A CITY OF HABITATION
[p. 106] A CITY OF HABITATION
Psalm 107:1-8; Psalm 107:35,36; Zechariah 14: 10, 11
This psalm is the beginning of the last book of Psalms, and significantly calls for praise. The book has praise in view, as might be expected, it being the last book of the Psalms, the whole book having God in mind, all things being for Him, and above all, the intelligent praises of His people. So that we have here a call to men, “Give ye thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; for his loving-kindness endureth for ever”. What enters into the psalm most significantly, and what I wish to speak of, is the idea of “a city of habitation”. The idea of a habitation, that is, a place of dwelling, whether in the country or in the city, is pronounced in the Scriptures. The earth was made, not in vain, but to be inhabited, and it will be. The Lord Jesus is said to be set over “the habitable world which is to come” (Hebrews 2: 5). The city will be there, both the heavenly and the earthly; but the earth too will be a scene inhabited according to God. It is exhilarating to contemplate an earth, inhabited according to God, all knowing Him; as it is said, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11: 9). There will be a complete reversal of the present state of things where the very opposite, that is, ignorance of God, prevails. Men, it says, “did not think good to have God in their knowledge” (Romans 1: 28); and that is how the matter stands; even where He has been known, the knowledge of Him is being systematically eliminated. How great will be the change, dear brethren, when the knowledge of God shall prevail with all the accompanying results here. That is what will mark the coming world, the world to come; many other things too as the result of it, but the [p. 107] great thought is the knowledge of God, and His praise, as the result of that. This book has the full result in mind. Now, for the moment, the world is a wilderness to the christian, to faith, and that is what the psalm contemplates; it contemplates too the gathering of God’s people, it contemplates them feelingly as wandering, and then as gathered and led. “They found no city of habitation”, we are told, until God took a hand in gathering and in leading.
Now these facts apply at the present time. In the history of public christianity, it came about that the people of God found themselves in circumstances such as described in these early verses; they found no city of habitation. The great city spoken of in the book of the Revelation called Babylon existed indeed, but that is not a city of habitation such as God has in mind. Indeed in the prophets it is itself described as a wilderness, as a desert, meaning that there is no refreshment in it for the people of God. There was no city of habitation for hundreds of years in the history of public christianity. But God has taken a hand in matters, dear brethren, and the principle of gathering has ensued and the principle of leadership, and these facts have culminated in what many of the people of God are enjoying at this very time, “a city of habitation”. It is said, “They found no city of habitation”, but God “led them forth by a right way, that they might go to a city of habitation”. Most of us here, thank God, have been thus led. Some may not have been; if not, it is your opportunity to fall under divine leadership, and that will mean that you will go to a city of habitation. “That they might go to a city of habitation;” most of us understand! God has intervened wonderfully during a century now, and, in referring to a century, one is thankful to be able to testify to the continuance of the movement, and, we might say, a certain enlivenment in it, so that the idea of a city of habitation is [p. 108] becoming more and more prominent in the minds of the brethren. The enemy attacked very soon and beclouded the position; the early movement became beclouded almost immediately; an evil root was sown. As of old, as the Lord sowed the good seed, the enemy sowed tares, so an evil root was sown, and soon bore fruit. But the position through it became clarified, and the idea of a city of habitation has been kept in view, thank God, ever since, and I believe will be kept in view until the end. The heavenly city having come into view, not only in the Scriptures, but in a spiritual way, the saints will be kept moving on until they reach that blessed city, truly “a city of habitation”.
Now I want to show before passing on to Zechariah (for I wish particularly to speak of Zechariah) that, alongside of the divine movement and leadership, God, as the end of the psalm shows, creates an environment out of which the idea of a city of habitation springs. That is to say, in verse 35 we read, “He maketh the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into water-springs;” that is what God does. This passage corresponds with Exodus, and I bring it forward now, as just stressing what God does, what God will do, what God is indeed doing out of consideration for His people who instinctively seek a city of habitation; He creates an environment. In Exodus as the people came into the wilderness they found springs; for us these refer to the activities of the Spirit for the environment of a city of habitation is spiritual activities. The geographical environment may be simple but not so the spiritual side; the geographical is nothing more than a wilderness, however fine the houses, however attractive the gardens. Suburban dwellings have these thoughts in mind, but they never cease to be a wilderness; if they do in our estimation, they become deadening to us. If we hold them as a wilderness it is safe to be in them,
[p. 109] but not otherwise. As holding them as a wilderness, we may look for some spiritual movement that will intimate that there should be a city of habitation; and that, dear brethren, is what spiritual instinct will look for, a spiritual movement. The wilderness, as it says here, is turned “into a pool of water, and the dry land into water-springs;” that is an act of God. No water supply according to man can answer to this; it is an act of God by His Spirit. How great is the fact that the Holy Spirit is here and in the household of christians! As the arid conditions in the world and the earth are accepted, there is room for the Spirit, and there will be the pools of water. Water, that is to say, that is available; and springs, fresh energy of the Spirit, and hence you find in this setting the city of habitation. “There he maketh the hungry to dwell, and they establish a city of habitation”.
I mention all these things because they are apropos at the moment to the increase of saints. Thank God for them, for every one! Before you can have Zion, there must be the dwellings of Jacob, and the dwellings of Jacob are not houses and gardens, needful as these may be. Living in these things, beloved, today does not characterise the dwellings of Jacob. The dwellings of Jacob lead to Zion. Any dwelling that does not lead to Zion, that does not point to Zion, is not a dwelling of Jacob; it points in the other direction, it points to a bigger house, it points to a larger garden, and they point to the world; it is it! The dwellings of Jacob point to Zion, they stand in relation to Zion. As the Israel of God of old were set round the divine dwelling, set in relation to it, so it is today that the dwellings of the saints are set in relation to the assembly; or they are not dwellings of Jacob. It is very remarkable that these thoughts appear in relation to the apostle Paul, the great minister of the assembly.
[p. 110] The household of Lydia would suggest Zion to the apostle, it would point to Zion, it would point to the assembly; there would be nothing in it inconsistent with the heavenly thought, for the assembly is the reflection here of what is in heaven. It must be so; the material for it must be from those who are heavenly, and the households of the saints will comport with that. Hence you will find the pools of water in the wilderness and the springs, and the hungry fed so that they establish a city of habitation. One has remarked, dear brethren, on the increase of gatherings; but there are what are called the environments of Jerusalem, we must have these; if there be the environments, then why not Jerusalem? That is God’s thought. God loves Zion; “Here will I dwell”, He says, “for I have desired it” (Psalm 132: 14). He loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Why not minister to Him? Why should His desires be deferred? Why should I be building my ceiled house and His house lie desolate? I am not here for His pleasure, for His will, save as I think of Zion. So that the environment is created. God does it; it is His act; and God, in this sense, is available to us, and He gives us the pools of water in the wilderness and the water-springs.
Now that leads me to the verse in Zechariah, where from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem, you have the environment brought in. It is said that “All the land ... shall be turned as the Arabah;” that is to say, I apprehend, a change from unproductive conditions, from uninhabitable conditions, into habitable conditions. It is an act of God. Now God is acting; He is ready to act; if we have Zion in our minds He is with us. Zion, that is to say, the assembly or Jerusalem, may be a great abstract thought; it is indeed primarily according to Nehemiah 7: 4, “The city was large and great; but the people in it were few”, meaning that it is a great abstract thought; but for the [p. 111] concrete you must have people. So that God creates the environment such as will invite people; in that there will be these conditions I have spoken of. But we must not rest in these; we must not rest simply in the pools of water and the springs, blessed as they are, but we must think of God. We are not here after His thought save as we are thinking of Him, and what He has here on earth now. Now, after this allusion to what is south of the city, it goes on to say, “And Jerusalem shall be lifted up, and shall dwell in her own place”. She has a place; if there be any thought, dear brethren, of the extension of Jerusalem, we must not overlook the place, it is not any place; I am not now speaking geographically, it is “her own place”, she has a place. Just as in Ezra the altar had its place, its base, so Jerusalem has her place. We sometimes have to seek out sites for our meeting rooms, a very necessary thing, but we have to bear in mind this idea of place, that is in God’s thoughts, “her own place”, not any place. Jerusalem is to be inhabited in her place; that is, God is having to say to this matter. It is not that we are to have another meeting in our town, it is not increase from that point of view; it is God saying, ‘I have to do with this matter; Jerusalem has a place in My mind, and she is to be inhabited in that place’. How this casts us upon God, and how God loves to be relied upon in such matters! How He would move with us! How quickly the end would be reached!
Well now, dear brethren (I am speaking as I hope, spiritually, but very practically) the principles are in relation to place, “From Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate”. Now if we are looking for a site, we must look for Benjamin’s gate (you will understand I am not speaking geographically, I am speaking spiritually) and then the first gate. I do not know anything that would be more interesting spiritually than to find Benjamin’s gate. When [p. 112] Nehemiah started to build the wall, the gates were all there, their names were distinguishable. This seems another feature to what we have in Nehemiah, and one that enters into the present time, dear brethren, and I wonder, in our exercise about meetings, whether we have ever looked for Benjamin’s gate. And then, the first gate, “From Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate”. One might say much about Benjamin, his history no doubt is known to most of us, but what you get at his birth no doubt is what is in the mind of God. He was the last son of Jacob, the twelfth; that is, you have in Benjamin the idea of finish, that this matter is to be mutual: you must have the twelfth and there must be mutuality in the thing. This is a matter for all. When Joseph was born Rachel said, “Jehovah will add to me another son” (Genesis 30: 24), that was what her thought was; but God’s thought was that another son would be the twelfth. Rachel’s counsels are one thing, God’s counsels are another; in this case they synchronise and Jacob promptly says, ‘I will go to Canaan now’ and return to my father’s house. How spiritual that was, for addition is to be in Canaan, if it is to be spiritual, it is not to be in Padan-Aram. Alas, the additions he acquired there in Padan were simply cows and sheep, different cattle; these are not the additions, beloved, that God had in mind at all. There was to be a twelfth son, and that means that we have mutuality. (That word ‘mutuality’ has become hackneyed, I am afraid, but yet there is hardly another to take its place). But it is not simply that we agree to do certain things; it is the agreement of love, the manipulation of love; that is what is in mind in Benjamin. He was born in Canaan, the only son of Jacob who was born in Canaan; Joseph was born in Padan, but his birth meant that Jacob would move out of Padan, out of the world. The twelfth son was born in Canaan;
[p. 113] suitably so, for that is the country God has in mind; there can be no assembly, dear brethren, without that. Every assembly should have in mind the full thought of God; it is an addition, but it is an addition in Canaan; it is the full thought of God, not any addition to us; Rachel says, “to me”, but God says, ‘for Me’! Benjamin is the twelfth son, he is the son of his father’s right hand, the son of his mother’s sorrow; no doubt the sorrow should enter into it for we can have no assembly according to God without that, without the mother’s side. She bore him with sorrow, as indeed did Jabez’s mother, and he became enlarged; enlargement is in that connection. But there is, on the other hand, the power of God, of God’s right hand. He is the son of the father’s right hand. Who is that? That is Christ. A new meeting must be a place for Christ, and for what Christ is doing. As Peter says, in view of new meetings without number, to Aeneas, “Rise up, and make thy couch for thyself” (Acts 9: 34), and he says, “Jesus, the Christ, heals thee;” it is the Christ, the Son of God’s right hand, the One who does things, He does everything. “Jesus, the Christ”, says Peter, “heals thee”, not ‘will heal thee;’ it is what He is doing. Let us take that in; it is what He is doing.
Well now, the other thought is, from that gate to “the place of the first gate”. If there be power, if there be support, if there be the twelfth son, let there be also first principles; the primary thoughts of God must enter into all this. We shall soon have Zion, we shall soon have a city of habitation, dear brethren, under these circumstances, and that is what God is aiming at. And then it further says in this remarkable verse, “Unto the corner-gate”, that is the next thing. There will be some corner to be turned as soon as we get a new meeting, and that corner always requires strength or you will have a collapse; something will come up; it is very remarkable [p. 114] how many things come up in local companies, and the Lord will say, ‘Well now, what are you going to do with this?’ It seems insurmountable, and, unless there be love, which never fails, it will be insurmountable, and there will be a collapse. So it is “From Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner-gate”. The corner-gate is the testing-gate as to how much strength we have, how much love there is. Will it stand the stress of a special strain? For that is what a corner signifies in this sense. And then you will observe finally, “From the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses”. The tower of Hananeel I read to mean the gospel testimony; that is the next thing. If we can stand the strain of a tested love, then we must think of the dispensation; the dispensation of God stands, it is in faith, and it is the dispensation of grace. It began in Jerusalem: the saints were talking about Simon, how the Lord Jesus had appeared to him (Luke 24: 34). It was a question of the grace of God. That is what Hananeel means, according to the scholars; I have no doubt the name means that. Why should we be hidden away? We are hidden away, in one sense, we do not want to be conspicuous; Colossians keeps us hidden, but grace will bring us out. Why not? We have wonderful things to say to people, why not say them? “Proclaim the word;” says Paul in a dark day, “be urgent in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4: 2). “Proclaim the word;” I think that is the tower of Hananeel. The assembly is “the pillar and base of the truth”, it supports the gospel, and that is the next thing; and the final thing is “the king’s winepresses”. Notice these points, for I believe it is in this sense that we get the place where the building is to be; Benjamin’s gate, the first gate, the corner-gate, and then the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses. That is to say, the Lord is looking for something; if the king has winepresses [p. 115] he intends to have wine. Thus you find with Nehemiah, who attended on the king, and so with the cup-bearer of Pharaoh; all these thoughts apply spiritually, dear brethren. Surely the king is to have something. How is it to come? It is by pressure. These are no joyous matters; there is no attraction for the flesh at all in the king’s winepresses; it is a question of pressure, it is in truth Gethsemane. The King Himself was in Gethsemane; the Lord knows about the pressure; but what is the pressure for? That which makes God glad, the wine that gladdens the heart of God; that is the end. And so, as I said, we can readily find the place if we follow those lines; and the end will be more for God. That is the great question really as to how what the King looks for is to be promoted; what God seeks, how is that to be promoted? He looks for the most. We have in John 15 an instance; if there be fruit, then more fruit, and there is no limit, God never stops, more and more. Well, I only refer to that to confirm what I am saying that the king’s winepresses imply in any meeting that there is to be something for Christ through pressure, and that is how the matter stands, and will stand, if God is to be with us until the end.