November 16 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Psalm 73:25:

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

Devotional:

The refreshment of grace is particularly abounding when in its departure from this world the soul is privileged to be near unto its God.

On the death-bed higher bliss has more than once been tasted. Many have fallen asleep not alone in firm faith and in higher clearness of mind, but also in the foretaste of blessed enjoyment.

You can frame no rule for this, and it must be denied that a blessed death-bed is always the reward of holier-mindedness and deeper spirituality. Not infrequently a God-glorifying death-bed has been seen with one who in his life had wandered far off; and over against this, a painful struggle in distress and agony on the part of him who long years had been initiated into the hidden walk with his God.

This depends of itself as a rule, upon all sorts of things that have nothing to do with a devout frame of heart. First, upon age, upon temperament, upon the nature of the disease, upon the degree of weakness, upon the tension of the nerves, upon freedom of speech or diffidence, upon longer or shorter duration of the process of dying.

Also, in part, upon the physician, whether he conceals the certainty, or least the probability of the approaching end, or whether he frankly and honestly tells the patient the exact state of the case. And then again upon family and friends, and those who nurse the sick, whether they are spiritually inclined and helpful to the patient in his holy meditation, or whether they provide so-called diversion, and keep his mind filled to the end with all sorts of earthly concerns.

If, then, it sometimes happens that all this works for good, and that he who is about to be called of his God lies, at least for a few days, as with a waiting heart at the gate of eternity, looking that it might be opened unto him and meanwhile bearing witness to the powers of the everlasting life, sometimes in terms that far exceed ordinary speech—then in such a dying person operates special grace. And the Lord imparts this special grace to him, yea, truly to comfort him in his dying, but far more to glorify Himself and to make a testimony of striking power to go forth from so glorious a death-bed.

The passion to pose even in one's piety is a sin which in its more refined forms cleaves to almost all religion, and has sometimes been observed even with martyrs. And this passion would very certainly be more generally evident in dying, if God the Lord did not prevent this by weakness and disease. And in this cutting off of the chance of making a show of one's piety upon the death-bed we are bound to recognize grace.

But there are times when at death grace exhibits itself in a higher form, when something of almost prophetic inspiration takes hold of the dying saint. This was strikingly evident with Jacob the Patriarch. But though, perhaps, in measure less strong, occasionally such a higher inspiration is still witnessed among us.

Such a death is not alone a dying in the faith; not merely a falling asleep in Jesus; but an active entering with open eye through the gate of eternity. And then it is clear consciousness, and from this clear consciousness a holy testimony, because he who dies knows and feels himself until his latest breath near unto his God.

Never, on the other hand, should it be inferred from this that he who dies less triumphantly was, therefore, deprived of the nearness of God.

All too frequently the weakness of the body so affects the mind, that little shows outwardly of what inwardly goes on in the spirit.

God is mighty to do much in and on behalf of the soul, of which a third person observes nothing.

When a few months old infant is carried from the cradle to the grave, you would not say that God was unable to minister grace unto that little child; but you saw nothing of it, and the little one himself knew nothing about it.

The same can take place in sleep. Would any one assert that while we sleep God's ministering grace in our heart is excluded for the space of those seven or eight hours? In serious illness one can be deprived of his consciousness for several days together; does God then stand all those days helpless before this stricken soul? And to what else does it come with the young child in sleep, or in sickness, save to this, that a gracious ministry to the soul can take place on the part of the Holy Ghost, which through some physical disturbing cause is not shown outwardly, but remains concealed within?

And in most instances, when the end draws near, this physical hindrance enters in. Particularly with those who pass away in unconsciousness; and with the sick whose pulse is almost imperceptible, and whose breathing can scarcely be observed. With such, no one may say that on account of these causes their soul passed away in secret and was estranged from its God. Almightiness and grace can here perform in holy stillness what no human eye or human ear can trace.

And as regards the sick person who died, surely, from the nature of the case his consciousness depended upon the power that still operated in his brain. But suppose the brain refuses to respond, should the inner life of the soul have to be deprived, therefore, of grace? And presently the brain refuses to function altogether. Yet without this disturbed brain the soul will know its God and glorify Him forever.

What else is it then to be near unto God in dying, though no one may observe it, save already here to have an entrance in part, into what after death becomes true altogether?

A beginning of that new condition when our person, altogether separated from our body, wholly incorporeal, is with God and companies with Him.

But, also, apart from this, the while we continue our pilgrim journey here on earth, this Divine ministry in our dying is so deeply significant to us as a memento mori. This was implied in Asaph's inquiry: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?" (Psalm 73:25).

By itself this means that we are to set store by nothing in heaven but God. And this is altogether the same thing as to love God with all the soul, mind and heart. But Asaph's question puts the matter still more clearly before us.

For the struggle of our heart consists in this, that it goes out after all sorts of things as well as after God. This struggle has been laid upon us because God Himself has related our heart to all sorts of persons on earth, and has endowed our heart with power to appreciate the glories of nature, and has given us all sorts of inclinations and callings to go out after visible things. The stylist who withdraws his eyes from all earthly things, in order that, with nothing around him but the air, he may seek God evades this struggle and becomes unnatural.

The holy art of the child of God is so to possess the things that are seen, that he can truly say that nothing on earth delights him but his God. This means, of course, that in all the things that are seen he sees nothing but things that are God's, nothing but things that exist purely for the sake of God, and which, therefore, must render service to God, so that in all the pleasure which he takes in God all these other things are embraced and included, but so included, that they only come into consideration in the measure in which they are subject unto God and are revelation of his Divine power.

Whether in very deed and truth this is the case with us is only evident at the time when we come to die, when all these other things fall away from us and God alone remains.

It has been tried to transfer our earthly desires into heaven by picturing to ourselves all sorts of persons and pleasures there, other than God. The Mohammedans have gone farthest in this; but even among Christians there are not a few whose thought of heaven connects itself first of all with their dead with whom to resume their former life again, and thus even in heaven to imagine for themselves a whole world apart from their God. And this is confusing to the mind. For he alone who in dying expects nothing in heaven but his God, shall find also, through and under God that other Fellowship in the Father-house above, which shall and can have no other purport than, in unison and with one accord, the better to glorify the God and Father of all in Christ.

And this very thing must here be applied to our hidden walk with God, and again and again we must put the question to ourselves: "If now you had nothing, absolutely nothing, aside from your God and your God alone, then would the wealth and the riches of your soul be complete?"

When you seek and endeavor and strive to be near unto your God, is it then that you might rest in Him and in Him alone, with all your heart, or is it perchance merely to seek in Him the helper who can assure you all sorts of other desired things after which your heart goes out really more strongly?

Never let it be said that he who has God and God alone has nothing but God, for he who has God, has in Him everything. But in order personally to test the sincerity of your piety, you should know for yourself whether you are so concerned about God that, though the other things are added, you are really intent upon Him alone; or whether your heart really seeks the other things and, in addition to them, God, in order that through Him you might obtain those other things; or, finally, whether you are intent upon becoming partaker of both, having your God and, next to Him, having all those other things too.

And in behalf of this test, anticipation of the hour of your death has uncommon value. That you imagine to yourself the moment when everything on earth shall fall away from you and abandon you and, shall cease to exist for you. And when you enter upon the thought that in heaven you will forever have nothing beside the Triune God, whether this lifts your heart up to the highest foretaste of holy enjoyment, so that in all sincerity you can say that it is good for you to be near unto your God, because aside from him you have nothing in heaven, and aside from Him nothing can satisfy you on earth all the days of your pilgrim journey that still remain.

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.