Psalm 48:14
This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death.
BASIL (329-379): Life is a journey which commences when we enter the world, and ends at the grave.
WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): We are strangers and pilgrims upon earth. We resemble the Jews in the wilderness…and as the Jews were not left to themselves, but had a conductor, so have we: “This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death.” How perfectly, how infinitely qualified is He for this office. In this journey, it is unnecessary for the traveller to know the road, but the guide ought to know it; and when he is well acquainted with it, and we have full confidence in him, we shall feel satisfaction, notwithstanding our own ignorance. Abraham went out, know knowing whither he went; but he knew with whom; and Job, after expressing his perplexities, and the successlessness of his efforts to explore the dispensation he was under, relieves himself with this thought, “But he knoweth the way that I take,” Job 23:10―He, who sees the end from the beginning; who knows all our walking through this great wilderness; who cannot mistake as to what is good or evil for us; and who has said, “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths, that they have not known; I will make the darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things will I do unto them, and not forsake them,” Isaiah 42:16.
MATTHEW HENRY: If He be our God, He will be our guide, our faithful constant guide, to show us our way and to lead us in it; He will be so, even unto death, which will be the period [end] of our way, and will bring us to our rest. He will lead and keep us even to the last.
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): His promises are as sure as the ordinances of heaven.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): In making this statement, the people of God assure themselves that He will be their guide and keeper for ever. They are not to be understood as meaning that they will be safe under the government and conduct of God in this life only, and that He will abandon them in the midst of death; but that God will take care of all who rely upon Him even to the end.
WILLIAM JAY: Yes; He will be our guide, “even unto death;” that is, till the journey is over, and all its cares cease. But is nothing more necessary? To death is much, but through death seems better. When we come to the entrance of the gloomy passage, it is pleasing to think that He is at the other side, and will receive us to Himself, that where He is there we may be also. Yet how am I to get through? “My flesh and my heart faileth”…And this case is provided for. All is insured. He will be with us through it. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,” Psalm 23:4.
JOHN CALVIN: What we translate, Even unto death, consists of two Hebrew words in the text, “al muth;” but some read it one word, “almuth,” and take it for age or eternity.
ANDREW BONAR (1810-1892): The last clause is much misunderstood. It is not, “Our guide unto death,” for the words [suggest] “shall lead us over death.”
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He will be our guide above death―so [say] some…He will be our guide beyond death―so [say] others); He will conduct us safely to a happiness on the other side of death, to a life in which there shall be no more death. If we take the Lord for our God, He will conduct and convey us safely to death, through death, and beyond death—down to death and up again to glory.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I know precious children of God now: I believe that when they die, they will die triumphantly; but I know this, that the thought of death is never pleasing to them. And this is accounted for, because God has stamped on nature that law, the love of life and self-preservation. And again, the man that hath kindred and friends, it is natural enough that he should scarce like to leave behind those that are so dear. I know that when he gets more grace he will rejoice in the thought of death; but I do know that there are many quite safe, who could die triumphantly, who, now, in the prospect of death feel afraid of it. I remember my aged grandfather once preached a sermon which I have not forgotten. He was preaching from the text “The God of all grace,” [I Peter 5:10] and he somewhat interested the assembly, after describing the different kinds of grace that God gave, by saying at the end of each period “But there is one kind of grace that you do not want.” After each sentence there came the like, “But there is one kind of grace you do not want.” And, then, he wound up by saying, “You don’t want dying grace in living moments, but you shall have dying grace when you want it.”
WILLIAM JAY: This assurance comes home to our case and feelings.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): A believer’s last day is his best day.
JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): Death is but a passage out of a prison into a palace.
