Psalm 73:24
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EXPOSITION
Verse 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.
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.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 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" ( Psalms 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.
Verse 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," Isaiah 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.
Verse 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.
Verse 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, Genesis 5:24 , ~yhla wta xql, "God took him." Here ( Psalms 73:24 ), the psalmist writes, ygzqt $wbk. "Thou shalt take me to glory, or gloriously." In another ( Psalms 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.
HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS
Verse 22-25.
- The psalmist's confession concerning the flesh.
- The faithful expressions of the spirit.
- The conclusion of the whole matter. See "Spurgeon's
Sermons," No. 467.
Verse 23-24.
- What he says of the present: I am continually with
thee.
- What he says of the past: Thou hast holden me,
etc.
- What he say of the future: Thou shalt guide, etc. W. Jay.
Verse 23-24. Communing, upholding, on leading, reception to glory, four glorious privileges; especially as bestowed on one who was grieved, foolish, ignorant, and a beast. Note the contrasts.
Verse 24. The Enoch walk, and the Enoch reception into glory.