The Disposer of Destinies

The gradual disappearance of the idea and feeling of majesty from the Church is a sign and a portent. The revolt of the modern mind has had a heavy price, how heavy is becoming more apparent as the years go by. Our God has now become our servant to wait on our will. “The Lord is my shepherd,” we say, instead of “The Lord is my shepherd,” and the difference is as wide as the world.

We need to have restored again the lost idea of sovereignty, not as a doctrine only but as the source of a solemn religious emotion. We need to have taken from our dying hand the shadow scepter with which we fancy we rule the world. We need to feel and know that we are but dust and ashes, and that God is the disposer of the destinies of men. How ashamed we Christians should be that a pagan king should teach us to fear the Majesty on high. For it was the chastened Nebuchadnezzar who said, “I lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”

Verse

His dominion is an eternal dominion; / his kingdom endures from generation to generation. / All the peoples of the earth / are regarded as nothing. / He does as he pleases / with the powers of heaven / and the peoples of earth. / No one can hold back his hand / or say to him: “What have you done?” Daniel 4:34–35

Thought

We need to feel and know that we are but dust and ashes, and that God is the disposer of the destinies of men.

Prayer

Let us acknowledge, like that king of old, that You, Holy God, are all powerful and that no one can stay Your hand.