The Goodness of the Spirit

Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit & good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” — Ps, cxliii. ro.

QIN HAT a difference from the Mohammedan’s prayer. He too prays “Teach me Thy will.” He too asks that God would lead him to a destined land. But the resemblance ends there. The Mohammedan wants to be taught God’s will because it is destiny; the Psalmist because it is good. To the Psalmist God’s will is not an arbitrary thing. It is not the product of caprice, it is not the impulse of a passing hour; it is the voice of a character that has no choice but righteousness, “Thy Spirit is good.” He would not say “Thy will be done,” to every object of worship. It is not will which he reverences; it is the power behind the will — the Spirit. He would not allow himself to be led by a blind fate that knows not where it steers and cares not where it tends. He attaches no value to submission for the sake of submission; what he wants is submission to the right. He will only obey a will which comes from a “good spirit,” and which, because it comes from a good spirit, leads to a land of uprightness.

My Father, help me as a follower of Christ to say “Thy will be done.” As a follower of Christ: it is easy to say it as a follower of Mohammed. What am I that I should resist Thy decrees or refuse to bend beneath Thy mandates? But I do not wish to bend; Thou dost not wish me to bend. Thou wouldest not have me accept Thy will because I must but because I may. Thou wouldest have me take it, not with resignation, but with joy, not with the absence of murmur, but with the song of praise. How shall I reach this goal? I shall only reach it by feeling what the Psalmist felt — that Thy will comes from a ‘good Spirit” and goes towards a land of uprightness. Teach me that Thy will is love; teach me that Thy love is wise. Guide me not blindfold, but with open eyes. Grant me the power to look both behind and before — behind to “Thy good Spirit,” before to “the land of uprightness.” Give me the blessedness of the man whose delight is in Thy law, who can tell of Thy statutes rejoicing the heart. I shall obey Thy will in perfect freedom when I can say “Thy Spirit is good.”