Deuteronomy 33:12 says that Benjamin will dwell in safety by the Lord. Benjamin will be a neighbor of the Lord. Because he lives next door to the Lord, he dwells in safety. Likewise, as long as we dwell by the Lord, we are safe. Although we may not have very much experience yet, we nonetheless can testify that we are today's Benjamin, that God has His dwelling place between our shoulders, and that all our being is under His overshadowing. He is the Lord, and His kingly throne is with us. We have the dwelling, He is here, and we are dwelling by Him. God and we are neighbors. What a blessing!
If you take this concept of God's dwelling found in the first book of the Bible and read the book of Psalms in the light of it, the Psalms will be new to you. The entire book of Psalms is concerned with this matter of God's dwelling. Many verses concern the city, the temple, the house, the dwelling place, or the tabernacle. If we put all these verses together, we see that the Psalms are absolutely concerned with God's dwelling. It was in one of the Psalms that Moses said, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations" (Psa. 90:1). If we would take the Lord as our habitation, we must firstly be His habitation. If God has no dwelling built up on earth, we could never have Him as our habitation. But when He has a dwelling on earth, He becomes our habitation and we become His habitation. This is what is called the mutual habitation, which is revealed in John 14 and 15, particularly in the words, "Abide in Me and I in you" (John 15:4). "Abide in Me"—this is our habitation; "and I in you"—this is His habitation. In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said clearly, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." We shall be God's dwelling, and He will be our habitation. If we all praise the Lord for this, we shall be with Him in His dwelling place.
The last of the ten aspects of the universal blessing is the matter of dwelling. Thus, eventually all the blessings consummate in the dwelling. The reason God gives us so many items of blessing is that we may be His dwelling. Why did God save you? It was for His dwelling. Why does He give you grace upon grace? For His dwelling. Why is God doing everything for you today? It is all for His dwelling. All the blessings issue in God's dwelling. This is God's good will, the desire of God's heart. What God wants is a dwelling place.
This is revealed in Isaiah 66:1 and 2. In Isaiah 66:1 we see that heaven is God's throne and the earth is His footstool, but God does not yet have a place of rest. Many Christians think of going to heaven. To them, heaven is a lovely place. But God does not love heaven as much as these Christians do. He wants a place of rest. Isaiah 66:2 reveals that God's resting place is neither heaven nor earth, but man. God is looking to a man. This verse says, "To this man will I look, to the poor and contrite in spirit, who trembleth at my word" (Heb.). This verse corresponds to Matthew 5:3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens." The kind of man who is God's rest is a man who is poor and contrite in spirit. God's good will is to have this kind of man. God's will is that we would be poor and contrite in our spirit, empty for Him. However, if our spirits are filled with things other than God, we are not poor in our spirit. If such is the case, God cannot have His dwelling with us. Many Christians today are full in their spirit. They are filled with so many things, even fundamental things, that there is no room in their spirit for the Lord. God needs a vacant spirit. His desire is that your spirit would be made vacant for Him. One who is poor in spirit is one whose spirit is vacant, unoccupied, ready for the Lord to come in.