Prayer
Lord, let us not grow weary in well doing. Help our unbelief, and let us look expectantly to you for the harvest. Amen.
Today’s Hymn
Words: Judson W. Van DeVenter, 1896
Music: Winfield S. Weeden, 1896
I SURRENDER ALL
Click here for tune.
All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
Refrain
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
Refrain
All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.
Refrain
All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.
Refrain
All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His name!
Refrain
Thought Provoker
Every farmer knows that you will produce very little if, once you toss the first seed, you sit down on your upside-down five gallon bucket and watch the ground, waiting for a plant and its produce to spring up. But not every Christian remembers this truth in the spiritual sense. Our passage is a reminder to keep on casting seed, and to trust God to bring the increase.
Dad’s Study
Our Psalm could divide into three parts. There is, first of all, a remembrance by the people of the past deliverance of the Lord. When God worked wonderfully to bring back part of the captivity to Zion, they were so overwhelmed; it was like a dream to them (“we were as those who dream”). This deliverance led both to the rejoicing of God’s people, and the respect and acknowledgement of the world concerning the great works of God. This reminds us that the Lord constantly has these two motives in His work in the history of the world. He is always working to “wow” and bring to worship and praise His special people, and in the mean time demonstrate through them to the world the fact that He is the One true and living God. In our passage, the world’s recognition of God’s wonders leads them to freshly appreciate His work: the Lord has “done great things for us,” and therefore “we are glad” (v3)
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The second part of the psalm, verse 4, is the prayer for God to do such a work among them now, as He has done in the past. It is a “revive us again” kind of prayer. Lord, what you have done, we ask you to do again, in this generation, at this present time.
The third part of the psalm deals with what must go on in the mean time. We are to seek and pray for revival, but we do not do so while sitting on our hands. We must see that the ground we are asking the Lord to bless and make fruitful is covered with seed for when He gives the increase.
There is great encouragement here as well. We are not on a fool’s errand in sowing this seed on what may seem to be very dry and barren land. If it is watered with our own tears-our heart cry for the salvation of others, our yearning and longing for the Lord’s blessing, and for true reformation and revival-if that is what is sown with this seed, we “shall reap with joy.” As this verb “go” or “goeth forth” is used twice, it emphasizes the persistence and continuance of the action. We must “keep going,” or be “going and going” forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing. It is the Old Testament equivalent to Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” What a blessing that, though the sowing is in tears, the reaping shall be “with rejoicing.” In His time, by His means, the Lord will bring the increase to our labor, done in His Spirit and by His Word. Click here for Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Truth in Practice
Family Worship
What areas are you most discouraged in? Battling with a nagging remaining sin, or seeing little fruit in ministering to others in the church, or seeing no one won to the lost through your witness? Read over verses 5-6 again. These are words from your Heavenly Father, from your faithful God. They are true words; they are trustworthy in every way. Let us press on. What might the Lord do in our generation? Let us pray for great things.
Pastor James Williamson
Catechism Question : 6
Q. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory (1 John 5:7; Mt. 28:19).
