Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 132. Psalm 132, reading
from our text, verse 15. I will abundantly bless her provision,
I will satisfy her poor with bread. Psalm 132 and verse 15. Zion's poor, satisfied with bread. When we read of Zion in this
chapter, and indeed right through the Old Testament, you don't
have the word occurring in the New, but it refers to not only
the place where David dwelt, where his throne was, but it
refers to the Church of God. We can gather from this very
psalm that this is the aim that is in view. It is the place where
the Lord dwells and enters into, enters into His rest. And in verse 13, for the Lord
hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his habitation. And so we have a picture of the
Church of God. There will I make the horn of
David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for mine
anointed. And when we come to the Prophet
Joel, And we would remember that on the day of Pentecost, when
the Holy Spirit descended, then the apostles were able to point
to Joel and that prophecy being fulfilled. Come to pass afterward
in verse 28 of chapter 2 of Joel, that I pour out my spirit upon
all flesh. Your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams, your young men
shall see visions." And he points that this pouring out of the
Spirit, the beginning of the Church of God in the New Testament,
goes back to the prophecy of Joel. So when you look at this,
especially chapters 2 and 3 in Joel, In verse 1, blow ye the
trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. And then in verse 15, blow the
trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. And in verse 23, be glad then
ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. For He
hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause
to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter
rain in the first month." And it speaks of the provision of
Zion and the children of Zion. And in verse 32, "...shall come
to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be
deliverance." as the Lord has said, and in the remnant in the
Lord shall call. And it's very clear that this
is speaking of the Church of God, the word that goes forth
from Jerusalem, those that shall be called under the gospel. And then if we turn to the third
chapter, Joel, then we have in verse 16, the Lord also shall
roar out of zion and utter his voice from jerusalem the lord
will be the hope of his people the strength of the children
of israel verse 17 so shall ye know that i am the lord your
god dwelling in zion my holy mountain and so he's pointing
all the time because of the book in verse 21, for I will cleanse
their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. So when we think of the chapter
where our text is, and when we think of our text, I will abundantly
bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread, it is blessing
the provision of the Church of God. It is blessing the provision. for the bride of Christ, for
the habitation of God, where God dwells, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. Unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. And though, of course, we do
not look upon the Zion or the Church of God as buildings, bricks
and mortar, Yet there is a very specific place where they do
gather. They gather in churches, they
gather together. And so I want to look with the
Lord's help of Zion, of the Church of God, four things that are
set forth in this verse. The first is her provision. Zion has a provision. And secondly, her provision is
blessed, blessed by God. And thirdly, her poor. Our text
says that I will abundantly bless her provision and I will satisfy
her poor with bread. She has her poor. And then fourthly, her poor satisfied. So those three, four points,
as the Lord may help us. Firstly, Zion's provision. I want to base my remarks as
that provision that is intimated and set forth in this psalm. And basically it goes through
in the order that they appear in the psalm. So firstly, the
provision of a place, a habitation. We read in verse five, until
I find out a place for the Lord and habitation for the mighty
God of Jacob. And there is a contrast there.
David is speaking about his own house. He says, surely I will
not come into the tabernacle of my house. and will go up into
my bed, I'll not sleep into 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 when you think that again and again
through the history of the children of Israel, this was a very important
thing, a provision for them, a place for them to dwell, the
Rehoboth, the place that had been made room for them. And
when the children of Israel were in Egypt, the Lord brought them
out of Egypt. And of course, he had provided
a place there for them. They were in Goshen. And yet
then when he brought them into the wilderness and the tabernacle
was raised up, It was the fiery, cloudy pillar, the Lord, going
before them to find out every time a place where they were
to dwell, where the tabernacle would be set up and where the
sacrifices would be offered and where the people all gathered. The Lord was the one that sought
out a place for them. And so when they came into the
promised land, Again, it was Shiloh first, and then Jerusalem,
and the ark was brought there. Then through David numbering
Israel, God was pleased to show David when he appeared for him
upon Mount Moriah, the same as the mount where Abraham offered
his son, or the substitutionary offering was offered And God
showed where the temple should be built there at Jerusalem. And so it is that the Lord appoints
the place in the New Testament. We have the seven letters to
the churches in Asia. and each one is identified as
a place. And we cannot think that it is
a chance that the Lord puts a place of worship, a chapel, a church,
a gathering of people, a candlestick in a certain place, and it just
happens. It is not appointed. It is appointed. And it is one of the provisions
of the Church of God that she should have a place. And we know
there are brethren, or brethren in this land that do not have
their own church building, but they use halls or they use a
public building, which in the week it is used for other things. Brother Hamel Hammerstedt, they
have worshipped in that way for many years. And God has provided,
and during the COVID time, they couldn't use the building that
they had been used, a public hall, and yet the Lord provided
another hall that they could then go to when they're allowed
to do so. And so it is not necessarily
one's own building. We're favored to have that here,
but It is a place that is appointed. We think of the churches in China
and other places where they cannot openly meet together, openly
gather together. But it is the desire of those
in those countries, sometimes at the peril of their lives,
to gather because this is a provision of God that there should be a
place. We think of when the children
of Israel came out of captivity in Babylon that they had hindrances
in rebuilding the temple, the second temple, and instead they
went about building their own houses and God visited them touching
all that they had because they left the house of God desolate. And here we have the psalmist
speaking very much, David speaking of the tabernacle of God, the
house, a place for the Lord in contrast to his own place. One of our hymns speaks about
loving the gates of Jacob, but much more the place where his
people meet for praise and prayer. It is a habitation, and so that
is a provision. Until I find out a place for
the Lord and habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Then we have, secondly in verse
9, a provision of a righteousness. Let thy priest be clothed with
righteousness, and thy saints shout for joy. Man by nature
has no righteousness of our own. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. It is absolutely vital that the
Church of God be provided with a righteousness. In Jeremiah
we read, this is the name wherewith he shall be called, the Lord
Jesus Christ is called the Lord our righteousness. And this is
the name wherewith she shall be called, the Church of God,
the Lord our righteousness. So righteousness that is pure,
holy in God's sight is a provision of the Church of God. God has
provided it for his church, his people. In verse 11, we have
the provision of, you might say, a lamb. The Lord has sworn in
truth unto David he will not turn from him. Of the fruit of
thy body will I set upon thy throne. The seed of the woman
that should bruise the serpent's head. The paschal lamb. that of which when Abraham and
Isaac were going up the mount, and Isaac said to his father,
my father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb
for a burnt offering? And Abraham's answer was, my
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And so that is Zion or the Church
of God's provision provided by God a Lamb, provided a Saviour,
a Redeemer, one that should be sacrificed in the place of the
people of God, one that should bear the wrath of God, one that
should be slain instead of the people of God. That provision
is provided by God in His Beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, the same as the righteousness is also provided for His Beloved
Son. Then fourthly, there is the word
in verse 12, if thy children will keep my covenant and my
testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also
sit upon thy throne forevermore." And what he's spoken of is the
Word of God, His covenant, His testimony. And this is the great
gift of the Church of God, is the written Word of God. It was so vital in the Reformation. It is vital in the salvation
of souls. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. The Lord gave the Word. Great
was the company of them that published it. May we always view
it as a provision to the Church of God, the Holy Bible, in our
own tongue, in a language that we can understand, that is open. Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I sin not against thee. Thy words were found, and I did
eat them. they were to the joy and rejoicing
of my soul. May we ever bless the Lord for
his word, the provision of the word of God. In the fifth place,
in verse 16, we have the provision of pastors. I will also clothe
her priests with salvation, her saints shall shout aloud for
joy. The Lord says, I will give you
pastors after mine own heart. They shall feed you with knowledge
and with understanding. That is another gift, a provision
by God to the Church of God. She doesn't have to look around
and supply pastors, ministers, servants, elders of her own. God will and does provide them
Himself. The sixth is the gospel itself,
the gospel of salvation. Again, in verse 16, I will also
clothe the priest with salvation. There is a gospel to proclaim. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. It is to be declared. It's not
our gospel. It's not the messenger's gospel. It is the good news of salvation
as set forth by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Preach the word is his commission
to us. And so that is the provision
to the Church of God. She does have a message. She
does have good news of salvation. She does have that which comes
from God. And lastly, there is the provision
of rest, and that eternal rest. In verse 14, this is my rest
forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it. The Lord Jesus
Christ is his people's rest, it is where his glory rests,
but it is a rest that is provided. We read in Hebrews, there remaineth
therefore a rest unto the people of God. If in this life only
we have hope in Christ, with all men most miserable, but there
is provided an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled,
reserved in heaven for you, that are kept by the power of God
through faith and through salvation. These are the provisions of the
Gospel. I will abundantly bless her provision
I will satisfy her poor with bread." The Church of God does
have provisions. She does have things provided
to her by God. What would it be if there was
never ever a place where God's people could gather together? They always remain scattered.
They always remained in their own homes. They never gathered
together. There'd be no need of elders,
no need of deacons, no need of ministers, no need of the ordinances,
because each one would just be on their own. What would it be
if there was never a provision of righteousness? What hope would
there be for those who have no righteousness of their own? When
the law demands that without the shedding of blood there is
no remission, what if there was no lamb? What if there was no provision of the seed of the
woman to bruise the serpent's head? What if we had no Bible? What if we just wrote our own
thoughts and our own words and decided how we would worship
God and what God himself was. And it all came from ourselves.
God didn't provide anything, any instruction, any teaching,
any knowledge of himself or of us. What would that be? But God
has provided his word. What if God gave places to worship
and gave his word but didn't give any pastors? We feel that
there's something that is a great withholding. We are told to pray
the Lord of the harvest, who sent forth labourers into the
harvest, and that the Lord would be inquired of to give pastors,
that there be those that shepherd flocks. But the Lord has promised this provision. is not left to man to decide
the order of the church and the gospel. The message of salvation
is God's message. What if there wasn't a message?
What if there was no way of deliverance to set before you at all? And what if there was no heaven?
If death was the end? Something that that is the case.
Paul says we're all men most miserable if in this life only
we have hope in Christ. Sometimes we can accentuate the
provision that is given to the Church of God by supposing it
be taken away. Supposing it was not there. Throughout history, where that
has been neglected, it has been taken away. Where the Lord has
provided and yet has been despised and not used, He takes it away. He removes candlesticks, He removes
His Word, He removes His servants. But here we have a provision
and it is a provision that is blessed. I want to look then,
secondly, at the blessing upon him. And it's not just blessing,
is it? I will abundantly bless her provision. The margin of our Bibles is,
or surely bless her provision. Both, I believe, are true. The Lord will surely bless it,
and it will be abundantly richly blessed, you won't have the Lord's
curse upon it, you'll have His blessing. And one reason why
we may say this is because these provisions, they are provided
by God, revealed in the Word as we've set before you, and
therefore come with the Lord's blessing. There are many that
will make laws of their own or devise things of their own heart
and expect the Lord to bless them. But the Lord will not bless
them. He won't bless just man's ideas
and man's ways and idols and their own thoughts. But He will
bless what He has provided and what has the authority of Scripture. May remember that. If you and
I are walking in a path that does not have the authority of
Scripture on it, we cannot expect God's blessing. But where we
are walking in that provision and we are in that way that He has
provided, we may rightly expect that provision to be blessed. I will abundantly bless her provision. Now, another thing here, it implies
that it needs that provision to be blessed. that just the outward providing
of it is not enough. If we think of the word with
the Thessalonians, the word came unto them, not in word only,
but in demonstration of spirit and of power. It needed to be
with power, it needed to be blessed. With the church in the wilderness
coming up to the promised land, Balak, the king of Moab, called
Balaam to curse the children of Israel. And yet God turned the curse
into a blessing, much to the rage of the king of Moab. But where the Lord blesses, a
people is blessed. And where He curses, then there
is a curse. There is a prospering, there
is a blessing, where the Lord blesses it, and where it is not,
then there is not that prospering, there's not that fruitfulness. In thinking of the Lord's miracles,
one of the miracles that He performed was the multiplying of the loaves
and the fishes, three loaves and two fishes. He took those
and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. You might say there
was the provision. The provision was those loaves
and fishes. But the disciples, they looked
on them and said, but what are these among so many? But when the Lord blessed them,
And then he break, then he fed 5,000 men beside women and children,
and there were the many baskets left of fragments. They all ate
and were filled. What a difference the blessing
of the Lord made on that provision. That provision seemed very small
in the eyes of those that viewed it. But with the Lord's blessing
on it, what a difference it made. What a difference it makes with
the Lord's blessing on a church, on His righteousness, on His
beloved Son, on the Word, on pastors, on the gospel. in heaven, everything with the
Lord's blessing upon it. It makes all the difference. Not only do we need that provision
from God, we need the Lord to acknowledge it and follow it
with His blessing. Here below there are these ways
that we are able to determine that the God of heaven and earth
knows us and we know Him. Of His fullness, says the Apostle,
have all we received and grace for grace. I will yet be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them, to bless for
them all of this provision that the Lord would bless them. If those heathen kings knew what
effect it would be to have a curse, how much more should we know
what a blessing it is to have a blessing from the Lord? What
a difference that that will make. So here we have the promise,
God owning it and blessing it, I will abundantly bless her provision. The Church of God, looking forward
to the time in which we are now, the provision that we have, the
promise here, I will abundantly bless her provision. In the third place, I want to
speak of her poor, Zion's poor. I'll satisfy her poor with bread."
Now it is true that many of the Lord's dear people have been
literally poor. I've no doubt those that partook
of the loaves and the fishes and then afterwards followed
him over the other side of the sea, because they had been satisfied
in that way, were literally poor. But our Lord reproved them and
said, You seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because
you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour not for the
bread that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eternal
life. Yes, the Lord's dear people often
are poor in this world's goods and the things of it, but what
is spoken of here is spiritually poor. The provision for the Church
of God is a spiritual provision. And those that are in the Church
of God and made to need this provision are poor. They are in need of this provision. If someone is poor, then in a
natural sense, They do not have money to go and buy what they
need. They do not have the substance,
the things that are in their homes. They do not have perhaps
their own homes or own things at all. And yet the word of the
gospel, it is a word to those that are poor. And if we think
of The Herald in chapter 55 in Isaiah, Isaiah 55, and verse
1. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat, yea. Come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, or labor for that which satisfies
not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. And so there's the heralding
of the Gospel, and it is to those that are poor, that do not have
money, that do not have the means to purchase these things at all. Our Lord in the Beatitudes, He
pronounces a blessing on those that are poor in spirit. Blessed,
Matthew 5 verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, that is one of the provisions
of the gospel, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall attain mercy. And the Lord will have in the
Church of God those that feelingly are poor. They feel that their
prayers are poor. They feel that their obedience
is poor. They feel that their religion
is poor. They feel that all that they
have is in God's sight, poor, is not worthy of His attention,
the publican beat upon his breast, could not look up to heaven,
God be merciful to me, a sinner. What a picture of what we are
by nature, having nothing to recommend us to God, having no
righteousness, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, We have no
good works to plead, but what are sprinkled with sin, died
with sin, we're full of wounds and bruises and putrefying salts. The picture and the description
of those that gather around Christ, why in Christ's day the scribes
and the Pharisees that were wise in their own eyes and full of
their own goodness, They said, this man receiveth sinners, and
eateth and drinketh with them. But the word of God is very clear
that those that will be benefited and blessed by the provision
of the gospel and through Christ in themselves are poor. And it's
painful to feel that, to look within and see nothing but sin
and disgrace. to look on our works and to feel
utter shame, to look on our prayers and feel that they are so poor,
to view ourselves and we're so empty and devoid of anything
good, nothing, to recommend us unto God. You know, when Job
was very rich, Then he had others seek unto him. He was able to
provide for others. When God permitted Satan to take
away all that he had, his own servants didn't even want him.
They just derided him. He lost all, able to command
any reverence or respect. And the poor, the rich have many
friends. The poor does not have any. that,
blessed be God, they do have one. Spiritually so, they have
in the Lord Jesus Christ a friend to those that are poor and those
that are needy. How vital it is to have prepared
hearts, prepared ground, room for the Lord, a readiness to
receive Him. The Lord said, I am come. Not
to the righteous, but sinners. To call sinners unto repentance. Not the whole. The physician
is not for the whole, but for those that are sick. May we be clear of this? that
the characters that are blessed and will be blessed in the Church
of God, in their own eyes and to their own feelings, are poor. They do not see any reason why
the Lord would bless them, and every reason why he would not
bless them. And if it wasn't for the assurances
of the gospel and of the word of God or such a word as this,
they would have no hope and there'd be no attraction for them in
the church of God, the house of God. Spiritually poor, not able to think right thoughts,
affections wild, by sin defiled, the corruptions of the heart
rising up, worthiness, carnality, deadness, hardness, coldness,
all of these things devoid of spiritual blessings, devoid of
those things that we had when we were innocent in Adam, But when we
fail that we lost, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die. No man can keep alive his own
soul. We have nothing of our own. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with
bread. I want to look then lastly of
her poor being satisfied. Let's just think first of what
satisfaction is. If we're satisfied with something,
it has fulfilled our expectations. We don't go on looking for something
more. We have got what we wanted, we
are happy with it, we are pleased with it. When we think of the Apostle
Paul, when he had the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan
to buffet him, and he saw three times that the Lord would take
that away. But the Lord said, no, he wouldn't,
but he said, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made
perfect in weakness. So Paul said, I will much rather
than glory in my infirmity, that when I am weak, then am I strong. He was satisfied in what the
Lord had provided. You might think too with The
Lord in John 6, when he was teaching, except ye eat the flesh and drink
the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. My flesh
is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And that is what
the people of God are to be satisfied with. My word was unto me the
joy and rejoicing of my heart. There are many that they weren't
satisfied with that. They went away. But when the
Lord asked the disciples, Peter answered for them, to whom can
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The very sad
thing today, there are many that are gathering with a name of
Christ or a name of religion, but they're not satisfied with
these provisions. They want to bring in the world
and the spirit of the world. And really what we have is entertainment,
or we have a religion that just uses our Lord as a person, a
good person of example, of charity, of good works, and upholding
that, and extolling that aspect of our Lord, instead of the great
work of redemption, instead of the great work of saving His
people from their sins. of granting His Word graciously. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God, the effectual, powerful attendance
upon the Word of the Holy Spirit, blessing that Word to the people
of God. What is promised here is that
the Lord will satisfy her poor with bread. With bread. It doesn't even put her to satisfy
her with the provision. She won't say, well, we've got
a nice gathering together, we've got a pastor, we've got a message,
we've even got righteousness. But he brings it to this, the
bread. Satisfy her poor with bread. And that's what we said in John
6, except ye eat the flesh. It is vital that we have a spiritual
appetite and that we're satisfied with the bread from heaven. What
do you and I feed upon? What does feed our souls? What does feed our persons? Do we meditate upon the Word
of God? Do we feed upon it? Remember,
our Lord quoted, man shall not live by bread only, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. When we think of
the temptation in the Garden of Eden, what was it on? Bread. what could be eaten, what should
be eaten, what not. The temptation of our Lord, command
these stones that they be made bread. How much hangs upon what our
appetite is for and how that appetite is satisfied. Remember here it is, I will satisfy
her poor with bread, I will bless her provision, Sometimes when
we're ill we might have food on our table, we might eat it,
and then we're very sick. We need that food to be blessed,
to profit us. We read, the word did not profit
them, being not mixed with faith in them that heard it. What a
solemn thing. But here for the poor, the poor
that are given faith, Their bread is blessed. Remember the mark
of the clean beast. They parted the hoof, they chewed
the cart. Spiritually, they separated from
the world and they went over what they'd received. They had
a second benefit from what they'd fed upon. Like the Bereans, they
heard the word one week on the Lord's Day. First day of the
week with the Apostle Paul. Then they searched the Scriptures
daily, whether these things were so. We may ask ourselves, what
do we feed upon? What is that which we are satisfied
with? Or are we going after other things,
other books, things on the internet, family, other things we need
to satisfy ourselves. Or has the Lord given us an aching
void which the world cannot fill? I will satisfy her poor with
bread. How vital we have assurance that
we are included here of the poor in the Church of God that are
satisfied with bread. We're not left out of this blessing,
this blessing on this provision especially. The blessing on the
Word of God, to feed upon it, to feed upon Christ, to hang
upon Him, His flesh, His blood, Are Paul satisfied? Are we satisfied? Are we, like Naphtali, satisfied
and full of the favour of the Lord? You know, when one is satisfied,
they've got what they've sought for, got what they want. They're
happy, they're content. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. May the Lord bless this word
to us. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with