Psalms 73:24 - Homiletics

Divine guidance.

"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 (Hebrew 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, "l 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. ( Isaiah 53:6 ; Romans 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" ( Psalms 17:14 ). Why does God not give his children their portion here? That he may prepare them for their portion hereafter ( 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ; John 14:2-4 , John 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" ( 2 Corinthians 5:1 ).