7. Our Sure Relief! Psalm 73:22-25

Text: “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee.  Nevertheless, I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand.”

Psalm 73:22-23.

Good morning, Scripturally relieved Christian!  Oh, the anguish, the murmuring, the fretfulness we put ourselves through – when, even for an instant, we begin to view the unsaved world all around us in their apparent prosperity, joy, and untroubled peace; we begin, even for that moment, to believe Satan’s lies; to think that, perhaps, we have got it all wrong; that our faith in Christ was a fiction of our human minds; that the Lord God we have totally depended upon had, in some manner, abandoned us, cast us off, let us down.  NEVER!  Perish the thought!

Then, as soon as we opened our Bibles, God’s inspired Word to us, and reread His promises to us contained therein – we received a similar wave of utter relief from depression of spirit; oppression from Satan and self; and knew afresh the assurance of a Sovereign Lord God Who holds us fast within His Omnipotent hand.  Glory to the Lamb Who is worthy!  Amen.

“Sanctify them (God’s people) through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.”  (John 17:17)

The Psalmist rebuked himself before the Lord, when similarly reassured by God, that although his lot in life was often most difficult, while the ungodly enjoyed comparative outer peace – those roles would be Eternally reversed, making the hard times on earth all that more worth it to have endured them.  Heaven would be entered only by the narrow road, the strait gate, that leads there.

“Enter ye in at the strait (difficult) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”     (Matthew 7:13-14)

Verse 22. “So foolish was I, and ignorant. Here is the passport to close fellowship and full assurance with God.  Open realisation of, and confession of, one’s doubts and sin.  The Spirit of God, God the Spirit, cannot led us into the way that leadeth to life, before we consciously leave the wrong paths of doubt, and dread we may be currently traversing.  Repentance from error, and embracing of God’s promises in full and open confession of sin to Him – always leads us into close fellowship with Him Who knows all about us anyhow!  Praise His gracious Name!

“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants…But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry.” (Luke 15:20-23)

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:8-9)

Verse 22. “I was as a beast before Thee. I permitted my mind to be wholly occupied with sensible things (my own understanding), like the beasts that perish, and did not look into a future state, nor did I consider nor submit to the wise designs of an unerring Providence.”  (Adam Clarke, 1760-1832)

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart (inner being/essence); and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him (in His Word) and He shall direct thy paths.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Note: From verse 23 to the end of the Psalm there is a clear gaining, and increasing, of the Psalmist’s faith in God’s good Providence and grace.  The Psalmist seems to lift up in spirit with each new verse of God-inspired Scripture written. A refreshing of his knowledge of Whom, exactly, God is, and all His gracious attributes exercised towards His Blood-bought people, lifts the spirit of the Psalmist from a state of doubt-filled murmuring and envy of the prosperous wicked, to a spirit of utter praise and love for the Lord God of Heaven, his deliverer.

Verse 23. “Nevertheless I am continually with Thee.   He does not give up his faith, though he confesses his folly.  Sin may distress us, and yet we may be in communion with God. It is a sin beloved and delighted in which separates us from the Lord, but when we bewail it heartily, the Lord will not withdraw from us.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 318)

Verse 24. “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel. “Thy Word is a lamp onto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

Verse 24. “…And afterwards receive me to glory.  All the afflictions, testing, trials, sufferings of this life as a Christian, shall fade into insignificance when we - by God’s Sovereign grace, and trust in Christ Jesus’ full Atonement Sacrifice for our sins – are received by the Lord God into Heaven’s Holy glory.  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!

Verse 25. “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.  This is a verse that the poor Papist cannot pray with honesty – for he/she is erroneously taught by Rome that he/she may pray to Mary, to Joseph, to other Biblical figures, and to those many other human sinners that have been declared ‘saints’ by religious Popes and Prelates.  How sad to see how duped so many millions of, otherwise, religious people are by a religious system that has a ‘…form of godliness, but denies the power thereof…’!  (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Verse 25. “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee?  And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.  What are saints?  What are angels to a soul without God? ‘Tis true of things as well as of persons.  What have we in Heaven but God?  What’s joy without God?  What’s glory without God?   What’s all the furniture and riches, all the delicacies, yea, all the diadems of Heaven, without the God of Heaven?  If God should say to the saints, ‘Here is Heaven, take it amongst you, but I will withdraw Myself,’ how would they weep over Heaven itself, and make it a Baca, a valley of tears indeed?  Heaven is not Heaven unless we enjoy God.  ‘Tis the Presence of God which makes Heaven: glory is but our nearest being unto God.”  (Joseph Caryl,1602-1673)

Thought: Heaven is not Heaven, without God.  Heaven without a desire for Holiness – would be Hell to those that go there.  Christian relief is found in the sure Word of God.