“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” (Psalms 73:24)
There is a phrase that Asaph didn’t write. It’s merely understood. God’s counsel and guidance is to be obeyed and followed. It is in the obedience that we are rewarded with His favor and blessing. So, it should read, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, I shall obey and afterward receive me to glory." All night long I’ve been tossing and turning. I’ve been praying and seeking how to tell a sister she cannot continue in sin. It’s not that that I am afraid to offend her. I am afraid that she will abandon God completely. The lust of her flesh is comforting to her. But it hasn’t satisfied the need in her spirit. God has blessed her, and she returns to her sin. She struggles with the curses she brings on herself and her family. There is so much darkness in her house, the Lord has forbidden me to enter.
What happens is that disobedience hardens the heart. No longer does the heart hear counsel from God or anyone. Counsel falls on deaf ears. And the Lord leaves and abandons them to their sin. The King James translation is difficult to understand. The Good News translation is clearer. “And because they thought it was worthless to acknowledge God, God allowed their own immoral minds to control them. So, they do these indecent things.” (Romans 1:28) So, to talk to her is senseless, but I’m compelled to do so once with the hope that it will jar her to her senses. Asaph saw that the sinner disregarded righteousness living and careful living for carelessness and abandon. “For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. “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. 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 set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 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?” (Psalms 73:4-11) They don’t understand the omnipresence of the Lord. He is everywhere and knows all things with and about each one of us. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Pro 15:3) Nothing is hidden from Him. And nothing escapes His notice.
It's wisdom to seek God’s counsel. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36) There is no higher authority, no higher power and no higher wisdom. Even the simplest mind can understand the wisdom in obedience. But in the throngs of sin all wisdom, even simple earthly wisdom is darkened. Sin makes no sense. Its reward is regret and misery. There is no joy nor triumph in it, although the sinner will say different. When all is said and done, in the silence of the night, it’s torment haunts the soul. But the sinner is a slave to sin and can’t escape. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” (Romans 6:16-17) Only complete surrender to the Lord and dying to self will deliver us from sin and its hold on us. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1) It’s the logical thing to do.
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