October 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Psalm 121:5:

⁵The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

Devotional:

Not only the child but also he who is older would rather look at pictures and prints, than read; or at least likes them for the assistance which they lend to his imagination. Hence the predilection of our fathers for the illustrated Bible, and the strongly revived demand among us for illustrated books and periodicals.

For a time there was no love for the illustrated book. This was partly because the plates were poor, and partly because readers were over-wise. But since nature has been somewhat restored in us; and photography, together with photo-engraving, in less than a quarter of a century have brought the illustration up to a degree of excellence and perfection unknown before, the old love to see things has come to the fore again, and by this seeing of pictures our imagination has been uncommonly enriched. Everything is now embellished with portraits and pictures. In a good sense and in a sinful sense, the power of letting things be seen is again recognized. Even newspapers begin to seek their strength therein. At first it is still the picture that accompanies the reading matter. Gradually it becomes more pictures and ever less reading matter, until exaggeration in the end avenges itself, and the more normal proportion returns.

The main point in hand with respect to all this is, that our nature has been so created, so disposed, that by predilection it best loves immediate sight, and that it extends this love into the realm of the spiritual.

This will to see, rather than by the effort of our thinking to arrive at insight is therefore no defect in us, and much less is it a result of sin—it is Divine instinct.

It is not prophesied of the glory above that the redeemed shall be dialectic thinkers, but that in this particular also they will show themselves to be children of God in that they shall desire to see the Eternal Being; and that, in fact, they shall enjoy this clear vision.

Philip's request: "Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us!" was for this life the all too naive expression of this deep desire, and Jesus' answer to this question shows that the whole Christian religion can be recapitulated under this viewpoint of sight. The Apostles gloried in the fact that they were the first who had seen and beheld the Word of Life. Already in prophecy the vision had prepared the way for this seeing. And when the Apostles describe the glory that is to come they prophesy that now we see as in a glass darkly, but that then we shall see face to face, and in this seeing we shall know as we are known. Not reading, not reasoning; no, the seeing, the clear beholding shall be salvation. And to this John adds: "Beloved, it is not yet made manifest what we shall be, but this we know that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2).

This ability to see is cultivated by picture and print, and ability to see spiritual things is trained by the emblem. The Cross, the All-seeing eye, the emblems of faith, hope and love—the catacombs of early Christians are still full of such emblems.

And what says still more, nature, life itself, is full of imagery, and more than any other book the Bible makes use of it in order to exhibit the spiritual to us. Besides picture and print, and besides emblem, it is this imagery which does not stand alongside of the word, but enters into the word, and through the word itself shows the realities. The true Vine, the good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Sower that sows the seed, and more, are all images borrowed from nature and from life, which God uses in His Word in order to bring the spiritual nearer to us.

Scripture does the same thing with respect to the Highest, in its effort to bring the Eternal Being closer to us.

That Eternal Being then makes His approach to us in such imagery as The Lord is our "Rock," the Lord is our "High Tower," He is our "Shield," He is our "Keeper," He is the "Father" in the "Father-house." He is our "King" seated upon the "Throne of His Glory." And among this number of figures there is this beautiful one: "The Lord is thy shade" (Psalm 121:5). Isaiah uses this imagery when on his knees in worship he exclaims: "O Lord, thou art my God . . . Thou hast been a strength to the poor ... a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat ... as the heat by a thick cloud, so shall the noise of tyrants be brought down by thee" (Isaiah 25:1, 4, 5, Dutch Version). And in the same way, the song of Hama-aloth repeats it: "The Lord is thy Keeper; the Lord is thy Shade upon thy right hand."

This figure of speech is beautiful because it is so gentle and tender.

Here is no exhibition of power. Here no strong arm bares itself. A scorching heat prevails, such as in the desert of the East beats down all life. And behold! a thick cloud travels quietly and majestically across the desert level, and the sunlight no longer blinds, and the sun-heat no longer singes, and man freely breathes again, refreshed and brought to himself by the Divine shade from above.

Shade! Oh, we sons of the West do not know the glory which lies embedded in this short word to the man of the East.

Dog-days excepted, the sun is never the fierce tyrant to us that makes life a burden. The sun is to us a lovely something which we seek. The sun refreshes and cherishes us. We love his radiancy.

But in the land where the Prophets prophesied and the Psalmists sang, where Jesus walked about and the disciples dwelt, all powers of invention are on the alert, and by means of thick walls, heavy hangings, high trees, and long white garments try to modify the fierce tyranny of the sun. In the hot season everything there burns, everything glows, everything singes, and on the table-lands of the desert, man and beast are helpless victims of the scorching sand below, and of the burning sky above.

Everything calls, everything prays for shade.

And all this, applied by imagery to the struggle of God's people and to life's battle on the part of His servants, inspires both Prophet and Psalmist to refresh Israel with the glorious word of comfort: "The Lord thy God is thy Shade."

Thy Shade against what?

Against the heat of the day, metaphorically used with respect to the distress of your lot in life, of the heat, the fierceness wherewith the provocation of opposition, of adversity and persecution goes against you.

The Lord is thy Shade! is allied to this other figure of speech: the Lord is thy Shield! but has yet another tendency.

You have to do with an enemy, a persecutor, whom you know, whom you see before you, and whose blows come down upon you, and you are in need of a shield. And whosoever in such threatening moments has sought his shield with God has always found it with Him.

But it is wholly different when trouble, like heat from the desert, comes upon you, which you can not withstand, and which from the mysterious background of your lot in life, or from covered opposition, as an elementary force presses upon you from all sides, and against which you have no means of resistance at your command. So it is for the Arab in the desert when the heat of the sun makes the sand under his feet burn, and causes the roof of his mouth to be parched. And so it is for God's people when opposition presents itself on every hand, when here it is water that threatens inundation, and there it is the whirlwind that carries everything before it. Yea, so it is in your personal life when, for the sake of God's will and of His cause, you are driven from one difficulty to another, from trial to trial, and the heat of battle steadily increases in intensity and at length you threaten to succumb.

And in such an hour as this, when, as we would say, the water reaches up to the lips, while the Scripture—which comes from the East—speaks of so scorching a heat of the sun that its fierceness threatens utter prostration, then is the Lord your soul's intimate Comforter, because He is then your Shade Who covers you and makes you breathe again.

This can be done, according to the sacred metaphor, by means of a cloud which intercepts the heat of the glowing sun, but it can be effected in a still more tender way.

A father in the desert can himself take the side of the sun, and so be a shade for his child that walks with him.

And this is the picture the Psalmist brings to mind when he sings: "The Lord is thy Shade upon thy right hand."

So the Divine tenderness of highest love mingles itself in the comforting.

Your God does not leave you to yourself. The way through the wilderness cannot be spared you. The heat must singe. But the Lord follows after you. He comes to you. He draws very near to you. He places Himself between this heat of the sun and yourself. He takes you by the hand. He covers you with the shade which His Majestic greatness casts upon you. And so you go on upon your way with gladness, refreshed by the love of God and covered by His holy Shade.

All this is poetry. We know it well. But though poetry is that "fine art which addresses itself to the feelings and the imagination by the instrumentality of musical and moving words," it is nevertheless no fiction.

There is that which no eye sees and no ear hears, and which would not enter into the heart of man, but which already in this life, God gives to be understood, to be seen and to be enjoyed by those who have been initiated into His secret walk.

God can be very far distant from you, but He can also be very near to you. This depends upon His grace. This depends upon the inner disposition of your soul.

But this is certain, when He is near to you, when the heat of day threatens to cause you to succumb, then is He your Shade and you feel His cool Shadow come over you at your right hand.

The cooling which the Shade of your God brings, you must feel, feel in your soul, and if you do not feel it, is it then, perchance, because you are not near unto Him?

This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."

The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit

Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.