“You split open springs and brooks;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made summer and winter.”
“Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock.” Psalm 74:15-17; 77:19-20a
God ordains both day and night. As sure as the earth spins to a rising sun each morning and setting sun each evening, so sure is His constancy in our days of light and joy and nights of dark and distress. The boundaries and limits, the testing and lessons, the stinging and balm, the blessings and graces, all are His, held and bestowed by His mighty, loving hands. He is the sovereign of seasons.
For us, life is not so predictable or steady. We make plans and have them dashed, we begin a project only to find our progress thwarted. We leap along in joy and slam into sorrow, we work to complete and urgencies interrupt. We try to script children and careers, and the Author of our faith rewrites again and again. His is the day, His also the night.
Am I prone to be grateful when things hum along smoothly, but grouch and doubt when circumstances turn rocky? Do I quickly go from a wink and smile to a furrowed brow? What is it I expect from God, or think I deserve? How will I correct my attitude? Can I honestly concur with Job, Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? He determines one and the other, knowing both are necessary for the development of our faith and grasp of His mercies and goodness. Remember, His is the day, His also the night. (Job 1:21; 2:10)
Instead of grousing ungratefully, how might my outlook change if I welcomed hardships as the required underbelly of the graces I’ve received, the balance to favor that gives it punch? Isn’t light all the brighter when I’ve come from the dark? And doesn’t the length of night enhance appreciation for dawning day? Let’s praise God for His imagination and sovereignty in ordering rhythms of days and seasons, and see how heavenly anticipation might increase. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5; 130:6)
“O worship the King all-glorious above,
O gratefully sing his power and his love:
our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.
O tell of his might and sing of his grace,
whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
in you do we trust, nor find you to fail.
Your mercies, how tender, how firm to the end,
our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!
O measureless Might, unchangeable Love,
whom angels delight to worship above!
Your ransomed creation, with glory ablaze,
in true adoration shall sing to your praise!” ~Robert Grant (1833)
Father, keep me trusting and praising You for ruling both day and night for my good and Your glory.
As the rain and snow 