Gleanings in the Psalms

It matters little when this psalm was written, or by whom; for our part, it exhales to us a Davidic perfume; it smells of the mountain heather and the lone places of the wilderness, where King David must have often lodged during his many wars. This sacred ode is one of the choicest of the collection; it has a mild radiance about it, entitling it to be called the Pearl of Psalms. If the twenty-third be the most popular, the one-hundred-and-third the most joyful, and one-hundred-and-nineteenth the most deeply experimental, the fifty-first the most plaintive, this is one of the most sweet of the Psalms of Peace.

Verse 1. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!" What was there in these tabernacles that appeared so amiable? Perhaps the edifice was famed for the skill and cost bestowed upon it. But the Temple - that building of extraordinary beauty - was not yet constructed. The tabernacle was lowly, more suited to pilgrims than to a great people, and little becoming the king himself. Therefore, to the pious there is no need of vast or sumptuous temples to move them to love the house of God.

Verse 2. "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." The psalmist declared that he could not remain silent in his desires, but began to cry out for God and his house. He wept, he sighed, he pleaded for the privilege. Some need to be whipped to church, but here is David crying for it. He needed no clatter of bells from the belfry to ring him in; he carried his bell in his own bosom. Holy appetite is a better call to worship than a full chime.

Verse 2. "... my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." The word that is here rendered "crieth" is a very vivid one. It signifies to cry out as soldiers do at the beginning of a battle when they shout. Fall on, Fall on, Fall on; or when they cry out at the end of a battle, Victory, Victory, Victory. It is most vivid when applied to the cry of a hungry child for then, every whit of the child cries - hands cry, face cries, feet cry.

Verse 2.

1. The Object of the Desire: The House of the Lord, and the Lord of the house; the life of God in us, and our life in Him.
2. The Occasion of the Desire: Exclusion from the sanctuary. David does not say, Oh how I long for my palace, my crown, my kingdom, my sceptre: but, Oh how I long to return to the house of God.
3. The Strength of the Desire: It was an inward longing - "my soul longeth," he says; it was a painful longing - "yea, fainteth," he goes on; it was a prayerful longing - "my heart crieth out;" and it was an entire longing - "my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God."

We might also note three things: - 1. The value of God's house is known by attending it.
2. It is better known if we are ever denied attending it.
3. It is best known by being then restored to it.

Verse 3. "Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King, and my God." The sentiments of this verse often find expression in the writings of Samuel Rutherford during that period when he was banished from his beloved church and congregation at Anwoth on the Solway Firth. To Robert Gordon of Knockbrex he wrote, "I dare not say that I am a dry tree, or that I have no room at all in the vineyard; but yet I often think that the sparrows are blessed, who may resort to the house of God in Anwoth, from which I am banished." On another occasion he wrote to David Dickson, the great commentator on the Psalms and minister of the church in Irvine, "I pray that you never have the woeful and dreary experience of a closed mouth; for then ye shall judge the sparrow, that may sing on the church of Irvine, blessed birds." No wonder Mrs Cousins, author of the outstanding hymn written around Rutherford's sayings, included the sentiment in one of the verses where she shows Rutherford weighing the dearest things of this life with that which is to come, and rejoicing in the latter: -

Verse 3. "even thine altars ..." The word "even" is in italics in our printed Bibles, because it is not in the original. The psalmist breaks off his sentence in the midst of it, and cries out that he needs God's altars: - "Thine altars! O Lord, Thine altars," he cries.