Psalm 73 verse 25, whom have
I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire
beside thee. This is a very wonderful statement
that Asaph makes and it will be a wonderful blessing if you
and I in our lives can come to a position and be able to say,
as he did, whom have I in heaven but thee? Speaking, of course,
of the Lord himself. And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. And we're thankful that the word
of God does so often describe very clearly the life of the
believer and how that life oscillates up and down we see the description
in this psalm of Asaph how he speaks about himself and he he
says as for me my feet were almost dead it's gone my steps had well
and i slipped for i was envious and the foolish when I saw the
prosperity of the wicked." Well, he was setting his mind and his
heart and his eyes upon those things which are passing away,
they're transient, they do not last. And yet, you see, our adversary
the devil would always have us look to such things and therefore
despise the things of God, and rather than give our attention
to the great things of God, to give our attention to these carnal,
these fleshly, these worldly things which will never, ever
really do us any permanent good. They may perhaps just satisfy
our lustful heart for a short time, but they will soon pass. They will soon be gone. another
day arrives, another week arrives, another year arrives. And those
times come and go. And then that great day will
appear when we would have our last day upon the earth, never
to return. And therefore, with such a consideration,
surely, to think what the psalmist was able to come to hear and
say, whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. Well, what a good and what a
different position that was to the words that he commenced this
psalm with. But we see the blessing of the
Lord in his heart and in his soul and he confesses And it's
good, you know, if we come to this statement. He says, so foolish
was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. It's a wonderful blessing when
God shows us and gives us grace to confess that we are foolish
and that we are ignorant and that we are as a beast before
thee. Well, It is really the Spirit
of God which gives us this right spiritual understanding. It's
not something that you and I possess naturally. But then he goes on
to say, we see his faith, as it were, returning. He tells
us, nevertheless, I am continually with thee. What a blessing to
think of that. The Lord is with us at all times. Because we're told, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. And therefore may we, we can
boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. Now, blessed with that right
and blessed understanding. And it is a gift of the Holy
Spirit to us to be brought to such a considered position, and
then to be able to say from our heart, realizing the truth of
the words, nevertheless, I am continually with thee, that's
holding me by my right hand. That means the Lord hasn't left
us, he hasn't forsaken us, he's leading us on safely through
this world with all the many twists and turns, all the many
ups and downs, all the many difficulties, all the many obstacles, and all
the many subtle snares that were put in our way, if possible to
destroy us, or at least to hinder us greatly in our Christian race. Well, what a blessing then to
realise we have this great and kind and merciful God and Asaph
tells us from his heart the faith that he was blessed with, thou
shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Now that is a true word And that's
a true word which applies to the children of God, and it's
a wonderfully true word which applies to us. Each one of us,
if we have the knowledge of God in our hearts, as our all-sufficient
savior, to realize that this God is our guide. He will be
our guide, even unto death. So what a mercy if we come and
are able to commit our way unto the Lord, to trust also in Him
that He will bring it to pass. All those things which are needful
for us in our spiritual life and also He'll provide for us
in our natural life, not always in the things perhaps that we
expected or perhaps hoped for or perhaps even prayed for. They
may not always come to pass because they may not be good for us and
they may not be in accordance with God's gracious and wonderful
plan for us. And so it's a mercy to come,
recognizing the truth of these words, thou shalt guide me with
thy counsel. We know that counsel of God is
right, is perfect. Nothing wrong with God's counsel.
We perhaps counsel ourselves. We may counsel other people.
We may make big mistakes. We may draw wrong conclusions.
The Lord God never makes a mistake. He always guides us in a right
way. The blessing is to have that
faith to come and to commit our way unto the Lord that He will
guide us. He'll guide us day by day. Often
we forget. Forget to commit our way unto
the Lord. Forget to cast our burdens upon
the Lord. We struggle on ourselves. Struggle
on trying to find the solution without committing our way unto
our God. My friends, God knows all the
answers. He knows all the answers that you and I need. What a blessing
to think we have such a God. And to therefore come, like Asaph
did, as it were, came to his senses. So we have to be brought
to come to our senses. So we looked all around and We've
virtually forgotten God and we've made assessments in a worldly
way without really being able to realise that we have a God
who looks down from heaven. A God who knows the end from
the beginning. We only know the situation we're in. God knows
the end. He knows how He's guiding us.
He knows how He's leading us. And He knows that we are His
children who will bring us at last. safely home to glory. And that's the great thing, isn't
it? That's the great thing. You know, we're often so concerned,
aren't we, about success in this and success in that and being
able to realise we've done well here and done well there. But
the great thing is to realise that the Lord is with us. and
through his mercy we shall get safe home to glory. A long eternity to spend in singing
God is love. Well the apostle then, sorry
the psalmist then, he comes down then to these words, thou shalt
guide me with thy counsel afterward Receive me to glory. You know,
it's a very wonderful word in John's gospel that the Lord Jesus
himself speaks about receiving. Often we perhaps forget the truth
of the word of God in the 14th chapter of John. The Lord speaks
to his disciples in the upper room. They were, they didn't
understand the position. The Lord had just introduced
the Lord's Supper and never partaken of it before. It was a new institution
for them. Judas had gone out and now the
Lord comes and is speaking to them. He tells them, let not
your heart be troubled. Sometimes our heart is troubled
by about many things. Perhaps one thing. God knows
what may be troubling you, and let us not pass over the wording,
let not your heart. It's our innermost feelings,
our innermost beings. Let it not be troubled. Why? Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. And what does he do? He directs
us immediately. Past time things to eternal things. And what a mercy if the Spirit
of God directs us in the same way. Past time things to eternal
realities. Time things will pass away. Eternal realities will not. He
says, in my Father's house. In heaven at last in glory are
many mansions If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself." He
said, we won't arrive at heaven's doors without any blessed receiving. because the
Lord knows when we will pass out of time. And therefore how
humbling to think that such words are true. He goes to a prepared
place for us and He will come again and receive us unto Himself. Those for whom He shed His precious
blood, those for whom He died upon that cross at Calvary, those
for whom he speaks of here he will receive them unto himself
that where I am there ye may be also and of course that will
be forever to be forever with the Lord and so Asaph here speaks
in similar words when he tells us thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel and afterward receive me to glory You see, again, he
looks beyond the things of time. He'd been immersed in the poorer
things of the world. He was looking all around. And
now, God gives him that faith to look beyond the things of
time. And as he looks beyond the things
of time, he's able to declare these truths. Thou shalt guide
me with thy counsel, and afterward, receive me to glory. And then
he comes and makes this tremendous statement, which it is really,
whom have I in heaven but thee. The clear picture we have is
that his desire is to be with Jesus. He doesn't say, well,
I'm looking forward to meeting my parents. I'm looking forward
to meeting my friends. He's not saying that at all.
He's just saying this great truth, whom have I in heaven but thee. That's the object of his desire,
the object of his love. And what a mercy for us if our
religion is such that our true desire from our heart, and it's
a God-given desire, to be brought to this situation and be able
to say, whom have I in heaven but thee? To be looking forward
to the time when we should have finished our life upon this earth,
and to go and to be with Christ, which is far better. The Apostle
had a very clear view of that, didn't he? When he said, for
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. To go and to be
with Christ, which is far better. The Apostle's heart was set upon
an eternity with Christ. What a blessing, therefore, if
you and me in our little lives were able to look beyond and
above the things of this world to that time when time for us
will be no more. And we shall then be in that
eternal state. And may our real heart's desires
be, at that time, brought to this condition, so that we're
able to say, whom am I in heaven but thee? Looking forward to
that great day, to see the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, our dear
friend Dinah Gibb, who I visit sometimes, has really been in
this condition for a long time now. You know, her great desire
is to die and to go and to be with Christ. That's a longing
of her heart and if you go and visit her, I'm sure she will
tell you that is her desire and that is her concern. And also,
she's looking forward to that being received by the Lord Jesus
Christ. She's found that word very precious,
to look forward to that receiving by the Lord Jesus Christ. Her heart and her affections
are set upon things above, not on things on the earth. Whom
am I in heaven but thee? Well, I wonder whether the Lord
perhaps needs to come and to perhaps correct our thoughts
of heaven. There are many wrong thoughts
of heaven, aren't there? But it's a good thing to realize
that heaven is a place which we don't really know anything
about. Just a few little views we have
described in the Word of God and especially perhaps in the
Book of Revelation. but we know it will be a place
of true happiness and praise to our God and we're told that
the central attraction will be the Lamb of God, Jesus in the
midst. And if we value what Christ has
done, if we understand the enormous cost of our salvation, to think
of the mercy of the Lord in giving His life to redeem our souls,
to pay that enormous debt of our sin. And we won't come thinking,
well, we haven't got many sins to forgive. When the Spirit of
God shines into our heart, we realize what a mass of sin there
is. And how it doesn't seem to get
smaller, it gets larger. And yet the Lord Jesus came to
seek and to save. that which is lost he came to
take away our sins what a wonderful blessing it is and if we have
therefore some true view of the cost of our salvation and the
value of our soul then we won't think that such words as Asaph
is able to speak are inappropriate we'll realize how wonderful they
are and we will truly desire in our hearts to be able to come
to such a position. We need to be honest in our views.
We need to be honest in our hearts. We don't want to just come and
say, well, I think that's good and I think that's what I really
want. Well, we mustn't say things like
that unless they emanate from our heart with a true design. If they don't emanate from our
heart, then may we pray for them. Let me pray the Lord might bring
us to such a condition as this, so that we are enabled to say,
whom have I in heaven but thee? Now, if we are truly to be brought
to such a position as that, then I believe the following words
in this verse will be appropriate, where he says, and there is none
upon earth that I desire, desired, beside Thee, not of what earth
I desire beside Thee." Well, that's a very large statement,
isn't it? And if you and I look in our
hearts to be able to come to a position like that and to look
around us and say, well, by the grace of God, There's nothing
on this earth, no one on this earth that I desire more than
the Lord Jesus Christ. That really puts our religion,
doesn't it? As it were, into the melting pot. To test whether
our religion does have real desires like that. What? Think ye of Christ is the
test. It is true, isn't it? What do
we think of Christ? I read that chapter in the Colossians,
which gives us a little view of the true blessing and the
true desires that the apostle sets before us in that third
chapter, and how important it is to realize the wonder of it. He says, if ye then be risen
with Christ. That means if we are born again
of the Spirit, if we possess the new life within, light in
our hearts, then we're risen with Christ. And if we are risen
with Christ, what are we to do? Seek those things which are above. where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. It's a very comprehensive statement,
isn't it really? And I'm sure that mostly we fall
short of such truths and such desires. and yet here we have
such gracious words of exhortation to encourage us. And he goes
on to say, for we are dead, naturally we are dead until the Spirit
comes, and your life is hid with Christ in God, united to Christ. When Christ, who is, our life
shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Now, the apostle's able to say,
when Christ who is our life. It is true, it's a right word,
is Christ today our life? Can we say, and it's a great
blessing if we can, I could from all things parted be, but never,
never, Lord, from Thee." That really, you see, puts our religion
on the line, doesn't it? It's wonderful to be blessed
with the grace of God and the health of our spirit, to be able
to come and to testify that by the grace of God brought us to
a condition to realise that all things here below are but dung
and dross. They're all passing away and
we come and have to say from our heart, give me Christ or
else I die. Now then, we have a sinful nature
and that's why the Apostle goes on to encourage us to mortify
I wonder if you young people know what that means. Mortify.
It means put to death. It means to make these things
die, so they don't have any effect upon us. Something which is dead
doesn't have any effect, does it? So the apostle tells us here,
mortify. Therefore you're referring it
to the blessings which are above and that's why he comes and says
mortify Therefore remember these things are all because of such
a statement as this and there is none upon earth that I desire
beside thee. Now, if that is to be so, then
we will need to pray that the Lord by his Holy Spirit will
give us grace to put to death those things which are not tending
to godliness. And he gives us a list. Fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness. which is idolatry, for which
things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience,
in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them, but
now ye also put off. And it gives us another list.
Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, Filthy communication, out of
your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you have put off the old man with his deeds. how we need
to pray for grace to walk in such a way. It's set in before
us, isn't it? The gracious exhortations and
blessed with the favor and faith to turn away from all these things
to realize what a blessing they bring when they are destroyed
and taken away. Because then, you see, there's
room for the Lord Jesus. There's room in our hearts. for
the blessed Saviour. And so he tells us and he presses
on and he says, Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off
the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man. Well, have you and I put on the
new man? What is the new man? The new
man of grace. That new man which walks in the
light. That new man which is indeed
born again. put on the new man which is renewed
in knowledge. You have been blessed with a
spiritual knowledge of these things. Before we walked in darkness
and had no light, but when the light shone by the grace of God,
we've been blessed with a spiritual knowledge of these things. Our
eyes have been opened. You know, until the Spirit of
God opens our understanding and our eyes to see these things,
we're dead and we don't understand. But when the Blessed Lord comes,
then by his grace that we are indeed renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free. He comes to this great and wonderful
statement, but Christ is all and in all. Well, surely we all
need to pray in our spiritual life that Christ may be there
for all and in all. And if so, there will be the
evidence of the change in our lives, the change in our outlook,
the change in our desires. And again we have an outline
of these things when he tells us, put on therefore as the elect
of God, and such people are those who were chosen before the foundation
of the world, amazing truth, wonderful love of Almighty God
to look upon such unworthy sinners. And he says, put on therefore
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, that
means from our heart, bows the mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." What a tremendous
statement that is, but how important it is. Because as we may be brought
to realize, how we've offended God, We've sinned against the
Lord himself and yet to realise by his grace he's forgiven us
and he's taken our sins and he's washed them away in his most
precious blood. And because of that we should
forgive one another. We should not hold any grudge
against people. We should desire to forgive any
who may have offended us. Yes, people do offend us sometimes.
And it's a blessing to be given a forgiving spirit. To forgive
such, what is it? It's the evidence of the love
of Christ in our hearts and in our souls. And it is an evidence
that this word is being fulfilled, is being worked out. There is
none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. So we cannot really state that such a word is true
if our actions and if our thoughts and if our words go contrary
to such a statement. We should be thankful therefore
if our desire is to be able to state this great truth, there
is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. to realize that,
blessed by the Spirit of God, to consider these truths that
the Apostle sets before us in this third chapter of the Colossians,
and have that true desire to be Christ-like. That's what it is, isn't it?
It's Christ-like. We have a wonderful example,
don't we, in the Savior. You only have to study the life
of the Lord Jesus and see what He did. He went about doing good. He didn't please himself. He
did the will of his father. That's the example that you and
I have today. set before us and so may we therefore
be blessed with this wonderful favour of the grace of God to
realise whom have I in heaven but Thee and there is none upon
earth that I desire beside Thee and you know the Apostle Paul
again when he wrote to the Romans that beautiful chapter the eighth
of Romans and he comes down to towards the end of that chapter
And he says these great truths. In the 31st verse he says, what
shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? You know, all things. the Lord
gives, all things needful, all things necessary. And therefore,
what shall we say to these things? Now, the truth is, these things
are wonderful truths, aren't they? And again, it's encouraging
to know that the Word of God has words for us which are encouraging,
and to think that We are blessed with the wonderful favour of
God. And he says, the psalmist David,
he's speaking about the greatness of God, and he says, O Lord,
thou hast searched me and known me, thou knowest my down sittings
and my uprising, thou understandest my thoughts are far off. And
that's a comfort in one sense, but also a solemnisation that
Almighty God knows all about us, every one of us. to the smallest
detail. Thou compassest my path, and
my line, Dan, art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all
together. Thou hast set me behind and before,
and laid thine hand upon me. And then he comes and he makes
this statement. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. And you and I may feel just like
that. This is just too high. We cannot
attain unto it. Well, we must realize that the
desire of the Sama, the desire of the Apostle, was to press
toward the mark set before us, realizing that we have a great
God who is in every place. And he, further on in this 139th
Psalm, he says, for thou hast possessed my reins. That really means possessed his
heart. What a blessing it is that God controls our heart.
And he says, for thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me
in my mother's womb, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made, marvellous are thy works, and that my soul
knoweth right well. And then he comes down to the
end of this psalm and says, search me. Now that's a good prayer.
That's a good prayer, to be able to come with honesty in our hearts,
And this great God who knows all about us, we're willing and
desirous that the Holy Spirit may search us. And so he tells
us, search me. What does he want God to search
him for? Oh God, and know my heart. Remember
the heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The psalmist desired that he
might be blessed, that he might know the evil of his heart. Try
me. He wanted to be tested. Tested. And know my thoughts. He wanted
not to have evil and wrong thoughts. And see if there be any wicked
way in me. That's a good prayer, isn't it?
But he doesn't leave it there. He wants to go on. and lead me
in the way everlasting. Surely that should be our concern,
to be led in a way everlasting, to be blessed with this. There
is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. He tells us, my
flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. You see, we won't be able to
do and seek these things in our own strength. But may God give
us strength. And that's why He tells us here
about God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Well, God's always been the strength
of His people. The great blessing of God is
our strength that enables us to do those things which are
in accordance with His holy will, those things which are laid down
in His Word. You may fear, you may fear, remember
what we read in the epistles, I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. All things. Nothing is too hard,
for lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou hast
destroyed all them that go whoring from thee. But it is good for
me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God, that I may declare thy works." Well, what a wonderful favor
to be found like this, desiring to be able to come and recognize
the importance of drawing near to God, near to God in prayer. It's a wonderful favor to be
found drawing near to God in prayer, and God draws near to
us. Draw near to me and I will draw near to you, we read in
James. And so here we have it. It's good for me to draw near
to God. I've put my trust in the Lord
God. I may declare all thy works the
reason for God's honor and for his glory. Oh may our concern
be always for God's honor and for God's glory. Meditating on
the enormous cost that we owe, the debt we owe, which we can
never repay ourselves, the Lord Jesus Christ, he freely forgives. Freely he gives. Isn't it amazing
to think that such a God freely forgives our sins? Sins against
a holy God. Yes, we may have disobeyed and
sinned against the Lord again and again, Well, when the Spirit
of God comes and truly touches our heart, we would desire to
do that which is right in accordance with His Word. And remember the
great truth, those that honour me, I will honour. The desire
to honour our God because of what He's done for us. Those
that honour me, I will honour. It's a wonderful favour to be
found desiring to honour our God. But he also says, those
that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Yes, lightly esteemed,
you see. We should be concerned about
being lightly esteemed. And, you know, just one other
reference to the work of God in the soul. Again, this is a
psalm, and we read these words But God will redeem my soul from
the power of the grave, for he shall receive me. Selah. Be not thou afraid when
one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased. For
when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall
descend after him. Though while he lived, blessed
his soul, and men will praise thee when thou doest well to
thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never
see light. You see, that's the end of the
unrighteous. That's the end of those who walk
contrary to the word of God. That's the end of those who follow
their own inclination. But blessed be God if we are
found as Asaph was at the beginning of this psalm and yet be thankful
for the Lord moving our hearts with that desire to walk in accordance
with his gracious will and purpose for us and to be thankful if
there is that inward desire. It may not be very strong. Maybe very weak, perhaps, but
we can pray the Lord will indeed strengthen the things that remain,
which are ready to perish, and realize we have a God who hears
and answers prayer. And although we may be like this,
my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far off
from thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that got whoring from thee, but it is good for me, remember,
as we said, for me to draw near to God. I put my trust in the
Lord God that I may declare all thy works. For whom have I in
heaven but thee, the blessed Saviour? And there is none upon
earth that I desire beside Thee, the blessed Saviour. Amen.