四月十五日 [mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/04/0415.mp3″]
经文: 扶持他们,直到永远。(诗篇二十八:9)
上帝的百姓需要被扶持。他们需要上帝的恩典使他们乘上有金色羽毛并覆以银子的翅膀。自然界的定律是火光向上飞升,但是人的罪恶心灵却下堕。主啊,永远扶持他们!大卫亲口说:“耶和华阿,我的心仰望祢。”(诗二十五:1)当你为自己如此祈求时,勿忘记也为其他人求。上帝的百姓在三方面需要被扶持举起。他们必须在品格上被举起。主啊,扶持他们,不要让他们像世人一样!世界是在邪恶者的权势下,将祢的儿女高举脱离这世界!世人寻求金银财宝,寻欢作乐、满足于肉体的欲望。主啊,高举祢的百姓,超越这些。保守他们脱离“嗜金”;这是本仁约翰为那搜刮金子的人所冠的称号。让他们的心专注于复活的主并天上的产业。还有,信徒在冲突中也需要成功。在争战中,他们似乎要失败了。主啊,赐他们胜利。倘若仇敌的脚已践踏他们的颈项,助他们紧握圣灵的宝剑,赢得胜利。主啊,从每日的争战中高举祢儿女的心,保守他们免受敌人加予他们的酷刑。但若是他们在迫害中,让他们高唱拯救之上帝的怜悯。我们也要求主在最后的日子高举他们!从坟墓中举起他们的身体,在荣耀中,将他们的灵魂提升到永恒的国度中。
Evening, April 15
Scripture: “Lift them up for ever.”(Psalm 28:9)
God’s people need lifting up. They are very heavy by nature. They have no wings, or, if they have, they are like the dove of old which lay among the pots; and they need divine grace to make them mount on wings covered with silver, and with feathers of yellow gold. By nature sparks fly upward, but the sinful souls of men fall downward. O Lord, “lift them up for ever!” David himself said, “Unto thee, O God, do I lift up my soul,” and he here feels the necessity that other men’s souls should be lifted up as well as his own. When you ask this blessing for yourself, forget not to seek it for others also. There are three ways in which God’s people require to be lifted up. They require to be elevated in character. Lift them up, O Lord; do not suffer thy people to be like the world’s people! The world lieth in the wicked one; lift them out of it! The world’s people are looking after silver and gold, seeking their own pleasures, and the gratification of their lusts; but, Lord, lift thy people up above all this; keep them from being “muck-rakers,” as John Bunyan calls the man who was always scraping after gold! Set thou their hearts upon their risen Lord and the heavenly heritage! Moreover, believers need to be prospered in conflict. In the battle, if they seem to fall, O Lord, be pleased to give them the victory. If the foot of the foe be upon their necks for a moment, help them to grasp the sword of the Spirit, and eventually to win the battle. Lord, lift up thy children’s spirits in the day of conflict; let them not sit in the dust, mourning for ever. Suffer not the adversary to vex them sore, and make them fret; but if they have been, like Hannah, persecuted, let them sing of the mercy of a delivering God.
We may also ask our Lord tolift them up at the last! Lift them up by taking them home, lift their bodies from the tomb, and raise their souls to thine eternal kingdom in glory.