诗篇七十三篇最后两节带来一个结论和一个决定。让我们再次来聆听这两节经文：「远离你的，必要死亡；凡离弃你行邪淫的，你都灭绝了。但我亲近神是与我有益；我以主耶和华为我的避难所，好叫我述说你一切的作为」（27-28节）。诗人完成了他对过去的回顾，现在悟出一套面对将来的哲学。他决定无论别人做甚么，他都会与神紧密相随。他借着一个对比来帮助我们看到这决定的重要性：「远离你的，必要死亡……但我亲近神是与我有益。」

真的，生命只有两种立场：亲近神或远离神。我想，在诗人写下这些话时，他心里想到：「最近带给我那么多麻烦，令我有那么多困难的原因，是因为我没有亲近神。我错误地以为我的困难是因为不敬虔的人兴盛，但进入神的圣所后，我看到这完全不是困难的缘由。我的问题是我选择不亲近祂。现在对我来说只有一件事情最为重要──保持亲近神。」

你此刻的情况是怎样的？你感到与神亲近吗？如果没有，那么让我告诉你，多年前在一次街头布道时我曾经听过一句深深吸引我的话：「要是你感到神远离你，那么请想一想究竟是谁走开了？」

「只有一件事情是重要的──保持亲近神」

进深研究
诗四十六1-11；撒下二十二3；诗九9，六十二1-12

1. 诗人肯定甚么？
2. 诗人劝人们甚么？

祈祷
天父，感谢您的话语今天带给我的应许，我亲近您时，你便会亲近我。求您帮助我比任何时候都更亲近您以能体验这应许。奉耶稣的名求，阿们。

The Power of a New Perspective

Day 241

"Nearer my God to Thee"

"Come near to God and he will come near to you. "(v.8)

Bible reading:
James 4:1-10

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?

2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people,[a] don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]?

6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble."[c]

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Message

The final two verses of Psalm 73 form a conclusion and a resolution. Listen to them once again: "Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge, I will tell of all your deeds" (vv.27-28). The psalmist has finished his review of the past and is now hammering out a philosophy with which to face the future. He is resolved that no matter what anyone else may do, he is going to live in close companionship with God. He helps us to see the importance of this resolution by putting it in the form of a contrast: "Those who are far from you will perish...but as for me, it is good to be near God."

Really, when it comes down to it, there are only two positions in life - close to God or far away from Him. I wonder, as the psalmist penned these words was something like this going through his mind: "What caused me so much trouble in recent days and accounted for all my difficulties was the fact that I did not keep close to God. I erroneously believed that the cause of my problems was the prosperity of the ungodly, but having entered into the sanctuary of God I see that this was not the cause of my problems at all. My problems came because I had chosen not to remain close to Him. For me there is now only one thing that matters - staying close to God."

How are things with you at this moment? Do you feel close to God? If you don't, then let me put what I want to say in the words of a wayside pulpit that arrested my attention some years ago: "If you feel that God is far away guess who moved?"

"Only one thing matters - stay close to God"

Prayer
Father, I am grateful for the promise of Your Word to me today that when I draw near to You, You will draw near to me. Help me put those words to the test by moving closer to You than I have ever done before. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Further study
Psalm 46:1-11
2 Samuel 22:3
Psalm 9:9
Psalm 62:1-12

1. What does the psalmist affirm?
2. What does the psalmist exhort the people?

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