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Peace Like a River
“O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river” (Isaiah 48:18).
The peace of God is a higher thing than comfort, a deeper thing than joy, and a more solid thing than rest. While my comforts may be diminished, my joy be disturbed, and my rest be broken, my peace still flows as a river.
Interrupt the flow of a river, and it is no longer a river. You may dam up its waters, but you only make them stagnant, for their freshness and their fruitfulness depend upon the continuity of their changeless flow. A flowing river is the perfect scriptural illustration of the peace God provides: “Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river” (Isaiah 66:12).
In contrast the troubled sea fittingly illustrates the state of those who have no relationship with God, and therefore have no peace. “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20-21).
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