SCRIPTURE MEDITATIONS
Lamentations 3:22-24; Isaiah 33:2
It is early morning as I write this, so our texts are very appropriate. The other day I greeted a fellow-associate at work with a bright "Good Morning." He said to me, "It is morning." I said, "And it is a good morning." Looking downcast, he said back, "And what's good about it?" (Such a question brings a great opportunity to witness, does it not?) I said, "Well, we are alive, the sun is still shining, and God's mercies are new every morning." His countenance changed with that, stating "Yes, this is true, and that is always good." Don't you and I need to see this and say this every morning, no matter what our circumstances are? It changes things from "negative" to "positive" immediately!
"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." And actually, that is the only reason we live, move, have our being, and can think or work. "Because His compassions fail not." Men fail, we fail, there is much sad news to make us negative, and maybe you are even going through a tough time physically right now. But never doubt God's faithful mercies and compassions! "They are new every morning." I am struck with that word "new." How so? A new day brings new burdens and needs. But grace and mercy are on our trail, so they are "new" for the day, for the special trial, for the special need. "Great is Thy faithfulness." Great, supremely great, infinitely great is the faithfulness of our Creator, and to Him we "commit the keeping of our souls in well doing" (I Peter 4:19).
"Therefore will I hope in Him." Jeremiah could say this "out of the low dungeon" (Lamentations 3:55), and so should we. "O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee; be Thou our arm [strength] every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble" (Isaiah 33:2). "Our strength" is not in ourselves, nor in pills we may take, nor in our own intellect. We do daily need "saving" from many things, including snares, self and sins. As Spurgeon once said, "There is no sin which a Christian cannot overcome if he will only rely upon his God to do it." And Christ Jesus is our Crucified Champion in this, having slain Goliath for us, or Satan himself would surely devour us also. Cheer up, fainting Christian, we have a faithful Saviour, so think anew on this word, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" (Romans 8:33). Positively "no one" is the answer, but only because of "the Lord's mercies."
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