Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: December 15th

THE CUP OF SALVATION

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord. - Psalms 116:13

Here is a guiding word about plain common duties. How few of us recognise, and receive into our hearts, all the lesser daily blessings which God pours down upon us! How many of us are like Hainan, to whom the Persian king’s favour, and the real sovereignty over his empire, and everything that gratified ambition could expect, all turned to ashes in his mouth because one poor Jew sat there, and would not get up when he passed. "All this availeth me nothing, as long as Mordecai sits at the gate." Ah! we all have our Mordecais, and we say to ourselves, " God has given me this mercy, that blessing, and the other one; but it all turns to bitterness because I cannot get that other thing that I want. It is a little one, but I want it, for without it everything else is nothing." There are some of us who, if there is the faintest suspicion of a cloud away down on the horizon shiver and complain as if there were no sunshine. One sorrow can blot out a thousand joys. One disappointment can more than cancel a whole series of fulfilled expectations, Alas! that it should be so. Brother, be sure that you take all the blessings of your daily life that God bestows upon you, and do not be one of God’s fractious children, who care for none of His gifts because they are whimpering for the moon, and nothing else will satisfy them. Take what is given, and you will find that it is far more than you expected, and your hands and your heart will be full.

And then there is another plain piece of practical wisdom, " I will take the cup, . . . and call upon the Name of the Lord." Do not take any cup in your hand that you cannot do that with. You remember the old stories about the demon-prepared banquets spread in the desert to tempt the knight from his quest. When the Name of God was pronounced over them, they vanished, and instead of dainties and gold plate and a luxurious table, there was only a heap of dry sticks and stones on the sand. Name the Name of God over the cup before you put it to your lips; and if you cannot, dash it down. Be sure that it is no cup of salvation unless you do. Unless we do thus associate thankful thoughts of the giving God with all our common blessings, they are no blessings, and will draw us away from Him.

But do not forget that we can render to God something which He does not possess in such a manner as satisfies His heart, unless we give it Him. We can give Him ourselves: and we shall be moved to such self-surrender only when we have taken the full cup of full salvation which Christ has made ours by His giving Himself for, and to, us all. " I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice."’