Last night was one of those nights when I slept miserably, tossing and turning and just never fully falling asleep (10mg of Ambien notwithstanding). You know the kind of night I am describing- one filled with thoughts and concerns that range the spectrum of problems, but largely empty of solutions. By dawn, I finally gave up and acknowledged that sleep had escaped me this night.
I also found myself on my knees in prayer. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's just that arthritis afflicts my knees making them work so poorly that the "getting up" part of the deal is not a foregone conclusion. Still, there are those times when physically bowing in prayer seems to be the only appropriate action to take. This was one of those times.
After some time I did manage to get upright again. The feelings of despair did not disappear with the change in elevation of heart and head. But, the change in posture did bring into sight my hard copy of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. I have a Daily Bible Reading program on my Droid that I use (most days!) and Spurgeon is usually my choice in devotional reading to accompany the daily Scriptures. Rather than going downstairs to fire up my Droid, I picked up the book and opened to today's reading. I believe that today's message was a timely word from the Lord. Here is Spurgeon's brief meditation for the morning of 31 May.
"The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron."—2 Samuel 15:23.
DAVID passed that gloomy brook when flying with his mourning company from his traitor son. The man after God's own heart was not exempt from trouble, nay, his life was full of it. He was both the Lord's Anointed, and the Lord's Afflicted. Why then should we expect to escape? At sorrow's gates the noblest of our race have waited with ashes on their heads, wherefore then should we complain as though some strange thing had happened unto us?
The KING of kings himself was not favoured with a more cheerful or royal road. He passed over the filthy ditch of Kidron, through which the filth of Jerusalem flowed. God had one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod. It is a great joy to believe that Jesus has been tempted in all points like as we are. What is our Kidron this morning? Is it a faithless friend, a sad bereavement, a slanderous reproach, a dark foreboding? The King has passed over all these. Is it bodily pain, poverty, persecution, or contempt? Over each of these Kidrons the King has gone before us. "In all our afflictions He was afflicted." The idea of strangeness in our trials must be banished at once and for ever, for He who is the Head of all saints, knows by experience the grief which we think so peculiar. All the citizens of Zion must be free of the Honourable Company of Mourners, of which the Prince Immanuel is Head and Captain.
Notwithstanding the abasement of David, he yet returned in triumph to his city, and David's Lord arose victorious from the grave; let us then be of good courage, for we also shall win the day. We shall yet with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation, though now for a season we have to pass by the noxious streams of sin and sorrow. Courage, soldiers of the Cross, the King himself triumphed after going over Kidron, and so shall you.
