Reverence and Awe

» Today's reading at Blue Letter Bible

Morning: "They shall sing in the ways of the Lord." - Psalm 138:5

Spurgeon talks of his joy at first surrendering his burdens at the foot of the cross. I still remember the very day I surrendered my life to Messiah (at least by lips if not in whole). I don't think my joy was very great that day back in 1984, concomitant with my degree of understanding of what Christ had accomplished for me on the cross.

Yet I don't envy (even in my flesh) Spurgeon's joy, because I have received in full measure from the Father since that day 24 years ago. The Psalmist says in Psalm 45:1 "My heart overflows with a goodly theme", and I can attest to joy aplenty as the Holy Spirit has quickened me to understand, at least in part, what He has accomplished in the New Covenant.

To experience that joy anew, and revel in it, we need look no farther than Psalm 138:2, a few lines up from Spurgeon's morning devotional:

I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

What more need we to obtain joy, than to remember God's perfect, loving nature, and the truth of His precepts and promises!

And this is Spurgeon's point: as His mercies are new every morning, so is the joyful experience of His goodness:

"I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth." [Psalm 34:1] See to it, brother, that thou magnifiest the Lord this day.

Evening: "Thy love to me was wonderful." - 2 Samuel 1:26

Spurgeon desires for us to meditate on the love of Jesus toward us, and to start the ball rolling quotes from a scripture in 2nd Samuel that records David's mourning for Jonathan when he first learned of his death, and Jonathan's love for David. I'm a bit surprised that Spurgeon chose this scripture for his exhortation on God's love, since there is no shortage in the Bible of good ones, in context, that display God's love for us (John 3:16, Psalm 138:2, etc). Yet we can enjoy Spurgeon's exhortation in full:

Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful when I was a stranger wandering far from Thee, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Thy love restrained me from committing the sin which is unto death, and withheld me from self-destruction. Thy love held back the axe when Justice said, "Cut it down! why cumbereth it the ground?" Thy love drew me into the wilderness, stripped me there, and made me feel the guilt of my sin, and the burden of mine iniquity. Thy love spake thus comfortably to me when, I was sore dismayed--"Come unto Me, and I will give thee rest." Oh, how matchless Thy love when, in a moment, Thou didst wash my sins away, and make my polluted soul, which was crimson with the blood of my nativity, and black with the grime of my transgressions, to be white as the driven snow, and pure as the finest wool.

Thank you Jesus!

Labels: Devotional, Morning and Evening, Spurgeon