At the end of Psalm 27, David advised and encouraged others to wait on God and to be strong and encouraged in their heart (v. 14). This is good, but it is altogether human activity which is not according to the standard of God's economy. According to Paul's word in Galatians 2:20 and Philippians 1:21a, every one of God's elect should confess, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no more I who live but Christ lives within me. Even now I live not by my faith but by the faith of Jesus Christ. I live by Him as my faith. I am altogether finished. I am nothing but a dead and buried corpse. I do not know what it is to be encouraged and strong. I only know that I have been crucified and that Christ now lives in me. For me to live is Christ." If we Christians had such a view, such a revelation, held within us, our attitude toward and our appreciation of the Psalms would be absolutely different.
The chorus of #539 in Hymns says: "O Lord, Thou art the Spirit!/How dear and near to me!/How I admire Thy marvelous/Availability!" The Lord today is not only approachable but also available. If food is only approachable to us, this is not sufficient. The food has to be available for us to eat so that we can become one with the food. Approachability is not so good as availability. Today in God's New Testament economy, God is not only approachable but also available to us. The Lord said, "I am the bread of life...he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me" (John 6:35, 57). To eat is to take Him, the available One, as our food. He also said that we need to drink of Him as the living water (John 4:10, 14). In the book of John, all the items concerning Christ are not just approachable. All of them are available—good for us to enjoy, that is, good for us to eat and drink.
Now I would like to say a further word on the enjoyment of God in the house of God as seen in Book One of the Psalms, comprising Psalms 1—41. A number of items of David's enjoyment are good, but many of them are objective and not available. David said that he lifted up his hands unto the innermost sanctuary (Psa. 28:2). This is altogether objective. David also said that those in God's temple all said, "Glory!" (29:9). If God is merely the glory outside of us, He has nothing to do with us. Objective glory does not help us, but our being subjectively mingled with the Triune God works. The chorus of Hymns, #1199 says, "Mingle, mingle, hallelujah...Yes, mingling is the way!" In God's New Testament economy, subjective mingling is the way.
In Psalm 36:7-9, David's enjoyment of God in God's house is very subjective. These verses show us the subjective enjoyment of the available riches in God's house. The psalmist said that we could be saturated with the fatness, the abundance, the riches, of God's house (v. 8a). We can be saturated with all the fullness of God within God's house by eating Him. I want to say again that we should pay attention to the revelation in the Gospel of John. In this Gospel, the two crucial words are eat and drink. As the bread from heaven, Jesus is eatable. He is also drinkable as the living water. If we drink of the living water, it will become in us a spring of water, gushing up into eternal life. Eating and drinking the Lord to enjoy Him as our spiritual life supply is so crucial, but this is missed in today's Christianity.
In God's house we can drink of the river of God's pleasures (Psa. 36:8b). This is not just one pleasure but many pleasures. We Christians do not need worldly amusements, entertainment, parties, or clubs. Our "club" is the church life. The church is the best club on this earth. We have our pleasures here in the church. Our amusement is the river of God's pleasures. We can see a picture of this flowing river in Genesis 2, and this river, the river of water of life in Revelation 22, will be flowing forever.
Psalm 36:9a says that we can be those sharing of the fountain of the life of God. In the book of Jeremiah, God condemned Israel because Israel forsook Him as the fountain of living waters (2:13). But in God's house we can share of the fountain of the life of God. Eventually, we can see light in God's light (Psa. 36:9b).
In God's house we have the food, the river, the fountain of life, and the light. These four things are altogether not objective. Food is for eating, the river is for drinking, the fountain is for sharing of, and the light is for us to participate in by seeing. What an enjoyment this is! This enjoyment in Psalm 36 is much deeper, much higher, and much more profound than the enjoyment of God's house in Psalm 27. In Psalm 36 everything is available. The food is available, the river is available, the fountain of life is available, and the light is available. We have the availability of the riches in God's house for our enjoyment.
This enjoyment will eventually lead us to the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem, we will be saturated with the fruit of the tree of life; we will drink of the river of the water of life; we will share of the fountain of God's life; and we will also see light in God's divine light (Rev. 22:1-2, 5). This is the consummate enjoyment of God in the house of God.