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STUDIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

—INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS—

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES, WHERE THESE LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL. PUBLISHED IN ADVANCE, AT THE REQUEST OF FOREIGN READERS.

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OUR HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS

LESSON VI., MAY 8, PSALM 84:1-12

Golden Text—”Blessed are they that dwell in thy house.”—Verse 4

Verses 1 and 2. “How lovely are thy dwelling-places, O Jehovah of hosts. My soul desireth, yea, it longeth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” Thus every soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness longs to be separated from the evil of this present time and to enter that felicitous state where under God’s promised kingdom all things in heaven and in earth will praise him and have his communion, as Adam enjoyed it before his disobedience and fall from favor. Not only so, but, under the provisions of the New Covenant (sealed and made operative by the death of our Lord and Redeemer, by “the blood of the New Covenant”), his people, accepted as sons (John 1:12), become his tabernacles, his dwelling-places. As it is written, “I will dwell in them and walk in them,” and “Ye are the temple of the living God.” (2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Cor. 3:16.) And all such temples indwelt by the spirit of the truth become beautiful, lovely, amiable, in the eyes of all who have the same spirit; and thus God’s children may now have fellowship with him through each other.

Such are not only temples or tabernacles, individually, but the Church of Christ as a whole is made up of living stones in the one great Temple of the future—Christ Jesus himself being

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the chief corner-stone—the top-stone. These “living stones” are now being developed, fitted, polished, proved and selected for positions in the future glorious Temple of God. These glorious courts or dwelling-places of God will be transcendently grand; and for a place among those “overcomers,” in the immediate presence of God and with our Redeemer—where he is and like him—these are indeed the things for which our hearts and our flesh cry out.

Very different are these views of the dwelling-places of God from those generally entertained by Christian people, who, as they read these verses, will think of the ornate temples of wood and brick and stone in which they worship as the houses of God. But the Apostle declares not only that the truly consecrated saints are the living stones of God’s great future temple, and each a miniature temple, but also that “The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.”—Acts 7:48.

Verse 3. Our common version here gives the inference that sparrows and swallows built their nests in the altars of the Tabernacle and the Temple. But those familiar with the care bestowed by the priests upon the keeping of the Golden Altar will readily see that no such desecration of the sacred precincts of “The Holy” would be tolerated; while the Brazen Altar in the Court—surrounded continually by Levites—upon which sacrifices were kept burning continually, it can be seen would be one of the last places for a bird to choose for a nest in which to rear her young. Lesser’s translation is better: “Even as the sparrow hath found a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, [so have I found] thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, my God.” We must remember that this is a prophecy, representing the experiences of the head and body of the Lord’s anointed, and not representing the experiences of the prophet. The rest and peace which the saints find in the two altars is here brought to our attention. The altar in the Court speaks of the great sacrifice for sins on our behalf by our great High Priest, and the Golden Altar in the Holy speaks not only of our Lord’s overcoming and acceptableness to God, but also of our acceptableness as joint-sacrificers with him—acceptable through the merit of his sin-offering on our behalf.

Verse 4 declares the joy of all who now or ever shall enjoy a place in the Father’s house.

Verse 5 portrays the journey of the consecrated toward that heavenly home.

Verse 6 represents this present time of conflict and disappointment and sorrow—”the valley of the shadow of death,” in which, nevertheless, the holy ones may sing for joy and rejoice evermore. “Passing through the valley of weeping, they will change it to a spring: also the early rain covereth it with blessings.” The most dreary place and condition is made cheerful and endurable by the presence of those in whom God dwells by his spirit of truth and love. Not only is it blessed to such themselves, but also to all who come in contact with them comes a blessing. The early rain represents the Pentecostal blessing which followed the presentation of the great Sin-offering on our behalf

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—upon the Church. The latter rain will be the outpouring of the Millennial blessing after the great time of trouble is ended, at the second advent.

Verse 7. Here the progressiveness of the journey is shown, and the fact that it is an individual work and not a congregational or sectarian one.

Verses 10 to 12. “For better is a day in thy courts than a thousand [elsewhere]: I would rather choose to wait at the threshold of the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Here the saint is represented as waiting during the present life for admission to “the Father’s house,” and having here no rest no home. Yet even here, to such, “The Lord God is a sun and shield.” As our sun he enlightens us and fills us with a sense of his greatness and perfection, and yet through Christ he is also our shield. After realizing the divine perfection from the divine law we might indeed feel that in our own imperfection it would be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But whilst showing us the perfectness of his law he reveals to us the shield which he has provided because of our present weakness—the merit of Christ our Redeemer freely imputed to all who will accept it as their covering or shield. To such as long for his courts and who wait at his threshold and who trust in him as both their sun and shield, even now “the Lord will give favor and honor [as his children—even though mixed with tribulation, working patience, etc.], and no good thing [nothing really advantageous to such and useful to fit them for the Father’s house] will he withhold from them that walk in uprightness in this way.” Yea, verily—”O Lord of hosts, blessed the man [both now and forever] who trusteth in thee.”

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— May 1, 1892 —