HOLD UP MY GOINGS

To lose one’s foothold can be a very frightening and even fatal experience. Whether it is an elderly person on an icy road, a venturesome lad on a cliff face, or a hardened mountaineer crossing a crevass, the very thought can be unnerving.

Psalm 73 records a time in Asaph’s life when he had just avoided an experience like this. He first thanks God for saving him, “Truly God is good to Israel”, v. 1. He wanted to be like Nathanael, “an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile”, John 1. 47. He wanted to live with a good conscience before God. But he had a problem; the age-old question as to why the wicked often prosper and good men suffer. It tended to make him envious. He forgot the warning, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb”, Psa. 37. 1, 2. He found that “envy is the rottenness of the bones”, Prov. 14. 30.

Asaph observed how healthy and prosperous were these blatantly wicked men. The rich boasted that God was ignorant of, or quite indifferent to, their evil ways. They had no qualms about death or of having to answer to God for their behaviour. Asaph was tempted to live like them, and blot out the thought of the life to come. But he was afraid to discuss the matter with others. He feared that he might dangerously influence his brethren by such foolishly immature thoughts. If the Levite who leads the praise slips, others will slip too.

Then comes a turning point: “until I went into the sanctuary of God”, v. 17. This means not merely a building, but into the very presence of God, the All-wise, Himself. There, foolish thoughts are banished. “In thy light shall we see light”, Psa. 36. 9. It is important, not only to study, but to draw near to God in secret prayer. “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not”,Psa. 17. 5. Then we too shall confidently say, “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory”, Psa. 73. 24.

“Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’, 2 Cor. 10. 5.