252. Monday after First Sunday after Trinity.
Lead us into thy sanctuary, O our God,
and let us abide with thee alway. Amen.
Psalm 73, 12-19. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
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When the wicked prosper; when “there are no bands in their death, and their strength is firm, and pride compasseth them about as a chain, and their eyes stand out with fatness, and they speak wickedly concerning oppression, and set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth”; — then even the pious are tempted to ask: “How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?” The prophet Jeremiah says: “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are they happy that deal very treacherously? Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root; they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit; thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.” (Jer. 12, 1. 2). The believers of the time of the Old Covenant are not alone in finding it hard to explain, why it is that the wicked blossom, while the saints wither; the same question troubles us also. The fact, however, that events do so shape themselves in this world points beyond the life which now is to things eternal. Behind the curtain of visible things there is another world, into which we have already entered; but our natural eye does not see it. We all are, to be sure, children of this world, and here our lot is cast for a little while; but we are children of an invisible world also; each one of us belongs to, and has his portion in, either heaven or hell; but it is only in the sanctuary of God that we learn to understand this. The end of all the wicked who do not repent is terrible; but it is not seen of men. The rich man died, and was buried with proper honors, and was probably praised as one whose virtues insured him salvation; — but he lifted up his eyes — in hell! God is just, and sets the ungodly in slippery places. If they enjoy riches and good health, this is at once God’s mercy and his judgment; if they are poor and wretched, this also is at the same time a call from the God of mercy and a visitation inflicted by the God of justice. But if they continue in sin, all things make for a more heavy judgment upon them. — Do you abide with the Lord, my Christian friend! View his manner of dealing with us by the light of the word. Do not let your carnal mind, but the Spirit, control your feelings; then shall your heart not be tortured with envy by reason of the prosperity of “the foolish,” but swell with tender mercy toward them on account of their misery in the midst of their apparent sumptuousness. Such has always been the nature and habit of God’s children. “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” “I am continually with thee; thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
Give us godly hearts, that we may know thy ways, and that we may regard the suffering, poverty, and cross of Christ as greater riches than all the splendors of the world. Give us this light; give us this mind, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.*
Thou seest our weakness, Lord!
Our hearts are known to thee:
O lift thou up the sinking hand,
Confirm the feeble knee!
Let us in life, in death,
Thy steadfast truth declare,
And publish with our latest breath
Thy love and guardian care. [short meter**]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.
** Turn to p. 842 of TLH and sing to any of the tunes under S. M. or S. M. D.