DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Blessed God, our heart does praise you, our inmost soul exults in your name, for the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever. Your people praise you, O God, for all that you have been to them, and we can all set bring you worthy praise by reason of our personal experience of your goodness.
You have dealt well with your servants, O Lord, according unto your word. We bless you for teaching us from our youth; for some of us have known you, even from our childhood, and your word was precious to us even in our earlier days, when, like young Samuel, we were spoken to of the Lord. Now you have carried us these years in the wilderness with unchanging love and goodness. You have made us and you do carry us; you do not forsake the work of your hands. “His faithful love endures forever,” and let your praise endure for ever also.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His faithful love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1)
Thanks are the least that we can offer, and these we ought freely to give. The inspired writer calls us to praise the Lord for all his goodness to us, and all the greatness of his power in blessing his chosen. We thank our parents, let us praise our heavenly Father; we are grateful to our benefactors, let us give thanks unto the Giver of all good.
“For he is good.” Essentially he is goodness itself, practically all that he does is good, relatively he is good to his creatures. Let us thank him that we have seen, proved, and tasted that he is good. He is good beyond all others; indeed, he alone is good in the highest sense; he is the source of good, the good of all good, the sustainer of good, the perfecter of good, and the rewarder of good. For this he deserves the constant gratitude of his people.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
How does God’s unfailing love allow suffering and evil?
Today, we praised God for his gracious, merciful, unending, never changing love. For some of us, this kind of prayer is challenging to pray. Our experience tries to drown out the truth of Scripture. Surely a God who allows so much suffering cannot really be infinitely loving?
Grappling with questions like “If God is love why do bad things happen?” can increase your amazement at the wonders of God’s love. And so wrestling through those questions is important.
One great resource for helping you tackle those questions is The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson. This short book explains God’s love in a thoroughly biblical way that will leave you amazed at God’s grace and more eager to love others.
I hope you’ll grab a copy and read it this summer.