When I hear the Proverbs read,
and I read along with them, and all those positive things that
we just read, I think about Christ, who's the only one who is a perfection
of those things. He did every one of those things
before the Father perfectly. And when I see those negative
things, I hear those negative parts of the Proverbs, I think
of all the sin of all his people that Christ bore for us to put
away that old man of flesh and make us righteous in him. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful? All right, let's go to Psalm
84. This psalm appears to be penned
by David, although his name's not in the title. But if you
read these first two verses, how amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth, nay, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. And then listen to Psalm 63.
We know this is David's psalm. Now listen to Psalm 63. Oh God,
thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul
thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is. To see thy power
and thy glory so as I've seen thee in the sanctuary, in the
tabernacle. It seems like this psalm is a
psalm of David, penned by David at least. It was to the chief
musician upon Gittath for the sons of Korah. Gittath means
joy of the wine press. And the point of that is, this
song was sung at a time of great joy, just like when they pressed
out the grapes in the wine press, that was a time of joy. They
sang, they rejoiced. This song was sung at a time
of joy. Gidduth was an instrument that
was used when they observed the Feast of Tabernacles. And this
psalm was a psalm of ascension that they sang on their way,
they would leave It was one of those required feasts, Feast
of Tabernacles, and they would leave their homes, and they would
go up this long path, and these different paths, they all came
from all different sides of Jerusalem, and they would go up to Jerusalem,
and they sang this psalm as they went. And then when they got
there, the sons of Korah, the singers and the musicians would
play on gita, this instrument, and they would sing this song
together. And this psalm expresses the believer's love for two assemblies. For two assemblies. It's the
love to assemble in God's house with God's people under the preaching
of the gospel. That's the first love. This is
how it pleased the living God to save and strengthen his people
all through this journey we're going on. And then it also speaks
of our longing for that great assembly in the end when Christ
shall assemble us together in glory, in heavenly Zion. This Feast of Tabernacles they
went up to, remember what it pictured? It pictured how God
provided for them the whole way through that wilderness journey.
And this assembly right here, is how God's providing for His
people, saving us from the first moment He makes you hear the
gospel until He brings you to that great assembly in glory.
This is how He's providing for us through this whole journey. We're traveling the path that
God has set before us on the way to heavenly Zion, just like
they traveled the path from their homes up to Mount Zion. Look at verse 6. It says, who
passing through the valley of Baca. It's the valley of weeping. It's this life. That was what
was pictured. They went through the valley
of Baca and they said they make it a well by their tears, by
their sorrows. The rain also filleth the pools. God provides the gospel. He provides
from above and He fills the desert places. in the journey, and so
they go from strength to strength, God giving more grace, more grace,
strengthening his children, so that every one of them in Zion
appeareth before God. So you have these two assemblies,
you have the assembling like we're doing right here to hear
the gospel preached. This is how he's feeding us as
we go through this valley of Baca, this whole life, till we
get to heavenly Zion and that great assembly. Now, first of
all, the love of assembling in God's house is in the heart of
every one of his children. Look, he says here in verse one,
how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. How amiable
are thy tabernacles. Now, the word amiable falls short
of the meaning of the original word here. The original word
means beloved. How beloved are thy tabernacles. This is the new heart God gives
in every child that he regenerates. When He makes you, when He fills
the new man with the love of God, He makes you receive the
love of the truth. Not just the truth, but the love
of the truth, the love of the gospel, the love of Christ, our
Redeemer, who is Himself the truth. And when you have the
love of the truth in your heart, you love to assemble with His
people where Christ the Redeemer is preached, where He's preached
in truth. You don't want to go hear lies
spoken against your Redeemer, but you love to go where God
has put His gospel, and where God has assembled His people,
and where God is setting forth the truth of our Redeemer in
spirit and in truth. This is the love that's in the
heart of God's people, is to assemble with His people. And
the reason is, is because God gives a love and a longing for
the living God. Look here, He says in verse 2,
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My
heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Now He says
here, My soul longeth. My soul is fainting to be in
the courts of the Lord. Can you say that? Do you long
to come here? Does your soul faint if you can't
come into the house of God? Why did He want that? Because
He longed for the living God. It wasn't just the tabernacle
itself. It wasn't just going to the tabernacle
and going through the ceremony and the form. That was how God
ordained they worshiped God. And that's where God said, I'll
make my presence known. That's how God said, I'll speak
into your heart in that day, under that covenant. And so he
wanted to go there because he longed to hear from the living
God. That's what His desire was. That's
why He longed for this plague. Brethren, if that's how earnestly
we need our living God, that's how earnestly we need this gospel. This is how He's gonna speak
into our hearts and strengthen His people is through this gospel. And if we need Him, our living
Redeemer, this is how we need and long to be under His gospel.
David knew the blessing God had given him. And he knew the blessing
God had given the children of Israel. When he says tabernacles
here, he is speaking of the courts of that one tabernacle. You know,
there were several courts in that one tabernacle. But there
was just one tabernacle. He speaks here of tabernacles,
plural, and I think one reason is because he is talking about
the tabernacle and the earth, but he is also talking about
the tabernacle in heaven. And also it points to our day
when it's talking about the assemblies God assembles by his grace that
are the tabernacles where he has his gospel being preached.
But in that day, to see what he's saying here, there was just
one tabernacle. In all the world, there was one
tabernacle where God told only the children of Israel, I'll
meet with you right here over the mercy seat. You'll bring
the lamb, the spotless lamb. The sins of the children of Israel
will be ceremonially put on that lamb. That lamb will be slain
in the place of the children of Israel. The high priest, once
in a year, will bring that blood of that lamb into the holy place
and sprinkle it on this one mercy seat in all the world. And right
here, in this one place, God said, I'll meet with you. I'll
make my presence known. And that's why David is out there
separated in exile, or wherever he is, and he's saying, oh, I'm
longing to go there. I want to be there. Because that's
where God said he'll meet with me. I'm longing for the living
God. That's why I want to go there. Brethren, there's just one tabernacle. There's just one Lamb of God. There's just one high priest. There's just one mercy seat where
God will meet with a sinner. That's Christ Jesus the Lord.
He's the tabernacle. Our triune God has come. The
triune God has come. He's taken flesh. He's tabernacled
amongst men. He's walked in this earth and
tabernacled among us. And He accomplished the redemption
of everybody God sent Him to lay down His life for. He did
it, brethren. He put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. By His blood, He purged away
the sin of His people so that God says, your body of sin is
dead. That means you're freed, you're
justified from sin. You're dead to the law. You're
freed from the law. And He says to you now, He's
risen, He's living, and He is the tabernacle of God. He's that
tabernacle God pitched and not man. He built the tabernacle. He built the church of God by
by purchase, by his blood, by what he accomplished. And he's
risen now. And what he's doing is assembling
his people wherever he'll have his gospel to be preached, and
he's preaching that gospel and he's given this same longing
for him and this desire for him in the hearts of all those he
saves. So that you don't have to be
coerced into coming to hear the gospel, you long to hear it because
you long to hear from your living God. Our altar is not a piece
of furniture, it's Christ. Our tabernacle is not a building,
it's not the sticks and stones, it's Christ And the people He's
assembled is His house. Wherever they are. We could meet
in a barn. We could meet out by a creek bank somewhere. It's
where He's assembled His people. He's the one who gathers two
or three together. And He's the one who makes you
to worship Him. If we don't have this longing
for Him, you know what we'll do? We'll leave the Gospel. Because we don't see the value
of it. There was just one place in all the whole world where
God said he'd meet with David. And David knew that. And he wanted
to go to that place where that tabernacle was because that's
where the Lord said he'd meet with him. In this gospel age, God said
he's pleased to save through the foolishness of preaching.
That's how he's gonna save his people, through the foolishness
of preaching. It means by him establishing the gospel so that
he gets the glory, by him ministering to his people so that he gets
the glory, by him giving a new heart so that he gets the glory,
and by him saving us and strengthening us the whole way as we journey
through this journey. Salvation's not a one-time thing. Salvation is a constant, continual,
active work that our Lord is accomplishing for his people.
And he's doing it through the preaching of this gospel. And
so just like there was one tabernacle where God would hear his people
or meet with his people, wherever he's put his gospel, it's a rare
and a precious thing. And you don't find it everywhere. And where he's given it and given
this heart, you're going to find a heart just like David had right
here. Longing to be where His gospel
is preached. Wanting that more than anything
else. Wanting that more than anything
else. Nothing else as valuable, nothing else as important as
hearing Christ preach. That's where His people are going
to want to be. Because we long for, are so faint for the living
God. And so David here declares the
blessedness of those who dwell in the Lord's house. Look here
in verse three. Yea, the sparrow hath found a
house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay
her young. Even thine altars, O Lord, of
hosts, my King and my God, blessed are they that dwell in thy house,
they will be still praising thee. Selah means pause, take in what's
being said. Now David was in exile far away
from the tabernacle. And he wanted to be there so
badly. And he considered the sparrow,
the little sparrow and the swallow that had built a nest in the
altar somewhere in the house of the Lord. He considered them
to be blessed where they were in comparison to him being out
there away from the Lord's tabernacle. I went out here and looked just
a minute ago because I knew back in the spring we have a little
swallow's nest on the light right out here. That's the picture. There was
a swallow and a sparrow and he said, they're blessed to be dwelling
in the house of the Lord. Well, if Christ Christ said,
you're of more value than many sparrows. If the Lord takes care
of sparrows, and He does, if He takes care of them, do you
not think He's gonna provide for you who are able to call
Him my God and my King? He's the Lord of hosts, David
said. He's the sovereign of heaven and earth. If we believe He's
sovereign, He's going to provide for everyone who can truthfully
say in their heart, he's my king, he's my God. He gonna bless you
just like David says he's blessed these sparrows. And then he thought
about the priests and the Levites whose responsibility it was to
serve in the tabernacle. And he said, they dwell in the
house of the Lord. How blessed are they! They'll still be worshipping
you, Lord. Every believer washed in Christ's blood, regenerated
by the Spirit of God, is made a priest unto God. So we have
this privilege of coming into His courts and worshipping God. Worshipping God. Blessed are
they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee. And we're gonna dwell in Christ's
house forever. Everybody he's bought, everybody
he's regenerated, everybody that he's made his own, made a priest,
we're gonna dwell in his house forever. And so our greatest
blessing on this earth is to assemble publicly in his courts. to hear Christ and worship Christ. It's the greatest blessing we
have on this earth. David thought of them as more blessed
while he was out separated and they had a place, they had a
dwelling place, their nests and their young, they had a dwelling
place in the house. He said, I don't even have that. And when
you think about that, think about our Lord when he walked this
earth. He said, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.
He made everything, the heaven and the earth. He made it, but
He didn't make it His home. He made this place. He didn't
own a piece of ground. He didn't own anything. Oh, it
was all His. He made it all, but He didn't
come here. He wandered through this place
as a pilgrim and a stranger. And you know the Spirit He gives
His people? He makes you a stranger in this
world and a pilgrim in this world. We're going to heavenly Zion.
We're going to that longing for that final assembly with Him. That's where we're going. If
we really believe this, If we really believe this, if we really,
you know, we're just, we know we're strangers and pilgrims,
and you are, you know you are, you consider it so, but if we
really had just a tremendous pouring out of the spirit that
Christ had, we'd sell everything we had. We'd have the nicest
places to worship and everything, you know, I mean, because this
would be all we'd be devoted to. But this is the soul, brethren,
just like he had that spirit where he said, I'm from above,
you're from beneath, I'm from above. He's come, redeemed his
people, and gone back to glory. And so now that he gives you
his spirit and makes you a pilgrim and a stranger in this earth
so that his people aren't in this world trying to just get
all we can get, and get all we can, can all we
get, and sit on the can. That's not what we're trying
to do. We want to really worship Him. Whatever it costs you, that's
what we want to do. We want to worship Him. God's
people aren't covetous. He makes you not be covetous.
Whatever's gonna be most valuable to you in those few precious
moments before you draw your last breath, that's what should
be most precious to us right now. So God's gonna have us because
he's carrying us to that earthly Zion and making us pilgrim, making
us see more and more. We're just pilgrims here passing
through. And he's carrying us to that assembly. He's making
you long for that assembly more and more. So he's gonna, keep
us assembling together and blessing us and strengthening us for this
journey through this means and this is how he's preparing his
people to that great assembly in the end now here's the last
thing i'm going to show you as we pass through this life we're
going through this life just you picture them coming out of
the wilderness in the different places where they live and they're
going to Zion, they're going to the tabernacle at Jerusalem
to worship the Lord. You picture them going these
winding ways. They pass through this place
called the Valley of Baca. And it was a hard pass through
the mountains, and there was something about it that was weeping,
and there was sorrow, and it was a dry place, and it was just
a difficult path for them. And it's a picture of this life.
Well, as we're going to that heavenly Zion. This means right
here is how he's gonna save us and strengthen us and teach us
and take us there. So he says this in verse five.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, Lord, in whose heart
are the waves, who passing through the valley of Baca make it a
well, the rain also filleth the pools. As they made that pilgrimage
up there and they passed through this valley of weeping, the imagery
he uses here is they wept and their tears made wells. This
is like a poetical imagery. Their weeping and their sorrows
made wells. In ourselves, we're weak, we're
impotent, we're powerless. If there's anything about you
that you're trusting, you're not trusting Christ. If there's
anything you're looking to for confidence, for salvation, you're
not believing Christ. You can't look to Him and look
to yourself. We look to Him, we trust Him,
we believe Him. In ourselves, we're weak, we're
centered, we're fumbling, we're falling, and He has to keep strengthening
us to put all our strength in Him, to know that He is our only
strength. And He does it through this Gospel.
We have the warfare constantly between our sin nature and our
flesh. We're going to have tribulation in this life. We're going to
have to have continued supplies of His grace to preserve us and
keep us and teach us. So He assembles us here together
and through His Gospel, He's going to strengthen us by making
us look to Christ alone. He says here in verse 5, Blessed
is the man whose strength is in thee. Not in himself. Not in himself. I'm trying to
preach you down as low as I can preach you and me. I'm trying
to tell you and me we don't have strength in ourselves. Blessed,
happy is the man whose strength is in thee, Lord. That's what
he's teaching us through this gospel. And the Lord's going
to keep the ways in our hearts. in whose heart are the ways.
Blessed is he whose strength is in thee, Lord, in whose heart
are the ways. They knew the way up to Zion
in their heart. And so you know what they did?
They kept taking one step after another in the way because they
knew with every step they're getting closer to Zion. They're
getting closer to the tabernacle. They knew the way in their heart.
What's the way that he puts in our heart? The way is Christ
alone. What are these ways, plural?
The way is Christ alone, the way is faith alone, the way is
grace alone, the way is through the gospel of Christ alone. In whose heart are the ways,
and Christ by His Spirit keeps raining down grace. They were
weeping, making wells, but the rain also filleth the pools.
Where did the rain come from? It came from God. And the scripture
says, he rains down grace into our hearts, making the wilderness
rejoice and blossom as the rose. That's what he's going to do
through this gospel. And the result is going to be
the same for us as it was for them. This is going to be the
result, verse 7. They go from strength to strength,
every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. I think that this word says,
in whose heart are the ways, I think it also means this. The
whole way that we're traveling, we're before God, and he knows
the way of his people. He knows the way, he's directing
our steps. We appear before him in Zion,
and he's gonna make you come before him and appear before
him, and every one of his people are gonna be assembled together.
What's this mean? What's he saying? God shall supply
all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. The God of all grace, the God
who chose us freely by grace, the God who sent His Son, who
laid down His life for His people by grace, the God who sent you
this gospel and regenerated you by His grace, the God of all
grace will give more grace. He's gonna keep giving grace
to His people. He's gonna keep doing it through
this preaching of this word. Grace and more grace. You know who he gives grace to?
The humble. Who's that? Those that entirely
depend on him alone. So all who are gonna, he purposed
to say, they're gonna all come and appear before him in that
last final assembly when he brings us together. Look here in verse
eight. Oh Lord God of hosts, hear my
prayer. Give ear, oh God of Jacob, Selah. We always think about Selah,
at least I do. I think about Selah and I think about Paul's
and hear what he just said. But here he says, oh Lord God
of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, oh God of Jacob. Now pause and think about what
he's about to say. Behold, O God. This is his prayer. Now think about this. Behold,
O God, our shield. And look upon the face of thine
anointed. Listen to this. Behold. Here's my prayer. O Lord God
of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold, O God, Christ our shield. Look upon the face of Christ,
Thine Anointed, and keep us and protect us for His sake. Assemble
us, strengthen us, give us strength for the journey and bring us
to appear in heavenly Zion one day. Just like they were praying,
David wanted to go and be at that earthly tabernacle in earthly
Zion. And one day go to be in that
glorious Zion. And that's what we're praying
for. 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. Now let me give you a few things
in closing. Now I want you to listen to this. If our true desire is for the
living God, if it really is, Knowing that it pleased God to
save by the foolishness of preaching. I'll tell you what God's gonna
make his children do. Let nothing cause us to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. He's
gonna make that happen in his people. He gonna keep us exhorting
one another the much, even much more as you see the day approaching.
That's what he's gonna do. Somebody might object, say, well,
I can worship God privately. Private worship is good. It's
absolutely good, and it's necessary, and it's a privilege God's given
us. But if there was any man who could have worshiped God
privately and been content with private worship at the exclusion
of public worship, it's the man after God's own heart, David.
And he sat here and said, I long to be in your public worship,
Lord. I can't live without it. I can't
live without it. Continue not only assembling,
but here's the second thing. Continue by faith pressing toward
that heavenly tabernacle in heavenly Zion. Continue pressing toward
that heavenly tabernacle in heavenly Zion. Look at the cloud of witnesses
that went before us. They went through this valley
of Baka. They went through this valley of weeping. But they began
in faith and they all died in faith. Therefore, Listen now, if your
desire is to worship God and to go with His people and travel
with His people, assemble at His house, worshiping Him under
the gospel until you get to that heavenly sign, He says then,
let us lay aside the sin that so every weight and the sin that
so easily beset us. You got them and I got them. And let's stop acting like we
don't. We all do. And the greatest besetting sin
we have is not believing God. Not believing He's going to finish
what He started. He is. He is. And know this. If we really need this gospel,
if it's so vital, just like if today you had to come here to
get your earthly bread, I bet you, every one of you, within
about 24 hours, people would be doing anything it took to
get here to get that earthly bread. If we need the gospel
that much, trust the Lord God of hosts who
made everything. Trust Him. to chasten His child
and keep us partaking of His holiness. And when He's done
that, when He's worked that, and He's broken the heart of
your brother, or He's broken your heart, keep walking. Keep going to Him. Keep running the race that He
set before you, looking to Christ Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of God. And don't forget Him. Consider
Him. And that great contradiction
of sinners against Him that He endured, lest you become faint
and weary in your mind. You've not resisted unto blood,
striving against sin. You and I can't make any boast
that we're better than anybody. We hadn't died to put away sin. Only He did that. And if we really need this Gospel,
if we really need this gospel. knowing that this path is through
the Valley of Baca, knowing our Lord Jesus said you must through
much tribulation enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That means you've
got to go through a lot of trial. You've got to be broken and your
heart's got to be broken and you've got to cry and you've
got to be disappointed and your feelings have got to be hurt
and you're going to hurt other people's feelings and you're
going to disappoint other people and you're going to be ashamed
of yourself and all of this is, we've got to go through this.
We've got to. It's how God's teaching us. We're
nothing and He's everything. Knowing this, remember what Joseph
told his brethren when he sent them back to get their father?
He said, be careful you don't fall out in the way. Can you imagine Two or three
people walking along, and they got one little loaf of bread
is all they got. And they got a long journey to
make, and they got just one little loaf of bread. And one gets mad
at the other and says, you know what? I'm going to teach you.
I ain't going to have nothing else to do with you. And he leaves
and leaves the loaf of bread and goes out and just says, I'm
going to be by myself. Who's that going to hurt? The
one that left the bread. That's the only one that's going
to hurt, the one that left the bread. It's going to leave more bread for
the others. Don't fall out, by the way. We
need the bread, but we need each other. He's arranged this to
where we need each other, and he's going to use each other
to keep giving us the bread. So, when you're chasing, and
I'm chasing, and the other's chasing, what do we do? He says, lift up the hands that
hang down. This is in a race and you're
tired and your legs and your feet, your knees are wobbling.
You're going through the valley of Baca. It's mountainous, it's
rocky. You're crying, you're weeping,
you're tired and your hands are hanging down. He says, you lift
up your hands. But you know what I think he's
saying more than that? You do what Aaron and Hur did. You lift
up your brother's hands. You strengthen his knee. Prove
you really believe God. Prove you really believe he's
sovereign. And help one another to walk. Make straight paths
for your feet. Get the rocks out of one another's
way. Don't throw more boulders in one another's way. Get the
rocks out of the way. Why? Make straight paths for
your feet to Christ. And for one another to Christ.
Help one another to Christ. You sin too much. Has God ever
said that to you? You don't want Him to say that
to you, do you? You want God to say, that's it, you sin too
much. He won't do that for His child. It's grace that saves
us. And I'm not gonna listen to somebody
speak against you. I'm gonna strengthen you. And
when that one is speaking against you, I'm gonna say, this is the
one that needs grace. This is the one that needs their
hands to be lifted up. They're weak or they wouldn't
be doing that. In other words, brethren, our
mission here is to help each other to Christ. What do we have
without him? Seen those scenes in movies where
everybody points a gun at one another? Well, what if everybody
starts pulling the trigger? Everybody will die. God says, put your weapons down
and lift up one another's hands and make straight paths to Christ.
You know what one of the things is? We're not where David was. David was out there in the wilderness
saying, oh Lord, I'd give anything to be in your tabernacle. God might just cut things off
for us and let us know what it's like to really, really need Him. But look at this. The Lord, verse
11, the Lord God's a sun and a shield. The Lord will give
grace and glory. He'll give you grace right now
and He gonna give you glory hereafter. No good thing will He withhold
from them that walk uprightly. What is that? Remember Habakkuk? Behold, his soul, which is lifted
up, is not upright within him, but
the just shall live by his faith. What is it to do? The pleasing
of God is to walk humbly with thy God, meek and lowly and contrite,
I am a, I'm the sinner, I need him. He gives grace to the humble. Walk humbly with thy God by walking
by faith. And that's why he says next,
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. Long for his ascent. Lord, let's
go to him. Lord God, our Father, Give us
this longing. Make us long for you. Make us
faint to hear your gospel. Make us be desperate to hear
you and so hungry for you that we're willing to overlook anything
to assemble and hear your word. Make us look only to You. Make us remember, Lord, what
sinners we are individually so that all we can do is look out
of ourselves to You and help one another look to
You. Lord, forgive us for anything
that's not simply finding all our strength
in you. Lord, thank you for your chastening
hand. Thank you for turning us to you. Thank you for your strength.
Thank you for Christ, our bread. Keep us believing him and walking
after him. Wherever your people are, Lord,
that are struggling, that are grant them repentance, grant
them faith, grant them humility, grant them grace, grant them
mercy. Make us see how this gospel is the one thing needful. We
need Christ. We need Christ, Lord. Make us put away every difference. Make us put away, we're just
a bunch of maggots, Lord. Robe us in your righteousness.
View us in Christ's shield. Be a sun and a shield to us,
Lord. Keep us looking to you. Keep us assembled and bring us,
Lord, to that great assembly one day. Thank you, Lord, for
providing the gospel. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.