Morning, February 27, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place.” — Psalm 91:9

The Israelites in the wilderness were continually exposed to change. Whenever the pillar of fire stopped its motion, the tents were pitched; but the next day, before the morning sun had risen, the trumpet sounded, the ark was in motion, and the fiery, cloudy pillar was leading the way through the narrow passes of the mountain, up the hill side, or along the arid wasteland of the wilderness. They had barely time to rest a little before they heard the sound of “Away! This is not your rest; you must still be onward journeying towards Canaan!” They were never long in one place. Even wells and palm trees could not detain them. Yet, they had an abiding home in their God; his cloudy pillar was their canopy of shade, and its flame their household fire by night. They must go onward from place to place, continually changing, never having time to settle, and to say, “Now we are secure; in this place we shall dwell.” “Yet,” says Moses, “though we are always changing, Lord, you have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.” The Christian knows no change with respect to God. He may be rich today and poor tomorrow; he may be ailing today and well tomorrow; he may be in happiness today, tomorrow he may be distressed—but there is no change regarding his relationship to God. If he loved me yesterday, he loves me today. My blessed Lord is my unmoving mansion of rest. Let prospects decay; let hopes be blasted; let joy be withered; let mildew destroy everything; I have lost nothing of what I have in God. He is “my rock of habitation to which I may continually come.” I am a pilgrim in the world, but at home in my God. In the earth I wander, but in God I dwell in a quiet habitation.