Providence and Grace
“This is the rest wherewith ye f?tay cause the 7veary to rest, and this is the refreshing” —
‘• 2rf)e steps of a goati man are orterrt Ijg Hje ILorli.” “Wst salijation of tfje rigf;trous is of Hje ilorti.”
—Ps. xxxvii. 23, 39.
,y, ,.. Here are two fronds of God’s palm-grove
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bending over His true people.
Consolatory, as we have seen, is the great fundamental truth of theology — “The Lord reigneth:” that all events are ordered and controlled by a supreme superintending Providence. But there is a special comfort to believers — the spiritual Israel of every age, — that their ’ steps,’ their plans and purposes in life (in a better and nobler than the heathen sense — their “destinies “), are overruled by a gracious covenant-Jehovali.
That is a beautiful picture given in Hosea (xi. 1-5) of God, as a Father, watching and guiding the steps of His own children. Israel is first spoken of as a child in its parent’s arms. The Almighty, all-loving Parent is represented, next, as assisting the feeble little one in its first attempts to walk, supporting it in case of stumbling: — “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms.” Then, still farther, He is described as putting them in leading-strings, following them step by step: — “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” And now, in this psalm, when the child has advanced to years of spiritual maturity, the inspired writer asserts the continuance and permanency of this same gracious paternal care and supervision: — ■” A good man’s steps are ordered by the Lord.” The earthly parent, after a few brief years, leaves the child to its own resources, to walk alone, and care for itself Not so our Heavenly Father. The viarCs footsteps, as well as the child’’ s, are ‘ordered.’ In all the varied circumstances of existence, the Eternal God is still his refuge; and, with the eye of the watchful mother on tottering infancy, “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. xxxiii. 27). “Although he fall, yet shall he not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand! “(Ps. xxxvii. 24). And as he pursues his onward way, at times ready to faint, ready to fall — stumbling along the rough, stony path, — his cry is never unsuccoured, his prayer never unanswered,” Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe: — “Thy right hand shall save me!” Oh blessed assurance, that every event, every so called contingency; — every step from the infancy of grace to the manhood of glory, every rugged ascent, every thorny brake, every trial and every tear, is “ordered by the Lord.”
The sweet singer of Israel rises, ere the psalm is closed, to a kindred and yet loftier subject of gratitude and adoration. While he exults in a God of Providence, he keeps his last note for a God of Grace: — “The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord” (ver. 39). It was the theme which cheered and supported himself in the ever-present consciousness of a guilty though forgiven past. It was the theme (” the everlastins; covenant well ordered in all things and sure “) which thrilled on his dying lips when the chequered glories of earthly sovereignty were passing away for ever, and he was about to take up the nobler minstrelsy of the skies — “This is all my salvation and all my desire!” He magnifies the name and doings and sovereign love of the same God whom He had trusted as his Shepherd (Ps. xxiii, i), who had nerved his arm for empire and tuned his lips for praise, who had led him to the green pastures of grace, and at last brought him to the gates of glory.
‘■’■ Saivaiion is of the Lord!’’’’ Let that, too, be the keynote of our life song. All is of grace. When the vessel of our eternal destinies was wrecked and stranded, it was a tide flowing from the sea of His own infinite love which set it once more floating on the waters. He might have left us to perish. He might have put a vial into every angel’s hand to pour down vengeance on an apostate world; or, taking the figure suggested by this Volume, He might have left our earth the waste howling wilderness sin had made it; morally and spiritually, without shade of palm or music of fountain. How different! In the words of the Great Prophet, “The Lord hath comforted Zion: He hath comforted all her waste places; He hath made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the Garden of the Lord; joy and gladness (not dirge or wailing) is found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody” (Isa. li. 3). “God sent NOT His Son into the luorld to condemn the tcorld, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
And what is there to hinder any from making every blessing of that great salvation their own? Not God, for He “hath justified!” Not Christ, for He “hath died!’’ We cannot say with the king of Nineveh, “Who can tell if God will turn?” He 7i’ill turn. He has turned. To each
PROVIDENCE AND GRACE. ig
individual sinner He declares, “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” To all who are willing to listen to His pleadings, He seems to say in the words He puts into the mouth of Isaiah: “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isa. Iv. 3). The “surd” mercies! What is sure or abiding under the sun? Our health? The strong frame may in a moment be bowed, and the hectic glow mount to the cheek of manhood. Our wealth? By some sudden collapse it may take wings and flee away. Our friends? A word — a look — may estrange some; the grave, in the case of others, may have put its impressive mockery on the dream of earth’s immortality. Our homes? The summons comes to strike our tent, and leave behind us the Elim-palms under which we long reposed, or the smouldering hearths of a hallowed past, so that “the place that once knew us, knows us no more.” But here is one thing sure. Here is a Covenant which has the pillars of immutability to rest upon. Casting our anchor within the veil, we can outride the storm; the golden chain of grace links us to the throne of God. And when the chequered scenes and vicissitudes of the present are ended, and we are brought to take our stand amid the multitude which no man can number — “the harpers on the glassy sea;” — it will be to resume the twofold song and theme of earth — the God who 7-eigns, and the God who saves: — the anthem of Providence and the anthem of Grace; for there they sing “the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” (Rev. xv. 3).
“‘A little while ’ for patient vigil keeping,
To face the storm, to wrestle with the strong; * A little while, ’ to sow the seed with weeping, Then bind the sheaves and sing the harvest sonsr.
PALMS OF ELLU.
“‘A little while,’ ‘mid shadow and illusion,
To strive by faith Love’s mysteries to spell;
Then read each dark enigma’s clear solution.
And hail Light’s verdict — ‘He doth all things well.’
“‘A little while,’ the earthly pitcher taking
To wayside brooks from far-off fountains fed. Then the parched lip its thirst for ever slaking Beside the fulness of the Fountainhead.
“And He who is at once both Gift and Giver,
The future glory and the present smile,
With the bright promise of the glad ’ for ever,’
Will light the shadows of ’ the little while.’”
“TRULY MY SOUL VA1TETH UPON GOD: FROM HIM COMETH MY SALVATION.”