THE PLACE OF FULLEST BLESSING
The more you go on in the local church, the more strength you will gain. “They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God” (v. 7). It is not your own strength, but the strength of God. Just go on. There is no need for you to consider, to hesitate, to turn away. Even if it is the Red Sea, go through it. Even if it is the Jordan, go through it. It is absolutely a matter of faith. Do not look at the situation. If you do, you will be disappointed. You may see the sea ahead of you, or the river—in either case it is deep water. But go on. Praise the Lord, when you go on, you have the strength. The Lord is ahead of you. If you continue in the church way, you will go from strength to strength, and you will appear before God in Zion.
“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand” (v. 10). In the Bible, one thousand signifies the fullest measure of a complete unit. Ezekiel 47 speaks of the measurement of a thousand cubits, and the millennium covers a period of a thousand years. Hence, the blessing we receive by being in the dwelling place of the Lord is the fullest, the uttermost. Nowhere else can we receive a blessing as full as that which we obtain in the courts of the house of God. If you go to a meeting which you consider poor and feel that you haven’t gained anything from it, you may think it is better to stay home. All right, stay home. It may be good for a little while, possibly for a few weeks. But I can assure you that after three months of staying home and not attending the meetings, you will be back in the world. I do not care how much you obtain at home; it can never compare with the blessings you receive in the local church. Even if the local church is poor, you just come to it; you will get the blessing. You may in fact get some blessing elsewhere, but not a thousandfold. If you want the fullest blessing, if you would turn one good day into a thousand, you must come to the local churches. “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Here in the house of God we enjoy God as a sun and a shield. The sun is for supply, and the shield is for protection. Here in the church life God is our supply, and God is our safeguard. Here we enjoy His grace and His glory. Grace is the inner enjoyment, and glory is the outward expression. In the church life we have the inner enjoyment of grace and the outward expression of glory; we have a supply as the sun, and God Himself as our shield. Oh, how blessed is the church life!
“O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” (v. 12). Where? In the house of God. Three times in this Psalm it says, “Blessed is the man”: “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house” (v. 4); “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee” (v. 5); “Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” (v. 12). How absolutely different this is from Psalm 1, which says that the man is blessed who keeps the law. “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house.” They are the ones who go from strength to strength. They are the ones who trust in God. These are the blessings of the church life!
(Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms, Chapter 14, by Witness Lee)
