Through these two altars God's redeemed can find their home with God in rest. Psalm 84:3 speaks both of a home and of a nest. What is the difference between a home and a nest? Whereas a home is a place of rest, a nest is a place of refuge. For us today, the brass altar is a refuge. We hide ourselves under the cross, escaping our troubles, and thus we are covered and have refuge. Then at the golden altar we contact our Christ in the heavens. This contact is not for refuge—it is for rest.
A swallow is small and weak and is troubled by storms and by many other things. But a swallow has a nest, a refuge. Like a swallow coming to the nest where she may lay her young, we may come to the cross of Christ as our refuge. Here we may bring our "young," those whom we contact in our preaching of the gospel. Spiritually speaking, at the "nest" of the cross we should "lay" our young, our spiritual children. To lay the young is to produce them through the preaching of the gospel. To do this we need to bring sinners to the cross of Christ. It is here, at the cross, that we have our nest, our refuge, and it is here that we "lay our young," that is, produce our spiritual children. Before contacting the cross they were sinners, but by contacting the cross they become believers, young children in the Lord. As we teach our young to call on the Lord, they will learn to offer prayer to God at the altar of incense. Then in their experience these two altars will be closely related.
We have pointed out that this psalm on the psalmist's love for the house of God with Christ speaks of God's tabernacles and God's house. In type, the tabernacles, the habitations, are the local churches, and the house is the church as a totality. When we come to the church, the house of God, we are attracted by the two altars, both of which are very striking. At the first altar, the brass altar, we confess our sins, failures, and defects. Here at the cross our problems are solved, and we are qualified to enter into God. Then we may come to the golden altar to contact God.
At the brass altar we meet the crucified Christ, but at the golden altar the crucified Christ becomes the ascended Christ. In His ascension Christ becomes our acceptance. No matter how good or pure we may seem to be in ourselves, we cannot be acceptable to God apart from Christ. We can be acceptable to God only in Christ. This is what it means for Christ to become our incense.
Revelation 8:3 indicates that in order for our prayer to be accepted by God, it must have Christ as the incense added to it. This is why we need to pray in the Lord's name. Sometimes we may conclude our prayer with the words "in the name of the Lord Jesus." If we pray in our own name, we will not be acceptable to God. Only when we are in the Lord's name will we be acceptable to God, for then Christ as the incense, as a pleasant fragrance, will be our acceptance. In Him we will be not only acceptable to God but also fragrant and pleasant to Him.
In the church we first find a refuge, and then we find a home. Before we were saved and came into the church, we not only were wandering and homeless, but we were also without any safeguard, protection, or hiding place. When we came to the church, we came immediately to the brass altar, the cross of Christ, and there, having the solution to our problems, we found a hiding place, a refuge. We hid ourselves in the cross. Then as we went on to contact God, praying at the incense altar, we had the sense that we were resting at home. Many of us can testify that this was our feeling when we came to the church.
As we experience these two altars in the church, we can say with Paul, "I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). We know only Christ and His cross. The cross is our refuge, our hiding place, and Christ Himself is our acceptance. Day by day we come to these two altars. Day by day we are hiding and resting. We come to the cross, where we have refuge, and we come to Christ, where we rest and are at home.