Fasting for Humility

19 FEBRUARY

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. Psalm 35:13

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 6:16-18

The psalmist here presents putting on sackcloth and fasting as helps to prayer. The faithful pray even after their meals and do not regard daily fasting as necessary for prayer. Nor do they consider it necessary to put on sackcloth whenever they come into the presence of God. But those who lived in ancient times resorted to these exercises when an urgent necessity pressed upon them. In a time of public calamity or danger, believers put on sackcloth and fasted, believing that by so humbling themselves before God and acknowledging their guilt, they might appease His wrath. Likewise when someone was personally afflicted, he devoted himself to greater earnestness in prayer by putting on sackcloth and engaging in fasting as tokens of grief.

When David put sackcloth, it was to show that he had taken upon himself the sins of his enemies and begged for God’s mercy for them while they were exerting all their power to destroy him. Although we may regard the wearing of sackcloth and sitting in ashes as legal ceremonies, yet the exercise of fasting as people did in the time of David should remain in force today.

When God calls us to repentance by showing us signs of His displeasure, let us bear in mind that we ought not only to pray to Him in an ordinary manner but also to use such means that are fitting to promote our humility.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: Though the outward observance of fasting has been a source of pride for some, it is intended to promote humility. We must use it likewise, neglecting neither fasting nor the humility it signifies.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke