Zion's Blessings

"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

The most inattentive reader of Scripture must perceive that great things are spoken in the Word of God concerning Zion. As the Bible lies now open before me, my eye rests upon nine Psalms, and out of those nine Psalms in five I observe Zion spoken of, and blessings mentioned as belonging to her. This is but one instance out of many, and one that has only just struck me, wherein we see that "glorious things are spoken of Zion" (Psalm. 87:3).

But what is the meaning of ZION that such blessings should belong to her? Zion, literally, was the hill in Jerusalem on which the temple was built; and it was this circumstance which laid the foundation for a spiritual meaning. What, then, did the temple signify? For 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. But what did that temple represent? since we cannot think that God would lavish His blessings merely on a building erected by human hands; 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, then, typified and represented two things. First, it typified 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 evangelist adds, "But He spoke of the temple of His body" (John 2:19, 21). The temple, then, on Mount Zion was typical of that holy human nature of the Lord Jesus which is indissolubly united 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).

But there is another thing which Zion typified, and that is, the Church of the living 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).

The Church never had a being except in Christ. Could we view the Church for a moment distinct from Christ, we would behold nothing but a dead carcass, the head being severed from it. But as the Church is a living body, it can only be so as eternally connected with its Head; and therefore the Church of God is never for a moment to be looked at except in its standing in Christ, its eternal being in the glorious Mediator, "Immanuel, God with us." And this is the reason why the temple not merely set forth the human nature of the Lord Jesus, but typified also the Church, seeing that there is a vital, indissoluble union between the Head and members.

If we look at the verses immediately preceding the text, we shall find Zion spoken of—"The Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever—here will I dwell; for I have desired it" (Psalm. 132:13, 14). That the Lord should choose Zion, desire it for His habitation, eternally rest and dwell in it, cannot be true of any literal hill, or material temple. It can only, therefore, be spiritually understood as applicable 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.

Having seen, then, what Zion represents, we may enter into the meaning of the word, "her," so frequently repeated in the text; and if the Lord the Spirit is pleased to lead us into its spiritual import, we may gather up a little of the sweet promises contained in it. I shall, with God's blessing, take them in the order in which they lie before me.

I. Zion's PROVISION. The first promise runs thus—"I will abundantly bless her provision." Mark the emphasis laid upon the pronoun, "HER." You see how it runs all through,"her provision," "her poor," "her priests," "her saints." And the repetition of the personal pronoun seems to intimate as though God, who is "a jealous God," would exclude from any appropriation of the promises in the text all but those who have an eternal interest in Christ; as though He would not allow the children's bread to be given to the dogs; but would guard the promises He has made to His Church by that special and repeated limitation.

"I will abundantly bless her provision." We have a "provision" spoken of here, and this provision is limited to Zion. It is not scattered abroad for every person to claim, or for anybody to feed upon; but is spoken of as a distinct provision set apart and reserved especially for Zion.

But what is this "provision?" It is, I believe, the fullness of spiritual blessings which are stored up in the Son of God, as "Head over all things to the Church." As the Apostle speaks, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). And again the apostle John says, "And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." This "provision," then, is the fullness of Christ as the covenant Head of His Church and people. And God has given to the Church this rich "provision," which He has stored up in Christ, that the poor and needy of Zion's children may "eat and be satisfied."

But the Lord promises to "bless" this "provision," and that "abundantly." It is not then sufficient for the Church of the living God that there should be a fullness for her stored up in her covenant Head; it must be "blessed;" it must be brought down out of the storehouse, and into her heart. Joseph, instructed by divine wisdom, gathered up the seven plenteous years into storehouses, and when the Egyptians cried for bread, Pharaoh's answer to all their entreaties was, "Go unto Joseph" (Gen. 41:55). He kept the key. But what if Joseph had never unlocked the stores? Why, they must all have perished of famine. He who kept the stores, opened the stores, and by opening them, saved their lives from destruction. So the 'spiritual Joseph' has "the key of David," and of Him it is said, "He opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens" (Rev. 3:7) He deals out of this "provision" at such times, in such a way, and in such a measure, as "seems good" in His own eyes.

But what are the channels or conduits through which this provision flows that God has promised thus to bless?

1. One of the channels or conduits through which this provision flows is the gospel. And what is the gospel? It is the revelation of a free grace salvation, the manifestation in God's Word of pardon, mercy, and love for a peculiar people through the finished work of the Son of God. The gospel, then, is the proclamation and publication of the treasures that are stored up in Christ; and through the gospel, which is the revelation of God's love and mercy, does this "provision" flow, as through a blessed channel, into the hearts of God's people.

God has promised to bless the gospel, and wherever the gospel is preached by God's sent servants, it is more or less blessed to souls; not from any works performed by them; not because they are poor and needy; but because God has stored up provision for them in their covenant Head, and because the preached gospel is one of the blessed channels of conveyance through which that provision flows into their heart.

You or I might have a sum of money lodged for our use in a banker's hands; but that would not profit us unless we had liberty to draw a cheque upon the banker. We might perish of starvation, and yet have a large sum lodged in his hands for our use. So it is with the gospel. A living soul cannot be satisfied with knowing that there is a treasure stored up for the Church in Christ. A few coins put into his hands by the gospel will more sensibly enrich him, and do his soul more present good than all the treasures of mercy and grace in Christ to which he has no feeling access. I can fancy a pauper, or a sweeper of the streets, or a beggar that lives upon alms walking by the Bank of England, and knowing perfectly that there are millions in its coffers and cellars. But will that clothe his nakedness? Will that relieve his famished appetite? Will that raise him from poverty to riches? The bare knowledge that there is money in the Bank will not relieve his poverty.

And so you and I may know in our judgment, as a matter of doctrinal speculation, that there is in Christ all fullness treasured up. Will that profit us? We must have the communication of it—the handling of it; the sweet manifestation of it, that our souls may be savingly blessed by it. And the gospel in the hands of the Spirit does this. When God is pleased to bless the gospel, either preached or read (and sometimes without the one or the other), and communicates through it a taste of the riches of Christ, of the beauty of Christ, and of the salvation that is in Christ, He then abundantly blesses this provision to the hearts of His people.

2. But again, the promises of God are also channels of communication, through which the provision stored up in Christ flows into the hearts of God's people. They are therefore spoken of in Scripture as "breasts of consolation," at which the new-born babes of the household of faith nurse. We are also said "by them to be made partakers of the divine nature" (1 Pet. 1:4), they being channels of heavenly communication through which grace flows to renew us in the spirit of our minds.

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.

3. The ordinances, too, of God's house, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, when God is pleased to bless them, are channels through which grace and mercy flow into the soul. They are indeed nothing in themselves, absolutely valueless as mere forms; but when blessed of God, they are channels of communication, through which God is pleased sometimes to manifest His love and mercy to His people.

But the Lord has promised to bless Zion's provision ABUNDANTLY. He does not, then, give grudgingly or niggardly, as though He ever regretted what He bestowed; but what He gives He bestows as a God, as a Prince, freely, bounteously, over-flowingly, worthy of an infinite, eternal, self-existent Jehovah! "He gives to all liberally, and upbraids (or grudges) not" (Jas. 1:5). "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Rom. 11:29); that is, He never repents of what He gives to, and does for His people. And thus when He does bless, He blesses "abundantly," so as to make the soul like Naphtali, "satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord" (Deut. 33:23). "You feed them from the abundance of Your own house, letting them drink from Your rivers of delight!" (Psalm 36:8)

But who are the characters that God thus abundantly blesses? If He blesses Zion's provision, He blesses it only to those who are poor and needy, hungry and naked, who have nothing and are nothing; and therefore can only have what God gives them, feel what God works in them, and be what God makes them. To such and such only is the provision of the gospel stored up in Christ blessed abundantly.

II. Zion's BREAD. But we pass on to consider the second branch of blessings promised to Zion. "I will satisfy her poor with bread." As I before remarked, see how the Holy Spirit limits the expression, "Her poor!" And what gather we from this limitation? That there are poor who are not Zion's poor. It is said of many professed beggars in our London streets that they are impostors, clothed indeed in rags and wearing every appearance of poverty, but could you follow them to their cellars, you would see them throwing off all their apparent miseries, and feasting upon delicacies which the honest poor cannot procure. Are there not many such sham beggars in the religious world? Are there not many who in prayer profess to be all poverty and emptiness, and the next moment begin to boast of the mighty acts that free-will can perform? These are sham beggars, impostors, that have rags of poverty and nothing but the rags of poverty; who use indeed expressions that might almost make us think they are really poor and needy, while all the time they have no feeling sense of their poverty before a heart-searching God.

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