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Psalm 73:23:
23Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
You may sit close to some person in the same room without having any fellowship with him, without engaging in a word of conversation, or for one moment making approach with your spirit to his spirit. Especially on long railway journeys you may be enclosed within a comparatively narrow space, for a whole day and more, with others whose names you do not know, of whose lives you have no knowledge, and with whom you do not exchange a word.
But, on the other hand, you may be miles away from some one, so that you see nothing of him, observe nothing of him, can cause no sound to enter his ear or catch any sound from his lips, and yet, you are continually busy with him, think of almost nothing else than of him, and in your spirit enjoy closest fellowship with his spirit. It may sound strange but it is true that a mother who has lost her darling child may never have been so close with her soul to the soul of her child as in the first hours after its death, when that dear child went endlessly far away from her.
Local and physical presence can greatly aid the fellowship of soul with soul by the expression of the face, especially by the speaking of the eye and by the exchange of mutual thoughts; but our fellowship with some one's heart is not bound by this local presence. It is the very intimate fellowship of soul that makes us long for the presence of our friend. Our human nature is soul and body, and, therefore, only finds full satisfaction in a fellowship of soul, which at the same time enjoys the bodily presence.
Even in the realm of glory, our fellowship with God's saints will only find its blessed consummation in the seeing of one another in the glorified body. The fellowship of the blest in the Father-house above, until the resurrection of the dead, bears merely a provisional character and awaits the completion in Jesus' return. But however great the significance is which must be attached to the bodily presence and sight, the presence of our soul close by another's soul does not depend on it. God created us so that even when separated, we can have intimate fellowship one with another; fellowship by means of writing or of direct communication by telephone; but also, fellowship without the aid of any of these means, purely spiritual, purely in the feeling, in perceptions, in the thoughts and in the imagination.
Fellowship purely through bodily presence is no human fellowship. Fellowship of person with person must always be as from spirit to spirit, from soul to soul, from heart to heart. And the question whether we live near by a person or far away from him, or whether we are strangers to him, is one that is not decided by distance or presence, but exclusively by spiritual nearness or spiritual estrangement.
At a departure for long years, yea, at a last farewell before dying, one can say: "I shall continually be with you;" and more than one mother with respect to her deceased child, more than one widow with respect to the husband whom she lost, has literally fulfilled this.
That child and that husband, were gone from the earth, but the fellowship remained—awaiting the reunion.
Hence, when in Asaph's Psalm it reads: "I shall then continually be with thee" (73:23), this must only be taken in the sense of this spiritual fellowship.
Of course locally we are never separated from God; we can never be anywhere where God is not near us. He besets us behind and before. Whither shall we go from His Spirit, whither shall we fly from His presence? We can not escape the Presence of God. "If I make my bed in hell," says David (Psalm 139), "behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."
God is never away from us. He can not be away from us, and we can not be away from Him. For He is the omnipresent One. And, every moment, His Almighty power is operative in and with us; in every throb of the blood, in every quiver of our nerve, in every breath we draw.
But this omnipresence of God does not create, as yet, fellowship of our spirit with the Spirit of God.
Two things are required for this.
First, that God approaches our spirit, and in our soul and in our heart makes known the signs of His holy Presence; and, secondly, that our spirit opens itself to the Spirit of God, lets Him in, moves itself towards Him, and seeking Him, rests not till it finds Him.
This first part, this approach of God's Spirit to our spirit, can make nothing more than a superficial impression. And in this sense, there is scarcely any one who does not now and then, become aware in his soul of a certain impulse on the part of God, whether through the conscience or in connection with striking events in the life. Even in the midst of our sins we have been aware of this.
But this becomes something altogether different, when God discovers Himself to us, makes Himself known to us, takes up His abode in our soul, and announces Himself to us as the secret Friend of our heart.
Then only, the possibility is given for the hidden walk, and God remains sovereign Lord, either to grant His fellowship to our soul or to withhold it. Only let him who receives it, take thought that thereby a privilege is granted him above all privileges, a heavenly, a royal, a Divine grace of highest worth.
And that we appreciate this blessedness at this high estimate will be shown by whether we, too, from our side open our heart to God, and not merely once in a while, but as a steady grace of life continuously seek and enjoy this intimate, this hidden fellowship with Him.
In Asaph's song: "I shall then continually be with thee," the word "continually" must not be interpreted to mean "from time to time," "occasionally," "once in a while;" but "constantly," "all the time, " "unceasingly."
He had tasted and enjoyed the blessedness of God's fellowship, but only at intervals, now and then. Now he was near unto God, and then again he was away from God, and thereby his soul had erred. He felt that with his spirit he had wandered off, and that he had been at the point of becoming unfaithful to God's children; and from this maelstrom he had come back only after he went into the sanctuary of God and opened his soul again to fellowship with Him. And now, directed by this bitter experience of soul, he makes in his soul this high resolve, that he will do differently from before; not merely as heretofore, in the midst of all sorts of distractions once to seek God's fellowship, and then again to wander off from Him, but that from now on he would be with his God all the time, without break, without ceasing, for that is what "continually" means.
This declaration does not mean to say that from now on he would be absorbed in holy meditation, in order through the play of the imagination, deeply, mystically, to lose himself in fellowship with the Divine Being.
Provided it is indulged in with the utmost carefulness, such losing of one's self in the spiritual vision of the Infinite as result of private prayer, can have a value of its own. But this is not what to be continually near to God means.
It cannot mean this, because with such holy mystical meditation all other working of our spirit is at rest. This would bring it about, that we would stand helpless before our task in the world and the fulfilling of God's will would henceforth be no longer possible.
No, the fellowship of being near unto God must become reality, in the full and vigorous prosecution of our life. It must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence. This is not possible with the fellowship we have with any human person, but it is possible with the fellowship which we have with our God, because in God, from God, and through God are the issues of all holy and of all creaturely utterances of life.
Therefore inactive pondering is not what Asaph wanted, but a key-note, a fundamental temper of mind and heart, which, continually giving thanks, lifts itself up and worshipfully directs itself to God. An ejaculatory prayer is not enough. This proceeds only occasionally from the soul. What is required is that at all times and in all things our expectation be from God, and that continually we give Him thanks for everything. It is to let God inspire us. It is so to company with our faithful Father, that we never know a moment in which it would affect us strangely if He were to appear to us.
Even as we have our own self ever with us and bring it into every interest of life, so also to let the thought of God, the lifting up of the soul to God, the faith on God, the love for God continually operate in and with everything. That is what prevents estrangement, the straying away, and accustoms our soul to be continually near to God.
This is most strongly evident in this, that he who so lives, feels an aching void the moment he wanders away from God, and, therefore, takes no rest, till he has entered again into fellowship with Him.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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