THE K I N G ' S BUS I NE S S
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Pauline testimony of steadfastness is by no means a little thing. “ Give me grace to fight like a soldier of Thine, without wrath and without fear. Give me to do my duty, but give the victory when Thou pleasest. Let Thy truth be victorious if not now, yet when it shall please Thee and let no deed of mine delay its coming. Let my work fail if it be unto evil, but save my soul in truth.” THURSDAY, Sept. 23. Psalm 72. The King and the King of Kings. There are only two Psalms ascribed to Solomon, the seventy-second and the one hundred and twenty-seventh. He was a good moralist, but a poor psalm ist. Calvin suggests that the dying David had been overheard praying for his son, who should ascend the throne and that the young Solomon had put the prayer into verse and set it to music. This Psalm is Messiannic. It begins in prayer, proceeds to prophecy and then prayer, prophecy and praise all melt into one. Some part of this prayer may apply to Solomon and some of it came true for him. All of it could not be true of mortal man. Its ultimate objective is the reign of the Prince of peace, whose Name shall en dure forever. It closes the- second book of the Psalter while the post script, '“The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended,” may properly suggest the thought that when the con dition portrayed by the Psalm arrives, there will be nothing left to pray for. Faith will turn to sight and prayer to praise. FRIDAY, Sept. 24. Psalm 130. The Sorrows of the Night. ' There are peculiar trials and terrors .that belong to the night. The invalid, pain-racked and nerve-strained, counts t)ie slow-moving hours. Even in health ' and strength, when we lie awake, the anxieties of the present and the pos sibilities of the future, press upon us
more heavily in the darkness than in the day. On this account many seek oblivion in narcotics and opiates. The Word of God characterizes the present age as night, Rom. 13:12, though man calls it day and boasts of his achieve ment and progress. Our expectation and consolation is the shining of the morning star, the herald of the dawn. The solemn advent note struck by Christ and His apostles, resounds throughout the New Testament in exhortation, warning and comfort. . The striving, groaning, waiting church nas in her heart the promise of a new conquer ing potency that shall burst upon the earth like the sun leaping through the wide-flung gates of dawn. Mai. 4:2. SATURDAY, Sept. 25. Psalm 42. Songs in the Night. This is a Divine compensation for insomnia. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Job 35:10. ?aul and Silas could sing and pray in the midnight darkness of the Philippian dungeon. Daniel doubtless did the same in the lion’s den, and David also ih a similar spiritual predicament, t’salm 57:4. When the presence of God is realized, the darkness becomes light and the night shineth as the day. Psalm 139:11-12. When we cannot sleep, it will help to smooth the wrink les out of a tumbled pillow to say, “He holdeth mine eyes waking.” Psalm 77:4. It is well worth a wakeful hour to listen to some heavenly lullaby har monized upon the promises of God. Out of a sleepless night in the chamber of the Persian king, Esther 6:1, came the deliverance of God’s people from destruction and their triumph over all their foes. SUNDAY, Sept. 26. John 14:27-31. The Silence of Christ. The instruction of the Master was nearly finished. The Teacher was leav ing the school over which he had pre- . sided for three years and more, “Here after I will not talk much with you
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