August 13 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 73:1–14

Bible Text:

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you (Ps. 73:21–22).

Devotional:

About half of this psalm should never have been spoken or written. That's what Asaph himself admits. "I should not have said what I said; I was senseless, ignorant, and stupid." But he said it, and it has been preserved for us in the Bible.

Asaph played a game that maybe all of us would like to play at one time or another. We let our doubting thoughts go unchecked: Does it make a difference how we live and what we do? Does God really care? Does God even exist? Look at the wicked. They don't believe in God. They live without taking him into consideration. They're cocksure. They do what they want. And God does not seem to know or care how they live. They thumb their noses at God, yet they stay fit as a fiddle while good people check in and out of the hospital.

Is it really worth the effort to live a conscientious, godly life? Why live so carefully, always thinking of God and fellow human beings, when it doesn't seem to make a difference anyway?

These are terrible things to say and think. You and I should not go about airing doubts like these before relatives and fellow Christians. Yet our patient God allowed Asaph to ramble on. Asaph said what we hardly dare think.

But after a while Asaph was shocked and sorry. When he "entered the sanctuary of God," his gloomy thoughts vanished (v. 17). Then the light broke through. And Asaph felt utterly foolish.

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.