The Giver Or The Gifts

Psalm 112:1-5

1Praise the LORD!

Happy are those who fear the LORD.

Yes, happy are those who delight in doing what he commands.

2Their children will be successful everywhere;

an entire generation of godly people will be blessed.

3They themselves will be wealthy,

and their good deeds will never be forgotten.

4When darkness overtakes the godly, light will come bursting in.

They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.

5All goes well for those who are generous,

who lend freely and conduct their business fairly.

Walter Petherick, a wealthy London merchant in the seventeenth century, was the kind of person that Psalm 112 talks about—godly, devoted to his family, generous—but the darkness of verse 4 had not tested him yet.

Then on a Sunday morning in 1665 he listened to a preacher speak on Habakkuk. The minister talked about the prophet sitting in the midst of desolate Jerusalem, singing and rejoicing in spite of total devastation. At this time London was like Habakkuk’s Jerusalem. For two years a plague had ravaged the city, and more desolation was yet to come. But, thus far, Petherick and his family had been spared.

Petherick went home from church and prayed for each of the members of his family, anguishing over whether he could rejoice in the Lord if they were taken by the plague. But that night Petherick acknowledged the Giver to be more important than his gifts, and he surrendered all his possessions to him.

A year later the London fire swept through the city, and Petherick’s warehouse was consumed by the blaze. But he was able to pray, “O Lord, . . . you threatened me with the loss of your choicest gifts in order that I might set my affections more upon their Giver. Accept the thanks of your servant this day and help him to rejoice in the Lord.”

Has the Giver become more important to you than his gifts?

And must I part with all I have,

My dearest Lord, for thee?

It is but right, since thou hast done

Much more than that for me.

BENJAMIN BEDDOME

Notable Quotable

“It is a small thing to lose the gifts as long as you possess the Giver; the supreme tragedy lies in losing the Giver and retaining only the gifts.”

F. W. BOREHAM