We love the church as the house of God! Here we are blessed to dwell and to be – we find our home here! By entering into the house of God we enter into God – but this entering into God is not once and for all.
We daily are moving out of ourselves and into the Triune God by experiencing Him in all the processes He went through. We experience Christ internally, inwardly, as the fulfillment of all the furnishings in the tabernacle, and this is having the highways to Zion in our heart.
In this way, we are becoming Zion, God’s habitation, the overcomers, the reality of the Body of Christ! What a rich revelation we have in Psalm 84!
Having the highways to Zion in our heart
Psa. 84:4-5 says, “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will yet be praising You. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” What are these “highways to Zion” in the heart of the seeking ones?
The expression, “the highways to Zion”, seem to be referring to something external and outward, but here it says that they are “in their heart”. This means that inwardly and internally we desire to enter into God, into the house of God, to take the way of the church internally and not only externally. I love footnote 1 on Psa. 84:5,
The highways to Zion signify our intention to enter into the church as the house of God and to seek the incarnated Triune God in His consummations, typified by the furniture in the tabernacle….On the one hand, we have entered into God; on the other hand, we are still on the highways to enter into God. That the highways are in our heart means that we need to take the way of the church internally, not merely externally. (Psa. 84:5, footnote 1)
Further entering into God in our experience
On the one hand, we have entered into God as we called on the name of the Lord to receive Him as our life. But daily we need to further enter into God by experiencing Him and enjoying Him!
We are in God, yet at the same time we are still on the highways to enter into God. The highways of Zion are
“the blessed highways for seeking the incarnated Triune God in His consummations (comprising the washing laver, the showbread table, the lampstand, and the Ark of the Testimony)” (Life-study of Psalms).
We cannot say that our entering into God has been completed yet – we are still on the highways to Zion, still on the way to entering into God until we are fully joined, mingled, and incorporated with God!
By daily coming to the Lord and enjoying His washing in His Word at the laver, the bread of life at the showbread table, the light of life at the lampstand, and the incarnated Triune God as God’s testimony at the ark, we enter further into God and are even incorporated into the Triune God.
On the highways to Zion we have strength in God – we may have been weak before, but when we make the decision to come to the church, we were strengthened in God!
Becoming the Zion, the overcomers today
We need to take a strong decision to be on the highways to Zion today – we need to pray that the Lord would produce us as His overcomers today! The Holy of Holies is Zion, the place where God is, His presence – and this is what we aim for!
We are not satisfied to be “in Jerusalem”, in the general church life, but we want to be on the highways to Zion, on a journey toward Zion, by experiencing the Triune God internally for the Body of Christ in all His consummations!
Today, in the church age, we need to be the God-men who are perfected and matured to be Zion, the overcomers, the vital groups within the churches.
How can we respond to this high revelation of having the highways to Zion in our heart and becoming Zion today as the overcomers in the churches? There is no other way to reach this high peak but to pray – diligently pray that the Lord would produce us as the overcomers He desires in the church.
This is what God desires today – He wants to gain Zion today, those who have the highways to Zion in their heart, who take the way of the church life internally, and who seek to be produced as the overcomers to meet God’s need. This is what the Lord’s recovery is for – the Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion; the Lord’s recovery is to produce the overcomers!
Lord, make us Your overcomers. We don’t want to take the way of the church life merely externally by being in the meetings of the church. May we take the way of the church and strongly desire to enter into the church life internally by experiencing You and enjoying You daily on our journey through the tabernacle toward the Holy of Holies. Lord, bring us all the way into the Holy of Holies, and make us the Zion! We want to be those who have the highways to Zion in their heart!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, The Life-study of Psalms, and, The Practical Points concerning Blending, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 14.
- Also recommended: read Psalm 84 and the footnotes on the first 4 verses;
- Hymns on this topic:
# How blessed are those men indeed! / Trusting in Thee they are made strong; / Highways to Zion in their hearts, / The way they care not, rough or long.
# The Uniqueness of the Lord’s Recovery (new song, stanza 4 starts with, “Zion Highways, Our heart’s longing, Though pass through Baca valley yet not cease”)
# Will you be an overcomer? / Christ is calling now! / Will you then be such a follower, / Though you know not how?
