Psalm 26:8

“Lord, I have loved the habitation of your house, and the place where your honor dwells.”

Between the people of God and the men of this world, there is a much broader line of distinction than is generally imagined. In the performance of outward duties there may be but little difference; but in their motives and principles and desires, they are as far asunder as Heaven and earth; yes, I had almost said, as between Heaven and Hell!

They have altogether a different taste; the one desiring heavenly things as their most delightful occupation; while the other follow them rather by constraint, and feel themselves most in their element when they are engaged in worldly company and in carnal pursuits.

The faithful servant of God enjoys the testimony of his own conscience, that he has no real delight in anything but in doing God’s will, and in enjoying his presence. David, in this respect, may serve as a looking-glass, wherein every real saint may discern his own image. He could appeal to God that he had found no pleasure in worldly company and worldly pursuits; but that his delight had been altogether in communion with his God, and in the ordinances of his grace, verse 2-5.

In order to make a suitable improvement of the assertion before us, I will show,

I. The reasons which David had for so loving the house of God.

To give a full account of them would be impossible. It may suffice to specify a few of those which operated with greater force upon his mind.

1. It was the immediate residence of God.

“I have loved,” says he, “the habitation of your house, and the place where your honor dwells.” When Moses made the tabernacle, it pleased God to come down and honor it with his more immediate presence, and to manifest his glory there in the sight of all Israel, Exodus 40:34-38. There God promised, in a more especial manner, to meet his people; saying, “You shall put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you; and there I will meet with you; and I will commune with you from above the mercy-seat, and from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment unto the children of Israel, Exodus 25:21-22.”

The same blessed privilege was given to all Israel, through the medium of their High Priest, as long as the tabernacle and the temple stood; and on numberless occasions had David reaped the benefit of this condescending and merciful appointment.

Can we wonder, then, that he should love the house of God, where he enjoyed so vast a privilege, and where such transcendent benefits were accorded to him? But we know from himself what his feelings were in relation to it, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple, Psalm 27:4.”

2. There David was enabled to worship God in the way that God himself had appointed.

Though God might be worshiped acceptably in every place—yet it was at the tabernacle alone that any sacrifice could be offered to him, or that a full access to him could be enjoyed. There alone could a sinner be sprinkled with the blood of his offering, and have the pardon of his sins thus sealed upon his soul. Hence, when David was driven from Jerusalem, and forced to take refuge in a heathen land, this was the great subject of his distress; not, that he was separated from his friends, but that he was cut off from communion with his God in the established ordinances of his worship. Hear his sad distress, “As the deer pants after the water-brooks, so my soul pants after you, O God! My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night; while they continually say unto me, Where is your God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me; for I had gone with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy-day …. As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, Where is your God? Psalm 41:1-4; Psalm 41:10.”

3. There David obtained those supplies of grace and peace which his daily necessities required.

The whole book of Psalms is little else than a record of answers to his prayers. “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings; and he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God! Psalm 40:1-3.” True, he might enjoy much of this in his own secret chamber; but it was chiefly in the house of God that he obtained these benefits. This he himself acknowledges; and he assigns it as the reason for his ardent attachment to that holy place, “How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord Almighty! My soul longs, yes, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Yes, the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young; even your altars, O Lord Almighty, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in your house; they will be still praising you …. A day in your courts is better than a thousand; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord is a sun and a shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; and no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly! Psalm 84:1-4; Psalm 84:10-11.”

The example before us might be amply sufficient to commend the house of God to our regard. But I must proceed to state:

II. The incomparably stronger reasons which we have for a similar desire for God’s ordinances.

The dispensation which we are privileged to enjoy is of a more liberal kind than that under which David lived.

1. Our access to God is more intimate.

David, though a prophet and a king, did not dare to enter into the most holy place, where God displayed his glory. Had he presumed to intrude himself there, he would have been struck dead upon the spot. Not even the high-priest could enter there but on one day in the year, and in the manner prescribed by God himself.

But we are permitted to come even to his very throne of grace, and to behold him on his mercy seat! Yes, the veil of the temple, at the time of our Savior’s death, was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and from that very moment a way of access to him has been open for all the sinners of mankind, without exception.

This is the construction put on that event by an inspired Apostle, who says, “Having, therefore, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a High-Priest over the house of God—let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith! Hebrews 10:19-22.” “The Holy Spirit himself,” I say, has taught us this in Hebrews 9:7-8. And is this no ground for love to divine ordinances? Methinks, the liberty thus accorded to us should produce in us a correspondent liberty of mind in approaching God, and an exquisite delight in drawing near unto him.

2. Our views of God are more clear.

Even the high-priest himself, when admitted into the sanctuary, could behold nothing but a bright cloud abiding on the ark between the cherubim.

But we have access to the true tabernacle, the Lord Jesus Christ, “in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily! Colossians 2:19.” “He is the image of the invisible God, Colossians 1:15,” “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, Hebrews 1:3;” and “in beholding him, we behold the Father himself, John 14:9;” yes, “as with an unveiled face we behold the glory” both of the Father and the Son! 2 Corinthians 3:18. We see “God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, 2 Corinthians 5:19,” and are enabled to call him our Father and our Friend, Galatians 4:6.

Of the attributes of God, also, we have incomparably clearer views than ever were given even to David himself. True indeed, he says that in God, “Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, Psalm 85:10.” But David had not such an insight into that mystery as we enjoy. The full discovery of God, as “a just God, and yet a justifier of ungodly men! Romans 3:26,” was reserved for us, under the Gospel dispensation; we see, not only mercy, but faithfulness and justice, engaged on our side, and pledged for the forgiveness of our sins, 1 John 1:9.

His purposes, too, how marvelously are they unraveled, and with what distinctness are they exhibited to our admiring eyes! Things which no eye ever saw, or ear heard, or heart conceived, under the Jewish economy—are revealed unto us by the Spirit; so that, from eternity to eternity, we can behold the designs of God unfolded:

first, as they were originally concerted between the Father and the Son in eternity past;

then as executed by Christ Jesus in his incarnate and glorified state;

and, lastly, as they will be consummated at the day of judgment.

Say, then, whether we should not delight in drawing near to God, and having our souls filled with these heavenly contemplations? If the shadow of these things so endeared the house of God to David—then what should the substance of them effect in our hearts?

3. Our communications from God are more abundant.

Doubtless David was most highly favored by the Lord; and “God was very abundant towards him, both in faith and love, 1 Timothy 1:14.” But still we cannot yield to him, no, not even to him, in the privileges we enjoy. The Holy Spirit was not then “poured out so abundantly” as he has since been upon the servants of the Lord, John 7:39. Titus 3:6. To us he is given as “a Spirit of adoption, Romans 8:15,” and as “a witness” to testify of that adoption, Romans 8:16; and as “a seal,” to mark us for the Lord’s peculiar treasure, Ephesians 1:13-14. The servile spirit of the Law is altogether banished from us, and we are “made free indeed, John 8:36.”

With what exalted views are we sometimes favored, when we behold the Lord Jesus Christ:

actually bearing our sins in his own body on the tree,

and pleading our cause at the right hand of God,

and ordering everything, both in Heaven and earth, for our welfare,

and preparing a mansion in Heaven for us, himself taking possession of it for us as our forerunner,

and shortly about to come again in his own person to invest us with all the glory he has purchased for us, even a participation of his own throne, his own kingdom, and his own glory!

What is all this, but “a pledge” of Heaven itself already begun in the soul!

Yet all this is given to us frequently under the ministry of the Word, and at the table of the Lord; insomuch that we seem caught up, as it were, into the third heavens, and scarcely know whether we are in the body or out the body, by reason of the brightness of our views, and the blessedness of our souls.

I do not mean to say that this is the experience of all, nor of any at all times; but I do say, that it is the privilege of all; and that it is our own fault if we do not actually possess it; and that the hope of gratifying our taste with these rich dainties cannot fail of endearing to us the house where this feast is provided for us! Isaiah 25:6-8.

It will now, in conclusion, be profitable to inquire,

1. Why it is that this experience is so rare.

It must be confessed that there are but few who thus delight in the ordinances of God. But why is this? Would they not be alike precious to all, if all desired to make a suitable improvement of them? The truth is, that the generality of people attend them only as a mere form, without any consciousness of the ends for which they have been appointed. What if we viewed them as our mother’s bosom, to which we as babes were invited for the nourishment of our souls? What if we came to them, “desiring the sincere and unadulterated milk of the word, that we might grow thereby! 1 Peter 2:2.” Truly we would then find such communications from the Lord Jesus, as would fill us with unutterable joy! John 4:10; John 7:37-38.

But we do not feel our need of mercy;

we have no genuine desire after the Savior;

we are content with a religion which consists in mere form, without any power.

No wonder, then, that the house of God has no charms for us. True, indeed, people may affect divine ordinances, just as they would a fine concert, on account of the eloquence of the person by whom they are administered, Ezekiel 33:31-32. Or they may set a value on them as means of fostering a pride of their own goodness, Isaiah 58:2. But as means of access to God, and as a medium of communion with him, they find no real delight in them. To enter into the experience of David, and obtain a conformity of mind to his vital religion, must be our one great and paramount concern. If once Christ becomes our supreme joy, whatever brings us near to him, and him near to us—will be “as marrow and fatness to our souls!”

2. What are the prospects of those in whom this godly experience is found.

Truly, the godly are most blessed among men. They need not envy any other people upon earth. They possess what is far superior to all the delights of sense.

View a man at the footstool of the Most High; view even the poor publican, who, through a consciousness of his own extreme unworthiness, dared not so much as to lift up his eyes to Heaven. Who that knows with what delight Almighty God beheld him, and with what pleasure he listened to his sighs, and treasured up his tears in his vial—would not think the state of his soul, and the prospects of Heaven that were before him, to be truly blessed?

The truth is, that every such person has “his sins put away from him, as far as the east is from the west;” and “his name is written in the Lamb’s book of life!” For every such person is prepared “a crown of glory, that never fades away.”

He now beholds his God by faith; and soon shall he behold him face to face.

He now draws near to God in a temple made with hands; and he shall soon commune with him in his glorious temple above!

He now pours forth his prayers and praises at such intervals as the infirmity of his nature will admit of; and he soon shall engage in praising God, without infirmity or interruption, to all eternity!

Charles Simeon