December 22 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Isaiah 25:

¹O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
²For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
³Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
⁴For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
⁵Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
⁶And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
⁷And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
⁹And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
¹⁰For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
¹¹And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
¹²And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

Devotional

What a blessing we enjoy, when we can truthfully say: "O Lord, thou art my God." Then we have nothing to fear. He is the Helper of the helpless, the Comforter of the comfortless. He is strength to the poor, and to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat. He always has done wonderful things for his people. The psalmist says, "Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou are my God, I will exalt thee." The trouble with us is we do not always praise him and exalt him as we ought. We receive innumerable blessings and take them as a matter of course, when our hearts should be over­flowing with praise and thanksgiving. The psalmist exclaims, "O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory." He always obtains the victory over his enemies. But his enemies are our enemies; so He gains the victory for us. Through him we conquer. Of this we are sure; for "his counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; because his mercy endureth for ever."

Prayer

O God, our Father, we thank Thee that in spite of our unworthiness and sinfulness Thou art still willing to be our God, and our Father in Christ Jesus Thy Son. Thou hast revealed marvelous things unto us in Thy Word. Mighty deeds hast Thou done to deliver Thy people of old. But Thou hast also caused us to experience Thy divine help in delivering us out of our dis­tresses, and showing us Thy salvation. Accept our thanks, we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Isa. 25:4; Ps. 118:26: 98:1; Num. 23:19; Ps. 118:1.

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