Sermon 3294. The Lord's Eternal Rest

(No. 3294)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1912.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 22, 1886.

"This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it" Psalm 132:14.

THESE are the words of Jehovah Himself concerning the hill of Zion, but it is clear that He did not intend us to understandthem merely in their literal reference to Zion, because Zion could not be a fitting place for His eternal rest. Nor has Hemade it literally His rest forever, for Zion has been trodden down of the Gentiles for all these centuries. I have no doubtthat the Lord had in His mind the greater Zion, "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem...the general assemblyand church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven." The eternal God, looking down from His Throne of Glory upon allthe creatures He has made, selects His Church-elect, blood-bought, called, preserved and sanctified, and He says concerningthis Church-"This is my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it."

We would never have ventured to conceive of God as finding rest in such puny creatures as we are. However beloved, and howeverfilled with His Spirit, it would seem too great a thing for the Creator ever to rest in His creature! Yet it is true thatthis is where He finds His rest. It is concerning the redeemed souls who make up the Church of Christ that He says, "Thisis my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it."

I must, at the outset, confess my inability to dive into the depths of this subject. I can only, as it were, flit across itssurface as the swallow with swift wings skims over the brook. I am going to ask, first, about God finding rest in His ChurchThen about the duration of that rest And in closing, I want to say a few practical words concerning our finding rest whereGod finds rest.

I. First, then, let us think of GOD FINDING REST IN HIS CHURCH.

He does this, in the first place, because in His Church all the three Divine Persons of the Trinity are honored. A man doesnot find rest in anything which gratifies only one part of his nature. Therefore it can truly be said to Christians concerningthis world, "This is not your rest," for whatever gratification it may yield to the body, it can never satisfy our soul. Ifthere were in the Church of God honor only for God the Father, but none for God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, it couldnever be the Lord's eternal rest. But, Beloved, when the Father looks upon the Church, He views with delight His own chosenchildren and sees His eternal purposes accomplished in them! He thinks of the Covenant into which He entered with His dearSon on their behalf, and of the Atonement which He gave for them when He gave His only-begotten Son to die as their Substituteand Surety. As for God the Son-when He looks upon the Church, He beholds those for whom He paid the ransom price on Calvary-everymember of that Church He has purchased with His own blood and, therefore, He looks upon them with peculiar complacency. Asfor God the Holy Spirit, He-

" Takes delight to view

The holy souls He formed anew." As He gazes upon them, He sees the gracious results of His regenerating energy and He restsin holy contemplation. I hope, Beloved, you will never exalt one member of the ever-blessed Trinity above either of the rest-itis quite a mistake to ascribe the work of salvation entirely to the Father, or to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit. In the firstCreation, it is most emphatically true that God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." The first Creationwas the work of Deity as a whole, and so is the new Creation! And for both we may most justly sing-

"Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

All are equally concerned in perfecting the Church, the true Zion, and therefore God, in the Trinity in Unity-Father, Son,and Spirit-says concerning the Church, "This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it."-

"Arise, O King of Grace, arise,

And enter to Your rest!

Lo, Your Church waits with longing eyes,

Thus to be owned and blest.

Enter with all Your glorious train,

Your Spirit and your Word-

All that the Ark did once contain

Could no such Grace afford." Just think for a minute or two what this rest of God is. Is it the entire cessation from toil?When we do nothing, but sit still in listless inactivity, that cessation from toil may yield us a measure of rest, but itis not rest of a kind that we could long love-certainly it is not such rest as we should wish to enjoy forever! We would bein a most restless state if we had nothing to do! We would soon be worn out with the weariness of living an aimless, purposelesslife. I believe the truest state of rest is when a man has just as much to do as he can perform with ease. If your mind doesnot think at all, it is in a coma or in a sort of fainting fit. But when it is occupied with pleasing themes, not workingout difficult problems, but meditating upon simple themes which you can easily understand, then it is at rest! Perhaps yousit down quietly by the fire and indulge in what we call day-dreams-your mind is active all the while, yet its activity doesnot prevent it from resting. Heaven is a place and state of perfect rest, yet it is not the rest of silence and stagnation!In one sense, they rest not day nor night, yet they serve God continually-and that is perfect rest!

It is in His Church that God finds His rest, for it is there that He finds work exactly adapted to His infinite capacities.The blessedness of God must consist partly in His activity-what an active Being God is! There is not a cloud that flies acrossthe sky of which He is not the pilot. How busily He worked in creating the heavens and the earth and all that they contain,yet He never rested in them for the visible creation is too narrow a couch to provide a resting place for the Eternal! Butwhen He comes to the mightier work of Redemption and reveals the combined Majesty of His Justice and sublimity of His lovein those whom He forms anew, then He is engaged in a task that occupies those attributes which He most delights to exercise!And therefore He says to His Church, "This is My rest forever: here will I dwell." When He made the earth, "the morning starssang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy." But you never read that God sangat the Creation. It is when He isworking in the higher sphere that He says to Zion, the Church of His choice, "The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty;He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over you with singing." In the newCreation He finds such rest as the old Creation never could afford Him. We know so little of the Infinite God that we mustspeak with due humility and reticence concerning these great mysteries, yet it seems to me that in the making of those whoshall show forth His praise forever, He is doing a work in which He especially delights and in which He, therefore, restsand rejoices as He does in nothing else!

Further, He rests in His Church because He sees, there, His eternal purposes fulfilled. Whenever a soul is saved, God sees,there, another of His Divine decrees accomplished. And that affords His heart rest-to speak after the manner of men-and wecannot speak in any other way. As, one by one, those who were chosen by Him unto eternal life, those whom He gave in Covenantto His Son, those who were redeemed by that Son's precious blood are delivered from the Egyptian bondage of sin, conductedsafely through the howling wilderness waste of this world and carried across the Jordan of death into the Canaan of heavenlyrest, God sees His eternal purposes fulfilled and therein He finds most blessed rest! When the entire Church of God shallhave been brought, safe and perfected, to His right hand in Glory, then will He say, in the words of our text, "This is Myrest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." I must confess that I do not understand the condition of mind ofthose brethren who are not able to perceive in the Scriptures a clear Revelation concerning the purposes of God in the salvationof His elect. It would be strange if the work of Grace were left to chance. An architect would not permit an important buildinglike St. Paul's, for instance, to be erected according to the whims and fancies of the individual workers employed! He wouldnot leave to the freewill of every laborer the decision as to where each pillar should be placed, or what stone and othermaterials should be used in the building-he has everything done according to the plan that he designed before the work wascommenced! And shall not the Most High, who is building a habitation for Himself, have it erected in harmony with the planthat He had prepared from all eternity? I

think, Brothers and Sisters, it is because God has planned what His Church is to be and because that plan will be exactlyfollowed until the whole building is complete, that the Lord says concerning it, "This is My rest forever: here will I dwell;for I have desired it."

Then, in the next place, have we not in the Church of God almighty energies rewarded?God rested on the seventh day becauseCreation's work was done. And God rests in His Church in so far as it also is a finished work. Every soul saved by Grace,every soul brought home to Glory is the result and the reward of almighty labor. He who spoke and it was done in the makingof the material world made not His Church so easily. It was with His word that He made this world, but it was the IncarnateWord that was necessary to the new creation! No blood needed to be spilt for the making of this earth in all its pristinebeauty and glory, but the new heavens and the new earth could be cemented by nothing less than the product of almighty suffering!The Church of God is a most wonderful fabric upon which not only have the purposes of God been exercised from all eternity,but "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" has been at work to accomplish this marvel of marvels which shall set all Heavenablaze with astonishment when it is at last complete and perfect! For many centuries stroke upon stroke from God's hand andinstruments has been telling upon the rough block of marble, and when the last touch shall have been given to it, and thework appears in all its Glory and beauty before the eyes of God, He will rest, just as a skilled workman does in the successfulaccomplishment of some great task which he has undertaken and which he regards as his masterpiece.

Best of all, however, is the next reason why God rests in His Church! That is because it is the reward of stupendous suffering.We are told that "the Lord smelled a sweet savor" when Noah offered burnt offerings after he came out of the ark. The marginalreading is "a savor of rest." And when God is dealing with sinners, now, He finds no savor of rest except in the Sacrificeof His dear Son! All the world over the spirit of Justice flew in search of a righteous man, but the only result of that longsearch was the verdict, "There is none righteous, no, not one." Justice next looked to see if there was any helper who coulddeliver the guilty, but none could be found until she turned her eyes to the Cross where hung the Son of God in extreme agonies.And as she marked the falling blood, the bowed head and the crown of thorns-and heard the Voice that said, "It is finished,"she rested! Her long quest was over, for she had found the One who was Himself perfectly righteous and who was, therefore,able to deliver the guilty by the full and complete Atonement that He offered for their Redemption. The Son of God takes delightin His Church because He sees that in her, all His pains and agonies have yielded to Him a glorious harvest! And God the Father,who smote His Son so heavily when He took the place of His sinful people, delights in His Church because He sees in her afull reward for all that His well-beloved Son endured.

Then do you not think that God finds rest in His Church because of the relationships there developed?Where do you find rest,dear Friends? You not only rest in the garden which you have planted, and in the house which you have with a great effort,bought-but your choicest rest is found with the children whom you so fondly love. There is no stranger in the family circle!The door is closed, the fire is burning brightly and now is mother's time for rest, and father's time for joy, for there areonly loved ones around the hearth. The merchant comes home from the counting-house where he has been on the watch all daylest he should be deceived and over-reached. But he can come down from his watchtower, now, for he has no fear of being deceivedin the family circle. The judge has been sternly administering the law while he has been upon the bench, but He lays asideall his sternness when he takes off his robes of office and gathers his children around him. The toiling laborer wipes thesweat from his brow and gladly rests at home among those whom he loves. "Perfect love casts out fear," and fear is like athorn in our nest-it prevents us from resting. But when "perfect love" comes, then we are perfectly at our ease. When youare at home, you may say what you will, and do what you please- there are none to slander and align you there. You do notsay all you feel in the presence of your servants-they are faithful and true, but you do not tell them all that is in yourheart. It is when you are among your children that you feel free and unrestrained. So it is with God! Not even among the angelsdoes God find His rest-bright and perfect beings though they are, they are but ministering spirits waiting in the great Templeof God to render service to the saints! But here, where He sees His own likeness in every blood-bought soul. Here where Hesees those whom He has begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead-here it is thatHe feels at home and finds His rest! Do not think that I am speaking too boldly when I use the family metaphor to illustratethis great Truth of God, for I am but following the example of our Lord Jesus, Himself, when He said, "If you then, beingevil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good thingsto them that ask Him?" He rejoices over the son who was dead, and is alive again-who was lost, and is found-and because Heis our Father, and we are His children, He says of us and of the whole company of His redeemed, "This is My rest forever:here will I dwell; for I have desired it."

II. Now I am to speak briefly concerning THE DURATION OF GOD'S REST IN HIS CHURCH. "This is My rest

forever."

Then this proves that there will always be a Church of God. There are certain persons who are constantly subject to greatfear and their fears make them quiver and shake-and then they imagine that God's Church is quivering and shaking, which isa very different matter! They hold up their hands, and cry, "Alas! Alas! The Church is in danger!" Well, some particular church,designed by men, may be in danger, but I do not believe that the Church of God is, or ever was, or ever will be in danger!It is thought by some that Popery will swallow the Church of Christ just as the whale swallowed Jonah. But if it should doso, the Church would come back again as surely as Jonah was cast up upon the dry land! There is no sword fashioned that cansmite the Church of God, nor will there ever be one! There will be a Church as long as there is a world-and when this worldis burned up, the Church shall shine more brightly than ever-and it shall keep on shining to all eternity, and be a rest forGod forever-

"Glorious things of you are spoken,

Zion, city of our God!

He whose word cannot be broken,

Formed you for His own abode:

On the Rock of Ages founded,

What cam shake your sure repose?

With salvation's walls surrounded,

You may smile at all your foes." Further, there will always be a Church with God in it, and such a Church as God can restin. Some people think that there is no church of which they can comfortably be members. But, dear Friends, there is a Churchof which Jesus Christ is a member, for He is the Head of it! And if you cannot be members of any visible church, be not contentunless you are members of that Church in which God rests forever, for that is always a pure Church! You sometimes hear a greatdeal about Apostolic succession-it is a gross lie as it is generally understood, but in itself it is a great Truth of God.The Apostolic succession may be very clearly traced through the Novatians, Donatists, Lollards, Albigenses, Waldenses, Anabaptistsand Huguenots, right down to the Christians of various denominations that exist today. There is a true line that never enteredthe Stygian bog of Rome! A pure silver stream which has flowed down to us right from the times of the Apostles! There alwayshas been a Church in which God could dwell and there always will be a Church that shall be His dwelling place! You know thatChrist prayed, "Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are." AndI do not believe that Christ prayed any prayer that will not be answered in due time! More than that, I believe that the Churchof Christ is one now. "Oh, but!" says someone, "look at the many divisions and denominations that there are!" Yes, I knowabout them, but the only true unity is that of the spiritually quickened souls that form the Mystical Body of Christ. Whateverdivision there may be among them at present is only external-if we could see beneath the surface and judge as God judges-weshould perceive that in the truly vital matters, they are one. Being one with Christ, they are also one with each other. Wemust look less and less to mere externals, and think more and more of that which is spiritual, for it is only in the invisibleand spiritual Church of Christ that God finds rest. I do not believe that He finds rest in the Baptist denomination, or inthe Independent, or in the Church of England, as such-He finds His rest in all the saved to whatever denomination they maybelong! His rest is not in great human organizations, but in those whom His Grace has called-who are already one in ChristJesus!

Another inference that I draw from the text is that the Church of God will always be secure. "Here will I dwell," says theLord. And there would be no rest for Him if the enemy could be continually scaling the ramparts, damaging the walls and carryingaway His people as captives. A king within his capital could not rest if one suburb after another fell into the hands of hisfoes. The rest of a shepherd would be effectually broken if he heard a lion scrunching the bones of any of his sheep, or ifa wolf seized even one of the lambs of his flock. When the Lord says, "This is My rest forever," He seems to me

to guarantee the eternal security of every soul that is in the true Church of Christ. All who are in the Church which Jesusbought with His precious blood must be perfectly safe forever-

"The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

He will not, He will not desert to His foes!

That soul, though all Hell should endeavor to shake,

He'll never, no never, no never forsake!" There may be many in any part of the visible church who will perish, but there shallnever be one who is truly a member of the Church of the living God who shall be lost! I started a little, the other night,when a Brother said that once we are brought into the Church, we are safe forever. But when he went on to show that by theexpression, "the Church," he meant what God means by those words, I fully agreed with him! This is the Zion of which Jehovahsays, "This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." And it is His rest because He knows that all whoare within it are safe forever! At the last, Jesus will be able to say to His Father, "Of all whom You gave Me have I lostnone."

I also infer from the text that the whole Church will be eternally glorified, otherwise God could not say of it, "This isMy rest forever." The living stones that are to form the "habitation of God through the Spirit," are being quarried, fashionedand polished here below-and one by one they are being transported to the holy hill above. And so, "all the building fitlyframed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord." And when it is complete, He will say, "Here will I dwell forever."The eternal duration of the Church's blessedness ought to be a theme of greater consideration and rejoicing than it is. Thinkof it, Beloved, that the great God will forever find His rest in you and in others like you who have been redeemed by theprecious blood of His dear Son! Does not this make time seem a mere trifle, and earth but a tiny speck scarcely worthy ofour notice? Then, as you are forever and ever to be the object of Divine delight, cannot you see that you must alwayshavebeen so? Oh, revel in this thought, that every blood-bought soul shall eternally be the temple and abode of God, Himself,and that all of them united in one shall be His rest forever!

III. Now we are to close with a few practical words concerning OUR FINDING REST WHERE GOD FINDS REST.

God finds His rest in His Church. Is that where we find our rest? I wonder how many here could truly repeat the language ofDr. Watts-

"Let others choose the sons of mirth To give a relish to their wine. I love the men of heavenly birth, Whose thoughts andlanguage are Divine.

Do you, dear Friends find rest in the company of God's chosen people? The ungodly do not. If some gracious person should goto their house and begin talking about the mysteries of the Cross, their impatient glances at the clock would soon show thatsuch a theme was a weariness to them. When they go up to the place where God's people meet, to worship Him, the shorter theservice is the better they like it! And the reason is that they do not savingly know the Lord. A man without sight would notbe likely to be very much charmed in a picture gallery. And a man who was stone-deaf would not be very delighted with thegrandest oratorio that was ever performed! In like manner, we cannot expect that those who have no spiritual sense can finddelight in the company of God's people. But how different it is with the man who is really saved! He can say, with David,of the saints that are in the earth, that they are "the excellent, in whom is all my delight." A good old saint, whom I wentto see on her dying bed, said to me, "It always gives me comfort, Sir, to think that God is not likely to send me to dwellwith the wicked, for I never liked their society here. I believe He will let me go with my own company and I have always keptcompany with His people since I have learned to know Him." I assured her that I believed it would be so. It is a sign of Gracewhen we find rest with those who are really spiritual because they are spiritual. You may love some saints of God, yet itmay be no sign of Grace on your part-there may be something specially lovable about them so that you cannot help loving themor you may have received some temporal kindness from them and, therefore, love them for purely natural reasons. But it isa very different matter when we can say, with John- "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love thebrethren." Some of us can truthfully declare that our happiest hours are those that we expound with the saints of God! Andwe can fully sympathize with Dr. Watts when he says-

"My soul shall pray for Zion still, While life or breath remains; There my best Friends, my kindred dwell, There God my Saviorreigns.

God says of His Church, "This is My rest forever," and we can say the same. I cannot say that concerning any visible church-Ishould not like to have to rest forever in any portion of the church on earth! But in union with the redeemed in Glory, Ican rest! When I think of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When I read the lives of Prophets and Apostles. When I turn to more moderntimes and think of Calvin, and Luther, and Zwingli, and Berridge, and Wesley, and Whitefield, and a host of others, I cansay, "Ah, let me once get into their company and then I shall feel, 'This is my rest forever.' I do not need anything morethan this except to be in the Master's own company!" Oh, what rest it will be to be with Him! This is our rest even now-tobe with Him! And to be forever with Him will be the perfection of rest-

"Let me be with You, where You are,

My Savior, my eternal rest!

Then only will this longing heart

Be fully and forever blest"

Do you not think that Abel must have felt very strange when he went to Heaven? How startled the angels must have been whenthey saw the first soul redeemed by blood in Glory all by himself! I think they must have hushed their songs awhile to askall about him. Here was a man come to sing in Heaven, to chant before the Eternal Throne the praises of a Sacrifice greaterthan any that he had offered! Yes, but Abel could not have felt perfectly at rest, for Paul tells us that the Church in Heavenwill not be made perfect without us. When another and yet another joined Abel in Heaven, I think it must have increased hishappiness. And now, as others keep on going Home, the glorified saints welcome them with exceeding joy, for they all feelthat their bliss will not be perfect until every redeemed soul is gathered there with them and the whole of the shining ranksare filled! Then, when all shall be there, each one of them will say, as God Himself now says, "This is my rest forever: herewill I dwell; for I have desired it."

I wonder if there are any here who will never find rest in the Church of the First-Born which are written in Heaven? If youwant to get into the Church of God, do you know the way to get in? You say, "I must come before the Elders." No, no-that isthe way to get into our Church, here, but not into the invisible Church above! "Well, then, I must be baptized." No, thatis the ordinance for you afteryou have entered the Church of God. "Well, then, how am I to get in?" He whose hand was piercedsays, I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." The only doorto the Church of God is Jesus Christ! Trust to His precious blood sprinkled upon the altar to give you access to and acceptancewith God-and having that blood sprinkled upon yourself, you may venture to draw near even to the Eternal, for you shall be"accepted in the Beloved." God grant that it may be so, for Jesus sake! Amen.

[See Sermon #3287, Volume 58-THE ONLY DOOR.]

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM132.

A Song of Degrees.

1. LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions. God had entered into an Everlasting Covenant with David, "ordered in allthings and sure," and in this Psalm either David, himself, or some of his people or descendants pleaded that Covenant in timeof affliction and trial. "Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions." The Lord would not forget either David or his people,yet it pleased Him for them to come before Him in prayer and to remind Him of the Covenant that He had made with His servant.Using this prayer in a Gospel sense, we bow before the Lord and cry, "Lord, remember Jesus, the Son of David, and all Hisafflictions! Remember all that He endured as His people's Substitute, and have pity upon us for His sake, as we plead thatEternal Covenant which You have made with Him on our behalf." That an-

cient Covenant was made with David and the far more ancient Covenant of Grace was made with great David's greater Son," ourLord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

2-5. Howhe swore unto the LORD, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house,nor up into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, until I find out a place for the LORD, anhabitation for the mighty God of Jacob. David remembered that he had built himself a palace, but he wished even more ardentlyto build a palace for his God-a house for the celebration of His worship-"an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." Butwhere can a worthy house be built for God? Where can there be made a fit dwelling place for the Most High? He fills all things,yet all things cannot contain Him! There is but one dwelling place of God- it is in Christ Jesus, for "in Him dwells all thefullness of the Godhead bodily." Oh, how we ought to thank God that He has provided Himself a fitting dwelling place in thePerson of His dear Son, in whom all Believers are also built together for a habitation of God through the Holy Spirit! Asfor the Ark of the Covenant, it had long ago in David's day dwelt in obscurity.

6. Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the woods. [See Sermon #2590, Volume 44-hearing, seeking,

FINDING.] God is willing to dwell in the woods. Many a time He

does so. In many a cottage far removed from the haunts of men, God is found-and to many a backwoodsman God is as near as Heis to those who worship Him in temples or cathedrals. "We found it in the fields of the woods."

7. We will go into His tabernacles: we will worship at His footstool This Psalm is called "A Song of degrees." Notice thesteps here described. We heard of it, we found it, we will go into it, we will worship in it! It is a good thing when in ourprayers and praises, we ascend step by step-not on the steppingstones of our dead selves which are pieces of rubbish-but bythe living steppingstones upon which the ever-living Spirit helps us to rise tier above tier, His own almighty hand helpingus continually to rise higher and higher!

8. Arise, O LORD into Your rest; You and the ark of Your strength. Let us pray that the Lord may constantly find rest in themidst of His people. He finds rest in them because they are one with His well-beloved Son. Come, Lord, at this moment, andtake Your rest in the midst of this assembly and make us all rest in You!

9. And let Your priests be clothed with righteousness. This is the best robe for all God's holy ones who are priests and kingsunto Him. This is better than snow white linen or robes decked with crimson and gold!

9. And let Your saints shout for joy.The worship of God should be very gladsome and even demonstrative. We may shout. Sometimesthe overflowing of joy demands more than ordinary expression, therefore we pray, "Let Your holy ones shout for joy."

10. For Your servant David's sake turn not away the face of Your Anointed. Much more may we ask this for our Lord Jesus Christ'ssake. O God, remember Your Son, our Lord and our King, and for His sake look in love and pity upon us today,

11. 12. The LORD has sworn in truth unto David, He will not turn from it I will set upon the throne the fruit of your body.If your children will keep My covenant and My testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon your throneforevermore. Long did the house of David reign over Israel. But they proved unfaithful, and therefore the scepter passed outof their hands. But it is still in the hand of another Son of David. In a spiritual sense Jesus Christ has a throne and adominion that shall know no end-

"Jesus shall reign wherever the sun Does its successive journeys run; His kingdom stretches from shore to shore, Till moonsshall wax and wane no more."

13. For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desiredit for His habitation. The literal Zion was the Lord's habitation for a time,but the spiritual Zion will be His dwelling place throughout eternity!

14. This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desiredit. God rest in His people. The whole company of the redeemedshall be His abiding place forever!

15. I will abundantly bless her provision: will satisfy her poor with bread. God sends the necessary provision for His people,and sends His blessing with it. We are so poor that we have not even spiritual bread for our souls to eat unless He

gives it to us. But here is His gracious promise, "I will satisfy her poor with bread." This He will do both literally andspiritually.

ver prayer, but here, in this 16t verse, we have a golden answer. The prayer of the Psalmist was, "Let your saints shout forjoy." The Lord's answer is, "Her saints shall shout aloud for joy." God always gives good measure, pressed down, and runningover. Often we have not because we ask not, or because we ask amiss. His command to each one of us is, "Open your mouth wide."And His promise is, "I will fill it." If you ask great things of Him, He will give you yet greater things for He is "ableto do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."

17. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for My Anointed. Oh, that today the horn of David mightagain bud! May every Believer in Jesus feel the life of God reviving within Him, and in many a case where there is no spirituallife at all, may life Divine begin today! Pray for it, Beloved-and then look for it, and you shall surely see it!

18. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon Himself shall His crown flourish. We have no King but Jesus and His crownis always flourishing. It sits well upon a blessed head. Let us crown Him once again this day with our gladsome praise andthanksgiving!

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