| Scripture |
Expanded Comments |
| 1 A Psalm of Asaph. |
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| Only good to Israel [is] God, to the clean of heart. And I as a little thing, My feet have been turned aside, |
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| 2 As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful, |
Well nigh slipped – In former ignorance and foolishness, until he held us up by the right hand (verse 23), and did not suffer us to fall. R1562:5
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| 3 The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death, |
I was envious – If justice be delayed it is only for the development of some greater good than could be accomplished by a speedy adjustment. R2025:5
Prosperity – The effect of Satan's reign on sinners. R492:3
Of the wicked – Who, in the present life, flourish more often than do the righteous. R1383:5
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| 4 And their might [is] firm. |
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| 5 In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued. |
They – The wicked class, the worldly. R1652:3
Not in trouble – All suffering is not the direct penal result of some personal sin. R1773:3
It is very seldom, indeed, that God visits punishment upon the world in the present time. R569:5
As other men – The saints. R1652:3
But we see the justified ones suffer and die just like other men. R1561:1
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| 6 Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress. |
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| 7 Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed; |
With fatness – Under the reign of the prince of darkness, evildoers often have great success. R5778:2; CR493:4
They seem to go unheeded in their wrong course. R4856:4
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| 8 They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak. |
Wickedly concerning – In the wickedness of oppression. R1562:2
Loftily – From the chief places of power and control. R1562:2
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| 9 They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth. |
Their tongue walketh – Their influence has free course. R1562:2
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| 10 Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them. |
Therefore his people – God's people. R1562:3
Return hither --Turn into the wilderness condition of separation from the world. R1562:3
And a full cup – Of affliction and persecution. R1562:3
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| 11 And they have said, 'How hath God known And is there knowledge in the Most High ' |
And they say – The ungodly say. R1562:3
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| 12 Lo, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength. |
Prosper in the world – Occupying the chief places of control--political, financial and religious. R1562:4
Because, during this age, Satan is permitted to be the prince of this world--to rule as he will. R569:2, R5778:2
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| 13 Only a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands, |
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| 14 And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof [is] every morning. |
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| 15 If I have said, 'I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived. |
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| 16 And I think to know this, Perverseness it [is] in mine eyes, |
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| 17 Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end. |
Into the sanctuary – The holy place of entire consecration to God, typified in the Holy of the Tabernacle. R1562:4
Their end – In the day of judgment they will get their lessons and have much more difficulty than those who learn the lessons now. R4856:4
"The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." (2 Pet. 2:9) R569:5
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| 18 Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations. |
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| 19 How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended consumed from terrors. |
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| 20 As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest. |
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| 21 For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves, |
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| 22 And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee. |
So foolish was I – In being envious of the prosperous wicked. R1562:5
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| 23 And I [am] continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand. |
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| 24 With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me. |
Thou shalt guide me – Nothing indicates that God is pleased to guide his people by impressing his thoughts upon them in any other way than through his Word. R2240:6
If the heart desires guidance, divine light will be shed through the Word, under the illuminating power of the holy Spirit. R590:5*
One of life's most important lessons is our own insufficiency, our own lack of wisdom. R2240:2
He will not drive his sheep, but goeth before them to lead, that they may follow. R2672:3
We should not expect to be able always to comprehend the divine wisdom which is so much beyond our own, yet we can often see it afterward. R1562:2
With thy counsel – As contained in the Scriptures. R2240:5
Those who can be guided only by continual scourgings are not of the overcoming class. E234
Not only respecting the life to come, but also respecting the things of this present life. R2240:2
We believe in divine providences, but these do not supplant God's written Word. R2240:5
Even the best of earthly counsel is of value only as it has been directed by the divine counsel. R2240:3
As a natural man, Jesus had no need of the Father's special counsel, being perfect and able to guide his own way, but as a spirit-begotten individual he, like the members of his Body, needed the Father's counsel. R4246:6*
Afterward – If we give heed to the counsel. R2240:3
The present life, being preparatory, is a time for the schooling and discipline of the sons of God. R1561:2
"Afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness." (Heb. 12:11) R1562:2
Receive me to glory – The overcomers of the Gospel age to celestial glory and the overcomers of the Millennial age to terrestrial glory. R2242:5
Only those who seek diligently to know the most minute features of the Lord's counsel will afterward be received into glory. R4247:2*
Those of the Jewish age into the glory of the earthly phase of the Kingdom; those of the Gospel age into the glory of the heavenly phase. R1562:2
It was not the man Christ Jesus that was received into glory. R4247:1*
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| 25 Whom have I in the heavens And with Thee none I have desired in earth. |
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| 26 Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion [is] God to the age. |
My heart faileth – The flesh is too weak and the heart is too faint to pursue the course marked out for the righteous in this evil time, except as strengthened and upheld by power from on high. R1562:5
Jesus realized that, as a human being, though perfect, his heart and flesh would fail unless reinforced by divine grace. R1807:2
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| 27 For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee. |
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| 28 And I nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works! |
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