The Nearness of God
Friday, August 12
"I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications." (Psalm 116:1)
That is good reason for loving Him; and that is reason for everybody to love Him.
Perhaps the reason why more do not love the Lord is that so few really believe that God hears prayer. They go through the form of prayer, it is true, but it is too often a mere form, without real expectation and positive certainty that God will hear them.
To most people God seems so far away that there is room for much possibility that He may miss hearing many prayers. But he who knows from His wondrous working that God is near, cannot doubt that He hears prayer, and must therefore love Him.
Continually Calling
Sabbath, August 13
"Because He has inclined His ear unto me. therefore I call upon Him as long as I live." (Psalm 116:2)
Many misunderstand the parable in Luke 18:1-8, imagining that the unjust judge represents God. But God is not unjust, and in the parable Christ says that God will "speedily" avenge those who cry day and night unto Him. Someone asks: "What need is there of crying day and night to God, if He answers at once?"
The answer is plain. When people find one who relieves their wants and supplies their need promptly and freely, they are very sure to apply to him again and again.
This is just what the Lord desires; it is because He wants to have people call on Him continually, that He gives so readily and so abundantly.
Dealing with the Sorrows of Death
Sunday, August 14
"The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow." (Psalm 116:3)
Nothing is too hard for the Lord:
• He delights in difficulties.
• He takes the utmost wrath of men and binds it about Him as a garment, using it for the accomplishment of His designs.
• He brings forth light out of darkness, and strength out of weakness, and
• From the pains and the pit of death He brings forth life everlasting.
So the fact that one is encompassed by the sorrows and pains of death is no evidence that God has left him, and no reason for ceasing to call on Him.
"If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there." (Psalm 139:8)
Deliverance from Death
Monday, August 15
"Then I called upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech You, deliver my soul." (Psalm 116:4)
This text is well illustrated in the case of Jonah. He was in the depths, and that because of his own perverseness; but "out of the belly of hell" (Jonah 2:2) he cried unto the Lord, and was speedily answered and delivered.
Better still is it illustrated in the case of Him who carried in His own body the sins of the world, who cried "unto Him that was able to save Him from death" (Hebrews 5:7), and was brought up from the grave, an example of what God desires to do for all men.
The Lord Preserves the Simple
Tuesday, August 16
"The Lord preserves the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me." (Psalm 116:6)
Read this verse in connection with the preceding one. Many who would not dream of questioning God's righteousness, do often doubt that He forgives and saves them. But the fact that God does this, is given as proof of His righteousness. "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
It is "the simple" that God upholds; that is, those who are single in mind and heart, and not double-minded. "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8)
Why? Because he trusts now in God, and now in himself. But a man who trusts in God alone is firm as a rock.
Drawn by the Lord's Bounty
Wednesday, August 17
"Return unto your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." (Psalm 116:7)
It would seem to be a most natural thing for men to return to and remain with the One who deals bountifully with them; yet they do not, because they do not recognize God in His gifts. God says: "The ox knows His owner, and the ass His master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider." (Isaiah 1:3)
So the professedly wise man has less knowledge than the dullest of brutes because he does not get acquainted with the One who daily feeds him.
But still God continues His good works, that we may return and find rest, and in returning and rest find salvation.
God Constantly Saves
Thursday, August 18
"For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." (Psalm 116:8)
This is the bountiful way in which the Lord has dealt with us.
But there are so many to whom this is but a theory or doctrine. They believe, as a matter of history, that God raised Christ from the dead, but they do not realize that God has saved their souls from death.
Nevertheless, God has saved every living soul from death. Whether or not they accept the salvation is another matter. The miracle of the resurrection is enacted every day in bringing thousands to birth, and in breathing the breath of life into millions more. Then "let everything that has breath praise the Lord" (Psalm 150:6), and in so doing find salvation.
Without Money, Without Price
Friday, August 10
"What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psalm 116:12)
There is not a soul on earth that does not with good reason ask this question, for God is daily leading everybody to benefits that cannot be measured. And if they cannot be measured, they certainly cannot be paid for.
What shall we render for them? Nothing, except make such use of them that God can see that we appreciate them too much to squander them.
We pay for the things that are of little or no value; but the best possessions come to us as a free gift, because they are beyond price.
Multiplied by Giving
Sabbath, August 20
"I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." (Psalm 116:13)
Here is the answer to the question asked: "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psalm 116:12)
What shall we do? Take what He gives and ask for more! What a wonderful way of doing business; it is truly not after the manner of men.
And when we have paid for what God has given us, by asking more, then what? Why, the new gift has laid us under double obligations, and so we must now take twice as much as before, and so on in geometrical progression.
And to eternity there will be no diminution in the supply, because life and love multiply by giving.
Immortal Love, forever full,
Forever flowing free;
Forever shared, forever whole,
A never-ebbing sea!
--John G. Whittier, Hymn: We May Not Climb the Heavenly Steeps, 1856.
The Loss of a Valued Instrument
Sunday, August 21
"Precious in the sight of Lord is the death of His saints." (Psalm 116:15)
"Precious" comes from "price;" the precious metals are those that are most costly. The Hebrew word in this place means costly, and is so rendered in some versions. "Costly in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
The Lord's saints are the instruments of His righteousness; and to lose one's instrument, is always an expensive matter. When the harvest is plenteous, the laborers few, the husbandman cannot afford to lose any of his workers. So every saint that dies in this time, when the work is to be cut short and closed up, is a distinct loss to God. Be sure that He himself will not lightly lay any of them aside.
The service of God contains a promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (1 Timothy 4:8)
Servant of the Lord
Monday, August 22
"O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, and the son of your handmaid: You have loosed my bonds." (Psalm 116:16)
Who may say this? Everybody who yields himself to the Lord, to be His servants; for: "To whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are." (Romans 6:16)
Everyone, therefore, is free to determine his own standing. And then what? He is a free man; for the Lord's service is liberty. He is free from the bondage of the service of sin, because: "No man can serve two masters." (Matthew 6:24)
When therefore Satan, the old taskmaster, comes about claiming us as his servants, and trying to drive us back into bondage, we are truly to declare to the Lord that we are His servants, to assert our liberty in Him and to claim His protection; and we may be sure that the Lord will not neglect His own.--Medical Missionary, Daily Bread, August 1904--Psalm 116:1-16.