the sovereignty of God. From
Night Watches by John McDuff All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the
powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold
back his hand or say to him, What have you done? Daniel chapter
4 verse 35 How blessed that elementary truth!
The Lord reigns. To know that there is no chance
or accident with God, that He decrees the fall of a sparrow,
the destruction of an atom, the annihilation of a world. The
Almighty is not like Baal, asleep. He that keeps Israel can never
for a moment slumber. Man proposes, but God disposes. You have done it, is the history
of every event, past, present, and to come. His purposes none
can change, His counsels none can resist. Believer, how cheering
to know that all that befalls you is thus ordered in the eternal
purpose of a covenant God. Every minute circumstance of
your lot, appointing the bounds of your habitation, melting out
every drop in the cup of life, arranging what by you is called
its vicissitudes, decreeing all its trials. And at last, as a
great proprietor of life, revoking the lease of existence when its
allotted time has expired. how it should keep the mind from
its guilty proneness to brood and fret over second causes.
Were this grand but simple truth ever realized, that all that
befalls us are integral parts in a stupendous plan of wisdom,
that there is no crossing or thwarting the designs and dealings
of God, none can say, what are you doing? All ought to say,
he does all things well. We dare not venture with presumptuous
gaze to penetrate into those secret things which belong unto
the Lord our God. In all that is fitted in the
consideration of this august theme of the divine decrees,
to impart encouragement and consolation, let us rejoice. In all that is
mysterious and incomprehensible, let us with childlike reverence
exclaim, Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are His
riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to
understand His decisions and His methods! For who can know what the Lord
is thinking? Who knows enough to be His counselor? And who could ever give Him so
much that He would have to pay it back? For everything comes
from Him. Everything exists by His power
and is intended for His glory. To Him be glory evermore. Amen. Contemplation of the sovereignty
of God forms subject matter of rejoicing to the Savior Himself
in His humiliation. Even so, Father, for so it seems
good in your sight. And what supplied material for
comfort and joy to an almighty sufferer may well dry the tears
and soothe the pangs of his suffering people. Oh, how sinners may magnify
their God by a calm submission to His will by seeing no hand
but one in their trials, in giving or taking. Naked I came from
my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave, and the
Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.
Who knows not that in all these the hand of the Lord has wrought
this? Till death the weary spirit free,
My God has said tis good for thee, To walk in faith and not
by sight. Take it on trust a little while,
Soon shall you read the mystery right, In the fall sunshine of
a smile. Will it not further help to the
breathing of the prayer, your will be done? When I think in
connection with the sovereignty of God, of the grand end of His
immutable decrees, it is His own glory. Of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. What more can I desire? All things. God's glory and my own good. I will lie down and sleep in
peace. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm
4 verse 8.