THE CHILDREN'S RESPONSES

Although chapters and verses are man-made divisions, it is interesting that the middle chapter of the whole Bible is Psalm 117. It is also the shortest. We are not told who wrote the Psalm but it is addressed to all nations and must therefore include every child as well as older persons.

The Psalm calls upon us to praise God not, in this instance, as the great Creator of all things, but because of His "loving-kindness" towards us. We may love without proving it or may be kind without loving. Our God, however, has not only loved the world, arid but has shown it by giving His only-begotten Son. The verse, John 3: 16, as well as Psalm 117 should be known by 'heart' by every child.

Another Psalm says that from the rising of the sun to its setting God's name will be praised. Yet another tells us that His praise is to the ends of the earth. There is therefore no time and no place where there is not some response to Him.

At the time when the children were praising the Lord Jesus in the temple He said that if His disciples were silent then the stones themselves would cry out! But this is not necessary now because there are "living stones", as Peter describes us who believe in Jesus and to whom He is precious.

Some of these stones may be quite small but being living they can grow up, as it says, to salvation. Have you tasted that the Lord is good, and do you long for the pure milk of His word?

J.C.Evershed