In Psalm 131 we see the praise of a saint in his going up to Zion concerning his humbled heart and his quieted soul before Jehovah. In order for God to dwell in us and be at rest in us, we need to have a quieted soul and a humbled heart. He shepherds us continually to become Zion, the place where He rests and where His blessing is.
In His care, He causes us to calm down our soul – there will be nothing haughty in us, no pride in our heart, and we are weaned just like a child is weaned by his mother. This opens the way for God to have His rest among us on Mount Zion. Lord, gain us as such ones for Zion!
Having a humble heart and a quieted soul
God does not appreciate a proud heart (James 4:6), but He loves to dwell with the humble. In Psalm 131:1-2 we see that our heart should not be proud and our eyes should not be haughty. We shouldn’t go about in things that are too great or too wondrous for us. Rather, our soul needs to be quieted and calmed down.
This is what the Lord is doing in us through His shepherding. On our side, we think we’re OK and we are doing fine – yet the Lord in His sovereignty allows us to fail again and again to strip us of our pride, haughtiness, and anything of that is not the Lord.
The way to Zion is the way of loss first and then the way of gain. We are being stripped and weaned until our being finally learns that satisfaction is only in the Triune God Himself! Only our God – the processed and consummated Triune God – is our satisfaction!
The Lord needs to have some who love Him by His love in such a way that they would count all things loss, they would suffer the loss of all things, and they would even count all things as refuse! On the one hand there should will not be naturally happy, but on the other hand they will be happy in the Triune God, and they will be satisfied only with God!
God’s rest and satisfaction is only in Zion
Why did God deal with Job the way He did, and why does He allow things seemingly unpleasant to happen to us? God desires to gain Zion – He rests only in Zion. Our being also cannot have rest anywhere else but where God has His rest. For the obtaining of Zion, the Lord has to strip us of what we think we must have or what we think we are entitled to have in order that we would be satisfied only with Him.
He will strip us from anything that we think – even of thinking that “it’s not fair!” so that He may reconstitute us with Himself and reconstruct us with the Triune God, thus Him becoming our satisfaction and rest.
In response, what can we do but just open to Him and consecrate to Him… As we consecrate and open, He will be working relentlessly on the basis of our consecration to wean our soul until we don’t hope or seek for anything other than the Lord and His desire. We will not want to BE anything, we do not want to BE recognized, but we are willing – even to be martyred (spiritually, psychologically, and even physically).
In this situation nothing matters except the Lord’s satisfaction and rest. And the peace here is indescribable! There’s rest, peace, quietness, tranquillity, and calm – no matter what happens around you, part of you is in another realm, in an awesome reality, resting with God in Zion, the reality of the Body of Christ!
Becoming Zion for God’s rest and satisfaction
In His mercy, the Lord allows us to be exposed of what we really are. In Psalm 128 we see that Jehovah blesses Israel from Zion, but we realize that we are sinners, we are proud, and we are even haughty – thinking that we are RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG.
In His mercy, the Lord shines on us and exposes us of our real situation – and we repent, make a thorough confession, and receive God’s forgiveness. This makes us humble – we realize that we are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing. When our heart is humbled and our soul is quiet, we are in a condition for God to come in and rest, bless us, and make us His habitation.
May the Lord gain us and produce us as Zion in Jerusalem in our lifetime – may He have mercy on us to enlighten us concerning our real situation that we may go on with Him to become His resting place and His habitation. We do not want to be complacent and satisfied with where we are and with what we are; we want to be the place where God is at rest.
For this we need to cooperate with the Lord’s working in our environment to humble us, calm us down, and wean us to quiet our soul and calm our heart. We confess and repent under His shining and enlightening, and we receive His forgiveness – which makes us humble, calm, and quiet. In this kind of a condition, God can come in to rest and to dwell with us, making us Zion, the highest place in the universe, where He is.
Lord, we just say AMEN, Do it in us! We want to open to You and be those who cooperate with You the best we can. Don’t let us go, Lord, and don’t set us aside. Work on us, cause us to open, and wean our soul. May our heart be calm and our soul be quiet and humble for You to be pleased to dwell in us. Dear Lord Jesus, gain Zion today. Do whatever it takes in us, Lord, to gain what You are after today.
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ron’s speaking in the message and, Life-study of the Psalms (msg. 42), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 21,
- Hymns on this topic:
# I hardly know myself; / Deceived so much by pride, / I often think I’m right / And am self-satisfied.
# Lord, be my pattern, humble and lowly; / Save me from self and pride and vainglory. / Preserve and keep me, for Your economy, / Live in me, possess me wholly.
# Jesus, cast a look on me; / Give me sweet simplicity; / Make me poor, and keep me low, / Seeking only Thee to know. / Weaned from all my lordly self, …
# Tell me not of earthly pleasures / … I am weaned from sinful idols; / I am henceforth not my own; / I have giv’n my heart to Jesus, / I belong to Him alone.
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