"The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter." —Psalm74:16-17
Israel had suffered the ravages of her enemies, and that for so long a time that the writer pleads, "Why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture?" (v.1) The pitch darkness of a moonless, starless night plunged the people of God into perplexity and despair. It was a spiritual experience not unlike the temporal one Luke describes in Acts 27:20, "And when nether sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away."
It is not unlikely that someone who will read this today will feel a kinship with this situation. God seems far away; the enemy has overwhelmed your soul and there is no help in sight. God's hand is in His bosom, not outstretched to your aid, and the heart cries "O God, how long …?" (See vss. 9-11) The temptation is to give up on God, but to do so is to be left with neither an anchor nor a sail. As the poet put it, "Where could I go, but to the Lord?" And it is from that point of desperation that the Holy Spirit inspired the sacred writer to make the observations of our "nugget" for today.
"The day is Thine, the night also is Thine." God owns the universe, and everything is under His control. When it is "day," we see Him and rejoice in the evidences of His presence and power exercised in our behalf. When it is "night," what one has called "the dark night of the soul," we see Him not and are tempted to think He has abandoned us. But, He is the Lord of every circumstance. As the Psalmist puts it in another place, "If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee [Ps. 39:11-12]." We may be unable to see Him, but He sees us, Who also said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
"Thou hast set all the borders of the earth." As God defines the limits of the oceans and shorelines of the continents so that however fierce the storm, the sea may alter to a degree the shorelines but will never overwhelm the dry land, so He sets the limits of the storms of life that they will not overwhelm us. "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby [Heb. 12:6-11]."
"Thou hast made summer and winter." As there are seasons in nature, so are there seasons in grace. Winter comes, and seems as though it will never end. But summer is waiting in the wings and when it is time, will come again. So in the spiritual realm. There are those times when in God's peculiar wisdom He exposes us to the seemingly interminable and intolerable blasts of the "winter" of the soul. But, He who makes the winter will make summer again in His own time.
"O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. Have respect unto the covenant…" pleads the burdened writer (v. 19-20a) and we may do the same when "night" and "winter" seem unending. And the covenant is this "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one [John. 10:28-30]."
For His glory and our good,
"Pastor" Frasier
It is not unlikely that someone who will read this today will feel a kinship with this situation. God seems far away; the enemy has overwhelmed your soul and there is no help in sight. God's hand is in His bosom, not outstretched to your aid, and the heart cries "O God, how long …?" (See vss. 9-11) The temptation is to give up on God, but to do so is to be left with neither an anchor nor a sail. As the poet put it, "Where could I go, but to the Lord?" And it is from that point of desperation that the Holy Spirit inspired the sacred writer to make the observations of our "nugget" for today.
"The day is Thine, the night also is Thine." God owns the universe, and everything is under His control. When it is "day," we see Him and rejoice in the evidences of His presence and power exercised in our behalf. When it is "night," what one has called "the dark night of the soul," we see Him not and are tempted to think He has abandoned us. But, He is the Lord of every circumstance. As the Psalmist puts it in another place, "If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee [Ps. 39:11-12]." We may be unable to see Him, but He sees us, Who also said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
"Thou hast set all the borders of the earth." As God defines the limits of the oceans and shorelines of the continents so that however fierce the storm, the sea may alter to a degree the shorelines but will never overwhelm the dry land, so He sets the limits of the storms of life that they will not overwhelm us. "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby [Heb. 12:6-11]."
"Thou hast made summer and winter." As there are seasons in nature, so are there seasons in grace. Winter comes, and seems as though it will never end. But summer is waiting in the wings and when it is time, will come again. So in the spiritual realm. There are those times when in God's peculiar wisdom He exposes us to the seemingly interminable and intolerable blasts of the "winter" of the soul. But, He who makes the winter will make summer again in His own time.
"O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. Have respect unto the covenant…" pleads the burdened writer (v. 19-20a) and we may do the same when "night" and "winter" seem unending. And the covenant is this "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one [John. 10:28-30]."
For His glory and our good,
"Pastor" Frasier
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