Beautiful For Situation

~ The New Jerusalem ~

Chapter:# 6

Beautiful For Situation, Qualified To Enter

..PDF Version

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah. We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” Psalms 48:1-14

Continuing on with Psalm 48:1-14. We now come to the next verse.

“For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.” One of the most prominent re-occurrences in World History is the continued attempt by many nations over the millenniums of time to advance and to take the Kingdom of God by force. The History books are full of examples of crusades and wars in this world all done in the name of God, each one testifying that the God their nation serves is the true God and all others are to be put down. The general thought in any war campaign is to take by force their right to lands and religion. Or, if an opposing nation is guilty of committing to an invasion of surrounding nations, then the battle by other nations drawn into the fray is still done in the name of God. Wars are also fought over oil reserves, nevertheless it is still done under the premise that God blesses their efforts of war to bring them to a successful conclusion. So we have the entities of war, each asking the Lord to bless their munitions, each calling on the very same Lord Jesus Christ. However, the New Jerusalem does not know warfare as relates to man’s religious effort or national campaigns. This is the Kingdom of God, which Kingdom no man or nation can enter if they are in a defiled state. The New Jerusalem is ‘above’ all the elements of man’s attempts to gain lands or religion in this world. Standing alone, the New Jerusalem is the final display of the fullness of God in a people, there is simply no earthly war or assembly that can maneuver itself into a position of being qualified to be part of this City.

Quite the contrary.

The nations on the earth do not qualify to enter into the New Jerusalem through the efforts of war or unrighteous assembly. Included in this inability to enter the City of God are all the gamut’s of society from all eons of time, both in national stance or those who would form a religious group. None qualify except those who have been washed in the Blood of Jesus and have confessed that they are looking for that City whose foundations and building and structure is built by God.

“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” Hebrews 13:14

Efforts have been made in countless conflicts within the realm of the Mystery of Iniquity by kings and rulers to take their doctrine, the pride of their nation and the effort of their governments into what they term “The Kingdom of God”. National pride, associated with God’s Kingdom has become the norm for many nations. With awe these have beheld the promise of eternal life through the atonement of The Lord Jesus Christ and have desired that atonement to “fit” into their National structure. As a student of History I have seen that almost all the wars in History past have been gauged by such beliefs. Each nation has thought themselves to be in God’s favor. But I prophesy that each and every worldly nation who claims place with God WILL COME TO NOTHING. For the New Jerusalem holds within it a requirement. This requirement is TO BE HOLY AS GOD IS HOLY. And NO NATION ON THE EARTH IS HOLY. So much is the Holiness of God a part of this revelation of the New Jerusalem that any king or monarch or sage of any nation or time that would purport itself as being “special” to God will find themselves in a total futile attempt to gain place in this City. In fact, the Holiness of God that this City is built in becomes a TORMENT to all they who would deem themselves “fit” to enter it! For the Holiness of God, God’s purity and rightness, SHAMES AND CONVICTS OF SIN. This Holiness which convicts of sin any national leader or nation as a whole does so BECAUSE OF THE BLOOD SPILT BY KING JESUS UPON CALVARY. In other words, God has the right now to discomfit anyone who would attempt to enter the New Jerusalem by carnal efforts just by them claiming the atonement of Christ as their means to their “right to enter”. The way is clear for man to enter BY HIS ATONEMENT when they accept that atonement as their cleansing and loss of world identity. So much so is the Holiness of God prominent in the City of God that any person who would attempt to enter with any element of uncleanness in them will find that the very Holiness of God becomes a source of CONVICTION. This conviction teaches them that they need to SUBMIT to the judgment of God to be cleaned of their defilements. And that includes any national effort to take ground by force to impose their government standards as relates to personal favor with God.

In other words, men in the earth have NO favor with God UNLESS they have first submitted to the cleansing of their body – soul – and spirit by the Blood of Jesus which was shed for us. It is the Blood of His covenant that cleanses us from any defilement and allows us place IN this City.

We see that “fear” and “pain” takes hold on the Kings of the earth as a woman in travail. This fear comes from LOSS. The pain comes from NO DELIVERANCE FROM THAT LOSS. The loss comes from not being able to bring all that they held as secure in their earthly Kingdoms as capable of entering the City of God. It is just too much to take for it means that they would have to DIE to all they held as precious to everything they warred for. The New Jerusalem stands testament to this duality that they held to and as a result all they held to must be put off. The span of time of holding fast to these earthly elements will only produce torment and pain as long as they resist the workings of God to judge them and to deliver them pure of defilement into the Kingdom of God.

“Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.”

Tarshish is mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament. It was a Phoenician Port City which transported goods and services to the ancient world around the Mediterranean Sea. Located at the southern end of Spain it’s prominent position earned it the right to be mentioned for many things including the distribution of tin and other metals that were used at that time. Jehoshaphat caused the ships of Tarshish to be constructed at Ezion-geber, on the Elanitic Gulf of theRed Sea.

For the trade of this City was extensive. Historically, the ships of Tarshish were known to have coursed their way around the Horn of Africa and into the Indian Sea to India itself thus bringing back to the Mid East exotic elements of the world during that age. The ships were huge in size, clad with iron on the sides and were very heavy.

In the tongue of Israel at that time, “Tarshish” was the word they used for “Beryl”. The Beryl Stone we covered in the Ephod studies as being the Stone representing the Judgment of God, God coming to Judge they who would be “Overcomers” and God being a CONSUMING FIRE. The actual word “Tarshish” means “contemplation; examination”. They of Tarshish would deem themselves fit to enter into the promises of God by their own doing. But as relates to the picture of the New Jerusalem Tarshish conveys a much different meaning. For the ships of Tarshish are BROKEN BY AN EAST WIND. Where else do we find an east wind in scripture? In the depiction by the Apostle Paul of the east wind which destroyed the ship he was in. “But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.” Acts 27:14 Euroclydon is the wind of a “typhoon” or a wind of massive destruction. This wind that Paul’s ship endured came from Crete through the Adriatic Gulf to the Malta coast that he was in. This ship, as the ships of Tarshish represent BABYLON or THE WORLD AND ALL THAT IS IN IT. The economies of the world, the trades of the world, the life and religion of the world, all represented by the ships of Tarshish as it did the ship that Paul rode upon. The ships are destroyed by this eastern wind, the judgment of God against the world! No trade of this world will enter the Holy City of God. No commerce. No pride of race or nation. And NO goods and services. The New Jerusalem stands as that which God creates NEW with nothing of the former world remembered or known any more. Even so, man in his pride and in each succession as a nation rebuilds their ships and renews their earthly endeavors to create a name and a place for themselves. But God brings all such to naught in each and every age!

For the Overcomer the experience of the destruction of the Ships of Tarshish becomes an entirely different matter. It is simple and easy to rest in a harbor, there the storms of life do not assail and the tempests do not break over the protective barriers. Behind walls of security the winds of tribulation never blow. But the Overcomer is much different than they who would sit in comfort zones and who would hide behind walls. The Overcomer is one who thwarts the systems, who abandons them! They come out from amongst all this into the open water of life not knowing which way the currents will take them. They let go of the moorings of the shoreline and cast themselves off over the deeps. There is no area in their lives which will become “settled and contemplative”, they instead seek hard after the Lord. The will of God to be done in them is all their desire. Nothing else matters to them at all but to know the Lord and His perfect will. Hear this by the Spirit dear reader of these lines! Let them sink deep into your understanding, bind them to your hearts as to a truth that was of a great price and of an area of understanding that was more valuable than all the gold of the earth. The Overcomer WELCOMES THE EUROCLYDON WIND. “BLOW UPON MY BARK OH WIND OF GOD. LET THY FIERY BLAST TAKE FROM ME MY VERY LIFE UPON THESE SEAS. LET THE FEIRCE ANGER OF THE LORD BE TURNED ON THAT WHICH WOULD OPPOSE ANYTHING OF GOD IN ME. OH LORD, I SEEK THEE TO BLAST THY WRATHFUL VENGEANCE UPON MY MORTAL FRAME, UPON MY SOUL AND UPON MY SPIRIT. AS I LAUNCH INTO THE DEPTHS OH LORD, TAKE MY FRAME AND JUDGE ME COMPLETELY AND LET THERE BE NOTHING IN ME THAT ESCAPES THE WINDS OF THY JUDGEMENTS AND SET ME FREE”.

Now do not read into those lines anything that is not there. The one who desires all that God has for them is willing to lay down entirely ALL their lives, even unto death, that they may win Christ. They care not if the winds destroy the Ships of Tarshish if it means they will be free to walk with God without restraint. The prayer of the Overcomer is that their life in the earth will count only for that for which God intended. That the storms of wind that God would bring to them would work into their lives the deliverance needed FROM SELF. That SELF would be equated with the breakup of their “ship”. So that the storm that God brings (tribulation), would in the end set them free to walk only in the Spirit in that which is of His new Nature within us.

So how do these few verses relate to those who would Overcome and enter by the gates into the New Jerusalem? Simply this. That we would ENDURE anything of the hand of God which would separate us FROM this world. For your trials dear Overcomer, your seclusions, your separations, your hurtful experiences, your traumatic experiences, your horrendous experiences - ALL WORK TO SEPARATE YOU “FROM” THE WORLD AND “UNTO” GOD. For the rest of Psalm 48 now will reveal to us a SINGULAR VISION AND PURPOSE. And that singular vision and purpose will now be to VIEW and to ENJOY the expanse OF GOD’S HOLY KINGDOM.. In other words, we can now freely behold this beautiful City, enjoy it completely, and then in time actually SEE IT IN THE EARTH! For this City will come to this world just as surely as Jesus came to this world. It is a promise of God for it is the physical City which will usher in the end of God’s purposes and bring to an end all the promises and hope we have in the gospel. Beloved Overcomers, the City of God, descending from Heaven as a Bride adorned for her husband – IS THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD! NOW WITH EYES TURNED UPWARD AND WITH A GAZE FIXED ON JESUS ALONE, ENJOY THE REST OF THIS PSALM!