xxvi. 3, 4. _Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, &c._
The delightfulness and value of peace to the nation, the Church, the
family, the individual (P. D. 2664). Consider--
I. THE PROMISE. 1. +It is universal in its range.+ It is made to any
and every man who will trust in God. 2. +It is sure.+ Men fail for
various reasons to keep their promises, but every Divine promise is
certain to be fulfilled (H. E. I. 4052, 4053). 3. +The peace which is
pledged and secured to all who will fulfil the condition of the text
is perfect+--so perfect that it can only be described by a repetition
of the word, _"peace, peace."_ God never gives in driblets. His gifts
are like Himself, perfect for their fulness, for their suitability,
for their enduring qualities. God can keep His people in perfect
peace when the devil accuses, when the world allures or threatens,
when sickness tries, when adversity oppresses, even when the heart is
sore tired, and when grim death would affright (H. E. I. 1253, 1893,
1894, 1911-1926; P. D. 2669, 2673).
II. THE CHARACTER DESCRIBED. _"Whose mind is stayed on Thee, because
he trusted in Thee."_ Trust unites. The mind will not be stayed upon
God unless there be perfect confidence in His wisdom, power, and
love. Trust and love go together. Love begets confidence, and
confidence strengthens love. The whole nature must be stayed on God,
and on God only. There must be no division in the heart's affections:
we cannot serve God and Mammon and be kept in perfect peace. There
must be trust before there can be peace; God Himself cannot give
perfect peace to the untrustful.
III. THE EXHORTATION. _"Trust ye in the Lord for ever."_ We trust in
the Lord when, encouraged by His promises, we hold fast to Him. It is
nothing deeper, nothing more difficult than that. Its very simplicity
is its difficulty. As the limpet binds itself to the rock, and is not
disturbed by the dashing billows, so let the soul by an ardent
affection bind itself to the Rock of Ages. The word "ever" gives a
wonderful expansiveness to our text. It points at once to God's
eternity and man's immortality. He is a being capable of being
trusted for ever, and for ever we shall be capable of trusting Him.
Our trust is to be unlimited and unintermitted; it is to be exercised
at all times, under all circumstances, through all ages.
IV. THE STABLE FOUNDATION OF THE BELIEVER'S CONFIDENCE. _"For in the
Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."_ The peace must be perfect
that rests upon, and rises out of, such a solid foundation. The
mountains are "everlasting" only in figure, but the foundation on
which we rest is everlasting in fact (Ps. xci. 1, 2).--_W. Burrows,
B.A._
The world needs the message contained in our text. Most faces that we
see are careworn. They are so because behind them there are anxious
hearts distressed by fears of various kinds--by fears concerning the
body, by fears concerning the soul. The vast majority of men are
destitute of true peace; for while in the world there are many
ways--of pleasure, of sin, of disappointment, of misery, of
death--there is no way of peace. The multitudes who throng past us
are miserable because the way of peace they have not known.
I. LOOK AT THE PERSON WHO IS KEPT IN PEACE. He is a person whose mind
is stayed on God. A man's self, sin, pleasure, false religion, vain
hopes, are every one of them troubled waves in an ocean of
disquietude, and no soul can stay itself on them, though many souls
have sought to do so. Who, lying down in the very midst of the sea,
can find there repose? As he lieth down upon the waves, they yield
beneath him--the billows roll over him; he is sinking in the mighty
deep. So with the sinner lying down in the midst of the sea and of
the storm of this world apart from God. But he who lieth down upon
God is as a man upon a rock, or as one in a mighty fortress; he is at
peace--secure in fact and in feeling. But it is only as God is
revealed to us in Christ that we may rest upon Him. Apart from
Christ, He is to sinners "a consuming fire." Only through Christ may
we find the blessedness we so much need, but through Christ we may
find it.
II. LOOK AT THE POWER WHICH KEEPS THE BELIEVER IN PEACE. It is not
the power of his own faith (H. E. I. 1970, 1975). It is not the power
of his own effort, struggling to obtain confidence. It is the power
of God: "_Thou_ wilt keep him," &c. The sinner obtains peace by
yielding himself to God (Rom. vi. 13). The believer has peace while
he leaves himself in God's hands, quietly submissive, cheerfully
willing that God should lead him and do with him whatever is pleasing
in His sight (P. D. 2966-2968, 2970-2972). Then all God's
attributes--His omniscience, His omnipotence, His faithfulness, His
tender mercy--minister to his peace (P. D. 3379).
III. LOOK AT THE PEACE IN WHICH SUCH A PERSON IS KEPT. It is
_"perfect peace."_ Peace in spite of all that conscience may say, of
the temptations that assail us, of the troubles of life, of the
certainty and mystery of death. With the peace of pardon, all this
peace flows into the soul, increasing more and more. It is the peace
of Christ, the same peace which filled and sustained Him (John
xiv. 27). You remember that we are shown Him with His head on a
pillow, His eyes closed, His mind in unconscious repose, asleep in
the midst of the wild storm at night upon the Lake of Galilee, when
the waves beat upon the trembling vessel, and the wind strove to
raise the waves still higher, and engulph them all. He slept, secure
and peaceful, amid the storm. So does the soul of the believer that
stayeth itself upon God. Upon what lay that peaceful head of Jesus
but upon the unseen arm and heart of God. Men said of Christ
mockingly, "He trusted in God." He did trust in God, as the most
exalted believer, and far more than the most exalted believer; and in
that simplicity of faith He was kept in peace, sleeping amidst the
storm. So is it with the believer. O believer! is it so with
you?--_Henry Grattan Guinness: Sermon in The Christian World,_ 1860.
Here is the secret of life--peace, perfect peace--and the sure way of
attaining it. Consider--
I. THE CHARACTER CONTEMPLATED. _"Whose mind is stayed on Thee."_ His
mind is fixed with such intensity that it cannot be diverted from the
object on which it is set. This object is not himself (Prov.
xxviii. 26), nor his riches (Prov. xxiii. 5), nor his fellow-men (Ch.
ii. 22; Jer. xvii. 4, 5), but GOD, in whom he trusts unhesitatingly,
exclusively, universally. He accepts all that the Scriptures reveal
concerning God, and makes these revelations the foundation of his
confidence and his prayers.
II. THE PROMISED BLESSING. _"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace."_
See also Jer. xvii. 7. The idea suggested is that of habitual and
continued blessedness. The elements of peace are begun in the soul,
and they are brought to maturity in the whole course of the future
life. The peace given is like a river (chap. lxvi. 12), both for
abundance and permanence. That is, while, and only while, the mind is
stayed upon God (chap. xlviii. 18). Then he is _kept_ in peace, for
God is its finisher as well as its author; and it is "perfect peace,"
because it is peace of all kinds, in its highest degree, at all
times, under all circumstances.
III. THE REASON FOR THE BESTOWMENT OF THE BLESSING. _"Because he
trusteth in Thee."_ Faith honours God (Rom. iv. 21), and therefore
those who exercise it are honoured by Him (1 Sam. ii. 30; H. E. I.
4057, 4058).
IV. THE DUTY ENJOINED. _"Trust ye,"_ &c. While we are listening to
expositions of this text, this duty seems to be easy; but in actual
life our faith is tried and often fails, because we lose sight of the
promises and perfections of God. Here there come to us
disappointments, difficulties, temptations to distrust. But it is our
duty to struggle with them all; and if we do so, it will be our
blessedness to overcome them all (chap. xl. 27-31). "Trust ye in the
_Lord;_ trust ye in the Lord _for ever;_ for in the Lord Jehovah is
_everlasting strength._"--_James Morgan, D.D.: The Home Pulpit,_ pp.
512-516.
There is sometimes a world of meaning in a single word: Country,
home, _peace!_ How it sometimes tells of booming cannon hushed into
silence, of glittering swords sent back into their sheaths, of
hundreds of homes relieved from distressing anxieties and fears, of
thousands of lives respited at least for a time! How it sometimes
tells of surging passions hushed into a calm, of vengeful purposes
superseded, of the fires of enmity quenched, of despair giving place
to hope and joy! Peace has its histories, many and pleasant; its
triumphs, various and substantial; its heralds, Divine, angelic,
human. Ministers have messages of peace to deliver to their
congregations, and in our text we have one of them.
I. THE CONDITION EXPRESSED IN THE TEXT. _"Whose mind is stayed on
Thee."_ It is a mind resting on God as the God of grace reconciling
sinners to Himself through the mediation of Christ, dispensing
pardon, sanctity, salvation--a mind resting, after reconciliation, on
His truthfulness, wisdom, almightiness, holiness--a mind resting on
His rule and government over all the forces of nature and all the
events of daily life, both national and individual.
II. THE CONFIDENCE EXPRESSED IN THE TEXT. _"Thou wilt keep,"_ &c.
_Thou_ wilt do it; not merely delegate and intrust this to any agency
whatever. Thou _wilt_ do it; there is no uncertainty or peradventure
about it. "In perfect peace:" peace of all kinds, and in a
superlative degree; peace flowing from reconciliation; peace in the
midst of unexplained mysteries; peace in the midst of adverse
providences; peace amid the uncertainties of the future.--_John
Corbin._