Life's Vicissitudes
Psalm 55:19
God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that stays of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.


You pick up two stones lying near the seashore and only a few yards apart. They not only belong to the same geological formation, but have been splintered from the same rock. One is rugged, made up of sharp, uneven angles, and irregular, broken surfaces. The other is smooth, rounded into an almost perfect sphere, has every delicate vein showing, and is polished as on a lapidary's wheel. What is the secret of this contrast? The one had fallen from the cliff and had been stranded above high-water mark. It had lain for centuries just where it dropped. It had undergone no changes and upheavals. The other had fallen within reach of the waves, and every ebbing and flowing tide had lashed it to and fro for year upon year. It had never been left still for long, but had been tossed, jostled, ground, and polished against the pebbly beach till it took that form of comeliness and beauty. So it is with many lives. The lives of some seem to have fallen to them in pleasant places. Life has brought few changes. And the Holy Book says of such, "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." Other lives are

"Still from one sorrow to another thrown." They sometimes say, "All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me." But what spiritual beauty they have won from their tribulations!



Parallel Verses
KJV: God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.

WEB: God, who is enthroned forever, will hear, and answer them. Selah. They never change, who don't fear God.




Afflictions
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