James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 107:7
THE RIGHT ROAD
“He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.’
Who is He who led them, and still leads us, His faithful people, by the right way? Surely none other than the All-wise and All-loving Father, the Almighty and All-pardoning Saviour, the All-pure and All-enlightening Spirit, God with us, our true Emmanuel. There are three things for us to think of here: the leader, the way, and the end of the journey.
I. And first of the Leader.—Happy are the people who have God for their guide. Israel in the old days had Moses for their leader, and he delivered them from the bondage of Egypt; Joshua led them against their enemies, and carried them into the Promised Land; but thrice happy are we who have Jesus, the true Moses, who has delivered us from the bondage of sin, and brought us through the Red Sea of His blood; thrice happy are we who have Jesus, the true Joshua, who has conquered our enemies, and who leads us, and will lead us across the river of death into the Promised Land, the Heavenly Canaan.
O happy band of pilgrims,
If onward ye will tread,
With Jesus as your Fellow,
To Jesus as your Head.
He leads us; He does not compel us by threats of judgment; He does not sweep us along by the whirlwind and tempest of His wrath, He calls us by the still small voice of love, He takes us tenderly by the hand, even as a mother takes her child, and so He leads us in the right way.
II. And now let us think of this right way.—There are many ways through the world, but only one way to Heaven. Some there are who desire to walk in a path of their own choosing, and yet expect to rest with God at last. Some there are who say, ‘I will walk in the way of my affections and feelings, I will do as my natural impulse prompts me; what I like, that will I do.’ Ah! dear brethren, that is not the right way; it may be your way, but it is not God’s.
The principal street of ancient Rome was called the Via Sacra—the Sacred Way; our feet should ever be on the true sacred way, the path purchased with Christ’s blood, the road trod by Him, the wayfaring Man, who leads us poor wayfarers in the right way. So we pass through the gate of sorrow, and go on our journey in the right way.
III. At length we reach the last gate; it may be whilst our head is yet bright with the gold of youth, or when silvered with the frost of old age, but sooner or later we come to it. The way is very gloomy, cold mists as from a river rise around us, a horror of great darkness seizes us, and we see that the gate opens upon a deep river with a swelling tide, and the path ends there. No wonder that the bravest shudders to approach! How shall we enter that gloomy river, how cross those swelling waves? Still the same Hand is stretched forth to us, and the same Voice is heard saying, ‘When thou passest through the waters I am with thee: though thou walk through the valley of the shadow of death, My rod and My staff they comfort thee; he that believeth in Me, though he die, yet shall he live’; so we pass through the gate of death, for one bitter moment the dark waters close over our head, and then we are on the farther shore, and all is bright.