First, there is in this Psalm a description of the prosperity of the wicked, and of that hauteur and pride which they in their prosperity manifested, then of the afflictions of the godly, operating in the Psalmist, and he supposed in others, as a temptation. In ver. 21 we have the recovery, and the thoughts of the recovery.
I. The first-fruit of the Divine deliverance is self-loathing. "Truly Thou art good," and I was ignorant; I ought to have known that always.
II. The second fruit is gratitude to Him who had guided him: "Thou hast holden me by my right hand."
III. From the experience of past blessings, the experience of this great vouchsafed deliverance, he rises to hope: "Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."
IV. The next step is wondering adoration: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?"
V. He sums up the Psalm by an act of faith: "I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Thy works." His faith reposed in God not only for what God would do for him, but for what God would graciously employ him for doing, and fit him to do in some good measure.
J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table,p. 236.
This Psalm is the work of a believer, and yet it is the expression of a soul who has passed through doubt and experienced all its bitterness.
I. Consider what made Asaph doubt. Asaph had seen the course of this world: he had seen the prosperity of the wicked; he had seen those who feared God suffering in desertion and in despair. His soul was troubled; and in a gloomy hour he called in question the righteousness, the wisdom, and also the action of God. The spectacle of this world is a great school for unbelief, a school which makes more impious people than all the books of atheists. If we contemplate the world, our gaze wavers, for we seek in vain there for that law of love and of righteousness which, it seems to us, God should have marked on all His works. As children, we believed we should find it there, for a science had been made for our use. History for us was a drama of which God was the living Hero: if the righteous suffered, it was a transitory trial and soon to be explained; if the wicked triumphed, it was the dazzling flash of a day. Later on our view was enlarged, and God had receded from us. Between Him and us was raised the immense, inexorable wall of fatality. (1) Fatality in nature, for its smile is deceptive; and when we have seen it shine on a grave in presence of which our heart is torn, it appears to us implacable even in its very beauty. We study it, and everywhere we find a savage law in it, the law of destruction, which pursues its silent work each day and each minute. (2) Fatality in history. Progress? Where is it in the old world? What plan is there in the history of those races who are sinking today, dragged down by an incurable barbarism, in those lucky strokes of force, in those startling immoralities, which success strengthens and sanctions? Is it consoling to tell us that the blood of the righteous is a fruitful seed? Over how many countries has it not flowed, leaving only the barrenness of the desert! (3) Fatality in life. Even here the moral law wavers and is often effaced. There is no need to be a philosopher in order to encounter the problems of life; trial, sooner or later, places them before us. For some it is the trial of poverty, for others the trial of ailment; but what excites excessively all these doubts is injustice.
II. For a moment Asaph's conscience wavered; for a moment giddiness seized him. How is it that he did not fall into the abyss? Asaph believed in God. He could not believe in chance, for in his people's language there is not even a word to designate chance. Asaph tried to deny God and His action in the world. "I was tempted to say it," he exclaimed, "but I felt that in saying it I should be unbelieving, and should offend against the generation of Thy children." I should offend against my race that is the thought which withheld him.
III. Notice how God enlightened and strengthened Asaph. In the sanctuary of God light was waiting for him. There he learned "the end of those men." Asaph saw the end of the designs of God. His eyes were opened, and he altered his language. Gratitude has succeeded to his murmuring; instead of the trials beneath whose weight he succumbed, he has seen, he sees always better, the favours which are eternally his inheritance. "Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory."
E. Bersier, Sermons,vol. i., p. 165.