PSALM 92—THE RESULTS OF TAKING GOD AS OUR DWELLING PLACE
Psalm 92 shows the result of taking God as our dwelling place. When we and the Lord Jesus take God as our home, the issue firstly is that we will sing praises. “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High” (v. 1). Only by dwelling in God, by taking God as our habitation, and by letting His beauty be upon us, can we be filled with His praises. This is the first result. The second result is indicated in verse 4: “For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.” We must put Psalm 90:17 together with this verse: “Establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” By combining these two portions, we see that to dwell in God as our habitation causes us to realize what the work of God is. Continuing in Psalm 92, we read, “O Lord, how great are thy works!” (v. 5). Just to preach the gospel, just to open a mission field, just to pass on some chapters and verses to others and help them to be spiritual is not the great work of God. The great work of God is to restore the desolated building of God and to recover the sons of Korah. The great work of God today is firstly to recover the local churches, and secondly to recover so many of you. Many of us are the real sons of Korah. God’s great work is to recover the things desolated by Satan. Only by dwelling in His house can we realize this work in all its greatness. Some of you have been in the mission field. Do you still appreciate the mission field work? You must realize something deeper, something greater. In the house of God we may clearly see what are truly the great works of God.
“But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of the wild ox: I shall be mingled with fresh oil.” (v. 10). So many dear ones who have come into the local churches have experienced their horn being exalted. Before we came to dwell in the churches, we were indeed low and frequently defeated; but when we came into God’s dwelling place, we sensed that our horn was exalted over our enemies. Formerly, we were afraid of this and afraid of that, but after we came into the local churches, we said, “Hallelujah, our horns have been exalted!” We felt then that we were mingled with fresh oil—not only anointed with oil, but mingled with it. The word for “anointed” in verse 10 (King James Version) is the same as that in Leviticus 2:4 for “mingled”—“unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil.” In God’s house, dwelling in God as our habitation, we have a daily sense of such a mingling with fresh oil. Do you have this kind of feeling? Day by day I sense something so fresh, not just as water, but as oil, being mingled with me. Sometimes people ask how I could be so fresh. It is because I am being daily mingled with fresh oil.
“The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God” (vv. 12-13). When God is our habitation in the local churches, we are like palms and cedars, so stately and secure, planted in the house of God. Have you been planted? If we are planted, we are bound; it is not easy for us to move. But it is here that we flourish. “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and green” (v. 14). We flourish to such an extent that even when we are old, we still bring forth fruit; we are full of sap and green. Only by taking God and the local church as our habitation can we do this. God and the local church as our habitation are not two separate things, but one. If we are truly dwelling in the local church, we are certainly dwelling in God; and if we are one with God, surely we are dwelling in the local church. Then we are planted in the divine habitation, flourishing in the courts of our God, and bringing forth fruit even in old age, full of song and praise. The longer we dwell here, the younger we become. This is the result of dwelling in God, and this is Psalm 92.
(Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms, Chapter 16, by Witness Lee)
