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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
You may have noticed that the 73rd Psalm and the 37th Psalm are on the same subject; it will help you to recall this fact if you remember that the figures are the same, only reversed.
Psa_73:1. Truly God is good to Israel, —
Settle that matter in your hearts, whatever doubts may distress or disturb your mind, fix this point as certain: “Truly God is good to Israel,” —
Psa_73:1-2. Even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
He was a good man, one of the leaders in Israel, yet he had to make this confession, “My feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.”
Psa_73:3-4. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Many of them have so stifled conscience that it does not trouble them even in that last dread hour, and they pass into eternity with blinded eyes, self-deluded to the last.
Psa_73:5. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
They are not the children of God, and that is why they escape the rod of God. The rod is not for strangers, but for the children of the family. Yet the psalmist began to envy these people because, said he, “they are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.”
Psa_73:6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain;
They wear it gladly, and think it to be an ornament.
Psa_73:6-9. Violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, —
As though they would blow them down, as the wind blows the clouds that are full of rain.
Psa_73:9. And their tongue walketh through the earth.
Like the ravening lion of the pit, seeking characters that they may destroy or devour. There is no end to the mischief that such people can do. If they are not in trouble themselves, they make much trouble for other people; and while they set themselves on so high a pinnacle, they are mean enough to slander the characters of the good.
Psa_73:10. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
They have to drink of the bitter cup again and again; it seems to them to be always full; and the wicked have their full cup, — filled, as it seems, with the juice from the very finest fruit.
Psa_73:11. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
They admit that there is a God, but they ask, “What does he know, and how does he know?”
Psa_73:12-14. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
It was one of his greatest sorrows that, the more holy he was, the more troubled he seemed to be; and the more closely he endeavored to follow his God, the more it seemed as if God only frowned upon him. Yet the psalmist’s was no exceptional case, of which there is only one in all history; there have been many such, and there are many such to this day.
Psa_73:15. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
You know that some people have made up a kind of proverb like this, “If you think it, you may as well speak it;” but it is not so. Bad thoughts should never be spoken. If a man has a bottle of whisky in his house, or in his pocket, that is bad enough; but if the cork is never taken out, it will do no very great hurt to anybody. So, if a man has evil thoughts, but does not utter them, the mischief will not be so great as if he were to make them known to others.
Psa_73:16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
He could not bear the thought of offending God’s children; but, at the same time, the problem itself, concerning the righteous and the wicked, until he could solve it, was too painful for him.
Psa_73:17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
When he went into God’s holy place, — when he began to understand God’s purposes and plans, and looked beyond the present life into the dreadful future of the ungodly, he could say: —
Psa_73:17. Then understood I their end.
And understanding their end, his difficulty ceased, his puzzling problem was solved.
Psa_73:18. Surety thou didst set them in slippery places:
As if they stood upon a ridge of ice, from which they must slip down; —who wishes to be lifted up upon an Alp of prosperity, from which he may be dashed down at any moment? If you knew that there was a man standing on the top of the cross of St. Paul’s at this moment, I do not suppose that any of you would envy him; certainly I should not. Let him have a patent for standing there, and let nobody else ever attempt it. And an ungodly man, in the elevated places of prosperity, is in such a perilous position that we need not envy him.
Psa_73:18. Thou castedst them down into destruction.
Down they go! If not in this life, yet in the next, and who will envy them then?
Psa_73:19-20. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
When a man wakes up, the image that was before his mind, in his dream, is gone; and when God wakes up to judgment, these wicked men, who were but as images in a night dream, shall pass away.
Psa_73:21. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
In the tenderest and most vital parts of his being, he felt an inward and terrible pain.
Psa_73:22. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
Judging as the beast judges, that can only see the little grass around itself, and fattens itself, knowing nothing of the shambles, and of the butcher’s knife that is being sharpened to kill it there. “So,” says the psalmist, “I was like that, I forgot about the future, I did not judge as an immortal being should judge concerning the infinite and the eternal, but I judged things as a beast might judge by the narrow compass of its little grazing ground.
Psa_73:23. Nevertheless —
This phrase is most delightful, coming in connection with his previous confession: “I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless” —
Psa_73:23. I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
That is your portion also, Christian. However few your pounds, however short your supplies, you are continually with God, and he holds you by your right hand. Will you envy the ungodly after that?
Psa_73:24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
There is where your chief possession lies, locked up in that which is marked “Afterward.” Not today, possibly not tomorrow, but “afterward” is your inheritance: “afterward thou wilt receive me to glory.”
Psa_73:25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
Here is the Christian’s heavenly and earthly portion and treasure. He has his God, both here and hereafter; and this is better than all that can fall to the lot of the worldling.
Psa_73:26-27. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
That is, setting their hearts on unlovely things, and forgetting to love God.
Psa_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 thy works.
The Psalm ends jubilantly, as it began, though part of it had been in a minor key.
Here you have the psalmist in a fainting fit. He has allowed the flesh to conquer the spirit. The observant eye of reason has for awhile rendered dim the clear vision of faith.
Psa_73:1. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
That must be true. Whatever we have seen or felt, it cannot be doubted but what God must become a good God to his own people, “Such as are of a clean heart.”
Psa_73:2-3. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
I began to envy those whom God hates, and to think that it would be better for me to have been one of them.
Psa_73:4. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Their unbelief helps them to die in peace, mocking at God even to the last.
Psa_73:5; Psa_73:8. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
They justify themselves in treading others down; they laud it over others; they bully them; they rob them; they crush them; yet speak as if they had a perfect right to do so.
Psa_73:9. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
Leaving nobody alone, sparing no character, however pure.
Psa_73:10-11. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
They get to doubt the personality of God. If they will not precisely say that there is no God, yet they go as near to it as they can; they come to what is about the same thing. They have a God who does not know, and who does not perceive.
Psa_73:12. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
And this is what the good man said,
Psa_73:13-14. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
“Is this all I am to get by my righteousness? Is this the reward of following after God, to be whipped as soon as I wake, and to be sent to bed sore with grief?”
Psa_73:15. If I say, I will speak thus; behold I should offend against the generation of thy children.
So he did not say what he thought. Some have said, “If you think so, you may as well say so.” But not so. You might as well say if you have a match, you may as well burn your house down. Bad thought is bad to yourself, but it ends there; turn it into words and tell it to others and it may do an infinite mischief.
Psa_73:16-17. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
He went and hid himself in his God; he got near his God. It does not mean that he went to some place of worship, but that he went to the God whom he worshipped — hid himself in his God.
Psa_73:18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction.
“
While flaming billows roll below,
melting down their foundation.”
It is a man of God that talks thus about himself. He feels that he had got to act and think as a beast might do; for a beast only calculates things according to time present; it crops the grass, and is satisfied, and lies down; but an immortal man ought to take a wider sweep and range in his thought, and not merely think of today and of this present life, but of the end of time and of the eternity that lies beyond this present mortal state. And because he had failed to do so, he calls himself foolish and ignorant, and says: —
Psa_73:23; Psa_73:28. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. 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.
He finds all his comfort in his God. He comes to the conclusion that, whatever the portion of the ungodly may be, his is infinitely better than theirs, because they have not God, and he has God, who is all in all.
The psalmist here works out the problem of the prosperity of the wicked. He was troubled in his own mind about it; he knew that he feared God, but he also knew that he was greatly tried, whereas he saw many, who had no fear of God before their eyes, who seemed to be always prospering. Their flourishing condition was a puzzle to him; but he examined the problem, and unraveled the mystery. I think I have before told you, as a little exercise for your memory, that the seventy-third Psalm and the thirty-seventh Psalm are both on the same subject. You can easily remember this, as the same figures are used in each instance, only they are turned the two ways, 73 and 37.
Psa_73:1. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
The psalmist knows that it must be so; he cannot doubt it, he lays it down as a proposition not to be disputed. Assuredly, “Truly, God is good to Israel.”
Psa_73:2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
“I was almost seduced to sin; I seemed as if I must fall into iniquity.”
Psa_73:3. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
It really looked as if the big rogues did prosper, as if the great infidels were happy, as if, after all, religion brought trouble, and irreligion brought pleasure.
Psa_73:4. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength was firm.
Some of them so stifle conscience that they even die stupefied, with no sense of the dreadful wrath that is coming upon them: “There are no bands in their death.”
Psa_73:6. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
They do not seem to have the afflictions of God’s people, and certainly they are not plagued with soul-conflict such as Christians have, they seem to make themselves very merry at all times.
Psa_73:6. Therefore pride accompanieth them about as a chain;
They wear it as my Lord Mayor wears his collar, for a badge of honour.
Psa_73:6. Violence covereth them as a garment.
They are not a bit ashamed of it; they put it on as if it were their workday dress.
Psa_73:7-8. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
What big words they utter! How they boast! How they despise the poor! How they sneer at religion! It is dreadful to hear them; and for a child of God, who is conscious of doing right, and of suffering for it, it is a hard task to hear them talk thus.
Psa_73:9. They set their mouth against the heavens,
As if this earth did not contain room enough for their malice, “They set their mouth against the heavens.”
Psa_73:9. And their tongue walketh through the earth.
Letting nobody alone, having a hard word for everybody except their own chosen coterie.
Psa_73:10-11. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say “How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most high?”
They pretend that God is, as it were, only like King Log, taking no account of what is done by the sons of men. “He does not notice our feastings, or listen to our blasphemies;” so they say.
Psa_73:12. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
And yet why do we wonder at this? The bullock that is intended to be killed is the first to be fatted, and he that is doomed to destruction will often be allowed to prosper. Would you not let them have as much pleasure as they can have in this life, for they will have none in the next? Oh, envy them not their short-lived joys! Yet the psalmist did so when he was down in the dumps, and in an evil humor. He said, “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.”
Psa_73:13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
“Surely,” said he “my holy life, my desire to be right with God and man, is a good-for-nothing thing. I do not prosper; I do not increase in riches, but it is the very reverse with me.”
Psa_73:14. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
Cannot you imagine a son of very wise parents, and very loving parents, saying, “Why, look at that boy in the street! He has no father to flog him, no mother to scold him, he can do just as he likes; but, as for me, if I do a little wrong, I am whipped for it?” Ah, my lad! the day will come when you will not envy the street-boy and you will be thankful then that you were not in his position. The child of God, if he sins, will have to smart for it; and there is nothing more dreadful than to be allowed to sin without being made to suffer. God save us from being given up to such a state as that!
Psa_73:15. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
Do not always speak what you think. “But if you think it, you may as well say it,” says one. Oh, no! There may be an evil spirit in yonder bottle, but nobody will get drunk upon it if you keep the cork in; so there may be evil thoughts in your hearts, but they will not injure other people if you do not, as it were, draw the cork by uttering them. It is well always to think twice before you speak once. “So,” said the psalmist, “I cannot speak thus, because such talk would grieve God’s people.”
Psa_73:16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
It was too painful for the psalmist to think of it, too painful to speak of it; and yet too painful for him to hold his tongue.
Psa_73:17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
When he came near to his God, when he went into the holy place, and communed with the Lord, then he saw what would be the end of the wicked. Ah, what a difference it makes when we look at the ungodly from the right standpoint! “Then understood I their end.”
Psa_73:18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places:
Up there ever so high;
Psa_73:18. Thou castedst them down into destruction.
When the time comes, down they are hurled from those slippery heights into the awful depths below.
Psa_73:19. Now are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
When the ungodly reach the next world, where are their riches, where are their feasts, where are their merry jokes, where are their lofty words? Listen: “How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.”
Psa_73:20. As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
When a man wakes, his dream is over and gone. When God awakes to judgment, and comes to deal with ungodly men, then all those who prospered in wickedness shall melt away, like the baseless fabric of a dream.
Psa_73:21-22. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
For the beast only measures by the day and the hour, as far as its eye can see. Give it a meadow deep with grass, and it is perfectly happy, but when good men get measuring by the day, and by the hour, and by the lifetime here below, they are foolish, and like brute beasts.
Psa_73:23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee:
Oh, what a mercy this is for believers! If we are ever so poor, we are continually with God. What if we be chastened every morning? It is clear that we must be with God then, for a chastening God must be near.
Psa_73:23. Thou hast holden me by my right hand.
“Even when thou didst whip me. Everywhere thou hast a grip of me. Thou holdest me with thy right hand.” The psalmist does not envy the wicked now; he has risen a stage higher than he was a little while ago.
Psa_73:24-25. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
Now he finds in God his riches, his joy, his prosperity, his portion.
Psa_73:26-27. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
To love the world, to love riches, to love sin, to love self, this is to be unfaithful to our marriage covenant with God; let such conduct never be ours.
Psa_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 thy works.
Thus, you see, the psalmist went down to the depths, but he came up again all right, and his heart was made glad in the Lord his God. So may it be with any of us who, like him, have been envious at the foolish, when we have seen the prosperity of the wicked.
A Psalm Of Asaph.” He was a great singer, but he could not always sing. In the first part of the Psalm he felt rather like groaning than singing; and you shall find that those who sing the sweetest the praises of God sometimes have to hang their harps upon the willows, and are silent. The strong temptation through which Asaph passed is one which is very common. You find another account of it in the 37th Psalm. It may help your memory to notice that it is the 37th and the 73rd Psalm (transpose the figures) which are both upon the same subject—the temptation caused to the people of God by the prosperity of the wicked.
Psa_73:1. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
It must be so. Whatever argument my son may hold about it, I will set that down, to begin with, as a certainty—“Truly, God is good to Israel.” He cannot be unkind or unfaithful to his own people. It cannot be possible, after all—however things may look—that God is an ill-God and an ill-Master to his own servants.
Psa_73:2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh dipped. Am I, then, one of his people or not? I know he is good to them; but how about myself? Perhaps some here will never question themselves in that way, and if they were led to do so, they would think it was of the devil. I do not think so. I think it is rather of the devil to keep us from questioning ourselves. I remember what Cowper said:—
“
He may—perhaps he may too late.”
Psa_73:3. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I know that wicked men are fools.
Asaph and David had often said that before. Yet says he, “I was a greater fool, still, that I was envious of these fools—when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
Psa_73:4-5. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Many of them keep up a hypocritical profession through a long life, and die in a stupefaction, so that conscience never awakens, and they pass out of the world loaded with guilt, and yet talk about being accepted before God. How can this be? Where is the justice of it?
Psa_73:6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain;
As kings wear chains of gold, so is their pride to them.
Psa_73:6. Violence covereth them as a garment,
They are not ashamed of it. They get to be so bold in sin that they wear it as an outside cloak.
Psa_73:7. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
Superfluities. They never have to ask where a meal will come from. They have more than they want.
Psa_73:8-9. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens,
Such big mouths—such blasphemous words—have they, that they attack God himself. There is nothing too high for them to drag it down—nothing too pure for them to slander. “They set their mouth against the heavens.”
Psa_73:9. And their tongue walketh through the earth.
Like the lion seeking its prey, they take long walks in their slander. Nobody is safe from them.
Psa_73:10-11. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
God’s sorrowing children have to drink of the bitter cup, while these proud ones are eating of the fat of the land.
Psa_73:12-14. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
When Asaph got into this unbelieving state of mind, it did look as if all his care of his character and all his desire to serve God was wasted, for the wicked prospered, while he was chastened. It is a strong description which he gives of his state. “All the day long have I been plagued.” Not by the half-hour, but by the whole day, plagued, and weeping as soon as he was out of bed—chastened every morning. He seemed almost to be sorry that he was a child of God, to be so roughly handled. He almost, but not quite, wished that he could take the portion of the wicked, that he might enjoy himself as they did, and might prosper in the world as they did.
Psa_73:15. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
That was very wise of Asaph. He thought but he did not speak. Some persons say, “You may as well out with it.” You may as well keep it in; nay, a great deal better. If you have it in your own heart, it will grieve yourself, but if you speak it out, you will grieve others. If you wear sackcloth, brethren, wear it round your own loins, but do not wear it as your outside garment. There is enough sackcloth in the world without your flaunting it before everybody else’s face. If you must fast, remember your Master’s words, “Thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast.” He gave us that precept in order to avoid pharisaic ostentation; but we may also follow it from another motive, namely, that we may not spread sorrow in the world. There is enough of depression of spirit, enough of despondency, enough of heartbreak, without our saying a word to increase it among the sons of men.
“
Tell no man thy misery,”
Psa_73:16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.
“Too painful” to keep it: “too painful” to speak it out and grieve other people.
Psa_73:17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood their end.
Asaph went to his God. He got to Christ, whom he foresaw, for the person of Jesus Christ is the sanctuary of God. Some people call these buildings sanctuaries. They have no authority for so doing. “God dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” He may have done so under the old covenant, but not now. Christ is the sanctuary of God, and when we get to him and come into fellowship with God in him, then we begin to learn something. “Then understood I their end.”
Psa_73:18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places:
There they are—on a mountain of ice, bright and glittering: up aloft, where others see, admire, and wonder at them. But oh! how dangerous their pathway!
Psa_73:18. Thou casteth them down into destruction.
They are not left to slip, but a hand overthrows them—flings them down from the heights of their prosperity to the depths of unutterable woe.
Psa_73:19-20. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
As if God slept today, and let these images of prosperity exist as in a dream; but by-and-by he wakes. His time of judgment comes, and where are these prosperous men? They have gone. The “baseless fabric of a vision” has melted into thin air, and “left not a wreck behind.” It is not. It is gone.
Psa_73:21. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
I felt a heart-pain. I felt my whole nature go amiss, as if there had been calculi causing the deepest possible misery in my reins.
Psa_73:22. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
I saw no farther than a goose. Like a beast that cannot look into the future, I judged these men by today—by the pastures in which they fed, and the fatness which they gathered there. “I was as a beast before thee.” Now notice the splendid connection of these two verses. I will read them again—the 22nd and the 23rd. “So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee.”
Psa_73:23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
What a strange mixture a man is! And a godly man is the strangest conglomerate of all. He is a beast, and yet continually with God. View him from one side, he is ignorant: view him from the other, and he hath an unction from the Holy One, and he knows all things. View him from one point of the compass, and he is naked, and poor, and miserable: view him from another quarter, and behold he is complete in Christ and “accepted in the Beloved. “ They know not man who do not know that every true man is two men.
Psa_73:24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
I, the fool that envied fools, yet “thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
Psa_73:25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
Now he has got out of the temptation. He is not going to seek for prosperity that he may rival the wicked in their wealth. No! He sees that, in having God, he has all he wants. Even though he should continually be plagued all the day long, and chastened every morning, his portion in God is quite enough for him. He will not murmur any more.
Psa_73:26. My flesh and my heart faileth:
I see what a poor thing I am. I allowed my flesh and my heart to get the mastery over me, and I got caught in this trap.
Psa_73:26-27. But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
A strong word, but none too forcible; for every heart that seeks delight away from God is an unchaste heart. It has got away from true purity even for a moment in pouring out its love upon the creature.
Psa_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 thy works.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 73; Psa_37:1-10.