I recently came across a wonderful prayer penned by Archibald Alexander many years ago. In it he prays that God would bless and protect him through the years of old age and into the gates of heaven. May his prayer be ours!

O most merciful God, cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength declineth. Now, when I am old and grey-headed, forsake me not; but let Thy grace be sufficient for me; and enable me to bring forth fruit, even in old age. May my hoary head be found in the ways of righteousness! Preserve my mind from dotage and imbecility, and my body from protracted disease and excruciating pain. Deliver me from despondency and discouragement in my declining years, and enable me to bear affliction with patience, fortitude, and perfect submission to Thy holy will.
As, in the course of nature, I must be drawing near to my end, and as I know I must soon put off this tabernacle, I do humbly and earnestly beseech Thee, O Father of mercies, to prepare me for this inevitable and solemn event: Fortify my mind against the terrors of death. Give me, if it please Thee, an easy passage through the gate of death. Dissipate the dark clouds and mists which naturally hang over the grave, and lead me gently down into the gloomy valley. O my kind Shepherd, who hast tasted the bitterness of death for me, and who knowest how to sympathize with and succour the sheep of Thy pasture, be Thou present to guide, to support, and to comfort me. Illumine with beams of heavenly light the valley and shadow of death, so that I may fear no evil. When heart and flesh fail, be Thou the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Let not my courage fail in the trying hour. Permit not the great adversary to harass my soul in the last struggle, but make me a conqueror and more than a conqueror in this fearful conflict.
I humbly ask that my reason may be continued to the last, and if it be Thy will, that I may be so comforted and supported, that I may leave a testimony in favour of the reality of religion, and Thy faithfulness in fulfilling Thy gracious promises; and that others of Thy servants who may follow after may be encouraged by my example to commit themselves boldly to the guidance and keeping of the Shepherd of Israel.
And when my spirit leaves this clay tenement, Lord Jesus, receive it. Send some of the blessed angels to convoy my inexperienced soul to the mansion which Thy love has prepared. And O! let me be so situated, though in the lowest rank, that I may behold Thy glory. May I have an abundant entrance administered unto me into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; for whose sake, and in whose name, I ask all these things. Amen.

Before the tabernacle was assembled upon the plains, Moses received a vision of it upon the mountain. Before he directed the first weaving, the first stitching, the first forging, he had been given a detailed image of the completed whole. God led him in a comprehensive walkthrough and delivered to him a thorough set of instructions.

It’s for this reason that there are chapters in the book of Exodus that run in parallel. In chapter 26 God provides instruction: “You shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.” Ten chapters later we read this description: ”All the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains. They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked.” Again, “You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the clasps, so that the tabernacle may be a single whole.” And so, a short time later, “he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to the other with clasps. So the tabernacle was a single whole.”
Thus it went from the tabernacle to the altar to the table to the lampstand to the Ark of the Covenant. Moses had received clear and exhaustive instructions from God and to be obedient he simply had to do exactly as he had been directed. God’s will was clear and it fell to Moses to execute it.
We may wish that God provided this kind of direction today. Especially when we come to life’s trials and difficulties, its questions and uncertainties, we may wish that God would describe what it means to be obedient from start to finish, from beginning to end. We may wish that he would give us a vision of the whole before we set out and that he would give us a thorough set of directions before we take the first step. We learn quickly, though, that this is not God’s way.
It’s not that God has no plan for our lives or that he is making things up as he goes. It’s not that he is adeptly responding to circumstances and directing first this way and then that. It’s not that he neglected to create a clear blueprint in his mind or that he lacks the power to execute it all in its minutest details. No, the truth is that God has every bit as much of a design for our lives as he did for his tabernacle. Our days are as clearly and precisely laid out in his mind as was his place of worship. If it was important to God to tell exactly how many rings must fasten each curtain, then certainly no detail of our lives is too small, no moment too trivial, no decision too insignificant to be meaningless or to fall outside of his plan.
But when it comes to our lives, God chooses to unfold his will in bits, in steps, in phases. He chooses to unfold his will in real-time and not in advance. He chooses to unfold his will in such a way that we need to exercise faith—faith that all we experience is within his providence, faith that the way will become clear as we go, and faith that when we look back upon it all, we will praise him for his wisdom. We proceed through life with a page of directions that includes just the next step or two, not with a booklet of instructions that displays the completed whole.
But even with this being the case, we lack nothing that is necessary to live faithfully and well. Where God gave Moses a blueprint, he gives us many promises. Where God gave Moses a detailed plan, he gives us many sweet assurances. Perhaps the best of them is this: “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” As we live with him and for him, he keeps back nothing we need to live in the way that pleases and honors him. And if God keeps back from us no good thing, then it must be equally true that he dispenses to us no ultimately bad thing. His providence does not fall into the two categories of good and bad, but just the one category of good. Everything is ultimately good because everything proceeds from his wisdom and falls within his plan.
Thus, whether our path leads through green pastures or dark valleys, we can be certain that God is withholding no good thing. Whether our path leads through depths of pain or heights or joy, we can have confidence that God is dispensing no evil thing. Whether our path leads in just one direction or forks into many possibilities, we can be sure that the God who told exactly how many rings must fasten each curtain is the very same God who will dispense the wisdom we need to discern whether it’s best to stay or return, to accept or decline, to press on or turn back. No matter where God leads, we can have the highest assurance that through it all he is making us more like Christ and bringing glory to his name. For the Lord is our sun and shield and he bestows to his beloved nothing but favor and honor.

Grace and peace to you, my friends.
Today’s Kindle deals include Voddie Baucham’s It’s Not Like Being Black, which has only been out for a few weeks. You’ll also find several books by Megan Hill such as Sighing on Sunday. On the general market side, The Only Plane in the Sky is probably the most interesting book on 9/11 you’ll ever read.
(Yesterday on the blog: I Used To Dream Big Dreams)

This is the only article I’ve ever read that ties together Keith Green and Bill Hybels. “Green himself was an iconoclast. This is a man, after all, who gave tens of thousands of his albums away for free, and refused to charge for his concerts. He practiced what he preached. Yet let me note an irony about those two lines I just quoted. The iconoclastic rejection and removal of the former was often accompanied by the uncritical adoption of the latter. What do I mean by that?”

John Piper answers a difficult question from a heartbroken mother. “My expected delivery date passed, and I was told to go to the hospital for an induced labor. I delayed that decision, trusting that I would eventually deliver my baby girl without any forced labor needed. A week later, I was told my baby died in the womb.” She wonders whether her negligence killed her baby.

This article from Kevin DeYoung seems like a good one to follow Piper’s. “As children of our Heavenly Father, divine providence is always for us and never against us. Joseph’s imprisonment seemed pointless, but it makes sense now.  Slavery in Egypt makes sense now.  Killing the Messiah makes sense now.  Whatever difficulty or unknown you may be facing today, it will make sense someday–if not in this life, then certainly in the next.”

How is God our Father? This article answers. “The name is not a metaphor. Neither is it something we should conceptualize on the basis of what human fathers are like. It is the revealed name, given by God…”

Men will benefit from reading (and heeding) this call to friendship.

Christine Chappell: “Nostalgic postpartum advice can be problematic when it elevates one mother’s sentimentality over another’s reality. The fact is that not every woman holding a newborn is relishing the situation she’s in. Her invisible pain may be shrouded by painted smiles; her sorrows may be exasperated by secret shame; she can appear to be flourishing while quietly withering in a chaotic or turbulent home.”

What benefit is there in receiving a message that is a) vague, b) needing interpretation and c) potentially wrong when we have much better promises that we know are inerrant and infallible?

There is no such virtue as temperance in spiritual feasting.
—Jonathan Edwards