Troublers are multiplied, but the first thought of faith is “Lord.” There the spirit is at home and looks at troublers from thence. Jehovah is thus trusted. When Lord comes in the heart before those that trouble me, all is well. Our spirit sees Him concerned in matters, and is at peace. He is a glory, shield, and lifter up. Another point is, it is not a lazy, listless view of evil and good, nor listless confidence. Desire and dependence are active, the links of the soul with Jehovah—I cried and He heard. That is certain. That is the confidence that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears, and if He hears, we have the petition. We do not desire, if sincere, to have anything not according to His will; but it is an immense thing, in the midst of trial and difficulty, to be sure of God’s hearing and God’s arm, in what is according to His will. Hence peace and rest, “I laid me down and slept; I awaked: for Jehovah sustained me.” How emphatic and simple! Is it so with you, reader? Does all trouble find your heart so resting on God as your Father, that, when it is multiplied, it leaves your spirit at rest, your sleep sweet, lying down, sleeping and rising, as if all was peace around you because you know God is and disposes of all things? Is He thus between you and your troubles and troublers? And if He is, what can reach you? The thousands of enemies make no difference if God is there. The Assyrian is gone before he can arise to trouble or execute the threats which after all betray his conscious fear. We are foolish as to difficulties and trials, measuring them by our strength instead of God’s, who is for us if we are His. What matter that the cities of Canaan were walled up to heaven, if the walls fell at the blast of a ram’s horn? Could Peter have walked on a smooth sea better than on a rough one? Our wisdom is to know that we can do nothing without Jesus—with Him everything that is according to His will. The secret of peace is to be occupied with Him for His own sake, and we shall find peace in Him and through Him, and be more than conquerors when trouble comes; not that we shall be insensible to trial, but find Him and His tender care with us when trouble comes.
This testimony is so blessedly true, so comforting and yet so soul-searching that I have transcribed it in full. There can be but little doubt that the Psalm was the experience of David, and the bitterest and most painful kind of attack is thus expressed, “There is no help for him in God.” It was to this part the great Reformer alludes when he says:—“They not merely speak as if I were abandoned and trodden upon by all creatures, but as if God also would no longer help me, who, while He assists all things, sustains all, cares for all, for me alone of all things has no care, and ministers to me no support. Though every possible assault, the assaults of a whole world, and of all hell to boot, were concentrated on one head, it were still nothing to the thought that God is thrusting at a man—for preservation from which Jeremiah tremblingly begs and prays (ch. 17:17), ‘Be not a terror unto me, O thou my hope in the day of evil.’”
There is one other point here full of very real comfort in the midst of trouble and troublers: it is that the taunt of “no help for him in God” is blessedly met and answered by the words “salvation belongeth unto the Lord.” May every tried and sorrowing heart in this day of distress and rebuke enter into the precious comfort of these words, “I cried . . . and he heard,” “I laid me down, and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me,” “I will not be afraid.” Thus there will be both heavenly vigor and courage imparted, which these words so aptly express:
“The best return for one like me,
So wretched and so poor,
Is from His gifts to draw a plea,
And ask Him still for more.”