Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord's countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise!
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon
My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. -Psalm 34:2
It was all process, the process of David, being who he was, and the one's around him being who they were. He had turned in an enemy into a friend, and he blessed the Lord for this change in fortune.
In it, he saw the hand of the Lord, but he saw also his own fruits of his labor, living good, manifesting itself, as Paul and the others say, "you will know the tree by the fruit", that good men leave a trail of righteousness, and bad men leave behind a trail of desolation.
Truly, David felt he had cause to celebrate, and there came the call to teach, too, to show them what he had seen of the Lord's hand in his own life.
Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
The power of the Gospel in the drive-thru line. I asked her, the lady at the window, "what if we were punished for all our sins?"
Smiling, she said, "we'd be pitiful."
That's the smile of someone who fully appreciates the message; the Legalist doesn't have that smile, and the Pharisee was apt to kill anyone who spoke the message. But in the drive-thru line, talking to Mike? A purely safe and secure, joyous space for the Gospel to blossom and grow.
He is come.
He came as man and experienced pain and imputing of sin, but come as Spirit, he joy and love and peace to all those who call out to Him.
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It was in that morning, early, when the two went to see their deceased friend.
A miracle waited.
And soon, the apostles realized that Jesus's words were coming true, and his sacrifice to our sin debt was fulfilled.
The stars in their courses fight against the enemies of our souls.
-Charles H Spurgeon
The Aquila Report has an article about Hope That Dispels Darkness, which is a rumination in the aftermath of the most recent school shooting. here
