Psa 104:16-18 “I will be glad in the LORD”, Part 4

Psa 104:16  The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; 
Psa 104:17  Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. 
Psa 104:18  The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies. 

God uses the physical creation, “the early and latter rain” as an example, to explain to us how He is in the process of saving all of mankind, each man in His order (1Co 15:23).

Jas 5:7  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

In the next couple of studies with Psalm 104, particularly with verses 18 to 23, we will look at other physical realities (“birds”, “goats”, “conies”, “beasts”, the “moon”, the “sun”, to name a few) that are written down for our sakes, “that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.” When we are blessed to learn how all these things are for our sakes, “the thanksgiving of many [will] redound to the glory of God.”

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

We grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, or the mind of Christ, by comparing “spiritual things with spiritual”, as we use the natural creation around us to do that. With that mind of Christ, we can lay up treasure in heaven and “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Php 4:4) and declare “I will be glad in the Lord“.

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Part of what we will look at in this study relates to that spiritual purpose behind parables which are meant to both blind on one side of the pillar and give light on the other side. This is at the heart and core of why we can rejoice today as His children and be glad in the Lord as we come to see how the “exceeding great and precious promises” which God gives us in His word reveal how we can “be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Exo 13:21  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
Exo 13:22  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. [Christ is that pillar— and “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Php 1:6). Christ will never leave or forsake us “by day” or “by night” (Heb 13:5).

Exo 14:20  And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. [“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom 8:35)]

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Eph 1:21   Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

This psalm’s main focus is on the spirit of God which created all the physical creation through Christ. The physical creation reveals to us, if God gives us eyes to see today, that the process of maturing in the Lord has many stages which all of mankind will eventually go through in order to become mature sons (2Pe 3:18, Eph 4:13). We are reassured through the physical creation which Christ created, that he can and will be the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2) who will fulfill these verses which say He “hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart (1Jn 2:16), so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” (Ecc 3:1-11).

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
1Co 8:7  Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. [not knowing, not believing that there is “one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” is how we make an idol of our flesh, and that is what we do until we’re given to acknowledge God’s sovereignty in all things, working all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11)].

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Ecc 3:11  He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world (1Jn 2:16) in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. [we can’t find that work out because of the idols which God allows to be in our flesh, and we are blinded until those idols are destroyed by Christ – “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”].

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

As we labour in God’s word and are given the eyes to see and ears to hear the words of spirit that quicken us (Mat 13:11, Joh 6:63), we are reassured through our Father of all comfort  that His workmanship that is being formed through Christ, that is going from glory to glory (Eph 2:10, Php 1:6, 2Co 3:17-18) will be finished, just as surely as the physical creation was made manifest and done so decently and in order, in what has been called the creation week or the days of creation.

2Co 1:3  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into  the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

To set the stage a little more, before we get into the verses of our study, I want to point to a verse that was discussed during Steven Crook’s last study, which has a correlation to the word Lebanon that is in this Psalm. The word Nehushtan^H5180 was the word which was discussed that parallels with the ‘cedars of Lebanon‘.

2Ki 18:4  He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan^H5180.

H5180  nechûshtân   nekh-oosh-tawn’

From H5178; something made of copper, that is, the copper serpent of the Desert: – Nehushtan.

Psa 29:5  The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

Just as the Lord must “break the cedars, even the cedars of Lebanon”, He will also break our religious pride or the second beast out of which we make an idol in the church in the wilderness.

Nehushtan^H5180 represents that idol or second beast very well (Rev 13:15, 1Co 4:7), as do the “cedars of Lebanon” which God gives us for our good, and that we naturally take and make an idol out of, adorning the temple of God, that has not yet been cleansed of the Lord to become the risen Jerusalem above (Eph 2:6) that can bear spiritual fruit, unlike these Cedar trees (Gal 4:26).

Zerubbabel’s temple, on the other hand, is the temple which God uses to typify those who have been raised in heavenly places, where we can worship God in spirit and in truth, because of the judgment of His word upon us like a plumb line which is making the ways of the Lord straight and enabling us to come out her my people.

Joh 4:23   But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24   God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Christ’s body is raised in these temples built with cedar like the serpent in the wilderness (Nehushtan^H5180), but that raising of the wood to build the temple which we are (1Co 3:16) just as the serpent in the wilderness, is only going to bring about the physical healing or burning up of the wood hay and stubble that does not change our hearts [miracles in other words do not convert and change our heart but the cleansing of the temple through judgement so that we can be “true worshippers” who “must worship him in spirit and in truth“. That relationship is made possible through the sanctification process that God blesses the church to go through today].

Luk 16:31  And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Joh 3:15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Joh 17:17   Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

These examples of the cedars of Lebannon and Nehushtan^H5180 show us God’s provision in our journey and should give us reason to rejoice and “be glad in the Lord” for how he makes a way for us to endure through sin. He is the one who is making that provision and causing the sun to shine on the evil and the good within us bringing us to see our continual need for His deliverance in this life. Coming to see this reality of the process of growing in grace and knowledge is a joyful burden for us in the spirit, and is likened unto sparks that fly upward for our flesh, sparks that typify the fiery trials we are promised as God’s children (Ecc 3:18 Nehushtan^H5180, Ecc 1:13 joyful burden, Neh 8:10 joyful burden, Job 5:7, 1Pe 4:12).

Isa 43:16  Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea<, and a path in the mighty waters;

Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Jer 13:23  Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

[Excerpt from Psa 29 study]

“Lebanon has a close association in scripture with the wilderness which we are called out of (Deu 11:24, Jos 1:4), and the cedars of Lebanon were used both within the temple of Solomon and Zerubbabel (1Ki 5:8-18, Ezr 3:7) and within the ships of Tyre (Eze 27:3-5, Eze 27:25).

What we are being told is that these cedars of Lebanon which are not fruit bearing trees will serve God both  in the court and in the temple. Initially those ships of Tyre ply the waters of the Euphrates in our life (Isa 23:1), bringing many people, nations, languages and tongues to Christ, as this exercise of buying the truth and selling it causes the merchants of the world of Babylon within us to become rich and increased with goods (Rev 3:17). All these riches are tainted because they are yet wrapped around the idols of our hearts at this point (2Ch 4:18-22, Rev 18:12, Eze 14:4, Isa 3:1), and it is only after a lifetime of being redeemed from every nation language tongue and people that we can be counted worthy to inherit eternal life (Rev 5:9). We’re not worthy, but the process that God allows us to go through makes it possible for us to understand in that day what we really are, as we inherit those promises which we are striving for (Luk 17:10, Php 3:14).

Luk 17:10  So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

The harlot sits on those waters, which are the many nations of mankind’s heart and accomplishes this first part of gathering peoples and  nations and tongues into the court which is expressed in these verses of 2 King (2Ki 24:13-20). It is only when the proud and lofty trees of Babylon are cut down and turned into lumber for the temple of God within us that a remnant can then remain “of the poorest sort of the people of the land” (2Ki 24:14, 1Co 1:26).

2Ki 24:14  And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

The tree must be cut down, and rightly divided and measured by the body of Christ (Act 2:37-38, Eph 4:16) in order to be of service to God’s people and the entire world in time. Initially however we all go into this spiritual captivity in Babylon where those cedars of Lebanon grow and then at their appointed time are cut down or broken by the spirit of God (1Co 15:23, Isa 66:2) to be used in the new temple of Zerubbabel, where we worship God in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:23).”

[Excerpt end]

With the stage set a little more, now we can look at the few verses in this Psalm study which we hope will have us saying in our spirits, “I will be glad in the Lord.”

Psa 104:16  The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;

The word “of sap” is not in the original context of this verse, so our focus is that these “trees of the Lord” or “cedars of Lebanon” “which he hath planted” “are full”. We are “full” in Babylon, in the world, not with the stay and bread and water of God, but with the cares of this world, as the sparks fly upward.

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

Joh 2:7  Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Joh 2:9  When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew [speaking of the body of Christ a kind of first fruits Gen 24:20, Mar 9:35]); the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

We can take great comfort in knowing that it is God who planted these “Cedars of Lebanon” and that he has already declared the end from the beginning for each tree.

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.

Psa 104:17  Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees^H1265 are her house.

We are told we won’t realize the plans that God has for us in their entirety (Mat 6:34), or the provision that He has predetermined for us, but that does not change the fact that God does provide, and that he is a good Father, who we can trust and cast all our cares upon so that we can stop being anxious concerning raiment or what we shall eat (physically or spiritually).

Php 4:19  And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Mat 6:28  And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29  yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30  But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Mat 6:31  Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mat 6:32  For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mat 6:33  But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Mat 7:11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Mat 7:12  All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets. [the golden rule as it is called (vs 12), is found in the context of “Enter ye in by the narrow gate” because it is when we are able to love our enemies through God’s holy spirit (Zec 4:6), and when we are convicted of our debt unto God, which is all the sin of the world within us, described as “ten thousand talents” owed (Mat 18:33), and we are convicted that there is no good thing within ourselves (Mar 10:18), then we can truly say that God is granting us the power to “Enter ye in by the narrow gate” where “few there be that find it” (Mat 7:14, Psa 107:2)
Mat 7:13  Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby (Mat 22:14).

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God (Rom 11:20), that he may exalt you in due time (Jas 5:7);
1Pe 5:7   casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,