March 29 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me" (Psalm 119:75).

Devotional

The mark of a vigorous love to God is when the soul justifies God in all his wise and gracious dealings with it—when it does not rebel, does not murmur, does not complain, but rather meekly and silently acquiesces in God's providences, be they ever so trying.

Divine love in the heart, deepening and expanding towards that God from whence it springs, will, in the hour of trial, exclaim, "My God has smitten me, but he is still my God, faithful and loving. My Father has chastened me sorely, but he is still my Father, tender and kind. This trying providence originated in love. It speaks with the voice of love. It bears with it the message of love. And it is sent to draw my heart closer and yet closer to the God of love, from whom it came."

Dear reader, are you one of the Lord's afflicted ones? Happy are you if this is the holy and blessed result of his dealings with you. Happy are you if you hear the voice of love in the rod, winning your lonely and sorrowful heart to the God from whom it came.

But when love to God has weakened, the reverse of this is the state of a tried and afflicted believer. Hard thoughts about God in his providences may be regarded as an undeniable symptom of such weakening.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
holy his will abideth;
I will be still whate'er he doth;
and follow where he guideth:
he is my God: though dark my road,
he holds me that I shall not fall:
wherefore to him I leave it all.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
he never will deceive me;
he leads me by the proper path;
I know he will not leave me:
I take, content, what he hath sent;
his hand can turn my griefs away,
and patiently I wait his day.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
though now this cup, in drinking,
may bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking:
my God is true; each morn anew
sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
and pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
here shall my stand be taken;
though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
yet am I not forsaken;
my Father's care is round me there;
he holds me that I shall not fall:
and so to him I leave it all.

(Samuel Rodigast, 1675; Tr. by Catherine Winkworth, 1829–1878)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.