We Preach Christ and Him Crucified - 1 Corinthians 1:23

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee..

Psalm 5:11

Gems from David Brainerd

1) Let me forget the world—and be swallowed up in the desire to glorify God.

2) It is sweet to be nothing and less than nothing—so that Christ may be all in all.

3) We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation is in God.

4) God designs that those whom He sanctifies, shall tarry awhile in this present evil world, that their own experience of temptations may teach them how great the deliverance is, which God has wrought for them.

“For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell." Colossians 1:19

All wisdom to guide, all power to uphold, all love to soothe, all grace to support, all tenderness to sympathize, dwells in Christ. Let us, then, gird ourselves to a fresh taking hold of Christ. We must walk through this year not by sight, but by faith- and that faith must deal simply and directly, with Jesus. "Without me you can do nothing." But with His strength made perfect in our weakness, we can do all things. Oh, be this our course and our posture- "coming up from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved." Living in a world of imperfection and change, we must expect nothing perfect, nothing stable, in what we are, in what we do, or in what we enjoy. But amid the dissolving views of the world that "passes away," let us take firm hold of the unchangeableness of God. The wheels may revolve, but the axle on which they turn is immoveable. Such is our covenant God. Events may vary- providences may change- friends may die- feelings may fluctuate- but God in Christ will know "no variableness, neither the shadow of a turning." "Having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end."

Octavius Winslow

Wisdom from the Proverbs:

My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change: For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both? Proverbs 24:21 -22

Exposition of Psalm 5:2

Psalm 5:2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.

Verse 2. The voice of my cry. In another Psalm we find the expression, "The voice of my weeping." Weeping has a voice — a melting, plaintive tone, an ear piercing shrillness — which reaches the very heart of God; and crying has a voice — a soul moving eloquence; coming from our heart — it reaches God's heart.

Ah! my brothers and sisters, sometimes we cannot put our prayers into words: they are nothing but a cry: but the Lord can comprehend the meaning, for he hears a voice in our cry. To a loving father, his children's cries are music, and they have a magic influence which his heart cannot resist.

My King, and my God. Observe carefully these little pronouns, "my King, and my God." They are the pith and marrow of the plea. Here is a grand argument why God should answer prayer — because he is our King and our God. We are not aliens to him — he is the King of our hearts. Kings are expected to hear the appeals of their own people. We are not strangers to him; we are his worshipers, and he is our God: ours by covenant, by promise, by oath, by blood.

For unto thee will I pray. Here David expresses his declaration that he will seek to God, and to God alone. God is to be the only object of worship — the only resource of our soul in times of need. Leave broken cisterns to the godless and let the godly drink from the Divine fountain alone. "Unto you will I pray." He makes a resolution, that as long as he lived, he would pray. He would never cease to supplicate, even though the answer should not come.