Psalm 37:7-11 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way… "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7). This is not a call to indolence, but to action enveloped in repose. In all probability the writer was one of the leading men of action of his age. Our deeds should have their origin and their completion in patient waiting. (1) Restfulness is the preparation for service; it is the interior fountain of active goodness. The man that would give must first receive. (2) Restfulness should be the spirit in which action is concluded. The fretful anxiety which looks back upon faithful work is a denial of God and a weakening of the soul. This is a call to service with the fret taken away. There is no true rest for man save in the thought of God. Aubrey de Vere relates a conversation he had with Wordsworth in Lakeland. The poet remarked that travellers boasted much of Swiss mountains because they wore two or three times as high as the English, but he added, "I reply that the clouds gather so low on them that half of them remain commonly out of sight." His visitor did not wish to contradict him, and so the poet went on declaiming. "You cannot see those boasted Swiss mountains when the clouds hang low." "Certainly not," replied the prudent visitor. Then, after a pause, his veracity prevailed, and he added,":But I must admit you know that they are there." "I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my strength." Sometimes the clouds gather, but it makes all the difference to life to know that "the hills" are there. "We rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him." I. THIS SPIRIT OF PATIENT WAITING IS IN ITSELF A HIGH ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. In religion all means are ends, and all ends only means to some larger end. Repentance is not only a condition of salvation, but also a part of the work; it is an indication of a deep change which God works within the heart. To wait patiently upon the Lord is a means of grace, but it is also a feature of a lofty spirit. Our God is the "God of patience." How patiently He waits as Creator — not at once, but slowly have order and beauty emerged from chaos; how patiently He stands as the World Redeemer, while men scourge and revile and spit at Him, and crown Him with thorns, and smite Him with their hands! He waits patiently "to see of the travail of His soul," and is able to breathe the spirit of calm, fearless, hopeful endurance into all His people. II. THIS SPIRIT OF PATIENT WAITING IS NECESSARY FOR THE HIGHEST AND MOST PERMANENT SERVICE. In Mr. Winston Churchill's Life of his father we have the story of one who had it in him to be one of the most influential workers of his age, but who failed because he was all impulse, impatience, restlessness, and left little behind save the memory of a most pathetic career. After his conspicuous blunder he wrote to his wife from Mafeking: "Well, I have had quite enough of it all. I have waited with patience for the tide to turn, but it has not turned, and will not now turn in time. All confirms me in my decision to have done with politics and try to make a little money for the boys and ourselves." That is the secret of impermanent service — "the tide has not turned, and will not turn now in time." In whose time? Man has no right to fix the time. Of the hour knoweth no man, but only the Father. Our times are in His hand. How patiently Christ waited; for thirty years He waited in obscurity for the ministry to begin. He remained hopeful in the presence of the cross, the symbol, it would seem, to others, of everlasting defeat and shame. III. THIS SHOULD BE A MESSAGE OF COMFORT TO US AMID LIFE'S PAINFUL PERPLEXITIES, One night Henry Drummond sat up with a young man who had lost himself in philosophical speculations. "I seem to be walking round and round and arriving nowhere," he said sadly, "and I am thoroughly tired of it all." "True," said Drummond, "but you are not too tired to lie down." The psalmist had been wandering in the same bewildering way. He had fretted himself because of the prosperity of evildoers; all his theological ideas had been disturbed by the "little that the righteous hath and the abundance of many wicked." But he was not too tired to lie down, and to the weary in every age he proclaims the glad restfulness of the soul in God. There are times when reason fails us. (Trevor H. Davies.) 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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