Spurgeon: December PM
* 12/09/PM
"My people shall dwell in quiet resting places."
--Isaiah 32:18
Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the
peculiar possession of the Lord's people, and of them only. The
God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are
stayed upon Him. When man was unfallen, his God gave him the
flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas! how
soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of
universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the
chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the
ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the
new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying
Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath
the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying
angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of
the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary
pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in the promises of
our faithful God, knowing that His words are full of truth and
power; we rest in the doctrines of His word, which are
consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of His grace, which
is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than David
in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or
destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet
resting-place of His people, and when we draw near to Him in the
breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching
of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of
approach to Him to be the return of peace to our spirits.
"I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
'Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name,
'Tis stable as His steadfast throne, for evermore the same: The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,
This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever
nigh."