Psalm 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all your works. When a man is sick everybody knows what is good for him. They recommend specifics by the score. Amid such a babel, it is well for a man if he knows what is good for himself. And so in our spiritual troubles. Every friend commends some different course. But the psalmist puts them all aside, and declares, "It is good for me to draw near unto God." Thus — I. HE TACITLY CONDEMNS OTHER COURSES OF ACTION. From the connection of the text it is plain that he repents of certain kinds of thought to which he had given way. The text tells of his recoil from them. 1. From trying to fathom the mysteries of Providence. What have we to do with measuring its great depths? And yet we are ever trying to. Gotthold in his "Emblems" tells us of the freaks of his child. The father was one day sitting in his study, and, when he lifted his eye from his book, he saw standing upon the window ledge his little son. He was troubled and affrighted to the last degree, for the child stood there in utmost peril of failing to the ground and being dashed to pieces. The little one had been anxious to know what his father was doing so many hours in the day in his study, and he had at last, by a ladder, managed to climb up, with boyish daring, till there he stood, outside the window, gazing at his father with all his eyes. "So," said the father, as he took the child into his chamber, and rebuked him for his folly, "so have I often tried to climb into the council chamber of God, to see why and wherefore He did this and that; and thus have I exposed myself to peril of falling to my destruction." My God, it is not good for me to pry into Thy secrets with curiosity, but it is good for me to draw near unto Thee in sincerity. And — 2. We learn also it is not good for us, under any circumstances, to go to a distance from God. The preceding verse reads, "They that are far from Thee shall perish." Now, the tendency of repeated affliction is, in the carnal mind, to drive us away from God. A dog may follow you if you otter it a bone but strike it and see if it will follow you then. But it can never be good for us to go away from God. II. OBSERVE WHAT IS PLAINLY COMMENDED — "to draw near unto God." 1. This implies that we are reconciled to Him. To attempt to draw near while He is angry would be insanity. As well might the moth draw near to the candle. We must first be accepted in Christ. 2. To draw near the soul must realize that God is near to it, and must have a clear sense of who and what God is. 3. It is prayer, but it is more than prayer. There may be no words, but it is the laying open of the chamber of your soul that the Lord may enter and inspect the whole; it is the complete yielding up of yourself to God to be dealt with as He pleases. 4. It may assume the form of praise. As with David when he satin the Lord's presence, wondering "Whence is this to me? What am I and my father's house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?" 5. It is looking at the matter in the Divine light. If we judge God from our standpoint we shall misjudge; but see how that which troubles you looks in the light of God. Bereavement, poverty, when seen as God's way of saving your soul, look very different then. 6. It is the being pleased with anything and everything that pleases God. We are often willing to give up our own way to please those we love; should we not be so in order to please God? III. THE GROUNDS FOR THE UNQUALIFIED COMMENDATION OF THIS DRAWING NEAR TO GOD. 1. It is good in itself. How can it be otherwise? The courtier delights to bask in the presence of his sovereign. 2. It is good if we consider our relations to God. Are we not His children? But is it not a good thing for the child to come near to its parents? 3. And because of our pitiable condition and character. We are the weakest of the weak. 4. It removes many evils to which you are constantly exposed. Man of business, absorbed in your work, day by day, what can so keep you from worldliness and fret and anxiety, as drawing near to God? 5. And there are many good things which it will confer. There is no blessing which prayer cannot obtain, which close approaches to God will not ensure. If then it be so good, let us do it at once. You who have been living afar off; you who are happy; and especially you who are penitent sinners. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works. |
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