the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 2
Psalms 138:8—The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.
What a comfortable assurance! We often despair of ourselves. We awake to see that much on which we have prided ourselves, instead of being gold, silver, and precious stones, was mere wood, hay, and stubble. We discover, as Saul of Tarsus did, that the structure of righteousness which we have been raising is but as dross in the holy eye of God. We find ourselves falling through a bottomless pit of self-despair. Finally, we turn to the Lord Jesus, and say, What we cannot do for ourselves, and what no one can do for us, Thou must undertake. And there steals upon us the comfortable assurance that we have only to be faithful and true to his least prompting, and He will perfect.
What an argument! First, we plead the mercy of God, the patience that endures for ever, never surprised, never surrendering its cherished purpose, never renouncing heart and hope, but always enduring amid rebuffs of neglect and the proud rebellion of self-will. Because thy love is without measure or end, we believe that Thou wilt yet be conqueror, O Christ! Thou wilt have thy way. We despair of ourselves. We hope infinitely in thy mercy.
Secondly, we plead that we are the work of his own hands. Has He done so much, and will He not finish? Has He implanted a hunger that He will net satisfy? Has He led to the point of Pisgah vision, and will He not give the land? A mother might forsake her child, but God cannot forsake those whom He has made the subjects of his thought and care. He cannot have created within us longings and desires that reach to the Infinite, merely to tantalize. "If it were not so, I would have told you." Yes, we shall be perfected, some day, somewhere.
