Drawing near to God, a good thing.
The psalmist is very emphatic about it. His words imply that he is quite sure of it. Let us ask, then—Why is it so good to draw near to God? Many are the answers.
I. IT IS SO BY WAY OF CONTRAST WITH WHAT HE HAD BEEN DOING—wearying himself to understand the hidden ways of God, the labyrinth of his providence. No good had come of that, but only evil. Gotthold, in his 'Emblems,' tells us of the freaks of his child. The father was one day sitting in his study, and when he lifted his eyes from his book, he saw, standing upon the window ledge, his little son. He was terribly frightened, for the child stood there in utmost peril of falling to the ground and being dashed to pieces. The little lad had been anxious to know what his father was doing so many hours in the day in his study, and he had at last, by a ladder, managed, with boyish daring, to climb up, till there he stood outside the window, gazing at his father with all his eyes. "So," said the father, as he took the child into his chamber, and rebuked him for his folly—"so have I often tried to climb into the council chamber of God, to see why and wherefore he did this and that; and thus have I exposed myself to peril of falling to my own destruction."
II. BECAUSE OF WHAT IT IMPLIES.
1. That he was at peace with God. A soul unreconciled cannot draw near.
2. That he knew the way. He had learned the blessed but difficult art of drawing near; for drawing near is of the heart, not of the lips merely; and Satan will always try, and too often he succeeds, to hinder that.
3. He had found how good it was by his own experience.
III. BECAUSE THE LIGHT IS SO MUCH BETTER in the region near God. What a fog and mist he was in until he "went into the sanctuary of God," and drew near to him! We see things truly there as we cannot elsewhere.
IV. THE TEMPESTS OF THE SOUL DIE DOWN THERE. It is the region of blessed calm.
V. THE AIR IS SO INVIGORATING. God is "the Health of my countenance," "the Strength of my heart."
VI. IS NOT GOD OUR GOD, OUR OWN GOD, OUR SOUL'S HOME? Where, then, can we be better than at home?—S.C.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT