The greatest question of our day," says Will Durant, the philosopher, "is not Communism versus individualism, not Europe versus America, not even the East versus the West. It is whether a man can bear to live without God."
To every believer the Lord God is a sun and shield, light and protection. And what a wonderful promise is the next part of the verse: "The Lord will give grace and glory." God may not give us money, but He will give grace. He may not give us health, but He will give grace. He may not give us friends, but He will give us grace. He may send us trial, but He will give grace enough to meet it. We may have to labor, we may have to suffer, but God's grace will be ours.
And notice that next word, "and"--"grace and glory." We are not ready for the glory yet; we are not fit for it. But when the Savior shall appear and we shall see Him as He is, we shall be like Him (1 John 3:2). Then we shall enter the glory. First the bread of grace, then the wine of glory. We must go through the holy place of grace before we can enter the most holy place of glory.
No matter what happens, remember this: The Lord will not withhold any good thing from us if we walk uprightly. He may withhold many pleasing things, but no good thing, and He is the righteous judge of what is good and best for us. Speaking right to the hearts of fathers, He said: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:11).
MEDITATION PRAYER: "There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us" (Ps. 4:6).