What does it mean to dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:6)?

With such a Shepherd what other conclusion can we reach? The Lord goes before, the sheep follow after, and goodness and mercy bring up the rear. How blessed that goodness and mercy should follow behind, just, indeed, where they are wanted; for there are weak sheep, and sick sheep, and lame sheep, and the weak and sickly sheep lag behind, and follow afar off, but goodness and mercy will pick them up. How do we deal with the weak and sickly sheep? Alas! too often like the shepherds of Israel, of whom the prophet had to say, "With force and with cruelty have ye ruled them" (Ezek. 34:4); but with goodness and mercy the Lord deals with them. If we cannot count upon the tender mercies of one another, this at least we know, the goodness and mercy of the Lord will follow us all the days of our life.

And when the days of this passing life have run their course, what of the far future that stretches into eternity? The Psalmist closes with an answer of ringing certainty, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." This is the glorious end of a great beginning. For what can be greater, in this world, than to go through it with the Lord Himself for our Shepherd. And if "the Lord is my Shepherd" it must follow that not only He will lead me through this wilderness world, but He will bring me at last into the glory where He Himself is gone.

Psalm 23:6. "My cup runneth over." I now find God Himself the source of all, and not only this as a present thing, but seeing what God is, I can say, "goodness and mercy shall follow me," etc., and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. We shall never want goodness and not find it. It "shall follow me." The goodness of God is better than man's, if we could get it, and there is a place to dwell in — "I shall dwell in the house of the Lord," etc. That is my hope. In the Father's house, there are not only blessings conferred, but a place to dwell in with the Father for ever. As He brought Christ through, of course He will bring me through too; and I am there now by faith. I am at home with God my Father. Temporal mercies come from God's love, and spiritual, which are far better. And He would have us feel that all the correctings and chastenings by the way are founded on the fact that He is for us. When peace is really settled through the work of Christ, I have all these exercises; and what is known only to faith at the beginning becomes afterwards experience, though always faith too; but every step, having had this experience, we can say, we know it — whatever it be we meet with by the way — we know it is all for good, and "we shall dwell," etc. Wonderful grace!

In that house we shall dwell. The passing and the evanescent will have given place to the abiding and the eternal. David evidently realised this. What he did not know was that we shall dwell in that house of Jehovah in company with the Son of God. We shall reach it by His coming again to receive us to Himself; and His own words are, "that where I am, there ye may be also." So we have before us not merely a place, but a well-known and well-loved Person filling the place. This it is that makes the house of the Lord a home to us, so that the thought of dwelling in it for ever becomes a delight.

The house is however named very distinctly in Psalm 23, when we come to the last verse. The primary thought of the house is that it is the place where God dwells amid the praises of His people; but it is none the less true that it is also the place where saints will dwell, and dwell for ever. The Psalm celebrates the activities of Jehovah as Shepherd. We very rightly refer it to the Lord Jesus in His risen activities, for He is Jehovah. But it not only speaks of His activities on our behalf; it speaks also of His abiding with us, both in the presence of our enemies and in the valley of the shadow of death, and ultimately of our abiding with Him in His own house.

The last two words of the Psalm, "for ever," stand in contrast with the words, "all the days of my life." This shows, we judge, that in the mind of David this dwelling in the house of the Lord was something beyond any drawing near to God in connection with earthly dwelling-places, even millennial ones. His faith looked on to something akin to that which Abraham saw when "he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:10). The patriarchs desired an heavenly country, and looked for the city that God would build: David had his expectation centred on something more intimate still, for to dwell in the house of the Lord bespeaks a nearer intimacy.

And now, after many an hour's meditation with deep and mingled feelings over our beautiful twenty-third Psalm, we must leave it for other themes; but its lessons, in connection with a Father's hand, remain. He can engrave on the tablets of the heart that which the wasting hand of time can never efface. The recollections of the past may draw a shade over the present, but the future is all and only bright. The great thought in the closing words of the psalm is home. All the vicissitudes of the wilderness are over, and the only thought that now fills the mind is home - an eternal, happy home. "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." There the worn and weary pilgrim finds his perfect rest; there the one who was a stranger on earth finds his heavenly home; and there the servant, whose work is finished, enters into the joy of his Lord.

Seventhly, and lastly, looking beyond the days of our life into the great eternity that stretches beyond we see that if the LORD is our Shepherd, it is, not only to lead us through the wilderness, but, at last to bring us home to "dwell in the house of the LORD for ever." For the Christian it is the Father's house; there to dwell beyond all bodily wants, with every spiritual longing met, where no failure can intrude, no hearts grow cold, no shadow of death can come, no enemy approach, but where, indeed, the cup will run over. "The days of my life" will end "in the house of the LORD for ever." In that great home gathering not one of His sheep will be missing. "Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost" (John 17:12). Long years ago the saintly Rutherford wrote, "What think ye of His love? What of these feet that went up and down the world to seek His Father's lost sheep, pierced with nails? The eyes that were oft lift up to heaven to God in prayer, wearied with tears? His head pierced with thorns? The face that is fairer than the sun, all maimed, and the hair pulled out of His cheeks? He took shame and gave you glory. He took the curse, and gave you the blessing, He took death, and gave you life … As the Chief Shepherd, He shall make an account of all His lambs, and tell His Father, these be all My sheep. I went through woods and waters, and briers, and thorns, to gather them in, and My feet were pricked and My hands and My side pierced, ere I could get a grip of them; but now here they are."

How sweet it is to look to the end of our weary way - and what an end - "the house of the Lord"! and that "for ever"! Surely "goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Can any thing be sweeter, goodness and mercy now, the house of the Lord hereafter? - D.

Yes, there is a still greater blessing in store; according to the marvellous abundance of Him Who is the portion of our inheritance and of our cup. The crowning blessing, the blessing of blessings, will be this — "to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever" — to be "for ever with the Lord" — with Him Who gave us that Table and that cup, when going to give Himself for us — to dwell with Him in His and our Father's House, Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him. "High in the Father's house above, My mansion is prepared; There is the home, the rest, I love, And there my bright reward. With Him I love, in spotless white; In glory I shall shine; His blissful presence my delight, His love and glory mine. All taint of sin shall be removed, All evil done away And I shall dwell with God's Beloved, Through God's eternal day."

Ah! dear fellow pilgrim, once arrived there, — "The gates of pearl once entered, Farewell to every care!" There will be no longer any question as to whether I shall want or not nor as to the abundance of the green pastures, and the still waters, and the feeding and peaceful lying down there; nor of straying and restoring, and being led in the paths of righteousness; nor of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, with its darkness, perils, and terrors, and the safely and fearlessly passing through it; nor even of our gracious Shepherd and Lord's Table, and the Cup of blessing — though all this will ever be remembered in glory. Once arrived there, it will be the dwelling in the House of the Lord for ever and — blessed hope of the Christian believer — the being "for ever with the Lord." The Jewish worshipper, when going up three times a year from the distant borders of the Holy Land to worship at Jerusalem, might say, whilst travelling on the dusty road in the heat of the day, "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising thee. Selah." But when the feast was over, then came the sorrow of parting. No such parting for us, fellow-heir of glory, —

It can hardly be supposed, however, that when they sing about the House of the Lord their thoughts and aspirations were exhausted by the contemplation of the Temple at Jerusalem. When in Psalm 23 David sings: "And I will dwell in the house of Jehovah for ever," he surely did not mean that the Temple would be his everlasting home. He was in fact coming very near to Israel's version of the Father's house of many mansions promised by the Lord Jesus to His disciples in John 14:2. Similarly, as we read the Psalms and catch the infection, there is awakened within us a kind of blend, compounded of desire after God fully revealed as the Father; desire for renewal and intensification of the experience of His presence in His house, the Church; and also of longing for the everlasting enjoyment of Himself in His home in heaven.