On Thy Faithfulness
“Th.7 faithfulness Teadaeth unto the clouds?” — Ps. xrxvi. 5.
It has been well said, that “the universe around us is a parable of grace.” “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so doth the Lord compass His people!” But firmer than even these types of immutability in the kingdom of nature is the word of a covenant-keeping God in the kingdom of grace. These mountains (nature’s best emblems of steadfastness) may depart, and the hills be removed, ‘’ says their almighty Maker, “my kindness shall not be taken from thee!”
We can look upwards to the stars of night, and see the “faithfulness” of God “establisliecl” in the material heavens — “This day they stand as Thou ordainest!” But these are feeble types and symbols of brighter constellations in the spiritual firmament — the declarations of an unchanging God — Thy vjord is forever settled in heaven!”
What a gracious assurance amid our own unfaithfulness, “The Lord is faithful!” — that the unfaithfulness of the believer never alters, and can never alter, the faithfulness of God!
My soul! anchor thyself on this rock of the Divine veracity. Take hold of that blessed parenthesis which has been to many a tossed soul as a polar star in its nights of darkness — - “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them even unto the end.” He loves them in life — loves them in death — loves them through death — loves them into glory!
Art thou not at this hour a monument of God’s faithfulness? Where wouldst thou have been had not the magnet of His grace kept thee, and drawn thy fugitive affections towards Himself? From how many temptations has He rescued thee — laying hold of thee on the precipice, when about to plunge headlong down — employing sometimes constraining at others restraining grace — making this thy brief history, “Kept by the power of God,” and overruling all — all for His own glory, and thine own good?
I love to think of Thy faithfulness, O thou ‘’’’Tried stone,” “laid in Zion!” Thou wert tried by the Law — by Justice — by Men — by Devils, and yet Thou wert faithful! Thou hast been tried by Prophets and Apostles; by Martyrs and Saints; by youthful sinners, and aged sinners, and dying sinners, — and Thou hast been found faithful by all and to all; and Thou art faithful still!
My soul! never suppose, amid the faithlessness of earth’s trusted friends, that thou art doomed to tread thy way in loneliness and solitude; there is more than one Emmaus journey I The “Abiding” Friend is left I He is always the same! “He fainteth not, neither is weary!” His faithfulness is a tried faithfulness! His word is a tried word! His friendship is a tried friendship! He is always “better than His word!” He pays with usury!
“Oh! who could bear life’s stormy doom,
Did not Thy word of love Come brightly bearing through the gloom,
A peace-branch from above! Then Sorrow, touch’d by Thee, grows bright,
With more than rapture’s ray,
As darkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day!” /
When I think that at this very moment the eye of that faithful Saviour-God is upon me —
1 WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOR THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY!”