Psalms 132:14

That choice is expressed in God's words, "I will sit" or "dwell," or sit enthroned. The joy of the people springs from the blessings of His grace, conferred through the medium of the priesthood.

This is my rest for ever. Oh, glorious words! It is God himself who here speaks. Think of rest for God! A Sabbath for the Eternal and a place of abiding for the Infinite. He calls Zion my rest. Here his love remains and displays itself with delight. "He shall rest in his love." And this forever. He will not seek another place of repose, nor grow weary of his saints. In Christ the heart of Deity is filled with content, and for his sake he is satisfied with his people, and will be so world without end. These august words declare a distinctive choice— this and no other; a certain choice— this which is well known to me; a present choice— this which is here at this moment. God has made his election of old, he has not changed it, and he never will repent of it: his church was his rest and is his rest still. As he will not turn from his oath, so he will never turn from his choice. Oh, that we may enter into his rest, may be part and parcel of his church, and yield by our loving faith a delight to the mind of him who taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy. Here will I dwell; for I have desired it. Again are we filled with wonder that he who fills all things should dwell in Zion—should dwell in his church. God does not unwillingly visit his chosen; he desires to dwell with them; he desires them. He is already in Zion, for he says here, as one upon the spot. Not only will he occasionally come to his church, but he will dwell in it, as his fixed abode. He cared not for the magnificence of Solomon's temple, but he determined that at the mercy seat he would be found by suppliants, and that thence he would shine forth in brightness of grace among the favoured nation.

THESE are the words of Jehovah Himself concerning the hill of Zion, but it is clear that He did not intend us to understand them merely in their literal reference to Zion, because Zion could not be a fitting place for His eternal rest. Nor has He made it literally His rest forever, for Zion has been trodden down of the Gentiles for all these centuries. I have no doubt that the Lord had in His mind the greater Zion, "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem...the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven." The eternal God, looking down from His Throne of Glory upon all the creatures He has made, selects His Church—elect, blood-bought, called, preserved and sanctified, and He says concerning this Church—"This is my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." We would never have ventured to conceive of God as finding rest in such puny creatures as we are. However beloved, and however filled with His Spirit, it would seem too great a thing for the Creator ever to rest in His creature! Yet it is true that this is where He finds His rest. It is concerning the redeemed souls who make up the Church of Christ that He says, "This is my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." I must, at the outset, confess my inability to dive into the depths of this subject. I can only, as it were, flit across its surface as the swallow with swift wings skims over the brook. I am going to ask, first, about God finding rest in His Church Then about the duration of that rest And in closing, I want to say a few practical words concerning our finding rest where God finds rest. I. First, then, let us think of GOD FINDING REST IN HIS CHURCH. He does this, in the first place, because in His Church all the three Divine Persons of the Trinity are honored.

This is my rest for ever - Here the Christian Church is most indubitably meant. This is God’s place for ever. After this there never will be another dispensation; Christianity closes and completes all communications from heaven to earth. God has nothing greater to give to mankind on this side heaven; nor does man need any thing better; nor is his nature capable of any thing more excellent.

This is my rest for ever - My home; my permanent abode. I will no more remove from place to place - as when the ark was carried in the wilderness, and as it has been since; but Zion shall now be the fixed seat of religion. See the notes at Psa 68:16. Here will I dwell ... - Permanently; constantly.