Psalm 60

By Henry Law


In the bright day of prosperity the gloom of adversity is not forgotten. The contrast elevates the joy of success. Abundant victories are realized, and God is acknowledged as the author and giver of all good things.

1-3. "O God, You have cast us off, You have scattered us, You have been displeased; O turn to us again. You have made the earth to tremble; You have broken it; heal the breaches thereof; for it shakes. You have shown Your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger."

The past miseries of the kingdom are vivid to the mind of David. He remembered the internal commotions, and the people like sheep scattered and imperilled on the mountain's brow. He traced this to the just displeasure of God. He well knew that sin produced this alienation of God's favor. The prayer goes forth that righteous displeasure might now cease, and that God would again visit His people with His favor. He realized the terrible effects of God being estranged. He compares it to the terrors which result when the earth quakes and trembles to its base. He acknowledges the hard sufferings of the people, and marks the astonishment which darkened every brow. O sin, O sin! what miseries you have brought upon a fallen earth!

4-5. "But you have raised a banner for those who honor you--a rallying point in the face of attack. Use your strong right arm to save us, and rescue your beloved people."

The retrospect increases the joy that God, who had afflicted, had not cast off. Signs of favor had reappeared. When the enemy came in like a flood, God had lifted up a standard against him. Around this banner David mustered his people. He saw in it a proof that God would not permit His truth to fail, nor His pledged word to be trampled beneath ungodly feet. He knew that God had a beloved flock, and that for their sakes deliverance would be granted. The Lord of hosts had left for Himself a blessed remnant "in the midst of His people, as a dew from the Lord, and as the showers upon the grass."

6-10. "God has spoken in His holiness; I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of my head; Judah is my lawgiver; Moab is my wash-pot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; Philistia, triumph because of me. Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? Will not You, O God, who have cast us off? and You, O God, who did not go out with our armies?"

Bright prospects glitter before David's eyes. He sees not only the firm establishment of Israel's kingdom beneath his sway, but the extension also of his dominion among tributary states. The assurance of this grand supremacy is founded on the Word of his God. God had spoken in His holiness. What God had promised in His holy Word He would assuredly perform. 

Therefore David's heart, full of this faith, overflowed with joy. He realized the preeminence of Judah's tribe. He knew that laws and decrees should issue from it, and that in God's good time the great Deliverer would be among its sons. He realized too that other tribes would await His royal decrees, and that neighboring provinces would bow before him. Moab should be reduced to servile work; Edom would be trodden down beneath his conquering feet; Philistia's triumph should be annexation to his rule.

The spiritual meaning is most obvious. Relying on God's holy Word, we should rejoice in the secure establishment of grace within our hearts, and we should long more, and strive more for the rapid growth of the Spirit's empire within, and the subjugation of all lusts and godless passions. David views the almost impregnable strength of Edom's fortress; but he knew that it must quickly fall; for God had returned to give victory to His arms.

11-12. "Give us help from trouble; for useless is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly; for it is He who shall tread down our enemies."

He sees that all his armaments are weak except upheld by God. He prays for this help. He believes that it will surely come. He believes that, through his God, valiant exploits would be performed, and that through his God his feet would crush the necks of His foes. 

We believe that through Jesus we too shall do valiantly, and that yet a little while and Satan will be crushed beneath our feet.

Automatic Saints?

By A.W. Tozer


Not everyone agrees with me that full qualification for eternity is not instant or automatic or painless. I can only hope that you are wise enough, desirous enough and spiritual enough to face up to the truth that every day is another day of spiritual preparation, another day of testing and discipline with our heavenly destination in mind. 

I hope, too, that you may begin to understand why many evangelical churches are in such a mess. It has become popular to preach a painless Christianity and automatic saintliness. It has become a part of our "instant" culture-"just pour a little water on it, stir mildly, pick up a gospel tract, and you are on your Christian way!" "Lo," we are told, "this is Bible Christianity!,' "It is nothing of the sort!" 

To depend upon that kind of a formula is to experience only the outer fringe, the edge of what Christianity really is. For when the new birth is real and the wonder of regeneration has taken place, then comes the lifetime of preparation with the guidance of the Holy Spirit!

This one thing I do

By A.B. Simpson

0ne of Satan's favorite employees is the switchman. He likes nothing better than to sidetrack one of God's express trains sent on some blessed mission and filled with the fire of a holy purpose. Something will come up in the pathway of the earnest man to attract his attention and occupy his strength and thought. 

Sometimes it is a little irritation or provocation. Sometimes it is some petty grievance he stops to pursue or adjust. Sometimes it is somebody else's business in which he becomes interested, and he feels bound to rectify. 

Before he knows it, he is absorbed in many distracting cares and interests that turn him aside from the great purpose of his life. 

Perhaps he does not do much harm, but he has missed his connection. He has left the main line.

 Let all these things alone. Let grievances come and go, but press forward steadily and irresistibly, crying as you speed toward the goal, This one thing I do!

Preparation For Praise

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


"Beloved, do not be surprised at the ordeal that has come to test you...you are sharing what Christ suffered; so rejoice in it" (1 Peter 4:12).

Many a waiting hour was needful to enrich the harp of David, and many a waiting hour in the wilderness will gather for us a psalm of "thanksgiving, and the voice of melody," to cheer the hearts of fainting ones here below, and to make glad our Father's house on high.

What was the preparation of the son of Jesse for the songs like unto which none other have ever sounded on this earth?

The outrage of the wicked, which brought forth cries for God's help. Then the faint hope in God's goodness blossomed into a song of rejoicing for His mighty deliverances and manifold mercies. Every sorrow was another string to his harp; every deliverance another theme for praise.

One thrill of anguish spared, one blessing unmarked or unprized, one difficulty or danger evaded, how great would have been our loss in that thrilling Psalmody in which God's people today find the expression of their grief or praise!

To wait for God, and to suffer His will, is to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings, and to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. So now, if the vessel is to be enlarged for spiritual understanding, be not affrighted at the wider sphere of suffering that awaits you. The Divine capacity of sympathy will have a more extended sphere, for the breathing of the Holy Ghost in the new creation never made a stoic, but left the heart's affection tender and true. --Anna Shipton

"He tested me ere He entrusted me" (1 Tim. 1:12, Way's Trans.).

Bread corn is bruised

By A.B. Simpson

The farmer does not gather timothy and bluegrass and break it with a heavy machine. But he takes severe measures to separate the kernals of wheat. So God takes great pains with those who are to be of much use to Him. There is a nature in them that needs this discipline. 

Do not wonder at God's wise, discriminating care that will fit them to be food for the multitude. God knows the way He is taking, and there is infinite tenderness in the oversight He gives. He is watching the furnace you are in; He will not allow the heat to become too intense. He wants it great enough to purify and then it will be withdrawn. He knows our frame. He will not let any temptation take us but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

Do you believe in this disciplining love of the Heavenly Husbandman? Are you trusting Him with the leading and government of your life? Do not permit yourself to envy or be disturbed by the people around you! Some day you will be glad for the training and blessing they have brought you.

Are You Ever Disturbed?

By Oswald Chambers


'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.'
John 14:27


There are times when our peace is based upon ignorance, but when we awaken to the facts of life, inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When Our Lord speaks peace, He makes peace, His words are ever "spirit and life." Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? "My peace I give unto you" - it is a peace which comes from looking into His face and realizing His undisturbedness.

Are you painfully disturbed just now, distracted by the waves and billows of God's providential permission, and having, as it were, turned over the boulders of your belief, are you still finding no well of peace or joy or comfort; is all barren? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of the Lord Jesus. Reflected peace is the proof that you are right with God because you are at liberty to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. If you allow anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you, you are either disturbed or you have a false security.

Are you looking unto Jesus now, in the immediate matter that is pressing and receiving from Him peace? If so, He will be a gracious benediction of peace in and through you. But if you try to worry it out, you obliterate Him and deserve all you get. We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him. When one confers with Jesus Christ the perplexity goes, because He has no perplexity, and our only concern is to abide in Him. Lay it all out before Him, and in the face of difficulty, bereavement and sorrow, hear Him say, "Let not your heart be troubled."

Be Sowers of Seed

J. Vernon McGee


Thus hath the Lord GOD shown unto me; and, behold, a basket of summer fruit. (Amos 8:1)

A basket of summer fruit represents a harvest. It tells us that the tree is no longer producing. So although a basket of summer fruit is delightful and delicious, it also speaks of the end of the harvest. It also tells us of rapid spoilage and quick deterioration. There is a message in a basket of summer fruit, and God gives us a dramatic and a figurative illustration.

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me: The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. (Amos 8:2)

In the previous visitations of God's judgments, Amos prayed for the survival of Israel and God changed His mind and withheld His hand. But now the basket of summer fruit indicates that the harvest is past. The jig is up. The northern kingdom of Israel has come to the end of the line. Judgment will come, and harvest is symbolic of that.

Since harvest speaks of a time of judgment and falls at the end of an age, I think that some things our Lord said are misunderstood if one does not understand what is meant by the harvest. Jesus said to His disciples, "…The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37, 38). Our Lord was speaking at the end of an age when the dispensation of the law was coming to an end. Christ was going to go to the cross. He said that He needed harvesters to go out into Israel.

After His death on the cross, it is a different picture. For this age of grace He gives His parable of the sower who went forth to sow seed. "…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel…" (Mark 16:15) is the message for our age. This is the time for sowing the Word of God. My business and your business is just sowing the seed. It is the Lord's business to do the converting. We believe that the Spirit of God will take the Word of God and make a son of God. 

We are just seed-sowers. We are not harvesters. Harvest speaks of judgment, and it speaks of the end of an age. Our business today is to be out sowing the seed. I wish so much that I could get this message across to people. I wish I could motivate all believers to do what God has called us to do. Our business is to sow the seed of the Word of God.