John Calvin Commentary Psalms 73:24

"Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, And afterward receive me to glory." — Psalms 73:24 (ASV)

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. Since the verbs are in the future tense, the natural meaning, in my opinion, is that the Psalmist assured himself that the Lord—since by His leading He had now brought him back into the right way—would continue from now on to guide him, until eventually He received him into His glorious presence in heaven.

We know that it is David’s usual way, when he gives thanks to God, to look forward with confidence to the future. Accordingly, after acknowledging his own weaknesses, he celebrated the grace of God, whose aid and comfort he had experienced; and now he cherishes the hope that Divine assistance will continue to be extended to him in the future.

Guidance by counsel is placed first. Although the foolish and inconsiderate are sometimes very successful in their affairs—for God corrects our faults and errors, and turns things we had begun wrongly to a prosperous and happy outcome—yet the way in which God usually and more abundantly blesses His own people is by giving them wisdom. We should especially ask Him to govern us by the Spirit of counsel and judgment.

Whoever dares, confidently relying on his own wisdom, to undertake anything will inevitably face confusion and shame for his presumption, since he claims for himself what belongs to God alone. If David needed to have God for his guide, how much more do we need to be under Divine guidance?

To counsel is added glory, which, I think, should not be limited to eternal life, as some are inclined to do. It comprehends the whole course of our happiness, from the beginning that is seen here on earth, to the consummation we expect to realize in heaven.

David therefore assures himself of eternal glory through God's free and unmerited favor. Yet he does not exclude the blessings God bestows upon His people here on earth, in order to give them, even in this life, some foretaste of that happiness.