What does it mean to say that God is my portion?

We had precious promises in the precious section. Here we have a precious portion. The Hebrew has literally: “My portion is Jahweh … ” We are not talking about blessings, or promises, but about a Person! Many Christians are so occupied with the blessings that they forget the Blesser, and likewise many are so enthralled with their spiritual gifts, that they ignore the Giver!

"My portion and my cup:" what is the difference? My portion is what belongs to me, — what is mine, whether or not I enjoy it. My cup is what I actually appropriate, or make my own. Eating and drinking are significant of actual participation and enjoyment. Many a person has in this world a portion which he cannot enjoy; and many a one has a portion which (through moral perversity, it may be,) he does not enjoy. With the Lord, indeed, His portion and His joy were one: Jehovah was the measure of both. He had nothing beside; He wanted nothing beside. These two things should be found, through grace, in the Christian also. For all it is true, that God is the measure of our portion, — we have no other. Oh, that it were equally true that He was the measure of our cup, — of our enjoyment!

The progress of the inspired strain is now marked clearly; for we read, "Jehovah" (name of divine relationship) "is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot." The soul of the saint is here confessedly in the presence of its object, and the heart opens to its own blessedness. First I speak of Him and of what He is to me, and then I speak to Him and of what He does for me. He is my portion, my all; or, as in Col. 3:11, when correctly rendered, "Christ is everything." The portion of my inheritance, and the portion of my cup. The "inheritance" of this verse and the "heritage" of the next are the future thing, while the "cup" and the "lines" are the present thing. He speaks first of the inheritance and then of the cup. How true is this in the experience of saints! Many an one knows that Christ will be his portion for ever, who has afterwards to learn that just as truly and as blessedly is He his portion now. Both are true -

If the Psalmist, in his generation, could find his portion in Jehovah, should not we, as having the light of all that the Lord has done for us, and of what He is in His greatness and glory, find our portion in Himself in this day? The words of our opening verse, "Thou art my portion," is a confession, not a prayer. Has there not been the danger of our looking for a portion on earth, looking around for something to satisfy? How good it is for us to find, as Solomon did, that all things here are "empty." When we realise that the Lord is God's centre, and the source of all grace for us, our souls reach out to Him and say. "Lord, Thou art my portion." The Lord knows the motives of the heart, and if it is from a true heart we speak these words, the life will be filled with good things.

Having made this good confession, the Psalmist can add, "I have said that I would keep Thy words." His soul had entered into the sphere where God's mind and will are learned, where His words direct the thoughts of the heart. With the whole heart the godly man goes in for the words that unfold to him the greatness, the glory and the beauty of the Lord, and as engaged in communion with Him, the soul is exercised as to its ways, as to whether they are according to the desire of His heart.

These provisions for the priests were necessary since they had no inheritance in the land, as did the other tribes. They were to realize that God was their portion and inheritance. We may wonder if they understood and appreciated this as they ought. But what of ourselves today? Being priests, believers have no earthly inheritance, but even now God is our portion and inheritance, and we have the wonderful prospect of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:4).

The subject of inheritance is next treated. "I am their inheritance … I am their possession." The priests have no inheritance, no possession in Israel. Compare Num. 18:20; Deut. 10:9; Deut. 18:1. Is this a deprivation? Can it be that to be an heir of God, to have Him as one's inheritance and possession? Rather it expresses the highest possible place of nearness and blessing in which what God is becomes the portion of those so blessed. What more than this gives God His rightful place? The whole man is lifted up to Him in whom all his resources are found, from whom all his expectation must come. It reminds us of the Christian place — heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, who is the appointed Heir of all things, and He in whom we have obtained an inheritance into which we are brought according to the riches of His grace and to the praise of His glory. Now we joy in God, and rejoice in hope of His glory. Our city is of His building, our kingdom is of His preparation and giving.

Levi's peculiar portion is first to be considered: "Unto the tribe of Levi He gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as He said unto them" (13:14). The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance (13:33). Levi was "scattered in Israel," according to the prophecy of Jacob; but Levi's portion was the most sacred and the most precious of all. Wherever the other tribes dwelt, there was Levi; wherever the devout spirits in Israel worshipped the Lord, there Levi had his inheritance. The Lord — not a position — was Levi's lot: "The Lord God of Israel is their inheritance." And so it is that the happiest and wealthiest Christians are they who find in the Lord Himself their portion. Whether dwelling among the two and a half tribes on the other side of Jordan, or among the nine and a half in Canaan, not the special position of the land where their cities were, but Jehovah Himself, and the sacrifices made by fire to him, were Levi's inheritance. "The breadth, and length, and depth, and height" (Eph. 3:18) are most truly comprehended by those Christians who have most of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith; by those who, like Levi, have the Lord Himself and the sacrifices as their conscious portion. It is well to fight the giants and to overcome cities; but it is better to sacrifice burnt offerings and to partake of peace offerings, to worship God and to hold communion with Him concerning the Lord Jesus.

Levi's portion, in one sense, could never be assailed either by the dweller in the land or by the foreign foe; for even in the darkest day of Israel's departure, when the people of God had betaken themselves to caves and holes in the earth for fear of the enemy, Levi could look up to the unclouded heavens, and exclaim to Jehovah, "Thou art my portion and the lot of my inheritance." Yet in another sense, Levi would be the first to suffer in the day of Israel's adversity, for the sacrifices of Israel were Levi's portion, and these would fail when the foe held Israel captive. And so it is, those nearest to Christ, while they rejoice in a portion that can never be removed, and which never can vary, are the first to feel, in all its acuteness, the spiritual poverty of saints or their affliction by the enemy.

Israel, responsible to maintain their possession in Canaan, might and did utterly fail; the heathen and the idols might and did obtain the mastery over them; but the unchangeable God was Levi's inheritance, and wherever the spirit of worship to Him arose in any of Israel, and sacrifices by fire were offered to Him, there Levi had his inheritance.

For the turn given by the Targum, and the older versions, save the Vulgate, namely, "The mercies of Jehovah are not consumed, for his compassions fail not," I see no sufficient reason, though Calvin considers this sense more suitable. The Latin and our own version seem to me preferable, not only as being clearer but as giving greater prominence to the persons of His people, and yet maintaining in the last clause what the others spread over both clauses. His mercies then have no end; "they are renewed every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him." It is a goodly portion without doubt, though unbelief thinks it nothing and pines after some one to show any good after a tangible sort, the corn and wine and oil of this creation. But to have Him who has all things and who is Himself infinitely more than all He has is beyond comparison a better portion, as he must own who by grace believes it.

This is a fine principle when applied to our hearts in reference to Christ. If we are filled with Him we have no room for aught beside. It is only when Satan succeeds in creating a want in our hearts that he introduces something of his own. When we are able in truth to say, "The Lord is my portion," we are safe from the influence of Satan's attractive baits. The Lord keep us in the happy and holy enjoyment of Himself, that so we may be able to say with one of old, "I try to lay up all my good things in Christ, and then a little of the creature goes a great way."

In this part (v. 57-64) we have more the affections connected with the word written in the heart: "Thou art my portion, O Jehovah." The heart has Himself as its source of joy and blessing. This connects itself necessarily with purpose of heart towards God: "I have said." It is impossible to look to the Lord as one's portion without thus purposing to do His will, for that would be not owning Him. This too necessarily involves the desire of His favour, since He is God. Still the word here has its place, which has awakened this desire and confidence, both as assuring of the mercy and the revelation of the principles on which this favour and mercy are shewn. I see the same desire, not mere obedience, though resulting in it, but the meditation of the heart: "I thought on my ways" - the heart's inward exercises, a needful and important matter for us - "and turned my feet unto thy testimonies."