June 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me" (Ps. 138:7).

Devotional

Contemplate the Psalmist's circumstances—walking "in the midst of trouble." It was no new and untrodden path along which he was pursuing his way to God. The foot-print—sometimes stained with blood, always moistened with tears—of many a suffering pilgrim might be portrayed that way. It has been so since the time that Abel, the ancient martyr, laid the first bleeding brow that ever rested on the bosom of Jesus.

And yet, O believer, how often does trial surprise you, as "as though something strange were happening to you" (1 Pet. 4:12)? That you should be startled and alarmed at the unusual nature of a certain affliction is no surprise. But that you should be startled at the trial itself—as if you alone are exempted from the discipline of the covenant, the only one in the family of God; as if our Savior's declaration, "In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33), does not apply to you—that is astonishing.

But in fact David's experience is that of many of the spiritual seed of David. His words seem to imply, continuous trial: "I walk in the midst of trouble." How many travelers to the celestial city have found it to be so! They seem never to be without trial. They know no cessation. They obtain no repose. They experience no rest. The foam of one mountainous billow has scarcely broken before another follows in its wake, "Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me" (Ps. 42:7).

Is it the trial of sickness? The darkened room, hardly ever illumined with a cheering ray of light; the bed of suffering, seldom offering one moment's real repose; the couch of weariness, rarely left—these are vivid pictures of trial, drawn from real life. They need no coloring of the imagination to heighten or exaggerate.

Is it domestic trial? What scenes of nonstop chafings and anxieties, turmoils and bitterness, some families present. Trouble never seems to be absent from the little circle.

Yes, it is through a series of trials that many of Christ's followers are called to travel. The loss of your earthly possessions may be followed by the decay of your health. And this succeeded perhaps by that which, of all afflictions, the most deeply pierces and lacerates your heart and covers every scene with the dark pall of woe for a time—the desolation of death. Thus, O believer, you ever journey along a path paved with sorrow and hemmed in by trial.

Well, so be it! We do not speak of it complainingly, God forbid! We do not challenge the wisdom, nor doubt the mercy, nor question the truth of him who drew every line of that path, who paved every step of that way, and who knows its history from the end to the beginning.

Why should your heart fret against the Lord? Why should you weary at the way? It is the ordained way. It is the right way. It is the Lord's way. And it is the way to the city made without hands, where both soul and body—the companions of the weary pilgrimage—will together sweetly and eternally rest. Then all trouble ceases. Then all conflict terminates. Emerging from the gloom and labyrinth of the wilderness, your released spirit will find itself at home, the inhabitant of a world of which it is said, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Rev. 21:4).

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
holy his will abideth;
I will be still whate'er he doth;
and follow where he guideth:
he is my God: though dark my road,
he holds me that I shall not fall:
wherefore to him I leave it all.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
he never will deceive me;
he leads me by the proper path;
I know he will not leave me:
I take, content, what he hath sent;
his hand can turn my griefs away,
and patiently I wait his day.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
though now this cup, in drinking,
may bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking:
my God is true; each morn anew
sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
and pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
here shall my stand be taken;
though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
yet am I not forsaken;
my Father's care is round me there;
he holds me that I shall not fall:
and so to him I leave it all.

(Samuel Rodigast, 1675; tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.