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August 7 - August 18, 2020
“For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?” (Psa 89:6).
God’s power is like Himself, self-existent, self-sustained. The mightiest of men cannot add so much as a shadow of increased power to the Omnipotent One. He sits on no buttressed throne and leans on no assisting arm. His court is not maintained by His courtiers, not does it borrow its splendor from His creatures. He is Himself the great central source and Originator of all power (C.H. Spurgeon).
His essence is immense, not to be confined in place; as it is eternal, not to be measured in time; so it is almighty, not to be limited in regard of action (S. Charnock).
“Lo, these are parts of His ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26:14).
Even that which is displayed of His might in the visible creation is utterly beyond our powers of comprehension, still less are we able to conceive of omnipotence itself. There is infinitely more power lodged ...
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And there was the hiding of His power” (Hab 3:4).
It is very beautiful to link together the following passages: He “treadeth upon the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8), which expresses God’s uncontrollable power. “He walketh in the circuit of Heaven” (Job 22:14), which tells of the immensity of His presence. He “walketh upon the wings of the wind” (Psa 104:3), which signifies the amazing swiftness of His operations. This last expression is very remarkable. It is not that He “flieth,” or “runneth,” but that He “walketh” and that, on the very “wings of the wind”—on the most impetuous of the elements, tossed into utmost rage, and sweeping along with
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Before man can work he must have both tools and materials, but God began with nothing, and by His word alone out of nothing made all things.
God “spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psa 33:9). Primeval matter heard His voice. “God said, Let there be...and it was so” (Gen 1). Well may we exclaim, “Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand” (Psa 89:13).
Who, that looks upward to the midnight sky; and, with an eye of reason, beholds its rolling wonders; who can forbear inquiring, Of what were their mighty orbs formed? Amazing to relate, they were produced without materials. They sprung from emptiness itself. The stately fabric of universal nature emerged out of nothing. What instruments were used by the Supreme Architect to fashion the parts with such exquisite niceness, and give so beautiful a polish to the whole? How was it all connected into one finely-proportioned and nobly finished structure? A bare fiat accomplished all. Let them be,
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Well may all tremble before such a God!
To openly defy Him who is clothed with omnipotence, who can rend us in pieces or cast us into Hell any moment He pleases, is the very height of insanity.
Well may the enlightened soul adore such a God!
“Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exo 15:11).
In how many ways have we been unfaithful to Christ, and to the light and privileges which God has entrusted to us! How refreshing, then, how unspeakably blessed, to lift our eyes above this scene of ruin, and behold One who is faithful—faithful in all things, faithful at all times.
Far above all finite comprehension is the unchanging faithfulness of God. Everything about God is great, vast, incomparable. He never forgets, never fails, never falters, never forfeits His word.
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen 8:22). Every year that comes furnishes a fresh witness to God’s fulfillment of this promise.
In Genesis 15 we find that Jehovah declared unto Abraham, “Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them...But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again” (vv.13-16). Centuries ran their weary course. Abraham’s descendants groaned amid the brick-kilns of Egypt. Had God forgotten His promise? No, indeed. Read Exodus 12:41, “And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.”
Ah, faltering soul, severely tried fellow pilgrim, seek grace to heed Isaiah 50:10, “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. “
“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace, Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. “Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread, Are rich with mercy, and shall break In blessing o’er your head.”
When God smites us with the rod of chastisement, it is faithfulness which wields it.
Trouble and affliction are not only consistent with God’s love pledged in the everlasting covenant, but they are parts of the administration of the same.
He who has cared for His child through all the years will not forsake him in old age. He who has heard your prayers in the past will not refuse to supply your need in the present emergency.
The original Saxon meaning of our English word God is “The Good.” God is not only the greatest of all beings, but the best. All the goodness there is in any creature has been imparted from the Creator, but God’s goodness in underived, for it is the essence of His eternal nature.
All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good:
“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in him” (Nah 1:7).
whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same (C.H. Spurgeon).
the Hebrew word for the divine longsuffering is rendered “slow to anger” in Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 103:8, etc.
How wondrous is God’s patience with the world today. On every side people are sinning with a high hand. The divine Law is trampled under foot and God Himself openly despised. It is truly amazing that He does not instantly strike dead those who so brazenly defy Him. Why does He not suddenly cut off the haughty infidel and blatant blasphemer, as He did Ananias and Sapphira? Why does He not cause the earth to open its mouth and devour the persecutors of His people, so that, like Dathan and Abiram, they shall go down alive into the Pit? And what of apostate Christendom, where every possible form
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How patiently He bore with our vile conduct! And now that grace has snatched us as brands from the burning, giving us a place in God’s family, and has begotten us unto an eternal inheritance in glory, how miserably we requite Him. How shallow our gratitude, how tardy our obedience, how frequent our backslidings!
Divine grace is the sovereign and saving favor of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them and for which no compensation is demanded from them.
Grace can neither be bought, earned, nor won by the creature. If it could be, it would cease to be grace. When a thing is said to be of “grace,” we mean that the recipient has no claim upon it, that it was in nowise due him. It comes to him as pure charity, and, at first, unasked and undesired.
God’s mercy originates in His goodness. “O GIVE THANKS unto the LORD: for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever” (Psa 136:1).
His mercy is “great” (1Ki 3:6), “plenteous” (Psa 86:5), “tender” (Luk 1:78), “abundant” (1Pe 1:3); it is “from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him” (Psa 103:17). Well may we say with the Psalmist, “I will sing aloud of thy mercy” (59:16).
First, there is a general mercy of God, which is extended not only to all men, believers and unbelievers alike, but also to the entire creation: “His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psa 145:9);
How many there are who say, I do not believe that God will ever cast me into Hell; He is too merciful. Such a hope is a viper, which if cherished in their bosoms will sting them to death. God is a God of justice as well as mercy, and He has expressly declared that He will “by no means clear the guilty” (Exo 34:7). Yea, He has said, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa 9:17).
The fact is that those who neglect the laws of health are carried away by disease, notwithstanding God’s mercy.
“For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear him” (Psa 103:11). None can measure it.
Scripture speaks of “the multitude of His lovingkindnesses,” and who is capable of numbering them? (Isa 63:7). Said the Psalmist, “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God!” (36:7). No pen of man, no tongue of angel, can adequately express it.
Marvelous it is that One so infinitely above us, so inconceivably glorious, so ineffably holy, should not only notice such worms of the earth, but also set His heart upon them, give His Son for them, send His Spirit to indwell them, and so bear with all their imperfections and waywardness as never to remove His lovingkindness from them.
“I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer 31:3),
Since the believer be in Christ, nothing can separate him from the love of God (Rom 8:39). God has solemnly engaged Himself by covenant, and our sins cannot make it void.
“Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth” (Psa 26:3). He delighted to ponder it. It refreshed his soul to do so, and it molded his conduct. The more we are occupied with God’s goodness, the more careful we will be about our obedience.
“God is love” (1Jo 4:8). It is not simply that God “loves,” but that He is Love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature.
The divine love is commonly regarded as a species of amiable weakness, a sort of good-natured indulgence; it is reduced to a mere sickly sentiment, patterned after human emotion. Now the truth is that on this, as on everything else, our thoughts need to be formed and regulated by what is revealed thereon in Holy Scripture.
The better we are acquainted with His love—its character, fullness, blessedness—the more will our hearts be drawn out in love to Him.
God has loved His people from everlasting, and therefore nothing about the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from Himself: “according to His own purpose” (2Ti 1:9).
God’s love for me and for each of “His own” was entirely unmoved by anything in us. What was there in me to attract the heart of God? Absolutely nothing. But, to the contrary, there was everything to repel Him, everything calculated to make Him loathe me—sinful, depraved, a mass of corruption, with “ no good thing” in me.
How clear is the testimony of Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” How blessed to know that the great and holy God loved His people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity.
How tranquilizing for the heart: since God’s love toward me had no beginning, it can have no ending!
