40 Days of Prayer, Day 36
Day 36, Sunday, September 25
“The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalm 1:4-6
The Destiny of the Contrite in Heart
Today, the final Sunday of the 40 Days of Prayer, we come to the closing verses of the first psalm. The psalmist provides us with a joyful promise and a weighty warning. For the righteous, those who live according to the Word of God, there is a joy in the gathering at the day of judgment. The Lord knows the ways of those who have lived according to His Word. He remembers their ways and when they come before Him on that day, there is joy in the “assembly of the righteous.” Each Sunday we gather for the purposes of preparing ourselves for that day. We gather to worship Him now, though limited by our physical and spiritual hindrances. We worship Him now even though we don’t often physically feel our best. We worship Him now even when we struggle with emotional and spiritual distractions. The contrite in heart submit to the Word of God and look forward to a day of being with God. Those with contrite heart look forward to the day when they will gather together with all who have loved Him and His Word. On that day God will reveal that any and all sacrifices for the sake of loving Him and His Word were worth the cost.
The Destiny of the Rebellious
One of my favorite passages from Spurgeon’s Treasury of David comes from Psalm 1:6. The Lord knows the way of the righteous. He is constantly looking on their way, and though it may be often in mist and darkness, yet the Lord knows it. If it is in the clouds and tempest of affliction, he understands it. He numbers the hairs of our head; he will not suffer any evil to befall us. "He knows the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." (Job 23:10) But the way of the ungodly shall perish. Not only shall they perish themselves, but their way shall perish too. The righteous carves his name upon the rock, but the wicked writes his remembrance in the sand. The righteous man ploughs the furrows of earth, and sows a harvest here, which shall never be fully reaped till he enters the enjoyments of eternity; but as for the wicked, he ploughs the sea, and though there may seem to be a shining trail behind his keel, yet the waves shall pass over it, and the place that knew him shall know him no more forever. The very "way" of the ungodly shall perish. If it exists in remembrance, it shall be in the remembrance of the bad; for the Lord will cause the name of the wicked to rot, to become a stench in the nostrils of the good, and to be only known to the wicked themselves by its putridity. May the Lord cleanse our hearts and our ways, that we may escape the doom of the ungodly, and enjoy the blessedness of the righteous!
Prayer Focus
Oh Lord, prepare my heart for worship. I worship you despite all the weaknesses and distractions that create barriers to authentic worship. Help me in my weaknesses to truly worship. Help me to worship you in spirit and in truth. I know that one day I will see You face to face. On that day You will banish all the hindrances to authentic worship. I long for that day of being with the assembly of the righteous. Between now and that day, may the offerings of my praise to You bring honor to Your name. Amen.
From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice
Thus it is in spirituals. The world, they do not know what the anguish or pain of a broken heart means; they say, 'Who will show us any good, ' that is, better than we find in our sports, pleasures, and preferences. 'There are many, ' says the Psalmist, speak this way. But what says the distressed man? Why, 'Lord, do You lift up the light of Your countenance upon us'; and then adds, 'You have put gladness in my heart'; namely, by the light of Your countenance, for that is the healing for a broken heart. 'You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increase' (Psa 4:1-7). O! a broken heart can savor pardon, can savor the consolations of the Holy Ghost. Yea, as a hungry or thirsty man prizes bread and water, so do the broken in heart prize and set a high esteem on the things of the Lord Jesus. His flesh, his blood, his promise, and the light of his countenance, are the only sweet things both to scent and taste, to those that are of a wounded spirit. If twenty men were to hear a pardon read, and but one of those twenty were condemned to die, and the pardon was for none; which of these men would taste the sweetness of that pardon, they who are not, or he that was condemned? The broken in heart is a condemned man; yea, it is a sense of condemnation, with other things, that has indeed broken his heart; nor is there anything but sense of forgiveness that can bind it up, or heal it.