(PSALM 107:6)
“Led... Through”
(Psalm 106:9.)
“When Thou Passest Through”
(Isa. 43:2.)
ARE you passing through experiences which you do not understand — trials, temptations, afflictions, misunderstandings, loneliness, sorrows — and is your heart beginning to fail you for fear?
May this message of hope and encouragement come with peculiar sweetness and comfort to you from the Master Himself.
Some of us are inclined to think that things must be going wrong, or that we must have got out of the will of God, when we find ourselves plunged into circumstances which bring suffering and distress.
We are apt to grow disheartened and perplexed, and our faith is sorely tried when everything seems so contrary to what we had expected, and there appears to be no way out of our troubles.
And yet, if we look into God’s precious Word we find that just such experiences have been the lot of His Own chosen ones all down the ages, and we are definitely forewarned in Acts 14:22, that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”
The Captain of our salvation Himself was made perfect through suffering. He passed through the temptation in the wilderness; through every kind of test and trial to which flesh and blood can be subjected; through Gethsemane; through death; through the grave; but God raised Him from the dead (1 Cor. 15:15), brought Him out of the tomb, gave Him all authority in Heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18).
Believe me, there is no crown without a cross—” It we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12).
There is no increase of life except through death “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).
There is no purging away of the dross of the old self life except as the “gold” is refined in the furnace— “Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire and it shall be clean” (Num. 31:23).
“When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
There is no real gain without corresponding loss― “Whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25).
But, if this is so, it is equally true that the soul which “passes through” the valley of weeping (see Psalms 84:6 margin) will be “brought out.”
“What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?... These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:13,14).
And, moreover, the Bible is full of precious promises, encouragement, and exhortations to those who are “going through.”
It will be an inspiration to our faith and a tonic to our courage to look at some of these, and I purpose giving them in the very words of Scripture.
We will notice particularly the two expressions “through” and “out”... in connection with their various contexts.
1. Promises. — “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee (Isa. 43:2). (Read Daniel 2:8-28.)
2. Testimony. — “O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard; Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For Thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us as silver is tried.
“Thou broughtest us into the net; Thou laidest affliction upon our loins.
“Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place” (Psa. 66:8-12).
3. Confidence. — “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me” (Psa. 23:4).
4. Historical Evidence. — “Our fathers understood not... they remembered not.... Nevertheless He saved them for His Name’s sake... He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so He led them through the depths as through the wilderness, and He saved them” (Psa. 106:7-10).
5. Prayer. — “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Thy name” (Psa. 142:7).
6. Testimony. — “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the Name of the Lord” (Psa. 124:7,8).
7. Prayer. — “Send Thine Hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters” (Psa. 144:7).
8. Testimony. — “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psa. 34:6).
9. Assurances. — “The righteous cry and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles” (Psa. 34:17).
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psa. 34:19).
The whole of the 107th Psalm is a recital of case after case in which those who cried unto the Lord in their troubles were saved out of their distresses.
And the Psalmist sums up his conclusion in the last verse, where he says: “Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.”
A. C. L.
And with this I close, praying that henceforth you and I may press on through the fire and through the water, as He may permit, with the Lord Himself as Our Divine Companion until at last He brings us out “into a wealthy place,” and we share with Him in His Kingdom.