Evening, December 9, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” — Isaiah 32:18

Peace and rest do not belong to the unregenerate; they are the special 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. Before man fell, his God gave him the flowery arbors of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas, how soon sin ruined 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-sprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel struck the firstborn; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims delightful tranquility. 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 comfort themselves; we rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favored are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd-tree, 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.”