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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 psalmist's 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 God's 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 Bunyan's 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.)

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KJV: Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

WEB: You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.