“I will abundantly bless her provision—I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation—and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.” Psalm 132:15, 16
Great things are spoken in the Word of God concerning Zion [Psalm. 87:3]. In blessing Zion, God did not bless the literal hill of Zion, but He blessed that which stood upon Zion, the temple which was built upon that hill and the people of Zion. Thank God we are now the blessed New Testament temple of God. For the great God “dwells not in temples made with hands, neither is worshiped with men’s hands, seeing He gives to all life and breath and all things”, [Acts 17:24]. But the reason why “the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob,” and why “the Highest Himself establishes her,” [Psalm. 87:2, 5], is because it was typical of that on which the eyes and heart of God are fixed perpetually [2 Chron. 7:16].
The temple is significant of the human nature of the Lord Jesus; as He Himself said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And the scripture added “But He spoke of the temple of His body” [John 2:19, 21]. The temple, then, on Mount Zion was typical of that holy or sinless human nature of the Lord Jesus which is indistinguishably integrated to His eternal Godhead; and in which “it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell,” that “out of His fullness we might receive, and grace for grace” [Col. 1:19 John 1:16].
The Church of the living God is the New Testament temple of God, as the Apostle Paul declares—”You have come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are written in heaven” [Heb. 12:22, 23]. We are the living Church of the Firstborn, born out of and eternally connected to the head of the Church Jesus Christ, the King of Zion where with we stand with and in Messiah the mediator of the New Covenant and knowing the union of Christ and His body is everlasting.
That the Lord should choose Zion, desire it for His habitation, eternally rest and dwell in it, is not true of any natural hill, or material temple [Psalm. 132:13, 14]. It can only, therefore, be spiritually understood as appropriate to the human nature of Christ, which is the habitation of God (Col. 2:9), and to the Church, which is “His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23) “Know you not,” says the Apostle, “that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). When the text then says, “I will abundantly bless her provision—I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation; and her saints shall shout aloud for joy,” it speaks of Zion’s provision, of Zion’s bread, of Zion’s priests, and of Zion’s saints. Thus, in viewing the text, we must take it as it stands in connection with Zion, the Church of the living Jehovah. Those who have eternal interest in Christ and walk in intimacy with God shall have their provision provided for as they serve the Lord their shepherd, they shall never want. God jealously guard the promises He has made to His Church by that special and repeated promises limited to, set apart and reserved exclusively for Zion. The fullness of spiritual and abundant blessings stored up in His son is being released to His body [Eph. 1:3].
One of the channels or conduits through which the provision of God flows in Zion is through the gospel which is the revelation of a free grace, salvation, blessings, and favor. Therein we see the manifestation in God’s Word of His pardon, mercy, and love for a kings and priests or the separated and blessed peculiar people through the finished work of the Son of God on the Cross. The gospel or good news is the decreeing, declaration and publication of the treasures that are stored up in Christ; and revealed through the scriptures wherein is the good-news of the gospel, which is the unveiling of God’s love and mercy.
Wherever and whenever the gospel is preached by God’s sent servants or ministers, it invokes the blessedness of God to souls who received them by faith. This blessings flows from Christ the head of the Church to the body of Christ through the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. The precious promises contained in the scriptures link us with all things that pertain to life and godliness is imparted unto us through the knowledge of God that called us to glory and virtue, however having faith in such heavenly words bring forth its manifestation in the natural.
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” 2 Pet. 1:2-4
But what are the promises unless they are applied, brought home with power, sealed with a divine influence, so that we may enjoy them, feed upon them, and taste the sweetness that is in them? But when the promises come home with power, when a sweetness is tasted in them, and the heart is filled with the marrow and fatness of them, then the promises are so many channels and conduits of communication through which the provision stored up in Christ flows into the soul.
“You feed them from the abundance of Your own house, letting them drink from Your rivers of delight!” Psalm 36:8
God blesses us “abundantly”, He makes our souls like Naphtali, “satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord” (Deut. 33:23). His goodness and mercy never elude us and He will do exceeding, abundantly, far above what we ask or think according to His power at work in us [Eph. 3:20]
The second blessings promised to Zion is “I will satisfy her poor with bread”. The word poor should be well understood, it has to do with one who is spiritually bankrupt or lacking but seeking God in all ways to be filled and in so doing contact with the blessing of the Lord. It is the hungry and thirsty Christians that is continually reading, studying, meditating and doing the word of God that will be blessed indeed [James 1:22-25]. This poor man seek the Lord passionately and behaves as one who totally lack and need to be filled. He assuredly will contact the blessings of the Lord if he does not relent. Soul or spiritual poverty with willingness to be truly and genuinely filled will manifest the blessedness of God in us. The promise to the poor here is bread from God
“Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” “I am,” He says, “the bread of life…I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eats of this bread he shall live forever” John 6:35, 51.
The bread is the flesh and blood of His own dear Son Jesus Christ; fed upon by living faith, under the special operations of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Before we can feed upon this bread of life he must be made spiritually poor; and when we are brought to be nothing but a mass of wretchedness, filth, guilt, and misery, when we feel our souls sinking under the wrath of God, and has scarcely a hope to keep float our poor wobbling heart; when we find the world disillusioned to us, and we have no one object from which we can reap any abiding consolation, then when the Lord is pleased a little to open up in our consciences, and bring a savor of the love and blood of His dear Son into our hearts, then we will begin to taste gospel bread and grow from taking the sincere milk of the word to strong meat that brings maturity to our souls.
This the process through which we are weaned from being a spiritual babe to growing and maturing until we change from a child into a mature son. Those who are dissatisfied and disappointed with the lower animal life pursues God diligently and will one day soon pass through adoption such that Jesus went through after His baptism when the Father announces that this is my beloved son in whom I am well please; such is the time that the Spirit of God further clothes us and endue us with power from on high. If you are not looking for a harvest of pleasures or earthly paradise but willing to be like Jesus who said the Father loves Him because He always do the things that pleases Him, the heaven will release bread and the word of the Lord will not be scarce in you; the quest and tenacity of those poor in spirit make them push for more of God and willing to die daily until Christ be formed in them more and more.
Now the Lord says, “I will satisfy her poor with bread.” And they shall be satisfied. For He says, “Eat, O friends; drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved” [Song 5:1]. He will make them drink “of the river of His pleasures” [Ps. 36:8]; for “there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God” (Ps. 46:4). And if any of you, my friends, are mourning, sighing and groaning, and sometimes heaving up with rebellion and fretful impatience because you cannot have what you wish naturally to enjoy, or because you cannot bring about your earthly schemes, and have little else but sorrow of heart and trouble of soul, you are far more favored than if you could have all that heart could wish. God, who has made you wretched that you might find happiness in Him, will not leave you to live and die in your misery. He will bind up every bleeding wound, and pour the oil of joy into your troubled heart.
“I will also clothe her priests with salvation.”
“Who has made us kings and priests unto God” Rev. 1:6
“You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people” 1 Peter 2:9
Then the true priests, “Zion’s priests,” are God’s spiritually taught people; all who, as the Apostle says, as “living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” [1 Peter 2:5]. God’s praying people, then, His broken-hearted, mourning, sighing, crying, weeping, pleading people, all in whose hearts the Spirit of the living God intercedes with unutterable groaning, and works in them the sacrifices of a broken heart which in the sight of God are of great price—these, and these only, are Zion’s priests.
God has promised that “He will clothe these priests with salvation;” not clothe them with cassock or liturgical clothes, He makes no promise of that kind; but He will clothe us with salvation. And that is the only clothing that will suit Zion’s priests. For the priests of Zion have broken heart and a contrite spirit, having had the spirit of prayer/intercession communicated to them, and panting after God, the living God, wants a manifested salvation. He does not want the praise of men, or to be esteemed as some ‘holy man’ appointed of God to communicate blessings; he abhors such priest kind of craft.
What he wants is the spiritual manifestation and divine application of salvation to his soul—salvation in all its sweetness—salvation from sin, from self, from the curse of the law, from the wrath of God, from the snares of Satan, from the temptations which he is beset with, from the troubles which he is passing through—salvation in all its rich, glorious, and complete fullness. Now God has promised that He “will clothe these priests with salvation.” He will cast around them this beauteous garment, this robe of Christ’s righteousness; He will cover them therewith, “as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and a bride adorns herself with her jewels” [Isa. 61:10].
“And her saints shall shout aloud for joy”. The saints of Zion are those who God has eternally sanctified by choosing them in Christ before the world began; those into whose hearts He has put the Spirit of holiness, that they may be a “peculiar people, vessels of mercy, sanctified and fit for the Master’s use;” those in whom He is working “to will and to do of His good pleasure.” These are remorseful and repentant more and more as God teaches them in their souls, sanctifies and separates them to His own use, they feel the more vile, filth, base, and polluted and go under until the chaff of carnality are removed and the fresh juice of the Spirit can flow more and more in their hearts.
We must become day by day more and more holy, more and more pure, more and more pious, and more and more religious. That is a false sanctity which only feeds the flesh; that is only ‘nature’ masked and whitewashed. But Zion’s saint grows downward—downward in self-abhorrence, self-loathing, godly sorrow, brokenness of heart, contrition of spirit, low views of himself. And just as he grows downward in self, will he grow upward in adoring, admiring, and loving the Lord of life and glory.
CULLED FROM THE BOOK
“UNDERSTANDING ZION”
AUTHORED BY
JOSES HIZKIAH