Psalm 37:7-11 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way… One of our hardest lessons is to find out the wisdom of our hindrances; how we are to be put forward and upward by being put back and put down. When the company in the "Pilgrim's Progress" had to sit up watching all night at the house of Gains, Greatheart kept them awake with this riddle, "He that would kill must first be overcome." And the truth in it has been practically dug out by trials that broke sleep through many a hard fortune in every Christian experience since. Yes, defeats help progress; a compulsory standing still helps us on. The Cross of Christ solves the riddle, and, gradually, to believing eyes the fact comes out. The precept, "Rest in the Lord," etc., seems at first too tame for a spiritual ambition. We ask for some positive doctrine, for a task worthy of our energies. "Sound a bugle note that calls to close contests and we will follow; but this is a poor, spiritless thing, this resting and waiting!" We must see, if we can, what force there is in this answer. Possibly, if we search deep enough, we shall find that where some of us fancy our religion ends, it is only feebly begun. I. GOODNESS IS NOT SO MUCH SPECIFIC DEEDS AS A FAITHFUL HEART: it is being, rather than doing, though sure to lead to right doing. If the principle is true, what is often called passive goodness is the necessary condition, nay, the interior fountain of active goodness. A man, that is, must be a silent believer in his heart before he call be a powerful Christian worker with his arms, or speaker with his lips. He, must pray in his closet before he can honour his Maker in the multitude or shop, in pulpit or street, II. COMPARE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VIRTUES, AND SEE WHAT EACH REQUIRES TO RESTRAIN IT. 1. Submission — if there be any distinction between these virtues — would fall on the side of the passive graces. But in all the compass of human achievements there is not one that more tasks the stoutest energies of the soul, not one that demands a more resolute gathering up of all the resolution left. And yet men speak of it, of this resting in the Lord, as one of your passive, secondary, ignoble virtues. 2. So, too, with gentleness of temper and of speech. There is natural amiability, but that has cost no struggle. But do we not know some persons that need all the weapons in the Christian armoury, and all the watchfulness of the camp, to reach that plain achievement, the "soft answer" that "turneth away wrath"? So, then, the passive virtues, as they are called, are those that require the greatest effort, and, according to Christ, are therefore of the greatest worth. All the nine beatitudes, with, perhaps, one exception, pronounce their blessing on what the world would call tame and passive traits. So does Christianity turn upside down the vulgar vanity of our ambition, and empty our worldliness of blessedness. But the subject reaches on to wider applications yet. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him," is — III. A COUNSEL ADDRESSED TO THE HABIT AND TENDENCY OF THESE TIMES; and no time perhaps ever needed to listen to it more; a time more eager to conquer the world by putting girdles of intelligence and bonds of travel about it, than to feel its dependence on Heaven; readier to run, to work, to build, to ask questions, to yoke the elements, than to kneel, to believe, to have patience and to pray. But the strength of a community is not in its enterprising, self-confident, profane or prayer-less great men, but in the men, be they few or many, who while they are "diligent in business," and faithful in public spirit, "rest" secretly "in the Lord," and "wait patiently" every day "for Him." IV. See again, WHAT BESIDES RIGHTEOUS LABOUR SUCH A STILLNESS SUPPOSES. To wait patiently for God is to hold the heart open for what God gives. Subjection, then, it implies. It is to expect His love; and so it implies the penitence that goes before pardon. It is to believe He will give and guide; and so it implies faith. And it implies, too, self-restraint, self-renunciation, prayer, thanksgiving; and these are not the elements of man's infirmity. We must not be surprised that men are so slow to learn this lesson. When it is learnt, then will Christ's kingdom have come. Let us help it forward as we best can. Meanwhile, we must rest and wait. So, too, in regard to the manifold sins and sorrows of human life: the slowness of our own growth in goodness; the secret sorrows of our homes — in regard to all them, and every other like to them, take the precept of our text. Let one subject regulate our judgments of one another: save us from morbid discontents, and cause to abide ever "in the Lord," that we may rest in Him. (S. T. Huntingdon, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. |
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