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I. The first promise made to the Church of God in our text is one SECURING TO HER AN EVERLASTING EXISTENCE. The Church is not a temporary institution; it shall never be removed.

1. The Jerusalem of God shall exist as she is. What was she in those days? "The city of solemnities"; the place where prayer and praise were wont to be made. So is she to continue throughout all generations.

2. As a quiet habitation, which we would desire it to be.

(1) The Church of God is always a quiet habitation, even when her enemies surround her. Some of you may have seen in the Exhibition a Belgian picture representing the reading of the statute of the Duke of Alva in the Flemish towns, establishing the Inquisition. Godly merchants are listening in deep solemnity of sorrow; the young maiden weeps upon her sister's bosom; the aged woman turns her streaming eyes to heaven. All this the painter could depict, but he could not paint the deep heaven-born peace which still possessed the souls of the threatened ones.

(2) But how quiet is she when her enemies are not allowed to prey upon her! "Then had the churches rest," says the Holy Ghost in the Acts of the Apostles.

(3) We know what quiet means in our communion with one another.

3. Our text seems to indicate that there were some persons who doubted all this, and said, "Well, but you speak of this city as though it could stand an attack. It cannot; it is such a feeble place; it is like a tent; it can soon be stormed; a gust of wind can blow it over." The Lord anticipates this difficulty, and shows that the feebleness of Jerusalem should be no reason why she should not still continue to exist. She is a tabernacle — a mere tent; but she is a tabernacle that shall not be taken down. The Church's feebleness, because it drives her to God, is the Church's strength.

4. To complete this part of the promise, the city, notwithstanding all her feebleness, is to be for ever complete.

(1) If I understand the last two sentences, — "Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken," we learn here that all the true members of the Church are safe. Some of them may be driven into the earth as the stakes are driven, with a heavy mallet; but the strokes of tribulation shall only give them a better hold, and minister stability to the whole structure.

(2) This also relates to the doctrines of the Gospel.

(3) The ordinances.

II. THE PRE-EMINENT POSITION (ver. 21).

III. ETERNAL SAFETY (vers. 22, 23).

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

WEB: Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won't be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.