You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Parallel Translations
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You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
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Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Show all 3 translations
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Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me with glory.
Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And beside Thee I desire none upon earth.
My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever.
Cross-references (63)
- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (v26) He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in…
- Isaiah 40:29-31 (v26) He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men…
- Psalms 138:3 (v26) In the day that I called, you answered me. You encouraged me with strength in my soul.
- Psalms 18:2 (v26) Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high…
- 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (v26) We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;…
Show all 63 cross-references
- Philippians 3:8 (v25) Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered…
- Psalms 32:8 (v24) I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.
- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (v26) Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which…
- Isaiah 58:11 (v24) and Yahweh will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and…
- Psalms 16:2 (v25) My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.”
- Psalms 16:5-6 (v26) Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good…
- Proverbs 3:5-6 (v24) Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your…
- Psalms 84:2 (v26) My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
- Psalms 63:3 (v25) Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.
- Psalms 48:14 (v24) For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.
- Psalms 63:1 (v26) God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no…
- Isaiah 48:17 (v24) Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you…
- Lamentations 3:24 (v26) “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
- Psalms 142:5 (v26) I cried to you, Yahweh. I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
- Psalms 25:9 (v24) He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way.
- Psalms 27:14 (v26) Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.
- Isaiah 30:21 (v24) and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk…
- James 1:5 (v24) But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
- Psalms 16:7 (v24) I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
- John 16:13 (v24) However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he…
- Philippians 1:21 (v26) For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
- Revelation 21:3-4 (v26) I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his…
- Job 13:15 (v26) Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
- Psalms 16:5 (v25) Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.
- Psalms 40:12 (v26) For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs…
- Psalms 49:15 (v24) But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.
- Psalms 84:11 (v24) For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.
- Psalms 119:57 (v26) Yahweh is my portion. I promised to obey your words.
- Psalms 119:81-82 (v26) My soul faints for your salvation. I hope in your word. My eyes fail for your word. I say, “When will you comfort me?”
- Isaiah 58:8 (v24) Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and…
- 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (v26) For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have…
- Psalms 143:8-10 (v24) Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my…
- Luke 11:13 (v24) If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to…
- John 17:24 (v24) Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you…
- 2 Peter 1:14 (v26) knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
- Revelation 21:7 (v26) He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
- Proverbs 8:20 (v24) I walk in the way of righteousness, in the middle of the paths of justice,
- Isaiah 26:8-9 (v25) Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, we have waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. With my soul I…
- John 14:3 (v24) If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
- 2 Corinthians 5:1 (v24) For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the…
- John 17:5 (v24) Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
- 1 Peter 1:4-5 (v24) to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded…
- Psalms 104:34 (v25) Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.
- Matthew 10:37 (v25) He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
- Luke 23:46 (v24) Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last.
- Psalms 37:4 (v25) Also delight yourself in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
- Acts 7:59 (v24) They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
- Habakkuk 3:17-18 (v25) For though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are…
- Psalms 16:11 (v25) You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
- Psalms 42:1-2 (v25) As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and…
- Psalms 43:4 (v25) Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.
- Psalms 89:6 (v25) For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who among the sons of the heavenly beings is like Yahweh,
- Psalms 143:6-8 (v25) I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your…
- 1 John 3:2 (v25) Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for…
- Revelation 21:3 (v25) I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his…
- Matthew 5:8 (v25) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- Psalms 17:15 (v25) As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.
- Revelation 21:22-23 (v25) I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple. The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv24–26 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. As…
24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. As the verbs are put in the future tense, the natural meaning, in my opinion, is, that the Psalmist assured himself that the Lord, since by his leading he had now brought him back into the right way, would continue henceforth to guide him, until at length he received him into His glorious presence in heaven. We know that it is David’s usual way, when he gives thanks to God, to look forward with confidence to the future. Accordingly, after having acknowledged his own infirmities, he celebrated the grace of God, the aid and comfort of which he had experienced; and now he cherishes the hope that the Divine assistance will continue hereafter to be extended to him. Guidance by counsel is put first. Although the foolish and inconsiderate are sometimes very successful in their affairs, (for God remedies our faults and errors, and turns to a prosperous and happy issue things which we had entered upon amiss;) yet the way in which God ordinarily and more abundantly blesses his own people is by giving them wisdom: and we should ask him especially to govern us by the Spirit of counsel and of judgment. Whoever dares, in a spirit of confident reliance on his own wisdom, to engage in any undertaking, will inevitably be involved in confusion and shame for his presumption, since he arrogates to himself what is peculiar to God alone. If David needed to have God for his guide, how much more need have we of being under the Divine guidance? To counsel there is added glory, which, I think, ought not to be limited to eternal life, as some are inclined to do. It comprehends the whole course of our happiness from the commencement, which is seen here upon earth, even to the consummation which we expect to realize in heaven. David then assures himself of eternal glory, through the free and unmerited favor of God, and yet he does not exclude the blessings which God bestows upon his people here below, with the view of affording them, even in this life, some foretaste of that felicity.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv25–26 He sought neither help nor comfort of any save…
He sought neither help nor comfort of any save of God only.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Psa 73:24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,…
Psa 73:24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me [to] glory.
Ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel] We had his repentance, Psa 73:21-22, his faith, Psa 73:23, and here we have his hope of safety here and salvation hereafter.
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And afterwards receive me] As thou didst holy Enoch.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Thou shalt guide me: as thou hast kept me…
Thou shalt guide me: as thou hast kept me hitherto in all my trials, so I am assured thou wilt lead me still into right paths, and keep me from wandering or straying from thee, or falling into mischief.
With thy counsel; partly, by thy gracious providence, executing thy purpose of mercy to me, and watching over me; partly, by thy word, which thou wilt open mine eyes to understand, as Psa 119:18; and principally, by thy Holy Spirit, sanctifying and directing me in the whole course of my life.
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Receive me to glory; either,
1. Advance me to honour here. Or rather,
2. Translate me to everlasting glory in heaven. For,
1. Thus God doth for his people most constantly and certainly, whilst all the occurrences of the present life do happen indifferently to good and bad; which was the common observation of Job, and David, and Solomon, and other holy men of God in Scripture.
2. This is far more considerable than the former, and the more satisfactory relief against the present prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of good men.
3. This future glory is that mystery which was to be learned only in God’s sanctuary, Psa 73:17.
4. As the destruction of the wicked, mentioned Psa 73:18-20, looks beyond this life, so doth the glory of God’s people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,.... Which is…
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,.... Which is wise and prudent, wholesome, suitable, and seasonable, hearty, sincere, and faithful, and which is freely given, and when taken, infallibly succeeds: or "according to thy counsel" (a); the determinate counsels, purposes, and will of God, which were of old faithfulness and truth; who does all things after the counsel of his own will in providence and grace: or "by thy counsel" (b); by the Scriptures of truth, the revealed word, which contains the will of God, and directions for a holy walk and conversation; by the Gospel and truths of it, called the whole counsel of God, Act 20:27, and by his Holy Spirit, which is a spirit of counsel as well as of might; and by which the Lord guides his people in the ways of peace, truth, righteousness, and holiness, through this world, to the heavenly glory, as follows:
and afterward receive me to glory; into a glorious place, an house not made with hands, a city whose builder and maker is God, into a kingdom and glory, or a glorious kingdom; and into glorious company, the company of Father, Son, and Spirit, angels and glorified saints, where glorious things will be seen, and a glory enjoyed both in soul and body to all eternity; for this glory is eternal glory, a glory that passes not away: or "in glory" (c); in a glorious manner: some render it, "after glory thou wilt receive me" (d); that is, after all the glory and honour thou hast bestowed upon me here, thou wilt take me to thyself in heaven; so the Targum,
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"after the glory is completed, which thou saidst thou wouldst bring upon me, thou wilt receive me:''
but rather the sense is, "after" thou hast led and guided me by thy counsel through the wilderness of this world; "after" all the afflictions and temptations of this present life are over; "after" I have passed through the valley of the shadow of death, or "after" death itself, thou wilt receive me into everlasting joy and happiness; see Pe1 5:10.
(a) "pro consilio tuo", Michaelis. (b) "Consilio tuo", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. (c) "in gloria", Gejerus. (d) "post gloriam", Hammond.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Verse 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel]…
Verse 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel] After we have suffered awhile, receiving directions and consolations from thy good Spirit, by means of thy prophets, who are in the same captivity with ourselves; thou wilt grant us deliverance, restore us to our own land, and crown us with honour and happiness. Any sincere follower of God may use these words in reference to this and the coming world. Thy counsel - thy WORD and SPIRIT, shall guide me through life; and when I have done and suffered thy righteous will, thou wilt receive me into thy eternal glory.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Psa 73:24. Thou shall guide me, &c. — As…
Psa 73:24. Thou shall guide me, &c. — As thou hast kept me hitherto, in all my trials, so I am persuaded thou wilt lead me still into, and in, the right way, and keep me from straying from thee, or falling into evil or mischief; with thy counsel — By thy gracious providence, executing thy purpose of mercy to me, as being one of thy believing and obedient people, and watching over me, by thy word, which thou wilt open my eyes to understand; and principally by thy Holy Spirit, sanctifying and directing me in the whole course of my life. And afterward receive me to glory — Translate me to everlasting glory in heaven. As all those who commit themselves to God’s conduct shall be guided by his counsel, so all those who are so guided in this world shall be received to his glory in another world. If God direct us in the way of our duty, and prevent our turning aside out of it; enabling us to make his will the rule, and his glory the end of all our actions, he will afterward, when our state of trial and preparation is over, receive us to his kingdom and glory; the believing hopes and prospects of which will reconcile us to all the dark providences that now puzzle and perplex us, and ease us of the pain into which we may have been put by some distressing temptations. Here we see, that “he, who but a little while ago seemed to question the providence of God over the affairs of men, now exults in happy confidence of the divine mercy and favour toward himself; nothing doubting but that grace would ever continue to guide him upon earth, till glory should crown him in heaven. Such are the blessed effects of going into the sanctuary of God, and consulting the lively oracles, in all our doubts, difficulties, and temptations.” — Horne.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel - With…
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel - With thy advice; with thy teaching. This implies two things:
(a) his belief that God “would” do this, notwithstanding his folly; and
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(b) his purpose that God “should” be his guide now.
He would no longer murmur or complain, but would entrust all to God, and allow himself to be led as God should be pleased to direct him.
And afterward receive me to glory - After thou hast led me along the path of the present life in the way in which thou wouldst have me to go, thou wilt then receive me to thyself in heaven - to a world where all shall be clear; where I shall never have any doubts in regard to thy being, to the justice of thy dispensations, or to the principles of thy government.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv24–26 24. Thou shall guide me—This is at once the…
24. Thou shall guide me—This is at once the language of restored confidence and consecration. Henceforth the wisdom of God, not his own sinister reasonings, should be the governing and directing power of his life.
And afterward receive me to glory— “Glory,” here, must be understood in its spiritual and eschatological sense as the blessedness which the godly shall receive after death, and is the opposite of the pleasures and rewards of wicked men. The whole context requires this, and it is implied in the verb “receive,” the same word as is used of Enoch, (Gen_5:24,) “For God took him,” and Psa_49:15, “God shall redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me;” instances in which no other sense can be given than that of final blessedness with God. אחר, (ahhar,) translated after, (which is sometimes used adverbially, as Jdg_19:5, and sometimes as a preposition, as Zec_2:8,) must here be taken as an adverb. This accords with commentators generally, and with the authorized English Version. All attempts to translate the word prepositionally are obscure and unsatisfactory, as in the following examples: “After honour (glory) thou takest me,” that is, after it as an aim, and so “Thou takest me and bringest me in its train,” (Hengstenberg,) or, “Thou leadest me after glory,” (Hitzig, Ewald.) Such renderings give no appreciable sense, and are as opposed to the scope of the author as to the analogy of revelation and the facts of history. It is not to any state or result in this life that God has ever yet led his suffering, spiritual Church, as the ultimate goal of spiritual aim and desire, or as an antidote to temptation such as had well nigh stumbled the psalmist. Besides, as translations, the quotations just given cannot be accepted. The first, (“after honour [as an aim] thou takest me,”) is unintelligible; and the second, (“Thou leadest me after glory,”) uses לקח, (lakahh,) in an unauthorized sense. The word occurs about nine hundred and fifty times in the Old Testament, and never means lead, but always to take, take away, receive, bring, etc. The proper word for lead, נחה, (nahhah,) had already been used in the previous member of the verse. “Thou shall guide [lead] me with thy counsel.” The life to come alone can explain the words of the psalmist. The counsel of God, which was to “guide” him henceforth, still involved that mysterious purpose of providence which allowed the wicked to prosper in contempt of God, while the righteous should often remain in affliction and oppression. But the discovery of the “end” of the wicked (see on Psa_73:17) had corrected his error and restored his staggering faith. In this faith he now submissively walks on, led by “the counsel of God,” still unexplained, till the rewards of a future life should unfold all and compensate all. See notes on Psalms 37. With this view the closing verses coincide.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv24–26 24. with thy counsel] Tacitly he contrasts the course…
24. with thy counsel] Tacitly he contrasts the course of his life with that of the wicked, for counsel is an attribute of the Divine Wisdom (Pro_8:14), which the wicked despise (Pro_1:25; Pro_1:30).
to glory] Or, with glory (R.V. marg.); or, as the word is often translated, with honour.
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The meaning of this verse is much disputed. Can we suppose that the words bore for the Psalmist the sense which they naturally bear for the Christian in the fuller light of the Gospel? Do they express his faith that God’s guidance of him through this life will be followed by reception into the glory of His Presence after death? Or do they simply express his confidence that God will guide him safely through his present troubles, so that in the end honour, not shame, will be his lot, and his acceptableness to God will be demonstrated to the world? Dclitzsch finds in them the larger hope, and thinks that here, as in Psa_49:15, there is a reference to the assumption of Enoch (Gen_5:24); but he admits that there was as yet no divine promise holding out the prospect of a heavenly triumph to the struggling church on earth upon which such a hope could rest. If the Psalmist possessed this definite hope, we might have expected that he would lay more stress upon it as affording a solution of his perplexities. Such a hope moreover would rise far above the general level of the O.T. view of a future life, at any rate till the latest period. And no parallel can be quoted for the absolute use of ‘glory’ in the sense of ‘heavenly’ or ‘eternal glory.’ Elsewhere in the Psalter kâbôd is used in the sense of ‘honour’ (Psa_42:7; Psa_84:11; Psa_112:9; Psa_149:5); and in Job and Proverbs, to which it is natural to turn for the elucidation of the language of a Psalm so closely connected with the reflections of the ‘Wise,’ it bears the same sense. It is often coupled with riches and life, and contrasted with shame. See Job_19:9; Job_29:20; Pro_3:16; Pro_3:35; Pro_8:18; Pro_15:33; Pro_21:21; Pro_22:4.
It seems therefore that as the Psalmist anticipates that judgement will overtake the wicked in this world, so he looks for such a deliverance and advancement in this world as will visibly demonstrate that he is the object of God’s loving favour, and prove that “there is a reward for the righteous.” Cp. Psa_71:20-21. This life is for him the scene of God’s dealings with men, and a full vindication of God’s moral government is looked for within the limits of individual experience. See further in Introd. pp. xciii ff.: and consult Oehler’s O.T. Theology, § 246, and Schultz’s O.T. Theology, ch. xlii.
It may be noted that the LXX, followed of course by the Vulg., sees no reference here to a future life, but renders, “In thy counsel didst thou guide me, and with glory didst thou receive me.”
If this view is correct, the Psalmist’s faith is even grander than if he looked forward to glorification in a future life. He rises victorious over the world of sense and appearance in the inward certainty of the reality of his communion with God, and the absolute conviction that this is the highest good and the truest happiness of which man is capable. Such a knowledge is eternal life; and the possibility of it is in itself a pledge that the communion thus begun cannot suddenly be interrupted by death, but must be carried on to an ever fuller perfection.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv24–25 (24) To glory.—Better, With honour, as LXX. and Vulg.;…
(24) To glory.—Better, With honour, as LXX. and Vulg.; or achar may be taken as a preposition: Lead me after honour, i.e., in the way to get it.
The thought is not of a reward after death, but of that true honour which would have been lost by adopting the views of the worldly, and is only to be gained by loyalty to God.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. The psalmist…
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. The psalmist expresses full confidence in God"s continual guidance through all life"s dangers and difficulties, notwithstanding his own shortcomings and" foolishness." He then looks beyond this life, and exclaims, And afterward (thou wilt) receive me to glory. Even Professor Cheyne sees m this the story of Enoch spiritualized." "Walking with God," he says, "is followed by a reception with glory, or into glory; and he compares the passage with Psa_49:16, which he has previously explained as showing that "the poet has that religious intuition which forms the kernel of the hope of immortality.
Ver. 24. Divine guidance.
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"Thou shalt guide," etc. Asaph looked out on the world of human life, and beheld a sight which troubled and perplexed him, as it has troubled and perplexed many a pious heart since. He saw the wealthy sinner clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously; godless, yet prosperous; adding field to field; spending in selfish luxury what he gained by fraud and extortion; and at last dying in peaceful old age, and laid in a splendid sepulchre. And he saw the devout, honest, patient worshipper of God, toiling hard to keep the wolf from his door, glad of the crumbs from the rich man"s table to eke out his children"s scanty meal; dying prematurely, worn out with care and hardship, and hurried into a nameless grave. As Asaph saw this, and much more like this, he could not help asking," Why is this? Why does not the hand of Omnipotence with a touch arrest the crooked balance, crown virtue and piety with prosperity, and overwhelm vice and injustice with misery and shame?" Then he "went into the sanctuary of God." He joined, though with troubled spirit, in praising God; "for his mercy endureth forever." He poured out his soul in silent prayer, while the priest ministered at the golden altar. Then the Holy Spirit shed a light into his mind that lighted up the whole prospect of human life. He saw that he had left the main element out of his reckoning forgotten to ask," What will be the end?" He discerned the dangers of prosperity and the benefits of adversity; how pride, covetousness, lust, selfishness, injustice, thrive in luxurious self-indulgence, like rank weeds in a rich soil; and how the Lord chastens those he loves. (Heb_12:10) Then understood he their end. He confessed his error. And with new humility and fresh faith he here entrusts himself and all his concerns to God"s fatherly guidance and sovereign will "Thou shalt guide," etc. These words express a deep sense of need of Divine guidance; willingness to be guided; assurance that God will guide.
I THE NEED OF DIVINE GUIDANCE. Man begins life as the most helpless of creatures. If not fed, clothed, cared for by others, he would perish almost as soon as born. Without the company and training of his elders, if he could grow up at all, he would lack language, if not reason. As he grows up, and reaps the fruit of all this guidance and counsel, he begins to be impatient of control, to imagine himself self-sufficient. He will be guided by his own counsel. This conceit becomes in many cases so unbridled, that the thought of dependence even upon God becomes intolerable. "Our lips, say they, are our own: who is Lord over us?" The truth is that what we really need, when we have outgrown our first lessens, is not less guidance, but of a higher sort. The stronger, richer, wiser, any one is, the more mischief he may do, and the more misery he may incur, if he takes a wrong course. You, young man, in the pride of your untamed energy; you, man of the world, in the ripeness of your gathered experience, have not less, but more need of guidance than when you sat on the bench at school, or lay in your nurse"s arms.
1. We need guidance because of our ignorance of the future. The only things we can certainly foresee are the motions of the heavenly bodies and the action of natural forces. The moment we get into the world of life we are in the region of uncertainty. True, we foresee a great deal. Business would be impossible, life would be impossible, without a great deal of foresight. But over all hangs a haze of uncertainty. Your plans are laid, perhaps, with wise forecast. But will the ship come in? Will the rise or fall on which you reckon take place? Will the demand for the goods you are making continue, or suddenly cease? Will the harvest be good or bad? You can no more tell than whether you will be able to attend to your business this day week, or be lying delirious with fever.
2. We need guidance because of the fallibility of our judgment. Were there no cloud on our knowledge, yet if the balance of judgment hang awry, we may easily involve ourselves and others in irreparable misfortune. This was what so humbled the psalmist. He perceived that his judgment of human affairs had been completely at fault. He had adopted a wholly false standard, and, if left to choose for himself and for others, he would have chosen disastrously wrong. God"s thoughts, he saw, are not our thoughts, any more than God"s ways are our ways. "What, then, is the guidance?" he asks. "With thy counsel." "Counsel" has a double meaning: "advice," and "plan, or purpose." He may mean, "Lead me by thy Word and thy Spirit, teaching me how to judge, making my duty plain;" or, "Choose my path and lot according to thine own wise purpose." But the first sense really includes the second; for if God shows us our way, it must be the way he chooses for us. Calvin says, "Although sometimes things turn out well when we are rash and foolish (for God mends our mistakes, and turns our wrong beginnings to happy endings), yet his more common and fuller blessing lies in giving wisdom to his people; and nothing is to be more earnestly prayed for than that we may be ruled by the Spirit of wisdom and counsel.
II Therefore these words are A PRAYER FOR DIVINE GUIDANCE. As much as to say, "I need guidance; my future is hidden; my judgment is fallible. To thee the future is as the present; the darkness as the light. All events, all seasons, all minds and wills of men, are in thy hand. Choose thou my way. Lead me in thy path, and teach me. Make my path plain; but, even if it be obscure, let me rest in this that it is thy counsel, not my own." It is one thing to believe the fact of Divine guidance; another to be willing to follow it. One thing, also, to trust God to lead us in the path we have chosen; another to say, "Not my will, but thine." And yet it ought to be easy! What is the whole Bible but one continued proof that God"s way is the right way, and the ways men choose for themselves, wrong? "All we like sheep," etc.; "He that spared not," etc. (Isa_53:6 Rom_8:32)
III ASSURANCE THAT GOD WILL GUIDE. Therefore what we need that God should do, because he can and we cannot; and what we are willing he should do, and ask]aim to do for us, that we may expect him to do. These words are more than the cry of need; more than the surrender of self-will; are the triumphant utterance of faith. "Thou wilt guide...to glory." Here is a sunbeam of clear hope and inspired promise breaking through all the clouds of doubt, fear, and ignorance. One such test is enough to prove that it is a huge mistake to suppose the hope of immortality hidden from the ancient saints. (Indeed, even apart from inspiration, the Hebrews could not be ignorant of what was well known to the Egyptians, ages before Moses) Here the balance rights itself. Why do the ungodly prosper? Because they are "men of the world, whose portion is in this life". (Psa_17:14) Why does God not give his children their portion here? That he may prepare them for their portion hereafter. (2Co_4:16-18 Joh_14:2-4, Joh_14:6) Here is the difference between the foresight of faith and the foresight of worldly calculation. To earthly foresight it is the near future that is plain; the further it recedes, the thicker the mists gather. To the eye of faith it is the near future which we can contentedly leave uncertain, because the distant, the eternal future, is revealed. "We know not what shall be on the morrow;" but we know what shall be when the heavens and earth that are now shall have passed away. "We know". (2Co_5:1)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.…
Ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. I have done with choosing my own way, and trying to pick a path amid the jungle of reason. He yielded not only the point in debate, but all intentions of debating, and he puts his hand into that of the great Father, asking to be led, and agreeing to follow. Our former mistakes are a blessing, when they drive us to this. The end of our own wisdom is the beginning of our being wise. With Him is counsel, and when we come to him, we are sure to be led aright.
And afterward. "Afterward!" Blessed word. We can cheerfully put up with the present, when we foresee the future. What is around us just now is of small consequence, compared with afterward.
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Receive me to glory. Take me up into thy splendour of joy. Thy guidance shall conduct me to this matchless terminus. Glory shall I have, and thou thyself wilt admit me into it. As Enoch was not, for God took him, so all the saints are taken up--received up into glory.
Ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me. How are we to work our way in strange lands, if left entirely to our own resources? Hence it is, that so much is said in the Bible about guides, and that the Lord is called the guide of his people. They are in a foreign land, a land of pits and snares; and, without a good guide, they will be sure to fall into the one, or be caught in the other. "This God is our God, for ever and ever, "saith the psalmist; and not only so, but he condescends to "be our guide, and will be, even unto death" (Ps 48:14). Can we have a better guide? When a guide has been well recommended to us by those who have tried him, it is our wisdom to place ourselves unreservedly in his hands; and if he say our way lies to the right, it would show our folly to say we were determined to go to the left. John Gadsby.
Ver. 24. Guide... receive. After conversion, God still works with us: he doth not only give grace, but actual help in the work of obedience: "He worketh all our works in us, "Isa 26:12. His actual help is necessary to direct, quicken, strengthen, protect and defend us. In our way to heaven, we need not only a rule and path, but a guide. The rule is the law of God; but the guide is the Spirit of God. Thomas Manton.
Ver. 24. Afterward. After all our toil in labour and duty, after all our crosses and afflictions, after all our doubts and fears that we should never receive it; after all the hiding of his face, and clouds and darkness that have passed over us; and after all our battles and fightings for it, oh, then how seasonably will the reception of this reward come in: Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. O blessed afterwards; when all your work is done, when all your doubts and fears are over, and when all your battles are fought; then, O then, ye shall receive the reward. John Spalding.
Ver. 24. Receive me to glory. Mendelssohn in his Beor, has perceived the probable allusion in this clause to the translation of Enoch. Of Enoch it is said, Ge 5:24, Myhla wta xql, "God took him." Here (Ps 73:24), the psalmist writes, ygzqt Kwbk. "Thou shalt take me to glory, or gloriously." In another (Ps 49:16) we read, ygzqy yk. "For he (God) shall take me." I can hardly think that the two latter expressions were written and read in their context by Jews without reference to the former. Thomas Thompson Perowne.
Ver. 24. The Enoch walk, and the Enoch reception into glory.
Psalms 73:25*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv24–26 Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward…
Psa_73:24
Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
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God-guided freedom
Some, as the Church of Rome, would deny to men the right of free thought. They appeal to authority, and think it better that men should hearken only to their appointed guides. Now, I say that a Church which hinders and destroys thought curses the world. The men who think make progress; they become inventors, owners of the land they till and of the houses in which they dwell; they become foremen and masters; while the men who do not think are carriers of the hod, the hewers of wood and the drawers of water.
I. That a god-guided life is a pilgrimage.
II. Divine counsel is given to all who try to do Gods will.
III. Let the resolve of the psalmist be repeated in your soul. Thou shalt guide me and receive me. If you resolve to be true to yourself, by acting up to the light you have, then God will guide you by His counsel, and afterward receive you to glory. Our heavenly Guide will never steer us wrong. Trust Him. (W. Birch.)
Guidance and glory
In this psalm troubled men find help.
I. How shall we meet our troubles?
1. There is no better way than to go into the sanctuary of God. Sorrow is almost a blessing if it drives us there.
2. Next, we may well look on to the end of things.
3. Best of all, we must be careful to maintain the blessed life. To be continually with God, cultivating the momentary sense of His presence.
II. But why are these experiences not more permanent? We read that Daniel continued. Oh to be steadfast and unmovable!
1. We must always distinguish between our emotions and our attitude. The one may die off our lives like the sunset glory from the ridges of the Alps, that seem so grey and cold when it is gone; but the other should resemble the changeless perpetuity of the everlasting hills, unaltered by the transitions of the ages, dr the alternations of day and night. You may not always feel as happy, but you can always say Yes to the will of God, and realize your attitude in the risen, ascended, loving Jesus, amongst the thousand thousands that minister to Him. In moments of depression, be sure to live in your will and His will.
2. We must be careful to maintain this attitude of the will unaltered. God is constantly putting into our lives little or greater occasions of testing. Unless we are watchful in applying to each new point the principle of surrender, which we have assumed, we may drift from full face, to three-quarter, and half-face, before we are aware.
3. We must exercise ourselves to have the conscience void of offence toward God and toward men. Not a scrupulous, but a sensitive, conscience. Conscience and the Holy Ghost are expressly allied by the apostle--the crystal stone ever bathed in the translucent glory of heaven.
4. We must ever keep our heart open to the Holy Spirit. It is His province and prerogative to nurture the inner life, and to fill it with the realized presence of the Lord.
5. We must be very careful to maintain unbroken the habits of the devout life. Too many are like the slip-carriage, which runs for a little from the impulse received from the engine, but then slackens till it comes to a stand; instead of resembling that which keeps its connection with the speed and strength of the locomotive. In a laundry, the other day, I saw two kinds of irons. One, the usual sort, needing to be put on a heated surface at frequent intervals to fit them for their work. The other, in which the iron was attached by a flexible gutta-percha tube to the gas-pipe, so that it was easy to use it, and inside the iron a jet of flame, fed by the gas, which maintained it at a regular temperature, and counteracted the chilling effects of its work. Is not this what we want? Not depending on the outside stimulus of a convention, a mission, or a sermon; but receiving straight from God Himself that inward fire of the Holy Ghost, to give and perpetuate which is the dearest passion of the heart of Jesus. All this will cost us something; the daily dying to self; saying No to the flesh; the cutting-off of hand or foot; the dropping down into the earth to die: but these sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the growing glory of our life, or its blessedness. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Guidance to grace and glory
I. The conviction which led the psalmist to take a guide. Happily for him, that conviction came very early. If I am to have a guide on my journey, I should like to have one at the beginning, for it is the starting that has so much to do with all the rest of the way.
1. ] suppose it was because of a work of grace upon his heart; for, naturally, we do not like being guided. It is a fine piece of knowledge when you have learned that you are not fit to take care of yourself, but need somebody to lead you all the way through life.
2. I suppose that the psalmist said to the Lord, Thou shelf guide me, because he had been convinced of his own folly, and therefore felt that it was well to commit himself into wiser hands; and also that he had obtained some knowledge of the difficulties of the way. To no one of us is the path of life an easy one, if we desire to be pure, and clean, and upright, and accepted with God.
3. The psalmists desire to have a guide also showed his great anxiety to be right. I wish that all men began life with an earnest desire to act rightly in it; and that each one would say, I shall never live this life again, I should like to make it a good one so far as I can. If this were the intense desire of every one of us, we should be driven at once to this conclusion, I must have a guide. I want to live a glorious life; and if I am to do so, I must be helped in it, for I am incompetent for the task by myself.
II. The confidence winch led him to take God as his guide. If we were but in our right senses, we should all do so.
1. A man, looking about wisely for a guide, will prefer to have the very best; and is not God, who is infinitely wise, the best Guide that we can have? Who questions it? Is not the Lord also the most loving, the most tender, the most considerate, who can be chosen aa a guide?
2. Choose Him also because of His constant, unceasing, infallible care. If I choose a guide who may die on the road, I am likely to be unhappy; but God will never die. If I choose a guide who, being my friend at the starting, will not care for me when I have advanced halfway on my journey, I am unwise in my choice; but God cannot change, He will ever be the same. But will God guide us?
3. Well, it were vain to choose Him if He would not; but of all beings God is most easy of access.
III. The heavenly commerce which now reigns between the soul and its guide. How does God guide us?
1. By the general directions of His Word. Obey the Ten Commandments. Imitate Christ.
2. There are great principles infused in every man who takes God for his Guide.
(1) Avoid everything that is evil.
(2) Live for the glory of God alone.
(3) Show love to your fellow-men.
3. God guides His people on the way of life by giving a certain balance of the faculties. When we come to God in penitence, when we are born again of the Spirit, and live by faith in Christ, then, first of all, fear is banished and faith takes its place. We are then better able to judge which is the right road. Above all, the grace of God guides us very much by the dethroning of self as the traitorous lord of our being, and makes us loyal to Christ When a man acts out of loyalty to Christ, he is pretty sure to act very wisely and rightly.
4. There is a special illumination of mind which comes from dwelling near to God.
5. At the very worst times, when all these things will fail you as a guide, you may expect mysterious impulses, for which you can never account, which will come to you, and guide you aright.
IV. The sure result of this guidance: Thou shalt . . . afterward receive me to glory. On earth, there is no real glory for us unless we are guided by Gods counsel. There is no true glory for any man who takes his own course. Afterward He will receive you to glory. This is a delightful thought, but I can now only answer this one question. When we die, who will receive us into glory? Well, I do not doubt that the angels will. John Bunyans description of the shining ones, who come down to the brink of the river to help the pilgrims up on the other side of the cold stream, I doubt not is all true; but the text tells us of somebody better than the angels who will come and receive us. Our dying prayer to our Lord will be, Into Thy hands I commend my spirit, and His answer will be, I receive thee to glory. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Lord the Guide of His people
I. In what way The Lord conducts and guides His people in this present state.
1. By His providence.
2. By His Word.
3. By His Spirit.
The Spirit of God does not reveal any new truths different from, or in addition to, those recorded in the written Word. He does not guide by impressions on the mind, the nature and tendency of which cannot be explained. But He opens the understandings to understand the Scriptures. He enables and disposes clearly to perceive, and faithfully to apply the truths already revealed in His Word, as the various cases and circumstances of His people require.
II. What is implied in that glory into which The Lord will receive His people, after He has led and conducted them through the present life.
1. Heaven may be represented by the term glory, because it is a glorious place. If this earth which we inhabit, defiled as it is with sin, exhibit to a careful observer such evident marks of the most consummate wisdom and design--what must be the majesty of that place, where the whole art of creation has been employed, and where God has chosen to show Himself in the most magnificent manner to the view of all its blessed inhabitants?
2. Oh! how glorious is the company that fill the mansions in our Fathers house above!
3. The employments of heaven are glorious.
4. The enjoyments of heaven infinitely transcend our highest conceptions. (A. Ramsay, M. A.)
A new years resolve
I. Man requires a guide in the path of life.
1. Mans ignorance of the future.
2. Mans proneness to consult false guides.
3. Mans frequent mistakes.
4. The awful consequences of mistakes.
II. God is the only true guide for man in the path of life.
1. He alone knows all the future.
2. He alone understands the full relation of the present to the future.
3. He alone has capacity be provide for our future.
4. He alone has manifested that interest that would warrant our perfect confidence for the future.
III. God himself will guide man individually in the path of life. Thou shalt guide me, etc. The psalmist did not believe in the Pantheists god, he speaks of a person--Thou. Nor in the Deists god who cares only for the vast; it was for the individual Me. Every man requires special guidance. Each man is a world in himself and has an orbit of his own. No two are alike.
IV. Under the guidance of God the path of life becomes glorious. What does the world call glory? Conquest? You have conquest over evil when guided by God. Exalted fellowship? The greatest spirits of all worlds and times are the society of those whom God guides. Dignified position? They are kings and priests. (Homilist.)
Guidance and glory
I. Guidance here.
1. He confesses his need of guidance, It is a grand thing if God compels us to seek direction.
2. He professes confidence in God.
3. He announces his belief in Gods willingness to lead him. This is not included in the other; it is a distinct step. Are you sure that God will guide you? You may be sure, for He who wings an angel guides the sparrow; He who tells the number of the stars heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
4. He declares himself willing to be led.
II. Glory hereafter.
1. We are just as sure that it is to be revealed as we are that guidance is ours moment by moment. The glory seems more wonderful than the guidance, but it is not really so The flower is more beautiful than the bud, yet the flower was in the bud, and glory is but grace developed and revealed. The glory to which we are to be received is part and parcel of the guidance which we daily enjoy.
2. The only uncertainty is as to the time, and I think we ought to bless God that there cannot be full knowledge in this respect. It is enough that we know that He will receive us to glory afterward. Blessed word, afterward!--after the pain, after the struggle, after the toil, after the cross, after the temptations, after the work is done, that is when He will receive us. Do not ask to know more than that.
3. Did you notice that the arrival is called a reception? And afterward receive me to glory. Thank God for this! There is a welcome awaiting us there. I have known what it is, occasionally, to arrive unexpectedly in a strange place. The vessel draws up to the wharf, there is a crowd of folks to meet their friends, and one looks anxiously for a familiar face, but no, the message had miscarried, or there was some mistake about the time and there is nobody to extend a welcome. Oh, you do not run any such risk as regards heaven.
4. And what is there beyond the reception? Just this--glory! I was wondering what was the Scriptural use of this term glory. I find that in the Word of God it stands for riches, authority, sumptuous buildings and garments, and in some instances for hosts of warriors. Well, all these things are yonder in illimitable degree. (T. Spurgeon.)
Mans constitution declares his need of Divine guidance
Suppose a man were to say about a steamship, the structure of this vessel shows that it is meant that we should get up a roaring fire in the furnaces, and set the engines going at full speed, and let her go as she will. Would he not have left out of account that there was steering apparatus which was as plainly meant to guide as are the engines to draw? What are the rudder and the wheel for? Do they not imply a pilot? And is not the make of our souls as plainly suggestive of subordination and control? (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The guidance of the Holy Spirit as compared to a compass
A mariner who puts out to sea, losing sight of land, beholds nothing but a waste of waters around him. The night comes on, and clouds and darkness gather in upon him. But in his chart and compass he has an infallible guide. He regulates the sail as the wind requires, and holds to the rudder, never losing sight of the compass, and watchfully keeps the narrow way to which it confines him by night and by day. So the wise Christian looks up as one continually dependent on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the one source of all his spiritual life and motion. He is careful to watch the least breathing of the Spirit upon his soul that he may not quench it, but yield himself up to its full impression. And adding to this, his faith, all diligence and watchfulness, he is wafted onwards in safety, amidst the storms and wrecks around him in an evil world. (H.G. Salter.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v25 Psa 73:25 - Psa 73:26.
Psalms
REASONABLE RAPTURE
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Psa 73:25 - Psa 73:26.
We have in this psalm the record of the Psalmist’s struggle with the great standing difficulty of how to reconcile the unequal distribution of worldly prosperity with the wisdom and providence of God. That difficulty pressed more acutely upon men of the Old Dispensation than even upon us, because the very promise of that stage of revelation was that Godliness brought with it outward well-being. Our Psalmist reaches a solution, not exactly by the same path by which the writers of the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes find an answer to the problem. This man gives up the endeavour to solve the question by reflection and thought, and as he says, ‘goes into the sanctuary of God,’ gets into communion with his Father in heaven, and by reason of that communion reaches a conclusion which is, at all events, an approximate solution of his difficulty, viz. the belief of a future life, ‘Then understood I their end.’ The solemn vision of a life beyond the present, which should be the outcome and retribution of this, rises before him from out of his agitated thoughts, like the moon, pale and phantom-like, from a stormy sea. That truth, if revealed at all to the Psalmist’s contemporaries, certainly did not occupy the same position of clearness or of prominence as it does in our religious beliefs. But here we see a soul led up by its wrestlings to apprehend it, and as was said of a statesman, ‘calling a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old.’ So we get here a soul taught by God, and filled with Him by communion, therefore lifted to the height of a faith in a future life, and so made able to look out upon all the perplexities and staggering mysteries of earth’s mingled ill and good, if not with distinct understanding, at least with patient faith.
The words of my text indicate for us the very high-water mark of religious experience, the very apex and climax of what some people would call mystical religion to which this man has climbed, because he fought with his doubts, and by God’s grace was able to lay them. To him the world’s uncertain ill or good becomes infinitely insignificant, because for the future he has a clear vision of a continued life with God, and because for the present he knows that to have God in his heart is all that he really needs.
I. We have here, first, a necessity which, misdirected, is the source of man’s misery.
‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee? there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.’ If men would interpret the deepest voices of their own souls that is what they would all say, because, from the very make of our human nature there is not one of us, howsoever weak and sinful and small, but is great enough to be too great to be filled with anything smaller than God. Our thoughts, even the thoughts of the least enlightened amongst us, go wandering through eternity; and as the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes says:-’He hath set eternity in men’s hearts.’ We all of us need, though, alas! so few of us know that we need, a living possession of a living perfect Person, for mind, for heart, for will. Nothing short of the ‘fulness of God’ is enough for the smallest amongst us. So, because we do not believe this, because hundreds of you do not know what it is for which your souls are crying out, ‘the misery of man is great upon him.’ You try to fill that deep and aching void in your hearts, which is a sign of your possible nobleness, and a pledge of your possible blessedness, with all manner of minute rubbish, which can never fill up the gap that is there. Cartload after cartload may be tilted into the bottomless bog, and there is no more solid ground on the surface than there was at the beginning. Oh, my brother! consult thine own deepest need; listen to that voice, often stifled, often neglected, and by some of you always misunderstood, which speaks in your wills, minds, consciences, hopes, desires, hearts; and is it not this: ‘My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God’?
There is none in the heaven, with all its stars and angels, enough for thee but Him. There is none upon earth, with all its flowers, and treasures, and loves, that will calm and still thy soul but only God. The words of my text spring from a necessity felt by every man, misdirected by a tragical majority of men, and therefore the source of restlessness and misery.
II. Secondly, we see here the longing which, rightly directed and cherished, is the very spirit of religion.
He, and only he, is the religious man, who can take these words of my text for the inmost words of his conscious effort and life. Only in the measure in which you and I recognise that God is our sole and all-sufficient good, in that measure have we any business to call ourselves devout or Christian people. That is a sharp test, is it not? Is it not a valid and an accurate one? Is that not what really makes a religious man, namely, the supreme admiration of, and aspiration after, and possession of God, and God alone? What a contrast that forms to our ordinary notions of what religion is! High above all creeds which are valuable as leading up to this enthusiasm of longing and rapture of possession, high above all preliminaries and preparations in the way of outward services and ceremonial or united acts of worship, which are only helps to this inward possession, rises such a thought of religion as this. You are not a Christian because you believe a creed. The very death of Jesus Christ is a means to this end. In order that we might come into personal, rapturous, and hallowing possession of God, His very Self in our hearts and spirits, Jesus Christ died and rose again. Do not mistake the staircase for the presence-chamber. Do not fancy that you are Christian people because you hold certain opinions or beliefs in regard of certain doctrines. Do not fancy that religion consists in either the mere outward practice of, or abstinence from, certain forms of conduct. Such things are the means to, or the outcome of, this inward devotion, but the true essence of our religion is that we recognise God as our only good, and that in Him we find absolute rest and perfect sufficiency.
Is that your religion, my brother? What a contrast these words of my text present not only to our notions of what constitutes religion, but to our practice! What is the thing that you and I crave most to have? What is the thing that we lament most of all when we lose? Where do our desires go when we take the guiding hand off them, and let them run as they will? For some of us there are dearer hearts on earth than His, Perhaps for some of us there are more dearly loved faces in heaven than His. Taking the two extreme possible cases, and supposing at the one end of the scale a man that had everything but God, and at the other end a man that had nothing but God, do we live as if we believed that the man that had everything minus God is a pauper; and the other who has God minus everything is ‘rich to all the intents of bliss’? Let us shape our desires, aspirations, efforts, according to that certain truth.
I do not need to remind you that this lofty height of conscious longing, not unblest with contemporaneous fruition, is above the height to which we habitually rise. But what I would now insist upon is only this, that whilst there will be variations, whilst there will be ups and downs, the periods in our lives when we do not consciously recognise Him as our supreme and single good are the periods that drop below duty and blessedness. Acknowledge the imperfections, but Oh, my friends! you Christian men and women, who know that these hours of high communion with a loving God are not diffused through your whole life, do not sit down contented, and say that it must be so; but confess them as being imperfections which are your own fault, and remember that just as much, and not one hairsbreadth more than, we can take these words of my text for ours, so much and no more, have we a right to call ourselves religious men and women.
III. Again, we have here the blessed possession, which deadens earthly desires.
That clause, ‘There is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee,’ might, I think, be rendered more accurately ‘With Thee’-that is to say, ‘possessing Thee,’-I desire none ‘upon earth.’ If we thus have been longing after God, and fuller possession of Him, and if in some measure, in answer to the desire, as is always the case, we have received into mind and heart and will more of His preciousness and sweetness, then that will kill the desires that otherwise would conflict with it. Our great poet, speaking about a supreme earthly love, says-
‘That rich golden shaft
Hath killed the flock of all affections else,
That lived in her.’
And the same thing is true about this higher life. This new affection will deaden, and in some sense destroy, the desires that turn to lower and to earthly things. The sun when it rises quenches the brightest stars that can but fade in his light and die. And so when, in answer to our longing, God lifts the light of His countenance-a better sunrise-upon us, that new affection dims and quenches the brightness of these little, though they be lustrous points, that shed a fragmentary and manifold twinkling over the darkness of our former night. ‘Walk in the light,’ and your heaven will be naked of all competing brightness.
Only remember that this supreme, and in some sense exclusive, love and longing does not destroy the sweetness of lower possessions and blessings. A new deep love in a man or a woman’s heart does not make their former affections less, but more, sweet and noble and strong. And so when we get to love God best, and to love all other persons and things in Him, and Him in them, then they become sources of dignity and nobleness, of sweetness and strength, in our lives, which they otherwise never would be. If you want to make all your family affections, for instance, more permanent, more lofty, and more blessed, let them be all in God:
‘I trust he lives in God, and there
I find him worthier to be loved,’
says the poet about one that had been carried into the other life. It is true about us in our relations to one another, even whilst we remain here. Let God be first, and the second rises higher in the scale than when we thought it first. The more our hearts are knit to Him and all other desires are subordinated to Him, the more do they become precious, and powers for good in our lives.
IV. And so, lastly, we have here the possession which is the pledge of perpetuity.
The Psalmist, in the last verse of my text, supposes an extreme, and in some sense, an impossible case. ‘My flesh’-my bodily frame-’and my heart’-some portion of my immaterial being-’faileth.’ The clause should probably be taken as hypothetical. ‘Even supposing that it has come to this,’ says he, ‘that I had been separated from my body, and that along with the body there had also been “consumed” {as is the meaning of the original word} some portion of my spiritual being, even then, though there were only a thin thread of personality left, enough to call “me” and no more, so to speak, I should cling with that to God, and I know that then I should have enough, for “God is the Rock of my heart, and my Portion for ever.” ‘ These two last words are obviously here to be taken in their widest extension. The whole context requires us to suppose that the Psalmist’s eye is looking across the black gorge of death to the shining table-land beyond. So here we are admitted to see faith in the future life in the very act of growth. The singer soars to that sunlit height of confidence in the endless blessedness of union with God, just because he feels so deeply the sacredness and the blessedness of his present communion with God.
Next to the resurrection of Jesus Christ the best proof of immortality lies in the present experience of communion with God. Anything is more reasonable than to believe that a soul which can grasp God for its good, which can turn itself to, and be united with, an infinite Being; and itself is capable of indefinite approximation towards that Being, should have its course and career cut short by such a surface thing as death. If there be a God at all, anything is more reasonable than to believe that the union, formed between Him and me by faith here, can ever come to an end until I have exhausted Him, and drawn all His fulness into myself. This communion, by its ‘very sweetness yieldeth proof that it was born for immortality.’ And the Psalmist here, just because to-day God is the Rock of his heart, is sure that that relation must last on, through life, through death, ay! and for ever, ‘when all that seems shall suffer shock.’
So, my brethren! here is the choice and alternative presented before us. And I ask you which is the wise man, he who clutches at external possessions which cannot abide, or he who hungers for that indwelling God, who sinks into the very substance of his soul, and is more inseparable from him than his very body? Which is the wise man, he of whom it shall one day be said, ‘This night thy soul shall be required of thee,’ and ‘His glory shall not descend after him,’ or the man who knows for what his heart hungers, and knowing it turns to God in Christ, by simple faith and lowly aspiration, as his enduring Treasure; and then, and therefore, can look out with a calm smile of security over all the tumbling sea of change, and beyond the dark horizon there where sight fails; and can say, ‘I am persuaded that neither things present, nor things to come, nor life, nor death, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate me from the God who is my Treasure, and the Life of my very self’?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
Whom have I in heaven but you?
You can translate this as a statement. AT: "There is no one for me in heaven but you!" or "You are the only one I have in heaven!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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in heaven
"among the gods" or "among the supernatural beings"
My flesh and my heart
These two phrases share similar meanings. Together they represent the whole person. AT: "My body and my mind" (See: Doublet and Merism)
translationWords
heaven
flesh
heart
God
eternity
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv24–25 73:24 The Lord leads the godly through their troubles…
73:24 The Lord leads the godly through their troubles and changes their misery into splendor.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.