October 19 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 119:89-104:

⁸⁹For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
⁹⁰Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
⁹¹They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.
⁹²Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.
⁹³I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.
⁹⁴I am thine, save me: for I have sought thy precepts.
⁹⁵The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.
⁹⁶I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
⁹⁷O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
⁹⁸Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.
⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
¹⁰⁰I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.
¹⁰¹I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.
¹⁰²I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.
¹⁰³How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹⁰⁴Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

Devotional

I just returned from a visit. It was no ordinary visit. I called on a man who is afflicted with that dread disease, cancer. At times he suffers very severe pain, and, of course, continually faces death. Yet withal he seemed to be cheerful, and resigned to God's will. What is it that gives a believer courage and strength to bear affliction, to suffer pain, even to face death unafraid? Is it not the Word of God? Do not God's promises strengthen and cheer him? Yes, indeed. David exclaims, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." The righteous man has hope in his death. If God did not sustain him by the word of his power, he would surely perish in his affliction. But now he can say with Job, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." And facing death he still can exclaim, "I know that my Redeemer liveth . . . whom I shall see." John says, "We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." And in the book of Revelation we read, "These are they which came out of great tri­bulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." May God give us grace to glory in tribu­lations, and to be faithful unto death. Christ's sheep shall never perish.

Prayer

Merciful God and Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word, for the light it gives upon our path, for the strength we may derive from it, for the comfort it affords us in all our tribu­lation, and for the hope in death. Grant that we may persevere in the faith, and come out victorious through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Ps. 23:4; Prov. 14:32; Job 13:15; 19:25, 27; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 7:14; Rom. 5:3; Rev. 2:10; John 10:28.

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