A Song in the Night
Today's Scripture & Insight:
My father’s life was one of longing. He longed for wholeness, even as Parkinson’s disease gradually crippled more and more of his mind and body. He longed for peace, but was tormented by the deep pain of depression. He longed to feel loved and cherished, but often felt utterly alone.
He found himself less alone when he read the words of Psalm 42, his favorite psalm. Like him, the psalmist knew a desperate longing, an unquenched thirst for healing (vv. 1–2). Like him, the psalmist knew a sadness that felt like it never went away (v. 3), leaving times of pure joy merely a distant memory (v. 6). Like my dad, as consuming waves of chaos and pain swept over him (v. 7), the psalmist felt abandoned by God and asked, “Why?” (v. 9).
And as the words of the psalm washed over him, assuring him he was not alone, my father felt the beginnings of a quiet peace enter in alongside his pain. He heard a tender voice surrounding him, a voice assuring him that even though he had no answers, even though the waves still crashed over him, still he was dearly loved (v. 8).
And somehow hearing that quiet song of love in the night was enough. Enough for my dad to quietly cling to glimmers of hope, love, and joy. And enough for him to wait patiently for the day when all his longings would finally be satisfied (vv. 5, 11).
Today's Reflection
Lord, we know that You have carried all our suffering and will one day turn it around into resurrection life. Still, there is so much healing that we wait and long for. As we wait for that morning, help us to rest in Your song of love in the night.
2. FROM 1 MINUTEBIBLE LOVE NOTES
Dealing with Discouragement like Paul.
Have you ever been discouraged or depressed and felt like your depression was a sign that you lacked faith?
I have.
But I discovered something interesting.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, the godly, uncompromising, Spirit-filled Apostle Paul admits he “despaired of life” during a difficulty.
This man, who wrote about 30% of the New Testament, still felt despair at times.
Despair and depression are a consequence of the fall.
Some of us will experience these things. And when we do, we need not feel like failures.
Instead, we can do what the Apostle Paul did in this passage:
1. Set our hope fully on God (v.10)
2. Ask for the help and prayers of others (v.11)
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If you sometimes have questions...hard questions about God...you might find the HARD QUESTIONS ARCHIVE helpful. Bookmark it and go back and read each of the devotions archived there.
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I have.
But I discovered something interesting.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, the godly, uncompromising, Spirit-filled Apostle Paul admits he “despaired of life” during a difficulty.
This man, who wrote about 30% of the New Testament, still felt despair at times.
Some of us will experience these things. And when we do, we need not feel like failures.
Instead, we can do what the Apostle Paul did in this passage:
1. Set our hope fully on God (v.10)
2. Ask for the help and prayers of others (v.11)
--------------
If you sometimes have questions...hard questions about God...you might find the HARD QUESTIONS ARCHIVE helpful. Bookmark it and go back and read each of the devotions archived there.
3. 5 Powerful Prayers Every Wife Needs to Pray over Her Husband
Jennifer O. White | Prayerfully Speaking
Praising God and praying His will for your spouse is guaranteed to be your most rewarding work as his wife. With these five powerful prayers, you will be arming your marriage with God’s Word and investing in his role as your spiritual leader.
Satisfaction in God Alone
I praise You, the God of all wisdom for husbands. Thank You, God, for knowing the longings of my husband’s heart far better than I do. You know why he hungers for ______ and ______. You know how these yearnings affect his decisions and how those decisions affect our marriage.
You are the God who satisfies the longing soul. You fill the hungry soul with good things. Here is _____’s heart and soul, Lord. I lift him up to You and ask You to fill him with the good You know He needs (Psalm 107:9; Matthew 6:8).
The world offers _____ so many things to temporarily satisfy his needs. Temptations abound, but You are his shield and his defender. Please train him to resist the devil (Psalm 28:7; Psalm 59:9; James 4:7).
I celebrate that You triumph over every one of Satan’s schemes and the scars he has left on my husband’s heart. You are Jehovah Rapha, _____’s Healer. You are the restorer of his soul. Let the balm of Your perfect love and mercy touch the brokenness of his heart (Genesis 50:20; Exodus 15:26; Psalm 23:3; Jeremiah 17:14).
You joined Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, and when they came out unharmed, they didn’t even smell like smoke. Use their courage to inspire ____ to fear You only. I trust You to give him rest and satisfaction while protecting him from harm (Daniel 3:8–30; Proverbs 19:23).
A Man of Your Word
Father, Your Word amazes me. The world is looking for the next “perfect” solution to their problems, and You are always offering it through Your Word. You sent Your Word to deliver, nourish, and counsel us. My heart’s desire is for ______ to feast on Your Word and find It immensely satisfying (Psalm 107:20; Proverbs 3:8; Psalm 119:24; 103).
With Your Word as His source of wisdom, I will rest secure in his leadership of our home. I trust Your Word to fill ____ with the insight he will need for our relationship, his work, and so much more (Ephesians 1:8,17; James 1:5).
Your Word will unite his heart to Yours. His oneness with You will lead his pursuit of oneness with me. Your ways will become His ways. Your faithfulness to me will become His faithfulness to me (1 Corinthians 6:17; Mark 10:8; Galatians 5:23).
Send him an abundance of confidants whose faith in You is bold and courageous. Let them be men who do not lean on their own understanding, but always acknowledge You and Your Word (Psalm 119:63; Proverbs 28:1; 3:5–6).
Humility: The Courage to Admit His Need of God
Thank You, Father for the gift of Jesus and His perfect example of humility. Jesus displayed His love for us with great humility and submissiveness to You. He denied Himself the comforts of heaven to save us. He chose to experience temptations, mockery, rejection, and even death. He rated our needs higher than His own.
You require _______ to love me as Christ loved the church. With great love for ____, I’m asking You to empower him to do this (Ephesians 5:25).
You know the pressure _____ feels to be successful and strong. You know how he is influenced to be self-reliant. You understand his fears and insecurities. He is simply human and at risk of denying his need for You, God. I do not want to see him destroy his life or our marriage because of pride (Proverbs 18:12).
I bring ____ to You, the river of life, and ask You to anoint him with a supernatural portion of Christ’s humility. With it he will be a ready recipient of Your grace. He will be free to boast about his weaknesses to You and wait for You to satisfy his needs with Your strength (Psalm 36:8; James 4:6; 2 Corinthians 11:30, 12:9–10).
You’ve promised that humility is rewarded with riches, honor, and life. Those are gifts I want for my husband, Lord. Help him to let go of any pride and false humility so that he can enjoy the abundant life Jesus died to give him (Proverbs 22:4; John 10:10).
Your Praise on His Lips
There is no one who compares to You, Lord. You are worthy of our spellbound attention (1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 16:8).
Give ______ eyes to see that You deserve the highest praise. Let him personally experience Your grandeur and strength. Let him live with great conviction that Jesus has authority over all things on earth and in the spiritual realm (Psalm 145:3; Ephesians 1:22).
You inhabit the praises of Your people, and I want ____ to enjoy the comfort and power of Your presence every moment. So, Father, please grant him an irrevocable gift of praising You. Let Your Spirit continually offer up a sacrifice of praise through _____ so that his lips always acknowledge Your name (Psalm 22:3; Philippians 2:10; Hebrews 13:15)
Teach him to praise You in his lowest moments. Train him to exalt Your name during the trials and before the victories. Let his faith in You lead him courageously into our own promised land despite the ominous giants of fear and doubt. Use the psalmists to mentor him in lifting His head to praise Your faithfulness despite his present burdens (1 Corinthians 15:57; 2 Chronicles 20; Numbers 13–14; Psalm 43:5).
Transform His Wife
You have promised _____ that a wife is a good gift from you. I want to be an excellent wife to my husband, one who consistently brings him honor (Proverbs 18:22, 12:4).
You know every one of my weaknesses and how they are impacting my role as ____’s helpmate. Lead me, Lord, to recognize the ungodliness hiding in my will, my expectations, and how I express my emotions. I want to surrender them to You for healing. Show me where I am investing my attention in things that will deteriorate my relationship with _____ (2 Corinthians 12:9–10; Luke 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:18; Ephesians 1:8,17).
Let the power of Your Word transform my motives. Coach me relentlessly to be a wife who respects her husband in word and deed. Cause Your tenderness, gentleness, kindness, and humility to become my own (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:22–24; Colossians 3:12).
I want to be a content wife who does not harass my husband with quarrels and fretfulness. Please use me to create a peaceful home for him. Use me to encourage him, bear his burdens, and reflect Your extravagant love for him (Hebrews 13:5; Philippians 4:11–12; 2 Thessalonians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 3:18–19).
May our souls feast on only on You (Psalm 63:5).
I pray these things with complete confidence in Jesus and Your Spirit at work in our marriage. Amen.
Jennifer O. White is the author of Prayers for New Brides: Putting on God’s Armor After the Wedding Dress and Marriage Armor for the #PrayingBride. Jennifer is a natural encourager who offers hope from the truths of God’s Word at her blog, Prayerfully Speaking. With every blog post, Jennifer is exalts the one true God who can empower us to do more than we can
4. The Gospel Coalition
How to Read the Major Prophets DevotionallyNOVEMBER 28, 2016 REWIND | Mike McKinley
Some things are easier to read than others. When we open a newspaper or a website or a novel, we normally know intuitively what’s going on. We don’t have to labor to understand what the author is trying to say or what literary devices he’s using to communicate his message. But when we try to read the prophetic books of the Old Testament, we’re often waist-deep in a mix of unfamiliar genres with rules and conventions we don’t understand. Add in a few thousand years and a vast cultural difference, and it can be hard to know what to do with these books. As a result, many Christians are intimidated by the idea of reading them devotionally.
This is especially true of the “Major Prophets.” We often divide Old Testament prophetic books into “major” prophets (like Jeremiah) and “minor” prophets (like Amos)—not because one is more important than the other, but because of the length of their writing. And that length can add to the difficulty; if reading a minor prophet feels like crossing a river, reading a major prophet can feel like swimming across an ocean.
Mining the Major Prophets
The New Testament authors repeatedly mine these Major Prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel—for themes and prophecies that would illuminate what God was doing in sending his Son. Jesus clearly understood and explained his own ministry in terms laid out by the prophets (Luke 4:16–21). So Christians who want to know their Bible needs to wrestle with these books. To that end, here are a few pointers to help you dig into these books:
1. Read in light of the rest of the Old Testament.
The prophets aren’t operating in a theological vacuum. They’re reminding the people of Israel of God’s faithfulness as seen in the exodus and calling them to be faithful to God’s covenant—or else experience the exile promised in Deuteronomy. Use what you know of the story of Israel to help you understand what the prophet was saying to the people of his day.
2. Don’t get lost in the details.
Unless you have unusual experience and training, some aspects of the prophetic writings won’t be immediately apparent to you. Jeremiah’s audience would understand the significance of the appearance of an almond branch (Jer. 1:11–12), but most of us don’t know that the almond was the first tree to bud in the spring and what that has to do with Jeremiah’s ministry. Don’t get bogged down in these details, but try to look at the context to see what point is being made. Also, a good guide can help you quickly untangle some of these issues.
3. Look for the big themes.
On the one hand, the prophets spend a lot of time emphasizing the certainty and horror of God’s judgment against sin. On the other, they proclaim the God-given promise of restoration, forgiveness, and mercy. If you feel lost in the underbrush of confusing imagery, look for one of those two mountain peaks to help you orient yourself as to what’s going on in the passage.
4. Look for Jesus.
All of the Old Testament points to Jesus and teaches us about him (Luke 24:44–47). Sometimes the prophets speak in ways obviously fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection (Isa. 7:14; 52:
5. Ask big questions.
The prophets shine a bright light on questions that help us connect their message to our daily lives. Next time you’re reading the Major Prophets, try asking these kinds of questions:
What did God want from his people? What form did their obedience (or often, their disobedience) take?
What would these words have meant to their original audience?
What promises does God make to his people?
What does God reveal about his own character?
How does God save people in this passage?
How does the work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit save me from this judgment, secure these promises of God for me, and free me to walk in the obedience that honors the Lord?
Prayerful Persistence in Hard Passages
For one example, look at the Lord’s words in Jeremiah 16:1–15. This is the kind of passage that tends to discourage Christians from reading the Major Prophets, with its imagery of dead children (vv. 3–4), bloated corpses being picked apart by wild birds and animals (v. 4), and a God who has removed his peace and mercy from his people (v. 5). It can be hard to know how to reconcile this kind of thing with the tender and merciful picture of Jesus in the New Testament.
But looking at larger picture, there are ways to understand what’s happening and what it means to a follower of Christ. A few observations might help you to see how to approach a passage like this:
This prophecy is fulfilled in the various conquests of Judah at the hands of Babylon.
The point of the Lord’s speech here doesn’t seem focused on calling people to repentance (as in Jer. 4:1–4) but rather explaining what’s going to happen and how the prophet ought to live in light of that reality (Jer. 16:2).
The terrible reality of coming judgment is met with a question about whether God’s anger is justified (v. 10). That’s helpful, since we may well be wrestling with the same question.
The Lord explains his wrath by pointing to the persistent idolatry and disobedience of the people, which exceeded that of previous generations (vv. 11–12). Sin is serious, and its consequences are terrible. If we’re repulsed by the Lord’s anger, it’s because we’re not sufficiently repulsed by sin.
The threat of exile and death is consistent with the terms of the covenant the Lord made with Israel (see Deut. 28:64–66). So God is being faithful to his promises. He’s not changing the terms of the arrangement midway.
Ultimately, the Lord’s final word to his people is one of mercy and grace. Despite his people’s sin, the Lord will restore and deliver them again (vv. 14–15). This is fulfilled initially in the nation’s return from exile (chronicled for us in the book of Ezra).
God’s ultimate redemption comes not in the form of a return to the land, but in the death and resurrection of his Son for our sins. Jesus was the opposite of the people of Judah as they’re described in verse 10; he never served another god or failed to keep the Law. Nevertheless, on the cross he took the death we earned by our sin. Verses 4–7 remind us that his body was hung on the cross, exposed to the elements and largely unmourned by the world. He experienced the wrath of God we deserved for our failure to keep the terms of the covenant; we’ll never experience God’s anger, because Jesus took it for us on the cross. Because he rose from the dead, we have new life in him and the sure promise of life in the eternal promised land.
In the end, the best way to understand the Major Prophets is simply to invest time in reading them prayerfully. It’s not always easy going, but we can be confident God will enrich our souls when we seek him in his Word.
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