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."
