昨天我们看到诗人采取的第一个步骤，这个帮助他脱离属灵灾难的步骤使人十分惊讶。在令人慑服的试探中，诗人对自己说：「如果我表达我的疑惑，从我那嫉妒、沮丧的心说话，我便会在别人的路径上放下绊脚石，因此我甚么话也不会说」（这是我的演绎）。正如我们昨天所说的，有很多人可能会觉得难以接受这是他复元的第一步，但是它却是挺有效的。

让我们来听听一位解经家是怎么看这第一步的，他说：「我们对他复元过程中第一步的反应，是我们自己属灵理解力的一个测试。」这是甚么意思呢？他的意思是，如果我们不理解信心的步伐有时不过是相当平凡的话，我们便不如自己想像般的属灵。我们的头脑不清醒的话没有关系，但是双脚必须牢牢地站在地上才行！

所以，要谨记停止诗人的灵性趋于软弱的事情其实十分简单和平常，那只是他决定不说自己口中想说的话。他要停下来思考；他没有散播他的不信，而是决定闭口不言；他没有挑战别人的属灵生命，而是决定不冲动行事。这也许在属灵生命的成长上不是甚么高招，但它却能够防止他跌倒。

Yesterday we saw that the first step the psalmist took, the step which helped to save him from spiritual disaster, was most surprising. In the midst of overwhelming temptation, he says to himself. "If I give expression to my doubts and speak out of my envious, discouraged heart, I will put a stumbling-block in someone else's path - hence I will not say anything at all" (paraphrase mine). Now as we said yesterday, many people may find it difficult to accept this as the first step on the road to recovery - but it worked, nevertheless.

Listen to what one commentator says about this first step: "Our reaction to the discovery of what his first step was in his process of recovery will be a very good test of our spiritual understanding" What does he mean? He means that if we fail to see that the steps of faith are sometimes very ordinary, then we are not as spiritual as we imagine. It's all right to have your head in the clouds, but make sure your feet are firmly planted on the earth!

Keep in mind, then, that the thing which stopped the spiritual slide of the psalmist was very simple and ordinary he made a decision not to say what was on the tip of his tongue. He stopped to think. Rather than spread his unbelief, he determined to keep his mouth shut, rather than threaten someone else's spiritual understanding, he resolved not to act on impulse. It might not have been a particularly high spiritual motive, but it was the thing that prevented him from falling.