Evening
Time: 6:10 PM PST
"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."