March 21 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 90:

¹Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
²Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
³Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
⁴For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
⁵Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
⁶In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
⁷For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
⁸Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
⁹For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
¹⁰The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
¹¹Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
¹²So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
¹³Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
¹⁴O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
¹⁶Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
¹⁷And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

Devotional

Perhaps we feel uneasy or fearful as we approach the problems of a new week. Unpleasant situations may develop, our earthly security may be threatened, or we may be exposed to shattering experiences. We may be deeply troubled by the instability, the change, and the decay that we observe all around us.

But we are not to be overwhelmed by the changing and the temporary. We are the children of the eternal, unchanging God. The Lord of heaven and earth, on whom all things depend, is our own God. He has been the dwelling place of His people in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever He had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting He is God. There is nothing in the world, which He has made and rules, that can change Him. There is nothing that can annul the purpose that He has had from all eternity for His people.

Trusting in our eternal, sovereign, covenant God, we should not be fearful of anything that this week or any other week may bring. Assured of our heavenly Father's love and confident in His exceeding great and precious promises, we should eagerly and joyously face all the new problems of life every week and every day.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)