Daily Bible Notes: September, 15th
The following daily bible notes for every day of the year, are taken from six public domain sources:
- "Morning and Evening" by Charles H.Spurgeon
- "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by John H.Jowett
- "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
- "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by Charles H.Spurgeon
- "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan
- An Evening Meditation from "Searchlights from the Word" by G. Campbell Morgan
1. "Morning and Evening" by C.H.Spurgeon
Morning
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
Psalm 112:7
Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressed by them, what do you more than other men ? Other men have not your God to fly to; they have never proved His faithfulness as you have done, and it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear: but you profess to be of another spirit; you have been begotten again unto a lively hope, and your heart lives in heaven and not on earthly things; now, if you are seen to be distracted as other men, what is the value of that grace which you profess to have received? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you claim to possess?
Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances . The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them.
Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do?
Moreover, unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.
Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, "Stand still and see the salvation of God." For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God’s high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High? Then take courage, and relying in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God, "let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Evening
A people near unto him.
Psalm 148:14
The dispensation of the old covenant was that of distance. When God appeared even to His servant Moses, He said, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet"; and when He manifested Himself upon Mount Sinai, to His own chosen and separated people, one of the first commands was, "Thou shalt set bounds about the mount." Both in the sacred worship of the tabernacle and the temple, the thought of distance was always prominent. The mass of the people did not even enter the outer court. Into the inner court none but the priests might dare to intrude; while into the innermost place, or the holy of holies, the high priest entered but once in the year. It was as if the Lord in those early ages would teach man that sin was so utterly loathsome to Him, that He must treat men as lepers put without the camp; and when He came nearest to them, He yet made them feel the width of the separation between a holy God and an impure sinner. When the gospel came, we were placed on quite another footing. The word "Go" was exchanged for "Come"; distance was made to give place to nearness, and we who aforetime were afar off, were made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. Incarnate Deity has no wall of fire about it. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," is the joyful proclamation of God as He appears in human flesh. Not now does He teach the leper his leprosy by setting him at a distance, but by Himself suffering the penalty of His defilement. What a state of safety and privilege is this nearness to God through Jesus! Do you know it by experience? If you know it, are you living in the power of it?
Marvellous is this nearness, yet it is to be followed by a dispensation of greater nearness still, when it shall be said, "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He doth dwell among them." Hasten it, O Lord.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 103:1-18
1 Praise the LORD, my soul! All that is within me, praise his holy name!
2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and don't forget all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
5 who satisfies your desire with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6 The LORD executes righteous acts, and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the children of Israel.
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.
9 He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16 For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.
17 But the LORD's loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant, to those who remember to obey his precepts.
RESTORING A RUINED LIFE
Could there be a sweeter chime than the opening music of this psalm?
"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." He receives me back home again, interrupts the broken story of my sin, and drowns my sobbings in His rejoicings.
"Who healeth all thy diseases." He takes in hand the foul complaints which I acquired in "the far country," and with His powerful medicines, and His wonderful "bread of life," He drives the foul things from my soul.
"Who redeemeth thy life from destruction." Yes, with His own blood He buys me back from a midnight servitude, strikes every chain and shackle from my limbs, and makes me dance in "the glorious liberty of the children of God."
"Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercy." He encircles me with the invulnerable army of His own love. Henceforth if the devil would get at me he must deal with God. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people."
"Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things." He sets before me a glorious table, and enlivens my spirits with glorious fellowship. That so I can be no other than "satisfied," and my heart is at rest in the Lord. "Thou, O Christ, art all I want!"
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
September 15th.
God of pity, wilt Thou teach me the breadth and depth of Thy sympathies? Save me from all selfishness!
May there be room in my life for the affairs of others! May some tired birds of the air find lodgment in my branches!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And a man shall be as an hidlng-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.
Isaiah 32:2
Who this MAN is we all know. Who could he be but the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, the Man of sorrows, the Son of man? What a hiding-place he has been to his people! He bears the full force of the wind himself, and so he shelters those who hide themselves in him. We have thus escaped the wrath of God, and we shall thus escape the anger of men, the cares of this life, and the dread of death. Why do we stand in the wind when we may so readily and so surely get out of it by hiding behind our Lord? Let us this day run to him, and be at peace.
Often the common wind of trouble rises in its force and becomes a tempest, sweeping everything before it. Things which looked firm and stable rock in the blast, and many and great are the falls among our carnal confidences. Our Lord Jesus, the glorious Man, is a covert which is never blown down. In him we mark the tempest sweeping by, but we ourselves rest in delightful serenity.
This day let us just stow ourselves away in our hiding-place, and sit and sing under the protection of our covert. Blessed Jesus! Blessed Jesus! How we love thee! Well we may, for thou art to us a shelter in the time of storm.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
Isaiah 35:1
Thou Breath from still eternity,
Breathe o'er my spirit's barren land -
The pine-tree and the myrtle-tree
Shall spring amidst the desert sand,
And where Thy living water flows
The waste shall blossom as the rose.
My spirit turns to Thee and clings,
All else forsaking, unto Thee,
Forgetting all created things,
Remembering only God in me.
O living Stream, O gracious Rain,
None wait for Thee, and wait in vain.
- G. Tersteegen.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
They that sing as well as they that dance shall say: All my fountains are in Thee.
Psalms 87:7
In the whole Psalter there is no song more perfect than this in its celebration of the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. The City of God is seen as the metropolis of that kingdom. It is the City of the King and so the City of Law, the City of the Foundation; that is, of Righteousness. It is the City in whose citizenship at last shall be enrolled even those who have been the enemies of the people and purpose Of God; that is the City of Peace. Therefore it is the City which inspires all song and dancing, the expressions of happiness; that is the City of Joy. These are the things of the Kingdom of God - Righteousness, Peace, Joy. We have emphasized the climactic word, but let us remember that the fountains of joy spring in the holy mountains, wherein is the foundation of life. In our hymns and in our thinking we have spiritualized this song and made it apply to Jerusalem above, the Mother of us all, and there is a sense in which we are warranted in so doing; but let us not forget that the first application of the Psalm is definitely earthly, and the City it celebrates is a city of men, which yet will be the tabernacle of God, and there is no room for doubt that this City will be the actual Jerusalem of the Holy Land. Wherever men may place the home of the Council of a League of Nations, God has placed it there. There the dream of men will be realized, and that under the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ, God's anointed King.
Note: To the best of our knowledge we are of the understanding that the above material, all published before 1926 and freely available elsewhere on the internet in various formats, is in the public domain.