Thy dwelling place, O Lord, I love

Hence, when we mention the church, on the one hand it is so sweet, but on the other hand it is unbearable. The first stanza of Hymns, #852 says, "Thy dwelling-place, O Lord, I love; / It is Thy Church so blessed." However, many people do not think this way. They may say, "O Lord, Your dwelling place is pitiful. I really cannot live there any longer. Why don't You give me a better church?" Eventually, having left the church, these ones are without a church and become wandering Christians, individualistic members. Peter is the best pattern of our need to be in the church. In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus said to him that he was a piece of stone and that He had to build him, this piece of stone, into the church (v. 18; 1 Pet. 2:5). Peter was one who had a quick temper (Matt. 17:24-27). Only the church could deal with him and make him mature. Everyone who is as fast and wild as Peter has to be in the church in order to be transformed.

Many among us are not familiar with how to sing hymns in a meeting. When I heard you sing, "Thy dwelling-place, O Lord, I love; / It is Thy Church so blessed" (Hymns, #852), I sensed a lack of refinement in the use of this hymn. When we sing hymns, we should not only be loud and clear in our singing but also refined in our enjoyment. For example, after singing each stanza, there could be a short prayer of longing and enjoyment: "O Lord! I love Your dwelling place. I love Your church; she is Your joy and heart's delight, and she is also where my heart finds rest." Or we could pray, "O Lord! The church is so lovely. As we come here, our hearts are joyful; once we are here, our hearts find rest." After such a simple prayer, our feeling will be quite different when we sing the next stanza. Every stanza should be the pouring out of our feelings from within, expressing our appreciation to the Lord. In this matter, we need to practice until we are more skillful.

From the aforementioned brief outline of the history of the church, we can observe that only those who remain in the line of the Lord's recovery can see and receive the revelation concerning the church. Outside the Lord's recovery it is difficult to see much concerning the church. What people in the denominations and sects in Christianity see is altogether religion with its organization; thus, they are utterly ignorant concerning the church. Hymns, #852, which came out of the vision concerning the church in the Lord's recovery, describes how sweet, lovely, and precious the church is to a lover of the Lord. , Stanza 1 says,

Thy dwelling-place, O Lord, I love;
It is Thy Church so blessed,
It is Thy joy and heart's delight
And where Thy heart finds rest.

This hymn not only shows that the church is God's dwelling place, bride, and Body but also expresses the saint's love for and consecration to the church. Stanzas 3 and 4 say,

For her, Thou hast become my life,
That she my living be;
For her, I would forsake myself,
That she be filled with Thee.
The church is Thy beloved Bride,
Thou in Thy Body seen;
She is my joy and heart's desire,
The one on whom I lean.

In the table of contents of our hymnal there is a category called "The Church." It covers the church as the mystery of Christ, the increase of Christ, the fullness of Christ, the vessel of Christ, and the lampstand of Christ. It also covers the church's general definition, course, faith, unity, foundation, building, attraction, coordination, and fellowship. Hymns, #824 is on the general definition of the church, whereas #852 is on the attraction of the church. Perhaps many of us have been in the church life for a number of years, yet we are still not clear about the definition of the church, nor do we know what kind of price we need to pay when we are attracted by the church. These two hymns reveal to us these two aspects of the truth. I hope that we all can earnestly study the truths contained in our hymns.