The Local Churches Typified in the Book of Psalms

The Temple and the House of God As Types of the Local Church

Below Witness Lee remarks that, according to Psalm 68, believers enjoy God in His dwelling, but can also enjoy God as their salvation and deliverance in the the local church.

After God’s dwelling place is built, we have the enjoyment in God’s house of all that God is, all that God does, and all that God can do. This is the sixth point in this Psalm. After verse 18 concerning God’s dwelling, we have such rich enjoyment in verses 19 and 20: “Blessed be the Lord: day by day doth he load us with good, the God who is our salvation. Selah. God is unto us a God of deliverances; and with God, the Lord, are the goings forth even from death.” In the house, in the church, in the sanctuary, God loads us with good day by day; hence we enjoy His goods; we enjoy His salvation, His deliverances, and His goings forth even from death. The going forth from death is a real deliverance. If we could go forth from death, we could go forth from the enemy. Everyone knows that whenever death comes to visit, there is no escape. This is really so. But we Christians may say today that whenever we are confronted with death, we can go forth from death. What a deliverance! We enjoy God; we experience God as our deliverance, as our going forth from death.

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 108-109)

3. Receiving the Blessing in God’s House

According to the Psalms, God’s blessing is consistently identified with His house, a type of the local church. Witness Lee applies the phrase, “For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand” in Psalm 84 to describe the thousandfold blessing of life experienced in the local church.

“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand” (v. 10). In the Bible, one thousand signifies the fullest measure of a complete unit. Ezekiel 47 speaks of the measurement of a thousand cubits, and the millennium covers a period of a thousand years. Hence, the blessing we receive by being in the dwelling place of the Lord is the fullest, the uttermost. Nowhere else can we receive a blessing as full as that which we obtain in the courts of the house of God….I do not care how much you obtain at home; it can never compare with the blessings you receive in the local church. Even if the local church is poor, you just come to it; you will get the blessing. You may in fact get some blessing elsewhere, but not a thousandfold. If you want the fullest blessing, if you would turn one good day into a thousand, you must come to the local churches. “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Here in the house of God we enjoy God as a sun and a shield. The sun is for supply, and the shield is for protection. Here in the church life God is our supply, and God is our safeguard. Here we enjoy His grace and His glory. Grace is the inner enjoyment, and glory is the outward expression. In the church life we have the inner enjoyment of grace and the outward expression of glory; we have a supply as the sun, and God Himself as our shield. Oh, how blessed is the church life!

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 153-154)

In this next excerpt, Witness Lee indicates that two blessings enjoyed by the believers in the local church are the continual praise of the Lord and strength in God.

In verse 4 the psalmist goes on to say, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be praising thee all the day long” (Heb.). We should not simply visit the house of God; we should dwell there all the day long. According to this verse, those who dwell in the Lord’s house are blessed. They even praise the Lord all day long. Whenever we meet together, we should spend much time in praising. Praising should occupy more time in the meetings than teaching. May we all learn to praise the Lord.

In verse 5 the psalmist continues, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.” In the church we have our strength in God and our heart is filled with the ways of God. If we would experience this, we must be in the house of God.

(Witness Lee, Genuine Ground, 69)

Main

God’s House

Zion

City of God

Bride

Practical Salvation

Built Up

Victory

Bibliography

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