COV LIFE BLOG

Psalm 73 – Nearness to God is Our Good

How can it be otherwise than good to have access to Him who is the highest good? The courtier counts it a high honor, and satisfaction to sun himself in the presence of his monarch. He basks in the royal smile; shall not the courtiers of heaven count it an equal good to stand in the favor of the King of kings, and to delight themselves with the glory of His majesty? It is a pleasure to draw near to God. As the enlivening breath of summer awakens the joyous emotions of creation, filling the gardens with beauty, and the groves with song, even so the countenance of the Lord is the source of the highest pleasure to the renewed soul, enlightening it with celestial happiness! Out of heaven there are no such joys as those discovered in living near to God. Albeit everything that is pleasant is not, therefore, good—yet for once here is a good thing which is sound as well as sweet, as holy as it is happy, as divinely excellent as it is humanly desirable. Besides, to draw near to God is elevating! He who draws near to the earth grovels, and becomes earthy; he who draws near to the heavenly One is changed from glory to glory into the image of the heavenly. You shall know a man by his company, for we are all much shaped by our acquaintances, and he who has an acquaintance with God shall be discerned of all men, for his face shall shine, and all his life and character shall be transfigured with holiness! Let but Jehovah dwell in a bush in the desert, and lowliness is forgotten in glowing glories! And even thus let the Holy Spirit rest upon the earnest of His servants, and the fishermen of Galilee shall become royal wonder-workers, whose names shall be as the names of the great ones who are on the earth! Approaching to God is, therefore, good in itself. For a chosen creature there is nothing better than to draw near to the Creator; it is so elevating, so honorable, and so delightful!

Brothers and sisters, it is good to draw near to God if you consider for a moment our relations to God. Remember gratefully that we are His children who have been born into His family—and who shall deny but what it is a good thing for the child to come near to its parents? Where is the babe happier than on its mother’s breast? There its cares are at an end, its sorrows cease—it cries itself to sleep upon the warm breast of love, when elsewhere it had been disturbed with rude alarms. It is good for me, my God, like a babe to come nestling into Your bosom; it is always good for the chickens to shelter beneath the wings of the hen; the hawk may be in the air, but they are perfectly safe from cruelty—and when the child of God cowers down beneath the everlasting wings, and learns the meaning of David’s words, “He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust,” oh, then it is good, indeed! We are the sheep of His pasture, and none shall doubt but what it is good for the sheep to draw near to the Shepherd. In His presence is fullness of joy, and nowhere else but there; He makes His sheep to lie down in green pastures because He is near them; it is His transporting presence that leads them beside the still waters.

Charles Spurgeon

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS WEEK
Read Psalm 73 and pay particular attention to the final verses which summarize the glorious value of dwelling near to God. How does your life reflect the deep value of being near to God? In what ways can you work to move closer to Him?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
The Goodness of Jesus by CityAlight