O Jehovah, in thy person and in thy works, thou art as far above all gods as the heavens are above the nethermost abyss.[1]
Great is His steadfast love toward his children
Psalm 86:1-13 NRSV
Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
When our prayers are lowly by reason of our humility, or feeble by reason of our sickness, or without wing by reason of our despondency, the Lord will bow down to them, the infinitely exalted Jehovah will have respect unto them. Faith, when she has the loftiest name of God on her tongue, and calls him Jehovah, yet dares to ask from him the most tender and condescending acts of love. Great as he is, he loves his children to be bold with him.[2]
Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all day long.
The best of men need mercy, and appeal to mercy, yea to nothing else but mercy; they need it for themselves and crave it eagerly of their God as a personal requisite. Is there not a promise that importunity shall prevail? May we not, then, plead our importunity as an argument with God? He who prays every day, and all the day, for so the word may mean, may rest assured that the Lord will hear him in the day of his need.[3]
Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
Good at giving and forgiving; supplying us with his good and removing our evil. Here was the great reason why the Psalmist looked to the Lord alone for his joy, because every joy-creating attribute is to be found in perfection in Jehovah alone. Some men who would be considered good are so self-exaltingly indignant at the injuries done them by others, that they cannot forgive; but we may rest assured that the better a being is, the more willing he is to forgive, and the best and highest of all is ever ready to blot out the transgressions of his creatures.[4]
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. In the day of my trouble, I call on you, for you will answer me.
There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.
There are gods by delegated office, such as kings and magistrates, but they are as nothing in the presence of Jehovah. There are also gods by the nomination of superstition, but these are vanity itself, and cannot be compared with the living and true God. Even if the heathen idols were gods, none of them in power or even in character, could be likened unto the self-existent, all-creating God of Israel. If every imaginary deity could start into actual existence, and become really divine, yet would we choose Jehovah to be our God and reject all others. What have the false gods ever made or unmade? What miracles have they wrought? When did they divide a sea, or march through a wilderness scattering bread from the skies? [5]
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
Our minds are apt to be divided between a variety of objects, like trickling streamlets which waste their force in a hundred runnels; our great desire should be to have all our life-floods poured into one channel and to have that channel directed towards the Lord alone . . . God who created the bands of our nature can draw them together, tighten, strengthen, and fasten them, and so braced and inwardly knit by his uniting grace, we shall be powerful for good, but not otherwise. To fear God is both the beginning, the growth, and the maturity of wisdom; therefore should we be undividedly given up to it, heart and soul.[6]
The Heidelberg Catechism
Question #52
What comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead?
That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with uplifted head I look for the very same person, who before offered himself for my sake, to the tribunal of God, and has removed all curse from me, to come as judge from heaven: who shall cast all his and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall translate me with all his chosen ones to himself, into heavenly joys and glory.
Lord, you have given me a portion in the world. You have given me credit and a reputation among others. But what is all this to me, if I am without Christ? If I do not have the one who gives grace to my soul, the one who is my all in all? Lord, you have taught me this day that the distance between you and me is so great that without a mediator, I perish forever. So, whatever else you deny me, give me Jesus. Amen.[7]
Before the Throne of God Above
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.[8]
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Volume 2, p. 465.
[2] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Volume 2, p. 463.
[3] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Volume 2, p. 464.
[4] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Volume 2, p. 464.
[5] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Volume 2, p. 465.
[6] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Volume 2, p. 467.
[7] Jeremiah Burroughs, “Give Me Jesus,” in Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans, ed. Robert Elmer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 23.
[8] 1 Timothy 1:7 NIV
