January 28 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 67:

¹God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
²That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
³Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
⁴O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
⁵Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
⁶Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
⁷God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him

Devotional

The sixty-seventh Psalm ends joyfully and confidently. In the Psalm there has been acknowledgment of God's goodness to His people, prayer has been offered for His blessing on them in the future, and fervent petitions have been made for all nations. And at the end of the Psalm the people of God confidently declare that God will bless them and that all the ends of the earth will fear Him. The day of a great extension of the knowledge of the Lord is envisioned, when all the peoples of earth will fear, reverence, praise, and worship the one living and true God.

The children of God should always have confidence in His promises, in His willingness to answer their prayers, and in the fruition of His glorious purposes. When they pray that His kingdom may come, they should really believe that His kingdom will come. For them there should always be a joyous assurance that a glorious consummation awaits. Although they will be aware of the evil around them and will remember what God has said about the development of evil in the future, they should never become pessimistic, sour, disillusioned, and defeated. They should rejoice in God, who will bless His people, and should eagerly wait for His Son, who will come from heaven.

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.)