The Institutions of God's House
J. Baldwin Brown, B. A. Psalm 26:8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of your house, and the place where your honor dwells. I suppose that nothing short of an entire suspension of the privileges which we recount of our Sabbath would make us understand what the house of God is worth to us, and enable us to enter fully into the mind of the man who, driven forth an exile from Zion, uttered the longing of his heart in these burning words: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so," etc. (Psalm 42:1, 2). There are those who cannot remember the time when they did not love the habitation of God's house; others have found, perhaps late in life, what blessings are for them there. But let us note some of the reasons in which this love of the house of the Lord is founded. I. THERE I FIRST LEARNED TO KNOW MYSELF AND THEE. There has been rest since you knew the worst of yourself, and knew that God knew it, and pitied and loved yon still. II. THERE I HAVE LEARNT MOST RICHLY THE MEANING OF THY DISCIPLINE AND FOUND STRENGTH TO ENDURE. Some of you have gone thither crushed by burdens, pressed by temptations, beggared by losses, bewildered by difficulties; ready to cry, I can strive no longer, I am worn out, I give up the battle at last in despair. And then blessed words have seemed to stream down on you from the height, with a soothing sweetness, with an invigorating force such as no words which you have ever heard elsewhere have conveyed. III. FOR THERE I WAS GUIDED INTO THY MOST BLESSED SERVICE. IV. THERE I FOUND MEAT AND FRUITFUL FELLOWSHIP, and so did those I love best. We little estimate what the house of the Lord has been worth to our souls. As little do we measure its worth to our homes: what peace, unity, charity it has engendered; what wandering, schism, and bitterness it has spared. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth. WEB: Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells.