Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
Psalms Ch.84 / 150 Ch.s
PS:84
* The psalmist expresses his affection to the ordinances of God.
(1-7) His desire towards the God of the ordinances. (8-12)
#1-7 The ordinances of God are the believer's solace in this
evil world; in them he enjoys the presence of the living God:
this causes him to regret his absence from them. They are to his
soul as the nest to the bird. Yet they are only an earnest of
the happiness of heaven; but how can men desire to enter that
holy habitation, who complain of Divine ordinances as wearisome?
Those are truly happy, who go forth, and go on in the exercise
of religion, in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, from
whom all our sufficiency is. The pilgrims to the heavenly city
may have to pass through many a valley of weeping, and many a
thirsty desert; but wells of salvation shall be opened for them,
and consolations sent for their support. Those that press
forward in their Christian course, shall find God add grace to
their graces. And those who grow in grace, shall be perfect in
glory.
#8-12 In all our addresses to God, we must desire that he would
look on Christ, his Anointed One, and accept us for his sake: we
must look to Him with faith, and then God will with favour look
upon the face of the Anointed: we, without him, dare not show
our faces. The psalmist pleads love to God's ordinances. Let us
account one day in God's courts better than a thousand spent
elsewhere; and deem the meanest place in his service preferable
to the highest earthly preferment. We are here in darkness, but
if God be our God, he will be to us a Sun, to enlighten and
enliven us, to guide and direct us. We are here in danger, but
he will be to us a Shield, to secure us from the fiery darts
that fly thick about us. Through he has not promised to give
riches and dignities, he has promised to give grace and glory to
all that seek them in his appointed way. And what is grace, but
heaven begun below, in the knowledge, love, and service of God?
What is glory, but the completion of this happiness, in being
made like to him, and in fully enjoying him for ever? Let it be
our care to walk uprightly, and then let us trust God to give us
every thing that is good for us. If we cannot go to the house of
the Lord, we may go by faith to the Lord of the house; in him we
shall be happy, and may be easy. That man is really happy,
whatever his outward circumstances may be, who trusts in the
Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob.