Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

December 23– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“The night also is yours [O Lord].”

—Psalm 74:16

Yes, Lord, you do not abdicate your throne when the sun goes down, nor do you leave the world to fall prey to evil during these long, cold wintry nights. Your eyes watch us like the stars, and your arms

surround us like the constellations which decorate the sky. The dews of restful sleep and the influences of the moon are in your hand. The sirens and somberness of night are equally with you. This is sweet to me when I am awake during the midnight hours or tossing on my bed in anguish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun; may the Lord graciously allow us to participate in them.

The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and control of the Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. The Lord wraps the night in his love like an ebony blanket. The robe of darkness in no way hides him from the eyes of faith.  From the first watch of the night even unto the break of day the Eternal Watcher observes his saints and distributes the dews of midnight for his people’s greatest good. We believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for control, but we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, “I create light and I create darkness; I, the Lord, do all these things.”

Gloomy seasons of spiritual indifference and social sin are not exempted from God’s oversight. When the altars of truth are defiled and the ways of God forsaken, the Lord’s servants weep with bitter sorrow, but they need not despair, for the darkest seasons are governed by the Lord and will come to their end at his command. What may seem like defeat to us may be victory to him.

“When wrapped in gloomy night, we perceive no ray of light;
But the Lord himself is here, so we will have no fear.” [M&E]