I.　The deeper love and sweeter experience of the house ofGod in Psalm 84 come after the experience of God's dealingand stripping and are recovered by the experience ofGod as our unique portion and by Christ being given theunique position—vv. 1-12; 73:17, 25-26; 80:15, 17; Col. 1:17a, 18b:

A.　God's purpose in dealing with His holy people is that theywould be emptied of everything to receive only God as theirgain and be rebuilt with the Divine Trinity to become themasterpiece of God, fulfilling God's eternal economy for Hisexpression—Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9-11; 2:10.

B.　God is faithful to take away all our idols and to lead us intoHis economy for us to enjoy Christ so that He may have arecovery purely and wholly of the person of Christ—1 Cor. 1:9;1 John 5:21; cf. Jer. 2:13; Lam. 3:22-24.

II.　The intrinsic content of Psalm 84 is the secret revelationconcerning the enjoyment of Christ as the incarnatedTriune God, the God-man—Col. 2:9; 1:12:

A.　The center of this secret revelation is the house of God (Psa.84:4, 10a), typified by the tabernacle (Exo. 40:2-8) and by thetemple (1 Kings 6:1-3; 8:3-11).

B.　Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) is thefulfillment of the types of the tabernacle and the temple:

1.　This fulfillment commenced in His incarnation as theindividual Christ (John 1:14; 2:21) and will continue (1 Tim.3:15-16) until it consummates in the New Jerusalem as thecorporate Christ, the great God-man (Rev. 21:2-3, 22).

2.　The New Testament, from Matthew through Revelation,covers the entire span of the incarnation of the Triune Godand is a record of the divine incarnation.

3.　The enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God inGod's house is portrayed by the arrangement of the tabernacleand its furnishings (see diagram).

III.　The Psalmist's longing and even fainting to be in God'stabernacles indicates to what extent the Psalmist lovedGod's tabernacles; this 1ove was matured through manytrials—Psa. 84:2.

IV.　"At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God"—v. 3:

A.　The two altars—the bronze altar for the sacrifices and thegolden altar of incense—signify the leading consummationsof the work of the incarnated Triune God, who is Christ as theembodiment of God for His increase—Exo. 40:5-6:

1.　At the bronze altar, a type of the cross of Christ, our problemsbefore God are solved through the crucified Christ asthe sacrifices; this qualifies us to enter into the tabernacle,a type of Christ as the incarnated and enterable TriuneGod, and to contact God at the incense altar (the bronzealtar for the sacrifices is related to God's judicial redemptionaccomplished by Christ in His earthly ministry)—Rom. 5:10a; 8:3; Heb. 9:14; 7:27; 10:10.

2.　At the golden altar of incense in front of the Holy of Holies(9:4), the resurrected Christ in His ascension is the incensefor us to be accepted by God in peace; through our prayerat the incense altar we enter into the Holy of Holies—ourspirit—where we experience Christ as the Ark of the Testimonywith its contents (the golden altar of incense isrelated to God's organic salvation carried out by Christ inHis heavenly ministry)—Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; 9:24; 10:19.

3.　Through such an experience of Christ we are incorporatedinto the tabernacle, the incarnated Triune God, to becomea part of the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12) as God's testimonyfor His manifestation.

B.　Through these two altars God's redeemed, the "sparrows" and"swallows," can find a nest as their refuge and a home withGod in rest—cf. Psa. 90:1; 91:1:

1.　The cross of Christ, typified by the bronze altar, is our"nest," our refuge, where we are saved from our troublesand where we "lay" our young, that is, produce new believersthrough the preaching of the gospel.

2.　When we experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension,typified by the golden altar of incense, we are acceptedby God in such a Christ and find a home, a place of rest, inthe house of God.

3.　This house is the processed and consummated Triune Godunited, mingled, and incorporated with all His redeemed,regenerated, and transformed elect (John 14:1-23) to be theBody of Christ in the present age and the New Jerusalemas the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed ineternity (Rev. 21:3, 22).

V.　"Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / They will yetbe praising You. Selah... / O Jehovah of hosts, blessed isthe man / Who trusts in You"—Psa. 84:4, 12:

A.　In type, the house is the church as a totality (1 Tim. 3:15), andthe tabernacles (Psa. 84:1) are the local churches (Rev. 1:11).

B.　Praising the Lord should be our living, and our church lifeshould be a life of praising—Psa. 22:3; 50:23; 1 Thes. 5:16-19;Phil. 4:4, 11-13.

C.　In the church life we trust in God, not in ourselves or in ournatural human ability to work out a solution to our difficultsituations—2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12.

VI.　"Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whoseheart are the highways to Zion"—Psa. 84:5; cf. Phil. 4:13;John 15:5:

A.　The highways to Zion signify our intention to enter into thechurch as the house of God and are the blessed highways forseeking the incarnated Triune God in His consummations,typified by the furniture in the tabernacle—Heb. 10:19-22.

B.　On the one hand, we have entered into God; on the otherhand, we are still on the highways to enter into God.

C.　That the highways to Zion are in our heart means that weneed to take the way of the church internally, not merely externally;when we are deeply in the inner life, we will certainly bein the way of the church; the highways to Zion will be withinour heart—cf. 1 John 1:3-4.

D.　Zion is the very spot where God is, the Holy of Holies; theovercomers become Zion, and the Lord's recovery is to buildup Zion—Rev. 21:16; cf. Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20; Rev. 2:7.

VII.　"Passing through the valley of Baca, / They make it aspring; / Indeed the early rain covers it with blessings"—Psa. 84:6:

A.　Baca means "weeping"; on the one hand, those on the highwaysto Zion are strengthened in God (v. 5); on the otherhand, they are opposed by Satan, who causes them to sufferpersecution.

B.　The trouble and persecution caused by Satan can make thehighways a valley of weeping; this special term indicates thatthe Psalmist had been disciplined by God and had beenstripped by Him.

C.　The highways to Zion are not external, superficial, or cheap;we must pay a price to take the way of the church—Phil. 3:7-8;Matt. 25:9; Rev. 3:18; Acts 20:19, 31; Psa. 56:8.

D.　When we pass through the valley of Baca, God makes thisvalley a spring (cf. Col. 1:24; Heb. 10:34); this spring is theSpirit (John 4:14; 7:38-39).

E.　The more we weep on the highways to Zion, the more wereceive the Spirit; while we are weeping, we are being filledwith the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes our spring.

F.　Those who come into the church life by passing through thevalley of weeping find that this weeping eventually becomesa great blessing to them; this blessing is the Spirit.

G.　The tears they shed are their own, but these tears issue in aspring, which becomes the early rain, the Spirit as the blessing—Zech. 10:1; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:3.

VIII.　"They go from strength to strength; / Each appears beforeGod in Zion... / For a day in Your courts is better than athousand; / I would rather stand at the threshold of thehouse of my God / Than dwell in the tents of the wicked. /For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield; / Jehovah givesgrace and glory"—Psa. 84:7, 10-lla:

A.　The more we go on in the church life, the more strength wewill gain—cf. Prov. 4:18; 2 Cor. 3:18.

B.　If our service is intrinsically according to God's will in thechurch life, each day will be worth many days in God's eyes—Joel 2:25a.

C.　The blessings of our dwelling in the house of God are ourenjoyment of the incarnated and consummated Triune God asour sun to supply us with life (John 1:4; 8:12), as our shield toprotect us from God's enemy (Eph. 6:11-17), as grace for ourinward enjoyment (John 1:14, 17), and as glory for the outwardmanifestation of God in splendor (Rev. 21:11, 23).