August 10 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

These meditations are on the psalms. All those songs about Zion, the temple, and the Son of David really make sense when they are sung In the New Testament church.

Bible Reading:

Psalm 57

Bible Text:

God sends his love and his faithfulness. I am in the midst of lions; I lie among ravenous beasts (Ps. 57:3–4).

Devotional:

The psalm singer is surrounded by enemies who threaten him like ravenous beasts. But in this situation he receives two messengers from heaven: faithfulness and love.

Faithfulness and love are represented here as persons. They are the twin virtues of a covenant relationship. By love the covenant is made; by faithfulness it holds together.

Imagine a soldier lying in a trench before a bloody battle in one of those glorified, sinful wars of 1863 or 1917 or 1944. He can smell death around him. Then he receives a letter from his beloved. He is visited by the messengers of faithfulness and love. Suddenly a soft, steady light seems to shine into his hellhole.

You have your own den of lions. A circle of peers at work or school may be squeezing the spiritual life out of you. Your faith is battered. Or you are fighting cancer or some other physical or emotional beast. You feel you are losing; the beasts are eating you alive.

Pray, and God will send the twin messengers of faithfulness and love. For God made his covenant by love, and he holds it together in faithfulness. Whatever we know of love and faithfulness God taught us. His oath of loyalty is the model for everything that still holds together in this weak world.

God's messengers are at my right and left. Therefore I fear no evil.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.