Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
Consolation in Christ, . . . comfort of love, . . . fellowship of the Spirit.—PHI. 2:1.
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.—My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
The Father . . . shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever: the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.—Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Job 14:1,2. -Psa. 73:26.John 14:16,26. -II Cor. 1:3,4.I Thes. 4:14,17,18.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“God, my maker, who giveth songs in the night.”
Job 35:10
Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow—the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by—who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God’s praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God’s high praises, unless he himself give me the song? No, it is not in man’s power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Hosea 9
9. Punishment for Israel
Punishment for Israel’s Sin
9
Do not rejoice, O Israel!
Do not exult as other nations do;
for you have played the whore, departing from your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s pay
on all threshing floors.
2
Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
3
They shall not remain in the land of the Lord;
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.
4
They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
Such sacrifices shall be like mourners’ bread;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the Lord.
5
What will you do on the day of appointed festival,
and on the day of the festival of the Lord?
6
For even if they escape destruction,
Egypt shall gather them,
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;
thorns shall be in their tents.
7
The days of punishment have come,
the days of recompense have come;
Israel cries,
“The prophet is a fool,
the man of the spirit is mad!”
Because of your great iniquity,
your hostility is great.
8
The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim,
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hostility in the house of his God.
9
They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah;
he will remember their iniquity,
he will punish their sins.
10
Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree,
in its first season,
I saw your ancestors.
But they came to Baal-peor,
and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
11
Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12
Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them until no one is left.
Woe to them indeed
when I depart from them!
13
Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow,
but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.
14
Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15
Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal;
there I came to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all their officials are rebels.
16
Ephraim is stricken,
their root is dried up,
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.
17
Because they have not listened to him,
my God will reject them;
they shall become wanderers among the nations.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 83
83. Psalm 83
Psalm 83
Prayer for Judgment on Israel’s Foes
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
1
O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2
Even now your enemies are in tumult;
those who hate you have raised their heads.
3
They lay crafty plans against your people;
they consult together against those you protect.
4
They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
5
They conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
6
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8
Assyria also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of the children of Lot.Selah
9
Do to them as you did to Midian,
as to Sisera and Jabin at the Wadi Kishon,
10
who were destroyed at En-dor,
who became dung for the ground.
11
Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12
who said, “Let us take the pastures of God
for our own possession.”
13
O my God, make them like whirling dust,
like chaff before the wind.
14
As fire consumes the forest,
as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15
so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your hurricane.
16
Fill their faces with shame,
so that they may seek your name, O Lord.
17
Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
let them perish in disgrace.
18
Let them know that you alone,
whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.