Let us return to the book of Psalms and I'll read Psalm 84. Reading the 84th Psalm. To the chief musician upon Gittith, which seems to be some sort of musical instrument. The Psalm for the sons of Korah. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an 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. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, and whose heart are the ways of thee, who, passing through the valley of Baal, can make it well. The rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, and every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy court 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.

For the Lord God is a silent shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee. The psalmist then here is expressing his great desire to be found in the courts of the Lord, to gather together with the Lord's people for the sun and worship of His Almighty Name. And I want us this morning to consider for a text really the words that we have here in verse 5 where we have a description of a blessed man we read much of the blessed man of course here in the book of Psalms the very first Psalm immediately speaks of that character And here in verse 5 we are told something more concerning this man, that he is in fact a blessed pilgrim. Blessed is the man, it says, whose strength is in thee, in whose hearts are the ways of them.

When we think of the context here in the Old Testament and the worship of God that was to be rendered by God's ancient covenant people, the children of Israel, how they were to be always observing those three great feasts of the Lord, spoken of back in Deuteronomy 16 and verse 16, the Feast of Passover, and the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Those were the three great feasts as we see there in that 16th chapter and for those feasts all the men throughout all of the tribes of Israel were to make the journey to the place where God had established his worship. In time of course they would be journeying up to Mount Zion where King David had set the Tabernacle and then in the days of his son Solomon how the temple was built but still they must journey from all over that land to the place where God said he would dwell in the midst of his people in the holy of holies and here we read of them as it were coming to appear before God verse 7 they go from strength to strength every one of them in Zion appeareth before God this is what they were so desirous of as we see in the opening words of the psalm how amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of hosts my soul longeth yea even waiteth for the court of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God and maybe this was one of the psalms that they would sing in association with those journeys that they were to make up to Manzai and we do of course later have those Psalms that are entitled Songs of Degrees, Psalms 120 through 134 those 15 Psalms, all of them, Songs of Degrees and Degrees literally means ascents those Psalms then that they would sing as they were traveling through the land making their way to the temple of the Lord and the worship in God's house. Here, in verse 7, we're told they go from strength to strength.

The margin tells us that the Hebrew is literally from company to company. It seems that these were the warping places where they would maybe break their journey, maybe they had to stop overnight, but they would gather with others and they were all of one mind and of one spirit as they were desirous to go and to worship the Lord God.

And so turning to these words in verse 5 for a while this morning, I want to say something of the blessed man as a pilgrim, the blessed pilgrim. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose hearts are the ways of them. And thinking really in terms of the portion that we were reading in Hebrews 11 where we have of course that chapter that contains such a catalogue concerning the men, the women of faith in the Old Testament Scriptures but how there is time and again a more general application with regards to those of faith we read those words in verse 13 of that chapter how they 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 earth. So as we think of the historical context I trust that we'll see that also that relates to ourselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

And there are four aspects of the pilgrim's life that I want to try to say something of this morning. First of all, to say something of his spirituality. Secondly, to say something with regards to his strength. And then to observe something of the difficulties of his way, the sorrows of the way that he has to walk in. And finally, his great satisfaction. when he comes ultimately, of course, to the end of his pilgrimage, the end of his journey. But first of all, to say something with regards to the pilgrim spirituality.

We can think, of course, in terms of that remarkable book penned all those years ago by John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, in which he speaks of the life of the Christian in terms of the journey. from the city of destruction to the celestial city the life of the child of God and firstly then saying something with regards to the pilgrim as a spiritual man, he's a spiritual man What do we read here? Look at the end of this fifth verse and you will observe immediately that there are words that appear in italics. So, we know that these are those that have been introduced in the translation to bring out the proper sense as the translators understood it. But they're not renderings of any word that's there in the original Hebrew as it would be here in the Psalms. And if we omit the italicized words, we see something of the terseness, we might say, of the language that's being used. In whose heart the ways. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways. In this man's heart are the ways of God.

It's not enough, is it, to be outwardly, as it were, in the way. to be walking outwardly in an open profession of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's important, of course, that we do make that public confession of faith. The importance, of course, of believers' baptism, the acknowledgement of Christ, the obedience to Christ's command. to be baptized in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost but it's not enough to be outwardly in the way our hearts must be in the way we must know something of those experiences of the people of God the Lord Jesus himself says the kingdom of God is within you and God himself is one who despises mere formalism, having a form of godliness and yet knowing nothing of the power of the things of God we have those words in Isaiah 29 concerning those who draw near with the lip and honor God with the mouth and yet their hearts are far from him and how solemnly the Lord applies those words in the course of his own ministry when he speaks to the scribes and to the pharisees there in Matthew and the 15th chapter we're told how they came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem. They were of Jerusalem. They were of the city of God.

But how does the Lord address them? Verse 7 he says, Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah, the prophet, say of you, 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 doctrines the commandments of men and of course later on in that same gospel in Matthew 23 we have the terrible woes that the Lord pronounces upon those same scribes and pharisees they are like whited sepulchres They appear beautiful on the outside, but what is within? Well, the sepulchres are full of dead men's bones, and that's them. They have nothing really of the grace of God in their hearts.

The ways of the pilgrim, the blessed man, or the ways of the Lord are in his heart. He has a heart religion. He wants to be where God is. This is why he wants to be there in the worship of God in the tabernacle in the temple because God had said he would dwell there in the midst of Israel back in Exodus 25 where we have the instruction concerning the making of the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat and that was God's throne, it was to be placed in the Holy of Holies and God said that he would there meet with his people and this is where this man's heart is How does the pilgrim walk? We walk by faith and not by signs. That's what we have of course in that great 11th chapter of Hebrews. It's the life of faith that these men and these women of old were living. Of Moses we're told how he endured seeing him that is invisible. He was not attracted by the glories of Egypt. He turns his back on Egypt. He identifies himself with the despised Hebrews. The things that are seen are but temporal.

The unseen things, these are the eternal things. And so here we see this pilgrim and God's ways are in the heart of this man. He has a spiritual religion. There is that that is continually taking place in his soul, there's that exercise the exercise of faith day by day it's not just a matter of these people then traveling to Germany from the various parts of the land and going up to Jerusalem no, they're traveling really to the heavenly Jerusalem and they're traveling there by the gracious operations of the Spirit of God in their souls, they have that faith that is of the operation of God. What do we read here at the end of the psalm, O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in you. Oh, it's the life of faith then that these people are living. And what a life it is, what a life of trial and trouble in the world, tribulation. That's what the Lord himself says, all that live godly in Christ Jesus, Paul says, they will suffer persecution. and these things cannot be avoided and yet here is the man and his desires his heart he says at the end of verse 2 my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God whom have I in heaven but thine there is none upon earth that I desire beside thine this is the language of the man and God brings such to their desired haven the words that we have there in the 107th Psalm.

God brings them ultimately to their desired haven. But they're spiritual pilgrims. It's not just a matter of form, it's not just a matter of the externals of religion. But there's something real in the hearts of these people. But in the second place, to say something with regards to the pilgrim's strength.

What does the verse say? Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee. Whose strength is in Thee. And it's a prayer addressed to God. So it is God himself who of course is the strength of his people. The name of the Lord, says the wise man. It's a strong tower. And the righteous runneth into it and is safe. And when we read, of course, there in the book of Proverbs of the name of the Lord as that strong tower, God's name reminds us of all that God is.

God's name is a declaration of himself. God's name is the revelation of himself. the significance of names in scripture they tell us something concerning a man and so God's name is God as he reveals himself and where has God revealed himself ultimately? it is Christ who is the image of the invisible God and this is where we have to look for strength there is no innate strength in these pilgrims and they know that, these pilgrims, they can't even think a right, they can't formulate one thought, a right left to themselves. Paul to the Christians says not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. Our sufficiency is of God. It is a religion that is altogether centering God. There's a complete and utter dependence upon the Lord.

We think of those words again, made reference to them several times in days past, the words of Isaiah 26.12, Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. Thou also, this is again addressing God himself, Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee alone will we make mention of thy name? there is a certain exclusivity there here is a religion that is centring all together in God here is a man whose total dependence is upon the Lord is God he has nothing of himself and isn't that true of the life of faith? where does that life of faith begin? well it can only begin where there is the the gift of God, spiritual life, is that that comes from God, the man is born again. The Lord Jesus emphasizes that so plainly of course in the familiar language of John 3, addressing a religious man, Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jews.

But the Lord tells that man quite plainly, if you have a real religion it will be rooted in regeneration, ye must be born again and the man can receive nothing except he is born from above says John the Baptist later in that same third chapter he's born from above, he's born by the sovereign grace of God he's not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man he's born of God and so spiritual life begins but it's interesting isn't it what we read subsequently in the in the New Testament in the epistles of Paul writing for example there in 2nd Corinthians 4.16 Paul says concerning the inward man that is the new man that is the divine nature that the person has become a partaker of by the new birth That inward man, says Paul in 2nd Corinthians 4.16, is renewed day by day. It's not that the sinner is born again and receives such a portion of the grace of God that he can draw on that portion day by day.

No, there must be that continual renewing. He has to live day by day a life of complete and utter dependence upon God. As we read here in verse 7, they go from strength to strength. As day by day they're walking in that way, they're going up to Jerusalem, they have to go daily with that strength that the Lord himself is communicating to them, because they have no They have no innate strength or ability of themselves. The life of faith, it's a life of complete and utter dependence upon the Lord God and upon Him alone. How different, how different to what we are by nature. What is man in his fallen state? He's self-sufficient. Man is a proud creature.

We know it's there in the fall of our first parents, there in the paradise, which was the garden of Eden, when the tempter comes and says to the woman, you shall be as gods, concerning that tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God had said Adam was not to partake of, in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The devil comes with his lie, thou shalt not surely die. You'll be as gods. The woman partakes of the fruit and then she gives to Adam and he partakes himself with wide open eyes. And what is the consequence?

Well, we see it all around us. We see it within our own hearts. What is man by nature? Proud. Self-sufficient. What about those who say to me, you know, concerning what it means to be a Christian Well, you need a prop. These Christian people, they need a prop. I don't need a prop. That's the attitude, really, of many worldly people. They feel quite adequate. They can cope with life themselves. But these Christians, you see, they need a prop. Proud creatures. Well, what a thing is that pride.

It is pride, accursed pride. says Joseph Hart that keeps us from the Lord do what we will it haunts us still it keeps us from the Lord and we think that we can manage ourselves but how does God deal with his people these pilgrims who are walking in the way well look at the language again of another psalm Psalm 102 and verse 23 the psalmist says he weakened my strength in the way or when we're in that narrow way that leads to life we are increasingly learning how weak how feeble, how frail we are, how prone to every evil this is how God deals with us often think of the language there in the prayer of Moses, the man of God, Psalm 19 but as Moses said, thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, return ye children of men He has to bring us to that, to the end of ourselves. He has to teach us, doesn't he, the solemn truth of that doctrine of the sinner's total depravity. It doesn't mean that we're as wicked as wicked could be. It means that we have to realize that we're impotent, we can do nothing spiritually of ourselves a man in his natural state is dead in trespasses and in sins however we need to be careful because it's not enough, it's not enough to feel that weakness that helplessness, that hopelessness not enough to feel our sinfulness We must also see that there is one who is mighty to save, or there is one who is able, and able to save to the uttermost.

What does the text say? Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee. Are we those who can say, that's me, that's where my strength is, my strength isn't in myself, my strength is in the Lord God. And who is that one that is the Savior? Remember how in another psalm, in Psalm 89, we see clearly there the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 89 is messianic. It's a prophecy of the Lord Jesus. And look at the language that's being used there in Psalm 89 and verse Verse 19, Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One and said, 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. But it's not David. It's not David the king here. It's another David.

David's greater son. that one who is truly the beloved of the father the son of the father in truth and in love is the one being spoken of later verse 34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." This psalm is speaking of David's seed. who is Abraham's seed, who is the seed of the woman, this is the Lord Jesus Christ that he said before us in Psalm 89.

And God has laid help upon one that is mighty and one able to save and to save to the uttermost. And even coming back to our psalm today, Psalm 84, look at the prayer that we have there at verse 9, Behold O God our shield and look upon the face of thine anointed isn't the psalmist pleading in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ he is the anointed of the Lord he is the anointed of the Lord oh what a blessing we're not worthy of the least of God's favours and all the truth that he shows to us and what he shows to us in his words or do we want to come to God's Word and we want to find the Lord Jesus Christ we want to discover Him in Psalm 119 the psalmist says that we rejoice in the Word of God as one that has found great spoil what spoils do we find in the Word of God or do we find the Lord Jesus Christ Do we see the wonder of Christ, the person of Christ, that one who is God and yet he is man, two distinct natures and yet one glorious blessed person, the God-man, and that one who has accomplished all that is necessary to the salvation of his people, who has lived for them, who has died for them, All we can ever plead is his person, his work, his blood, his righteousness.

We have nothing of ourselves. And this is that one who is able to save all that come to God, all that come to God by him. The only way we can approach God is in and through his Son. And how he ministers to us. He giveth power to the faint, it says. to them that have no might he increases strength he said that we feel we're nothing in ourselves that was Paul's experience wasn't it? there in 2nd Corinthians 12 he confesses though I be nothing a cipher, a zero, I'm nothing but what does the Lord say? my grace is sufficient for thee my strength is made perfect in weakness says the Lord are with those who would live that life then of the pilgrim and acknowledge and confess daily that all our strength is only in the Lord our God God's is the strength of my heart and my portion forever we read in another psalm they go from strength to strength we live in that life then looking to the Lord daily for strength because we have no strength left to ourselves we're all weakness they go from strength to strength the way of man is not in himself it's not in man that walketh to direct his steps it's the Lord who has to lead us continually in that narrow way the believer's strength and his strength is in the Lord In the third place, we have to say something surely with regards to the sorrows of this man. It is a strange course. It is a perplexing path that he's walking. What do we read in the sixth verse?

He's passing through the valley of Baca. "...who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well. The rain also filleth the pools." The valley of Baca. Baker means weeping. Weeping. Oh, it's a veil of tears many times. It's a value of weeping that the believer has to walk in. And there the Lord will teach us daily. He'll teach us something concerning ourselves.

Do we not live to to prove the awful reality of our own nature that indwelling sin we have the record of course concerning the Apostles experience here in the 7th of John and I know I've heard many of the believers say I do thank God that the Apostle Paul was ever moved by the Spirit to write what he does in Romans chapter 7 Romans chapter 7 how Paul felt it, the good that I would I do not the evil that I would not that I do he felt it, it was a body of death who shall deliver me from the body of this sin he cries out I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord he says but how solemn it is when we are discovering more and more the truth of self I think it was one of the Erskines, it was either Ralph or Ebenezer Erskine, those Scots ministers back in the 18th century who said, all that I had not are myself it's myself and that's what causes us to be sorrowful in the way because of who we are and what we are and there's not only self of course, there's there's a great foe, there's Satan himself the great adversary, the tempter, the one who tempts only then to turn accuser. How we would stop our mouths when we would come before God to make our confessions. He's tempted us and we fall, and we think we'll never fall into that temptation again, and yet the tempter comes and we fall again. and then we would turn to God and we can't because we feel so so false, so hypocritical how can we keep confessing the same sins over and over or we turn to accuser you say it'll stop our mouths, we have to come and we have to acknowledge what we are, our weakness, our sinfulness what is growth in Christ? We know there is such a truth as growth in grace, that's the exhortation that we have there at the end of 2 Peter, grow in grace.

Well it's growth in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The more we grow, the more we will want a Saviour. and so I think the language, I'm no doubt the language that we have in in our articles, those gospel standard articles not a growth in conscious goodness but a growth in self-dependence that's what it is not a growth in conscious goodness as if we think well we are improving We're more sanctified today than we were yesterday. We don't feel that. It doesn't mean that there's not sanctification in the child of God. Of course there is. The Lord is doing his work in the souls of his people. But we don't like the thought of this progressive sanctification as if the old nature somehow or other is improving somewhat.

No, it's not a growth in conscious goodness, but a growth in felt necessity and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So we still find ourselves sorrowing over our sins, repenting of our sins. Oh, if we're living the life of faith, we'll know something of repentance. These things go together, don't they? Faith and repentance. Wasn't that the preaching of Christ? as we have it there in the opening chapter of Mark as he comes into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom and saying, Repent ye and believe the gospel. If we know what faith is, we'll know what repentance is because we'll be discovering something more concerning what we are in our fallen nature.

Lord, there's sorrow for the pilgrims. but ultimately and finally this morning there's the satisfaction that this pilgrim knows we have as I said earlier those songs of degrees or songs of ascents and Psalm 126 remember they that so in tears shall reap in joy either goeth forth Weeping, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. There is sorrow, but there's also rejoicing, there's satisfaction.

Is this Valley of Baker a vale of weeping? Well, what does it say there in verse 6? Who passing through the Valley of Baker, make it a well, make it a well. the rain also filleth the pools or there is a well you say even in the in the veil of tears there's a well with joy shall we draw water it says in Isaiah from the wells of salvation it's a plural it says wells not well But the reason why a plural and not a singular is used there is to indicate to us something of all that fullness of grace that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the well of salvation. He's certainly that great well of salvation. David longs for war to remember. as he came to the end of his days there in the second book of Samuel chapter 23 he expresses his desire that one would go and gather for him water from the well of Bethlehem the well of Bethlehem, now that's a name that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ You've got Cruden's Concordance, I know it's an old concordance, of course it was compiled back in the 18th century, and I still think in many ways it's the best concordance of all really, but one needs maybe another concordance like Young or Strong to go with it, but There are things in Cruden that I so like, and he has a list of the names of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I think, I can't remember now whether there are 200 or 250 names that he lists, names given to the Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture. But one of the names is the well of Bethlehem. Christ is the well of Bethlehem. Of course, Bethlehem is where he appears, the nativity. the birth of the Lord Jesus, there in that city of David. He is the well of salvation, but we draw water out of the wells, because there's such a fullness, this well. It's more than a multitude of wells.

And it's there that we find satisfaction, only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there's always something to sweeten every bitter cup. Even when the pilgrim is sorrowing over himself, is he not able then to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ? Though our cup seems filled with gall, there's something secret sweetens all, says dear Joseph Hartinissian, that lovely little couplet. There's something secret, the secret of the law. It's with them that fear him. He shows them his covenant. He reveals himself to them.

That's the happiness of the pilgrim's life. He led them forth, it says in Psalm 107, by the right word. He brought them to a city of habitation. and does he not do that? I know ultimately it's heaven itself that's the great city of habitation strangers and pilgrims in the earth and yet doesn't the Lord on occasions come to us and reveal himself to us that he gives us some foretaste of that that is in store for his blessed pilgrims or the pilgrim then he finds satisfaction he finds all his satisfaction in the person and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and there and there alone or are we those who desire that we might know more of him to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 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. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O gods of Jacob. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. The Lord be pleasing to bless these word to us. Amen.