Psalms 73:28

Psalms 73:28

The experience of ordinary life gives proof that "nearness" is not a geographical fact. You may live positively close to a man, and yet for every real purpose of neighbourhood for any sympathy which may be formed, or any benefit which may accrue you may still be as wide asunder as the poles; while oceans may separate heart from heart which nevertheless live in one another's life, and reflect each the every hue which passes over the other's breast. So certain is it that distance and nearness are moral things, founded upon moral principles, and leading up to moral consequences.

I. What then is nearness to God? (1) It is to be in Christ. The Apostles never separate nearness to God from an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. God sees nothing near to Himself till He first sees it in His dear Son. (2) The nearness to God thus formed in Christ goes on to further results. There comes a felt presence always growing out of that sense of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian is a man always walking in the shade of a mighty, invisible Being that is with him everywhere. (3) Nearness generates resemblance. To be near God in His being is to be near Him in His image.

II. How is this nearness to God to be attained? (1) You must place yourselves under the attractive influences of Divine grace. The drawing principle, which is to bring God and you near, resides not in you, but in God. (2) Your own will must accompany the Divine compulsion. (3) You must be diligent in using the means of grace, those blessed opportunities when God and souls draw near.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,8th series, p. 157.

I. This is a text worth the notice of everybody. Who is there that does not wish for good? All of us are seeking after what we consider to be good for us. Only too many of us make a mistake as to what is really good for us. Some people fancy that the great good of this life is money; so they long for it, work for it, slave for it, and perhaps get it, only to find, after all, that it is not such a satisfying good as they thought. Others think that pleasure is the one thing desirable; so they pursue pleasure by every means in their power, often sacrificing their health and property for it, and then find that it is not worth the trouble they have spent upon it.

II. The text tells us of something which really is good: "It is good to draw near to God." There are several ways of drawing near to God, but there is one way which will occur to your minds before others. That way is prayer. God asks His children to come to Him in prayer, to pour out their thoughts and wants to Him, not because He is ignorant of them, but because He desires to attach us all to Him as His loving, faithful children. He wants prayer from us, but He wants something more: He wants our confidence, our faith, our trust. Therefore, while He always listens to our prayer, He does not always answer it at once, nor always in the way which we may desire. The best way is to draw near to God in prayer, and then leave Him to do what He knows to be best for us.

III. An old writer very quaintly compares this text to a whetstone. A whetstone is used for sharpening knives and other cutting instruments. Prayer sharpens our desires after good, and brings us often to the throne of God's grace.

G. Litting, Thirty Children's Sermons,p. 147.

References: Psalms 73:28. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 288, vol. xv., No. 879, and vol. xxvii., No. 1629; J. W. Lance, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvi., p. 200; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xx., p. 284. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons,vol. ii., p. 271.