A CURE FOR DISCONTENT
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"Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your honor all the day" Psalm 71:8
Lord, may this cry of my heart reach Your attentive ear this morning! Lips, and tongue, and mouth are all empty at this calm, quiet hour — and I come to entreat You to cleanse and consecrate them to Yourself and Your service, so that "all the day long" they may be filled with the sweetness of Your love, and out of this blessed fullness, may "show forth Your salvation."
Far too often, O my Master, is my mouth filled with the bitterness of earth's polluted fountains; but now, my chief desire is that only the bright streams of thankful love and praise to You, should flow from it. How seldom does the tender grace of the early morning devotion, last throughout the busy hours of the day! It is gone as the dew on the grass when the sun looks upon it, or as the fleecy cloud when the west wind blows it away. Why is it, dear Lord,that earth and earthly things — have such power to draw away my thoughts and heart from the unseen but eternal realities which are so near and precious to me when I am alone with You? Will You not teach me the blessed secret of abiding "under the shadow of the Almighty!"
"My mouth." This is a distinctly personal matter, about which I should be seriously concerned. "All Your works shall praise You, O Lord; and Your saints shall bless You;" but if every creature and all creation were silent — this tongue of mine ought to speak of Your loving-kindness and Your tender mercy, for "He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God."
"Filled with Your praise." Abounding in thanksgiving! Brimming over with grateful love! So full of joy and rejoicing in God that, "my tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long." This is how it should be; but, alas! Lord, I have not thus glorified You. My heart has more often been troubled than glad; petitions have more frequently filled my mouth than praise; sharp and hasty words have escaped the lips which should "drop as the honeycomb" — and the glory due unto Your Name has been less thought of, than the passing needs of my sinful and selfish heart! O Lord Jesus Christ, how much You have to pardon and to pity! How very far I am yet from being conformed to Your likeness!
A surly servant is no credit to his master; a thankless guest is no joy in a house; and a miserable Christian is an anomaly in God's universe! Lord, help me to cultivate gladness, teach me to improve every occasion of receiving mercy from You; so fill my mouth with praise and thanksgiving, that there may be no room in it for anything less choice and precious! I have Your dear promise to plead when I ask this, for You have said, "Open your mouth wide — and I will fill it." As the hungry little birds in a nest clamor for the food they need, but cannot obtain for themselves, so do all the emotions of my soul long to be supplied by You with the power to show forth Your praise.
Ah, Lord! there is no lack of material for thanksgiving — no dearth of causes for gratitude. There are mountains of mercies to praise You for, seas of exceeding love, boundless stores of grace! I am surrounded, weighed down, covered and submerged with countless blessings — all of which I owe to You, my God. If I could ceaselessly praise You throughout my mortal life, and then through all eternity — I could never begin to repay the debt of love I owe. If every word I spoke, and every act I performed, and every desireof my soul were "to Your Name, and to the remembrance of You" — this would be far less homage, more incomplete devotion than I am bound to render.
"Filled with Your honor." Lord, can it be that Your honor is thus entrusted to the lips of Your believing people? Do you look to such a source for the proclamation of Your perfect justice and Your glorious grace? Is it in this way, that You come seeking "the fruit of our lips giving thanks to Your Name"? How often, then, must we have disappointed and dishonored You, O Lord! I bow my head for very shame before You, when I think how often You have found upon this tongue of mine — either a guilty silence, or thankless and half-hearted words — when there should have been jubilant psalms of praise, and sweetest of songs of thanksgiving. But now, alter all this for me, dear Master: "Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your honor all the day."
From morn to eve, may the chief thought of my life be — how I shall glorify my God by "speaking well of His Name." Through every moment of every hour of every day — may the consciousness that I am Yours, and that You have loved me — stir my spirit to the constant melody of whole-hearted gratitude! You have said, "Whoever offers praise, glorifies Me," and I joyfully reply, "Yes, Lord, my lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto You, and Your praise shall continually be in my mouth."
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