What Shall I Render Unto the Lord?

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:10:03 -0400

What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? Ps. 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 can not be measured. And if they can not be measured, they certainly can not 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 that are of little or no value; but the best possessions come to us as a free gift, because they are beyond price.

Let Everything that hath Breath Praise the Lord

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:18:08 -0400

For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Ps. 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 hath breath praise the Lord," and in so doing find salvation.

I Was Brought Low

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:30:09 -0400

The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Ps. 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." It is "the simple" that God upholds; that is, those who are single in mind and heart, and not doubleminded. "A doubleminded man is not stable in all his ways," because he trusts now in God, and now in himself: but man who trusts in God alone is firm as a rock.

Out of the Belly of Hell

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:23:33 -0400

Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Ps 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" 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, and was brought up from the grave, an example of what God desires to do for all men.

No Reason to Stop Calling

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:27:18 -0400

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Ps. 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, thou art there."

Call Upon Him As Long As...

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:07:00 -0400

Because he hath inclined his ear unto me. therefore I call upon him as long as I live. Ps. 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.

I Love the Lord, because...

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:51:25 -0400

I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Ps. 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, can not doubt that he hears prayer, and must therefore love him.

What’s God Listening For?

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:38:18 -0400

Serve, Lord, let the king hear us when we call. Ps. 20. 9.

Truly the Lord will hear us when we call, because he is listening. God is anxiously listening, not to hear the evil that we say, but to hear the slightest whisper of an appeal to him. In listening, he is compelled to hear many things that are wicked, but these are not what he is listening for. When we call to him, it is because he has first called to us; shall we not take heed that he hears only what he is listening for?

Some Trust in Chariots

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:51:39 -0400

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember [make mention of] the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen but we are risen, and stand upright. Ps. 20:7, 8.

Here we see contrasted the result of trusting in chariots and horses-the strength of nations-and of trusting in the name of the Lord. Those who trust in that which, because it is visible, appeals to them as the most practical means of help, suffer a double fall; while those who call on the name of the Lord are raised from where they had fallen.
"Take the name of Jesus ever
As a shield from every snare;
When temptations round you gather,
Breathe that holy name in prayer."

God Fills Your Hand

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:09:53 -0400

The Lord will answer him [his anointed, whoever it may be] from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Ps. 20:6.

God is very practical in his answers: he answers with his strong right hand. With him, to hear is to answer, and to answer is to do. This is for God's anointed-those who are consecrated, set apart, to him. In this connection we are reminded of the fact that the Hebrew of "consecrate" is to fill the hand. When God consecrates one as priest, he fills his hand. God's hands are always filled with good things, and when he opens them he fills the hands of his anointed ones,-his children,-that they also may be ready to distribute.

Saves His Anointed

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:52:31 -0400

Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. Ps. 20:6.

This is a matter of positive knowledge; there is no room for doubt that "the Lord saveth his anointed," because he has already done it. When the heathen raged, and the people imagined extravagant things, and the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together against Christ, plotting to destroy him, God set him upon his holy hill of Zion, "far above all principality and power." Now remember that "ye have an unction from the Holy One" (John 2:20), and that therefore, as the anointed of Jehovah, your salvation is as sure as that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Double Blessings

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:59:51 -0400

The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Ps. 20:5.

When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream, he said, "For that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." Then how certain it must be that we can not ask for anything that God will not grant us, since the assurances to that effect are so many times multiplied. What great need there is of taking heed how and for what we ask.