Psalms 73

Psalms 73:6

An Unbecoming Necklace Pride is as a chain about their neck.—Psalms 73:6.Who doesn’t love to wear a chain? Certainly none of the girls here would deny that a necklace was something to be proud of; and as for the boys—I expect few of them would refuse the gift of a watch-chain if it were offered them. The truth is, we all love chains whether we confess it or not. There is not a nation or tribe on the face of the globe that doesn’t know about necklaces. The savage in the South African wilds has his necklace of beads, and the Lord Mayor of London has his chain of office. The native princes of India have their magnificent strings of pearls and other precious jewels, and so has our own Queen.As for making a necklace!—any little girl here will tell me it is the nicest kind of fancy-work she knows.

Think of the joy of choosing out and stringing together all those lovely colored beads, red and blue, green and gold! There’s nothing to beat it—is there?—except perhaps making a string of melon seeds.

That is even nicer, because you make it from the very beginning. You beg the seeds from mother when she cuts the melon, you wash them and dry them carefully in the sun, and then, when they are ready, you bore a little hole in each and string them one by one. You can make necklaces out of almost anything. The tiny shells on the seashore make a most lovely necklace if you are careful not to break them when you are piercing the hole for the thread.The chain or necklace we are going to speak of this morning is one which I hope none of you will ever try to wear, for it is the necklace of pride. That sounds like an odd kind of necklace, doesn’t it? But the man who wrote this psalm knew what he was talking about.

He was thinking of the people who are so proud of themselves or their prosperity that they are haughty and lofty. They hold their heads so high that they look down on everyone else.

They are “eaten up with conceit,” as we put it. They are not only proud, they are proud of their pride. They wear it like a necklace round their neck.Now pride is a necklace which no one need covet, for the people who wear it must count on a good many drawbacks.1. The first drawback they must count on is that people who wear the necklace of pride go through the world without friends and without love. They are always lonely. The conceited boy or girl has no real friends.

They may have toadies, who make up to them because they have money or are clever, but you could not call contemptible creatures like toadies friends. Conceited people have to content themselves with their own society, for nobody wants to be friendly with them.If that is the case, then the proud people will have to live without love.

That is an awful punishment— isn’t it?—all because they persist in wearing a special kind of necklace. Yes, it is awful, but it is only too true. You know how difficult it is even to like conceited people. As for loving them! You never can get near enough to them to love them. They don’t invite love. Their necklace is like a sign hung round their necks, which says, “Touch me if you dare! I’m much superior to a poor little object like you.” And we poor little objects take our love elsewhere.2.

The second drawback is that proud people are not really happy. They may look very self-satisfied on the outside, but at heart they are often exceedingly miserable. They are always remembering how superior they are, and they are terrified lest they give themselves away. Then if they are not noticed and admired and bowed down to, if people don’t pay them as much attention as they think they are entitled to, they are most unhappy.They don’t know even the happiness of gratitude. They take everything as their due. Instead of being grateful for kindness, they count it a kindness to other people to allow them to serve their majesties.

So they never know that lovely warm glow of gratitude which makes you want to hug the person who is being kind to you, or at any rate to show somehow how grateful you feel.And they don’t know the still cozier feeling inside that comes from having helped someone else. The proud person is always selfish.

You see he couldn’t possibly stoop to do a kindness. The stooping would break the invisible poker which he carries up his back, and it would bow the head he holds so high, and it would let the necklace slip off his neck, and of course that would never, never do.3. The third drawback is that the people who wear this necklace make themselves ridiculous. It is the very last thing they want to do, but it is the only thing they succeed in doing. Their pride seems to take away their common sense, and that other most important sense—the sense of the ridiculous. They do not realize how silly their words and actions make them appear.

They are like the American lady who had millions of money and wanted to let everybody know how frightfully rich she was. She bought jewels galore—bracelets, and necklets, and rings—and she wore as many as she could at a time.

But that did not satisfy her; so she went to her dentist and she persuaded him to bore little holes in her front teeth, and she got diamonds set in the little holes so that every time she smiled she showed a flash of diamonds.After seeing the horrible consequences of wearing a necklace of pride we shall none of us be very keen on wearing one, shall we? But there is no reason why we should not wear a really beautiful necklace in its place— a necklace each stone of which is a glistening pearl, a necklace called humility. Boys and girls, that is a necklace worth wearing. It is a necklace more valuable than any gold chain in the world. It is a necklace not only beautiful in itself, it makes its wearer beautiful. Strangely enough it is a necklace all really great people wear.

It is only the would-be great who wear the necklace of pride. Let me tell you a story of one of the world’s heroes who wore the necklace of humility.This story comes from Gaza, that city in Palestine of which we all heard lately.

Many years ago now, a clergyman who lived in Gaza was coming home in the evening. In the dusk he saw what looked like a man kneeling on the ground beside his horse. It was a dangerous thing for any traveler to be out alone in the dusk, for the Arabs might attack him; so the clergyman walked forward to warn the stranger of his peril. But as he drew near he stopped, for the man was praying aloud, and this is what he was saying, “O my God, take me away out of myself, lest I fall; make me to look unto Thee that I may humble myself and be like Thee.” The clergyman did not like to interrupt but he felt bound to warn the man, so he said, “I beg your pardon, sir, but you are in danger here.” The man rose, and what was the clergyman’s surprise to see that he was face to face with General Gordon. “What are you doing in this dangerous place?” stammered the clergyman. “Oh,” replied the General, “this morning I received a telegram from England asking me to undertake a mission which I had longed to undertake all my life. I felt so uplifted that I feared I might get into trouble through pride, and I thought I would just get upon my horse and go away by myself to humble myself before God.” That was the savior of the Soudan, the man who died shortly after at Khartoum, but whose fame will live for ever.Boys and girls, if we are ever tempted to adorn ourselves with the horrible necklace of pride, let us resolve that we shall tear it from our neck and wear instead the necklace which Christ Himself wore when upon earth, the priceless necklace of humility.

Psalms 73:18

Slippery Places Slippery places.—Psalms 73:18.I expect you think they are about the happiest places in the world and I quite agree with you. What a high old time you can have when the frost comes and you go skimming down the long slides, or flying over the ice on your skates, or sailing down the hills on your sled! If you get a fall and a bump or two it only adds to the fun. You pick yourself up and are none the worse. Yes, that kind of slippery place is just splendid.But the slippery places I am thinking of are not a bit like that. They are covered with thick black mud, and if you fall down you come up all muddy and dirty —that is to say, if you don’t sink altogether in the mire.Now perhaps you are wondering where these places are, because of course you want to avoid them.

Well, they are to be found in any place where we are in danger of doing wrong. When we are with bad companions, we are in a very slippery place.

When we are doing something we would rather our mother did not see us do, we are in a slippery place. When we are tempted to tell a lie to shield ourselves from punishment, or copy our school work to save ourselves trouble, we are in a slippery place. When we are very sure of ourselves, sure that nothing could tempt us to do wrong, that nothing could ever make us fall however much other people might tumble down, then we are in a very slippery place indeed, and the slightest push from behind will send us sprawling in the mud.1. The first thing I want to say about these slippery places is—never walk into them of your own accord.There was a young fox once who was just setting out in life. He didn’t know very much about it, but he had the sense to ask the advice of those older and wiser than himself. So he went to his father and asked him to tell him some trick by which he could get away from the hounds if they were chasing him.

Father Fox was a wise old gentleman, and he bore several scars which showed that he had been through many a tough fight. But when his son asked him that question he shook his head. “No, my dear boy,” said he, “I can tell you of no such trick.

In my experience, the best plan is to keep out of the hounds’ way.”And that is the safest way to deal with the slippery places—keep out of their way. Sometimes they are disguised. They look very safe and pleasant till we try to walk on them. But more often they are well advertised. There is a big danger board up with letters a foot long which the eyes of conscience can read only too well; and if we come to grief on them it is our own fault.A good old man tells us how, when he was a small boy, a minister came to his home and gave him a piece of wise advice which he never forgot. “When in trouble,” he said, “kneel down and ask God’s help; but never climb over the fence into the devil’s ground and then kneel down and ask help. Pray from God’s side of the fence.” And that just means, don’t run into temptation, don’t walk on to the slippery places of your own accord.2.

But sometimes we find ourselves in a slippery place through no fault of our own. Sometimes we are suddenly met by a big temptation although we have tried to keep to the firm, straight path.

And all of a sudden our feet feel very shaky, and we are terribly afraid we shall fall in the mud. What are we to do then? Well, there are just two things we can do.First, we must plant our feet as firmly as we can and walk on steadily and carefully till we reach safer ground. God sometimes lets temptations come to us in order that, in conquering them, we may become stronger and better and braver.And, second, we must remember that God is holding us up. If you look up the second last verse of the second last book in the Bible you will find a beautiful sentence that the minister often repeats at the end of the service. It begins, “Now unto him that is ableto keep you from falling” or, as the Revised Version of the Bible puts it, “Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling.” And I want you to remember these words every time you find yourself in a slippery place.Have you seen your mother helping your little baby brother to walk?

She puts her hands under his arms and holds him up so that he cannot fall. And God is just like that.

He puts His strong hands under our arms, and if we lean on Him we need never stumble, however slippery our path.