they make their journey. They have many
bitter experiences, but there's something to sweeten everything.
The Imrah just says that though our cup be filled with gall,
filled with bitterness, there's something secret sweetens all. And it is. That's doctrine that
drops us a rain, It's those wells of salvation. Oh, it's God Himself,
you see. What does He give to His children?
He gives them wells. He gives them rains. He gives
them pools. And so, ultimately, ultimately,
they are brought to their destination. Every one of them, it says, in
verse 7. They go from strength to strength.
Every one of them In Zion appeareth before God. None are lost. All
who have entered in by that straight gate and walk in that narrow
way, not one of them is lost. Poor Christian was often drawn
out of the narrow way, finds himself in Bypass Meadow and
so forth, but ultimately the destination is reached. And so too with these spiritual
pilgrims spoken of in the psalm. There in the 73rd psalm, verse
25, Asaph says, Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is
none upon earth that I desire beside my flesh. and my heart
faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
That's the believer's blessed anticipation. God is to be his
eternal portion. All blessed is the man whose
strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them, who,
passing through the valley of Baker, make it a well The rain
also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth
before God. O God, bless to us His Word. Amen. Let us conclude our worship
today as we sing the hymn 960, and the tune is Walton. 430 hymn 960 by faith in Christ I
walk with God with heaven my journeys end in view supported
by his staff and rod my road is safe and pleasant too I travel
through a desert wide where many round me blindly stray but he
vouchsafes to be my guide and will not let me miss my way 960