Today I take us back to a Daily Prescription that I wrote over ten years ago. A lot has taken place in my life since then. But I can tell you, friends, I absolutely still believe what I wrote.

“Thou hast put gladness in my heart… I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:7-8).

David certainly had a lot to be unhappy about in his life. King Saul and his soldiers were making life miserable for David. Though David knew that he himself had been anointed by Samuel to be the King someday, between the anointing and that “someday” was a whole lot of misery! In many of the writings of David, he expresses that misery and cries out to the Lord for help. Here he gives the wonderful report that God Himself put gladness in his heart. The Lord was an encouragement to him. That enabled him to lie down and sleep in peace and safety.

This reminds me of a dear couple. I will change their names. Hank sat behind the steering wheel of his car in the doctor’s parking lot. Beside him sat his wife of forty-seven years. She was weeping softly at the report of Hank’s oncologist. His cancer had returned, and it was very serious. Years before this, Hank and Margie, his wife, had placed their trust in the Lord Jesus. Together they had grown spiritually and learned to love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts. Through the tears that day, God did a wonderful thing. He brought Scripture verses to their minds and specifically some very precious promises from the Word of God. Dear friends would walk through this with them, and family that loved them would be nearby. Hank remembered how God had put gladness in David’s heart, and he asked the Lord to do that very same thing for them.

For today: Sometimes gladness in the heart comes even though there are tears in the eyes!