Humility & Honour

The seventy third Psalm , like the seventh chapter of Romans, is a specimen of spiritual autobiography. Cut out , at the crisis , a section of that self history of a soul ; "So foolish was I and ignorant , I was as a beast before thee . Nevertheless I am continually with thee ; thou hast holden me by my right hand . Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory ."Extremes meet here , the lowest and the highest touch each other . Within the compass of a few lines recording man's experience , we find a humility which depresses him beneath the level of man , and an honour which admits him into the presence of God . One moment the penitent feels himself to be brutish ;another , his glad forgiven spirit rises buoyant towards the throne like a flame of fire , or a ministering angel . These are the footsteps of the flock . It concerns us to know that we are on the same track ; for none other conducts us to safety . It is when a man is so purged of pride as to count himself as a "beast" that he is prepared for the company of a justifying God , and the spirits of just men made perfect . They who thus put off their own righteousness as filthy rags , are ready to put on Christ ; and in Him they are counted worthy . Paul kept close to the track of the Psalmist ; in one verse it is " O wretched man that I am !"in the next  "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord ."If we get down into the "humility "through which these ancient disciples passed , we shall share the "honour "to which they have been raised .

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