August 12 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

These meditations are on the psalms. All those songs about Zion, the temple, and the Son of David really make sense when they are sung In the New Testament church.

Bible Reading:

Psalm 68:1–6, 19–20

Bible Text:

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens (Ps. 68:19).

Devotional:

God's greatness frightens God's enemies to death (v. 1). They melt before God like wax before a fire (v. 2). But God's people know that with tender love this awesome God stoops down and daily bears their burdens.

We always find these two sides of God pictured in the Bible. We see a magnificent display of power next to an amazing demonstration of gentleness. But in God these two pictures form no contrast. God's awesome power enables him to gently bear our burdens. And because the Lord over all sustains us, his little ones, God says the highest among us should stoop to serve the lowest. The strong should support the weak and the rich should give to the poor precisely because God, the source of all might and riches, bears our burdens day by day. No one can rise higher than to stoop as low as our God does.

Sympathy or compassion is the ability to identify with someone else's pain. This emotion can arise only in someone who cares. Sympathy is born of love. And one great heart feels all burdens and all pain—the heart of God.

Of course, we all have to carry our own load (Gal. 6:5). We may not say to anyone, not even to God, "You do the work." But day by day God bears us up. He travels with us. When God gives an assignment, he also lends us the power to carry it out. "Praise be to the Lord,... who daily bears our burdens."

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.