Psalm 84
TITLE AND SUBJECT. To the Chief Musician upon Gittith. A Psalm for the sons of Korah. This Psalm well deserved to be committed to the noblest of the sons of song. No music could be too sweet for its theme, or too exquisite in sound to match the beauty of its language. Sweeter than the joy of the wine press, (for that is said to be the meaning of the word rendered upon Gittith), is the joy of the holy assemblies of the Lord's house; not even the favored children of grace, who are like the sons of Korah, can have a richer subject for the song than Zion's sacred festivals.
It matters little when this Psalm was written, or by whom; for our part, it exhales to us a Davidic perfume, it smells of the mountain heather and the lone places of the wilderness, where King David must have often lodged during his many wars. This sacred ode is one of the choicest of the collection; it has a mild radiance, entitling it to be called The Pearl of Psalms. If the twenty-third be the most popular, the one-hundred-and-third the most joyful, the one-hundred-and-nineteenth the most deeply experimental, the fifty-first the most plaintive, this is one of the most sweet of the Psalms of peace.
Pilgrimages to the Tabernacle were a great feature of Jewish life. In our own country, pilgrimages to the shrine of Thomas of Canterbury, and our Ladye of Walsingham, were so general as to affect the entire population, cause the formation of roads, the erection and maintenance of hostelries, and the creation of a special literature; this may help us to understand the influence of pilgrimage upon the ancient Israelites. Families journeyed together, making bands that grew at each halting place; they camped in sunny meadows, sang in unison along the roads, toiled together over the hill and through the slough, and as they went along, stored up happy memories that would never be forgotten. One who was debarred by the holy company of the pilgrims, and the devout worship of the congregation, would find in this Psalm fit expression for his mournful spirit.
DIVISION. We will make pauses where the poet or the musician placed them, namely, of the Selahs.
Verse 11. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. Pilgrims need both as the weather may be, for the cold would smite them were it not for the sun, and foes are apt to waylay the sacred caravan, and would haply destroy it if it were without a shield. Heavenly pilgrims are not left uncomforted or unprotected. The pilgrim nation found both sun and shield in that fiery cloudy pillar which was the symbol of Jehovah's presence, and the Christian still finds both light and shelter in the Lord his God. A sun for happy days and a shield for dangerous ones. A sun above, a shield around. A light to show the way and a shield to ward off its perils. Blessed are they who journey with such a convoy; the sunny and shady side of life are alike happy to them. The Lord will give grace and glory. Both in due time, both as needed, both to the full, and both with absolute certainty. The Lord has both grace and glory in infinite abundance; Jesus is the fulness of both, and, as his chosen people, we shall receive both as a gift from the God of our salvation. What more can the Lord give, or we receive, or desire? No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Grace makes us walk uprightly and this secures every covenant blessing to us. What a wide promise! Some apparent good may be withheld, but no real good, no, not one. "All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." God has all good, there is no good apart from him, and there is no good which he either needs to keep back or will on any account refuse us, if we are but ready to receive it. We must be upright and neither lean to this or that form of evil: and this uprightness must be practical,—we must walk in truth and holiness, then shall we be heirs of all things, and as we come of age all things shall be in our actual possession; and meanwhile, according to our capacity for receiving shall be the measure of the divine bestowal. This is true, not of a favored few, but of all the saints for evermore.
#Outreach: That the world may know
#Prayer Focus: Pray for Our Prodigals
#Praise the Lord
Please follow my blog Guam Christian Blog
Please follow my blog Guam Views Blog
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/bruce-dinsman
Bruce's Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bruce.dinsman
Featured book: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Service-4-Bruce-Dinsman-ebook/dp/B07W64BCD1
Twitter: @bad671
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinsmanbruce/
Younow: https://www.younow.com/BruceDinsman
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bdinsman/pin
#Parler #ParlerUS @pacislappraisal
No comments:
Post a Comment