Psalms 73:2

But am for me, my feet were almost gone: my steps had well nigh slipped.

Spiritual crises

The problems of human life and destiny pressed sore upon the mind of the good and thoughtful Asaph, the writer of this psalm. The story of his struggle and victory is here recorded.

I. The perilous crisis in a good man’s life. “My feet were,” etc. The sword is dropping from his nerveless hand, the shield from his grasp. His strength is ebbing fast. Now--

1. Such crises may arise from circumstances over which we have no control: and--

2. In the holiest lives.

II. The antecedent history of this crisis is disclosed (Psalms 73:3; Psalms 73:13, etc.).

1. Asaph had come to doubt of the Divine Sovereignty. “How doth God know?” If God were Sovereign, how could He let such wickedness be? He forgot the future retribution.

2. And the Divine Fatherhood.

3. And had endeavoured to extricate himself by the aid of human reason alone (Psalms 73:16).

4. This crisis was not an innocent one. Its root was unbelief.

III. The method of deliverance is revealed. “Until I went into the sanctuary” (Psalms 73:17). On which note--

1. The sanctuary is the best place for trembling faith. Because

(1) There are special promises attached to its services (1 Kings 9:8; 2 Chronicles 7:15).

(2) There we enter the domain of faith.

(3) And are brought face to face with eternal realities. The future life comes into view.

2. The sanctuary is not necessarily any material edifice. Probably in this case it was. But every spot hallowed by heavenly intercourse is a sanctuary. Jacob’s stony temple; Peter’s housetop, etc. And even within the sanctuary it is the attitude of the mind, not the position of the body, which brings relief.

IV. A recipe of prevention is recorded. We have--

1. A confession of folly (Psalms 73:22).

2. An expression of confidence (Psalms 73:23).

3. An affirmation of trust (Psalms 73:24).

4. A testimony of gratitude (Psalms 73:28; Psalms 73:25). Therefore, learn--

(1) A querulous spirit is a source of spiritual danger.

(2) The record of past experience is the safeguard of to-day.

(3) God is our refuge and strength, and a very present help in trouble. (Homiletic Quarterly.)

Narrow escapes

The victorious general in the hour of triumph has not unfrequently reason be remember how nearly, through oversight or miscalculation, he had lost the day: a little more pressure on this wing or that, a trifling prolongation of the struggle, a few minutes’ further delay in the arrival of reinforcements--and his proud banner had been dragged in the dust. The pilot guiding his barque safely into port sometimes knows how through lack of seamanship he nearly made shipwreck. The successful merchant remembers crises in his history when he found himself on the brink of ruin, when the last straw only was wanting to precipitate the catastrophe. And like narrow escapes occur in the spiritual life.

I. The occasions of our peril.

1. Our soul is sometimes in imminent danger from unbelief. Many of God’s people find their faith severely tried, and hardly endure the trial. We have perhaps been exercised on the Divine existence, or we doubted the Divine Word. Sometimes these doubts have been pressed upon us from the outside by the disciples and literature of scepticism, at other times suggested by our own experience; and our soul fluttered in the fowler’s net.

2. At other seasons our special danger has arisen from worldliness. The most spiritual of God’s people may perchance remember when their heart was all but absorbed by the secular--the inner man forgotten in the outer, the eternal in the temporary, the love of the Father in the love of the world. Little by little we yielded to the authority of worldly maxims, to the tyranny of worldly interests, to the indulgences of worldly society and pleasure. Prayer became infrequent and unreal; the house of God was neglected; the Scriptures lost their relish; the family altar was dropping stone by stone into the dust.

3. Again, our peril has been actual immorality. How nearly betrayed by passion, appetite, covetousness, pride: the partition thin between us and the fallen.

II. The lessons of our deliverance.

1. Thankfulness. Great is our debt of gratitude to Him who renders our venial errors innocuous, who sustains us as we unwittingly step on slippery place or giddy brink; who delivers us from our inexperience, short-sightedness and frailty, not permitting our infirmity to work its natural issue of woe.

2. Humiliation. When we remember the fulness of light, the strength of motive, the richness of grace against which we sinned and brought ourselves into jeopardy, we may justly be humbled.

3. Caution. Narrow escapes gender presumption in foolish men, but the wise are admonished.

4. Sympathy. Having so narrowly escaped condemnation, we must think kindly and hopefully of those who went a little further, only a little further, and fell; having been so nearly run over, we must think tenderly of those who are carried to the hospital.

5. Consecration to God. Where a Christian is ever stumbling and slipping there is a real weakness of character, a deep defect of mind or heart or will, a central lack of balance and force. What such of us need is to come to the psalmist’s conclusion--complete, final devotion to God. Let us thus yield ourselves to God, and these humiliating, dangerous episodes we shall know no more. Let us dwell in the sanctuary. Every visit to the throne purges our vision, refreshes our soul, renews our strength. In communion with God we find the secret grounds of God’s ways, and become able to await calmly and hopefully the solution of all painful problems. Worship, too, fills the soul with spiritual images and forces, preserving from the insidious en-croachments of worldliness. And, faithful to our priestly privilege and purity, we shrink from contact with the unclean thing. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Faith--its peril and rescue

I. When was the faith of the psalmist endangered?

1. When he “saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

2. When he observed the apparent desertion of the righteous. The adversity of the saints was more mysterious than the prosperity of the wicked.

II. Why was the faith of Asaph imperilled? Faith is designed for times of darkness, distress, etc. Job declared, “Though He slay me, yet,” etc.

1. The psalmist has a wrong spirit. “I was envious,” etc. Our opinions are affected by our moods. Envy impaired the judgement and blurred the spiritual vision of Asaph.

2. The psalmist had narrow views. We are apt to express our opinions as if we understood all events and could compass all time.

III. The rescue of faith.

1. Through holy influences. “I went into the sanctuary”--the place nearest God.

2. Through clearer views, “Then understood I their end.” As we trace, on the other hand, the closing Chapter s in the lives of Joseph, Daniel and others, apparent discrepancies fade away.

3. Faith becomes more vigorous than before. He not only was satisfied but jubilant: “Whom have I in heaven but Thee,” etc.

Lessons:

1. Guard against judging by appearances, or from imperfect data.

2. Trust where it is difficult to trace infinite love.

3. Faith rests, questionings are silenced, when the soul is nearer to God. (John Love.)