Well, let us turn to God's Word. We turn to the Psalm that we've
just read, Psalm 84. And I want to read verses 5, 6, and 7. Psalm 84,
verses 5, 6, and 7. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in Thee, in whose heart are the ways of them, who, passing
through the valley of Baca, 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." Considering then
the person that is being described in these verses, we read much
here of that person, that man who is the blessed man, is spoken
of in verse 4. Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house, they will be still praising thee. They're a praising
people and they're also a trusting people because at the end we
read of the blessed man that trusteth in thee. But here, in the words that I've
read, verses 5, 6, and 7, we see this person as the pilgrim. And that's the theme that I want
to take up, really, the blessed pilgrim. 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." Here we have those
who are clearly travelers and where are they traveling? Well,
they're traveling to Zion. The opening verse, "...how amiable
are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts," was, of course, upon
Manzion that David established the worship of God. It was there, when he'd taken
that stronghold from the Jebusites, that he removed the tabernacle
and set it up on Mount Zion. And then subsequently, in the
days of his son Solomon, there was the building of the Temple
of the Lord. And here we read of those who
are journeying to that particular place, the place where God's
name was put, Zion. They come then to appear before
God. And we know that that was the
responsibility of all the males in Israel. That was what was
established in the law in Deuteronomy chapter 16 and verse 16. Three
times every year, all of the males, all the adult males, were
to journey to the place where God's name was placed. Initially
it would have been in Shiloh, but as I said, it was removed,
the tabernacle was removed from there to Mount Zion, so they
would journey for those three great feasts. for the Feast of
Passover and the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles
and we read of that commandment back in Deuteronomy chapter 16
and verse 16 as I'm sure many of you are well aware we have
those Psalms those Psalms later on in the book from 120 through
to 134 which are called Psalms of Degrees or Psalms of ascents and it is reckoned that
those pilgrims who were journeying to Jerusalem on those three occasions
would sing those psalms. It's interesting because that
word degrees or a sense, is derived from a verb that we find in 1st
Chronicles chapter 15 where we are told of how David brought
the Ark of the Lord up from the house of Obed-Edom to take it
to Jerusalem. And it says there in 1st Chronicles
15-14 that they they brought it up, they went to bring it
up. And that verb to bring up is what the word ascents or degrees
is derived from. They're ascending as it were,
they're going up, they're going up to Mount Zion on those occasions
and they're making their journey from all the various parts of
the promised lands. And here, in the words that we've
read for the text, we have a description of that journey that they're
making. Verse 70 says they go from strength to strength, or
as the margin says, they go from company to company, as they're
making their way up to Mount Zion. there are these various
watering places, it would seem, where they would gather, maybe
for the evening. It was a place where there would
be refreshment, there would be a well and so forth. And so they
would be refreshed to continue their journeys on the following
days. Well, let us come to consider
this blessed man, this pilgrim, and I want to observe a number
of things, some four things with regards to the person who is
being described, the pilgrim. And first of all, this pilgrim
is a spiritual man. This person is clearly a true
child of God. In verse 5, at the end of verse
5, we read, in whose heart are the ways of them. It's interesting because we have
several words here, three words that have been interpolated,
introduced in the translation as you see there in italics,
are and of them. It's very pregnant really, the
statement that is made. It literally says, in whose heart
the waves. In whose heart the waves. They're
not just pilgrims in an outward sense. but their heart is in
this, they're not just formal just going through the motions
of abiding by the commandment that we have back in Deuteronomy
chapter 16 we know how God rejects the worship of those
who are but formalists We often quote those words in Isaiah 29
at verse 13. Those who draw near to God with
the mouth and honour God with their lips and yet their hearts
are far from him. Their religion is just an outward
shell, a form of godliness, but they know nothing of the power
thereof. And it's interesting because
those words in Isaiah 29 are taken up by the Lord Jesus himself
in the course of his preaching there in Matthew 15 verse 7 following
and the Lord applies them directly to the to the Pharisees and the
scribes calling them hypocrites. And of course we have that very
solemn chapter later in Matthew in chapter 23 where the Lord
pronounces terrible woes upon those Pharisees. What strong language the Lord
uses in denouncing them for their hypocrisy and their formalism. In Matthew 23, 27, Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye 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 ye also
outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity. Well, that is not the case with
these pilgrims, in whose heart the ways, or their heart is very
much in this pilgrimage. These are those who are truly
the blessed of the Lord, because they have a heart religion, they
have an experience of the grace of God. They are those who are
not merely walking in a natural sense, but they are those who
are walking by faith. and not by sight. They are such
as have their eye upon the invisible God. They're not just going to
formally observe be it the feast of the Passover or any of those
other feasts. But their affections center in
the Lord God Himself. Or they walk by faith. like Moses. We're told of Moses,
remember, in Hebrews 11, how he endured as seeing him who
is invisible. And so too with regards to these
who are the blessed. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee, in whose hearts are the ways of them. Not only traveling then to the
earthly, Jerusalem, but by faith traveling towards that heavenly
Jerusalem, or they know that blessed work of the Spirit of
God in their hearts. They have that faith that has
come by the operation of God. And so here at the end we read
of this man, verse 12, O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man
that trusteth in Thee, the trust of faith. Whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. These they are spiritual pilgrims. Whom have I in heaven but thee,
they say? There is none upon earth that
I desire beside thee. And what does God do for these
people it brings them ultimately to their desired haven. It's
not just a matter then of going to the earthly Jerusalem, going
on that pilgrimage. We know how historically there
were those in days past who would go on pilgrimage to what they
imagined were holy sites. It was just so often nothing
more than bodily exercise. No, God's people are a spiritual
people. And God's people look beyond
the things of time and the things of sense. They live that life
of faith. And then, in the second place,
with regards to these people, we see that they have no strength
or ability of their own. Where does the pilgrim's strength
come from? Well, we're told. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee. Who is the person being spoken
of? Thee. This is the Lord God Himself. This is where they derive their
strength. They have no innate strength. In and of themselves they are
nothing but weakness. They cannot even begin to to think aright. Isn't this the
case with those whom the Lord is pleased to deal with in the
ways of grace? Paul says, writing to the Corinthians,
not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as
of ourselves. Or that man you see, that man
who was obviously quite a brilliant mind, and he'd been scored at
the feet of Gamaliel. He was clearly a man of great
ability and yet he was brought to realize what he was in and
of himself. Not sufficient of ourselves even
to think right thoughts. And again we think of the language
that we find in the book of the Prophet Isaiah. There in Isaiah
26.12 thou also hast wrought all our works in us, he says. speaking to God. God must do
it all. O Lord our God, other lords beside
Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will we make
mention of Thy name. What a confession is that of
complete and utter inability and spiritual impotence. By Thee
only can we make mention of Thy name. No man can say that Jesus
Christ is Lord. but by the Holy Ghost. And yet, what is man in his fallen
state? We know that he is such a proud
and such a self-sufficient creature. That's the awful consequence
of the temptation in Genesis 3 and the fall of Adam and Eve,
how the devil comes and says to the woman, you shall be as
God. as he tempts her to partake of that tree that God has forbidden
them to eat of. Here is the temptation, ye shall
be as gods. And so there is pride. There
is pride in the hearts of each of us as those who are the sons
and daughters of Adam and Eve. We're fallen creatures by nature. We think of the words of Joseph
Hart in the Hymn, "'Tis pride, accursed pride, that spirit by
God abhorred. Do what we will, it haunts us
still and keeps us from the Lord." Well, it does keep us from God.
It's that sin that separates between us and God. We don't
like to be nothing at all. And even when the sinner is is
first awakened. I think there's that in what
we see in Scripture concerning those awakened ones. What do
men do? They fly immediately to the idea
of works, the covenant of works. What must I do? What must I do
to be saved? What must we do to be saved?
This is the cry that men make when God begins with them and
awakens them, and they have to learn that they can do nothing.
they have to be brought to the end of themselves. All pride,
accursed pride, against its influence pray, it mingles with the prayer,
against it preach, it prompts the speech, be silent, still
it's there, that accursed sin of pride. Our God has to weaken
our strength, And here we're told concerning these, that all
their strength, the blessed man is that man whose strength is
only in the Lord his God. It all centers there. In another
psalm, Psalm 102 verse 23, we read, He weakened my strength
in the way. Oh, if tonight we're in that
way, that narrow way that leads to life, What is God doing with
us? Is he not teaching us? And is
he not constantly showing us, and increasingly showing us,
that we are all weakness, left to ourselves? He weakened my
strength in the way. Again, think of the language
of Moses in his prayer in Psalm 90. He says, Thou turnest man
to destruction. and say us return you children
of men God turns us to complete and utter destruction the end
of self an awful lesson that we have to learn God has to humble
us because by nature we're such proud sinful creatures but then
We need to be careful because we have to recognize the fact
that it is not enough simply to feel our spiritual weakness
and to know how helpless we are of ourselves and maybe sometimes
we feel that our whole situation is utterly hopeless. There is
that, but that's not enough, is it? What we need is to see
that there is One who is able to save, and One who is mighty
to save. And here we see that One. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in Thee. Well, remember what we read later
in the 89th Psalm, which is clearly a messianic psalm, and speaks
to us of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks of God's covenants with
David. But David, of course, a remarkable
type of Christ. And Christ comes at that line,
the line of David. And there in Psalm 89 and verse
19, Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, and says, 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." Now, of course, that was literally the case. David was
the one who was anointed by Samuel the prophet. But surely the psalm
is speaking of someone greater than David here. It is the Lord
Jesus Christ. that one who is declared to be
mighty. I have laid help upon one that
is mighty. He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him. And we have Him here in the psalm.
In verse 9, Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face
of Thine Anointed. When we come to God, with our
prayers, isn't that to be our plea that God would look upon
the Lord Jesus Christ and that he might behold us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is why we implore that name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all our plea when we come
to pray. He is the only mediator. He is
the great high priest of our profession. He is our advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous and
so how we have to we have to plead him plead his name plead
all that he is and how we have to have those times of blessed
refreshing they go from strength to strength it says in verse
7 they go from strength to strength every one of them in Zion appeareth
before God Now we need those times then of reviving and refreshing,
those fresh discoveries and revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
can't live on yesterday's experience of the Lord. We need to know
something more of the Lord today. And we'll need to know something
of His gracious help tomorrow. That is a life of faith. That
is a testimony of those who are the Lord's spiritual pilgrims. He giveth power to the faith
and to those that have no might He increases strength now we
have to keep on coming to Him as we live and walk the life
of faith is from day to day and Paul knew that, oh Paul knew
that How he was made to feel that
thorn in the flesh that he speaks of there in 2 Corinthians chapter
12. And how he pleads with God that
it might be taken from him, but it was not to burn. But God assures
him, my grace is sufficient for them. My strength is made perfect
in weakness. Oh, we have to learn then our
own weakness. and that all our strength, all
our help, all our enabling must come from the Lord Himself even
from the Lord Jesus Christ to despair of self to despair
of self all we're told in the book of Proverbs there is a way
that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof is the ways
of death there's only death in self But there's life in the
Lord Jesus Christ. God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever, says the psalmist. Every stage of our experience,
we live to prove it. They go from strength to strength. What does the Prophet Jeremiah
say? I know. He says, I know that
the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. Oh, the Lord has to direct us.
The Lord has to keep us constantly kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation. This is the way then. It's a
way in which we learn our weakness, our impotence. We learn the awful
truth of what we are as sinners. And in a sense, you see, it makes
the pilgrims' way sometimes a sorrowful way. And that's what we have
here. They are passing through the
valley of Baker, it says. You're passing through the valley
of Baker. And Baker literally does mean
weeping. They're passing through a veil of tears. They're going
through a valley of weeping. What does this suggest to us?
Does it not remind us how that increasingly we have to learn
more and more the truth about ourselves, our own nature? Indwelling sin. We have to come
into that experience that Paul speaks of so graphically in Romans
chapter 7, where there he describes the
conflict between the old man, the old nature, and the new man,
that new creature which is in Christ Jesus. All the good that
I would I do, not the evil that I would, not that I do. all wretched
man that I am. There's much to sorrow over then,
because of what God reveals to us of ourselves, as we continue
in this way, passing through the valley of Baker, that vale
of tears, that valley of weepings. And it's not only that we learn
more and more about ourselves, Remember, I think it was one
of the Erskines, Ralph Erskine, I think, who said, Oh, that I
had not a myself, that gracious man, that godly man, much used
of God there in Scotland in the 18th century. He didn't want
a myself. That was such a burden to him.
But there's not only self, there's Satan. And as Satan comes and
he takes advantage, he came to the Lord Jesus, Christ could
say, the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in him.
Although Christ was sorely tempted, ultimately, though the devil
might throw everything at him, he could not overcome Christ.
There was nothing he could take advantage of in that sinless
human nature. But it's not like that with us.
When the devil comes, how quickly we're ensnared, how we fall,
how we backslide. Because in us, in our all nature,
there is that love of sinning. Oh, take away the love of sinning.
Alpha and Omega burn. says the hymn writer. And we
need to pray those words that God would take away that love
of sinning that's in us. He causes it to be a sorrowful
way. But not only self and Satan,
there's the world that lies in the wicked one. And we have to
live our lives in this world. And it is at times such a waste
wilderness to us. But this is the way. This is
the way the pilgrims have trodden through all the centuries, through
all the generations. All blessed is that man whose
strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them who
pass in through the valley of Baker, it says, make it a well. The rain also filleth the pools. It's a sorrowful valley, and
yet it's made a well. Ultimately, you see, there is
refreshment for the people of God. They will not fail, they
will appear ultimately at their desired haven. They go from strength
to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
but all that well that they discover even in the valley of Bacchus. Again, we can think of the language
that we have in one of those songs of degrees that I referred
to, those songs that they would sing as they were making their
way up to Jerusalem for the great feast. There in Psalm 126, Verse 5, They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. All their tears, their weeping,
is to return to joy. There is to be blessed success.
They make it a well. And what is this well? Remember
how David longed for water from the well of Bethlehem, we're
told. The well of Bethlehem. What is
the well of Bethlehem? Are we not to think in terms
of the Lord Jesus Christ? That was the very place, of course,
where He was born. It was there that we witness,
really, the blessed truth of the incarnation, God's, was manifest
in the flesh. First of all, there at Bethlehem
in Judah. Oh, there is the well, the well
of salvation. Isaiah 12, 3, Therefore with
joy shall we draw waters from the wells of salvation. Christ
himself is that well. He is the well that we read of
here. Even in the valley of Baca there is a well. The Lord Jesus
is not only the well, the Lord Jesus of course is the way. He
says I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one who is the strength of Israel. The blessed man whose strength
is in thee, that man who goes from strength to strength. And so, though there might be
much in the way of bitterness, yet there is something always
to sweeten that bitter thing. Though our cup seems filled with
gore, there's something secret sweetens all. What is that secret?
It's the secret of the Lord. that is with them that fear Him,
how He shows them His covenant, how He reveals Himself to them
as their covenant God. And it is this that cheers them
in the way, this that supports them, this that makes that pilgrim
life to be such a happy and such a blessed life. He is leading
them, He leads them forth by a right way. to bring them to
that city of habitation as we read in the 107th psalm. All this blessed man then, as
I said at the beginning he is spoken of much in this psalm,
he is spoken of of course throughout the psalms. But here we have
him in verse 5, the blessed man whose strength is in there. There
we have him at the end of the psalm. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in thee. And then again in verse 4, the
blessed are they that dwell in God's house. Well that's the
place where ultimately they must arrive. The Lord Jesus has gone
before to prepare them a mansion that they must ultimately inherit. Or the the man that we read of
then here this this pilgrim what a life it is and it's the life
of the people of God strangers and pilgrims here in the earth
looking for a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God
well the Lord bless these thoughts to us as we come to him now and
seek his face in prayer. Before we do that we're going
to sing the hymn 144, the tune Angelus 282. Jesus my all, to heaven is gone,
he whom I fix my hopes upon, his track I'll see, and I'll
pursue the narrow way till him I view, the way the holy prophets
went, the road that leads from banishment, the king's highway
of holiness, I'll go, for all his paths are peace. 144.