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130 Pages
Page 71
On Psalm xiv. (in A.V. xv.) the commentary begins:
"Scripture, with the desire to describe to us the perfect man, the man who is ordained to be the recipient of blessings, observes a certain order and method in the treatment of points in him which we may contemplate, and begins from the simplest and most obvious, Lord, who shall sojourn [490] in thy tabernacle?' A sojourning is a transitory dwelling. It indicates a life not settled, but passing, in hope of our removal to the better things. It is the part of a saint to pass through this world, and to hasten to another life. In this sense David says of himself, I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.' [491] Abraham was a sojourner, who did not possess even so much land as to set his foot on, and when he needed a tomb, bought one for money. [492] The word teaches us that so long as he lives in the flesh he is a sojourner, and, when he removes from this life, rests in his own home. In this life he sojourns with strangers, but the land which he bought in the tomb to receive his body is his own. And truly blessed is it, not to rot with things of earth as though they were one's own, nor cling to all that is about us here as through here were our natural fatherland, but to be conscious of the fall from nobler things, and of our passing our time in heaviness because of the punishment that is laid upon us, just like exiles who for some crimes' sake have been banished by the magistrates into regions far from the land that gave them birth. Hard it is to find a man who will not heed present things as though they were his own; who knows that he has the use of wealth but for a season; who reckons on the brief duration of his health; who remembers that the bloom of human glory fades away.
"Who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle?' The flesh that is given to man's soul for it to dwell in is called God's tabernacle. Who will be found to treat this flesh as though it were not his own? Sojourners, when they hire land that is not their own, till the estate at the will of the owner. So, too, to us the care of the flesh has been entrusted by bond, for us to toil with diligence therein, and make it fruitful for the use of Him Who gave it. And if the flesh is worthy of God, it becomes verily a tabernacle of God, accordingly as He makes His dwelling in the saints. Such is the flesh of the sojourner. Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle?' Then there come progress and advance to that which is more perfect. And who shall dwell in thy holy hill?' A Jew, in earthly sense, when he hears of the hill,' turns his thoughts to Sion. Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?' The sojourner in the flesh shall dwell in the holy hill, he shall dwell in that hill, that heavenly country, bright and splendid, whereof the Apostle says, Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,' where is the general assembly of angels, and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.'" [493]
[490] A.V. marg. and R.V. The LXX. is paroikesei.
[491] Ps. xxxix. 12.
[492] cf. Gen. xxiii. 16, and Acts vii. 16.
[493] Heb. xii. 22, 23.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=71
