Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
The verse expresses recovery after envying the prosperity of the wicked, who received blessings and favors and increased in riches without trouble, while those who loved God were compassed with difficulties and perplexities, so that God's ways looked unequal until the feet were almost gone and the steps had well-nigh slipped. The inequality could not be understood until going into the sanctuary of God, where their end was understood, that they are set in slippery places, cast down to destruction, brought into sudden desolation, utterly consumed with terrors, and despised by the Lord as a dream when one awakes. Under that light the heart was grieved and pricked in the reins, with self-condemnation as foolish and ignorant, as a beast before God.
Nevertheless the believer remains continually with God, who takes hold, keeps close, stays beside, holds fast by the right hand, and supports him. That holding includes guiding by counsel through life and afterward bringing into glory. In that closeness the believer wants no one in heaven or on earth besides God, finds God to be strength of heart and everlasting portion when flesh and heart fail, and finds it good to draw near to God, put full trust in the Lord God, and declare all His works.
On the dangerous narrow path, believers depend on this support from above to keep from falling. For the faithful, humble worker, Christ is at the right hand to guide, and His presence brings comfort, peace, hope, and success. This continual abiding is the individual experience gained by true, believing, trusting children of God, who are not novices but learners.
The verse expresses recovery after envying the prosperity of the wicked, who received blessings and favors and increased in riches without trouble, while those who loved God were compassed with difficulties and perplexities, so that God's ways looked unequal until the feet were almost gone and the steps had well-nigh slipped. The inequality could not be understood until going into the sanctuary of God, where their end was understood, that they are set in slippery places, cast down to destruction, brought into sudden desolation, utterly consumed with terrors, and despised by the Lord as a dream when one awakes. Under that light the heart was grieved and pricked in the reins, with self-condemnation as foolish and ignorant, as a beast before God.
Nevertheless the believer remains continually with God, who takes hold, keeps close, stays beside, holds fast by the right hand, and supports him. That holding includes guiding by counsel through life and afterward bringing into glory. In that closeness the believer wants no one in heaven or on earth besides God, finds God to be strength of heart and everlasting portion when flesh and heart fail, and finds it good to draw near to God, put full trust in the Lord God, and declare all His works.
On the dangerous narrow path, believers depend on this support from above to keep from falling. For the faithful, humble worker, Christ is at the right hand to guide, and His presence brings comfort, peace, hope, and success. This continual abiding is the individual experience gained by true, believing, trusting children of God, who are not novices but learners.