Perfect Peace from the Rock of Ages
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, For in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength (or the Rock of Ages). (Isaiah 26:3-4)
Reflecting on the End of Another Year
As we come to the end of another year, it is nice to know that there is someone who can give “perfect peace”. It’s not the doctors, or the politicians or the the people who report mostly bad news. Instead it is the ever existing One, the One Who is and Who was and Who is to come. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. With Him, the world makes sense, without Him the world makes no sense. With Him, we can have peace, without Him we have distress, confusion and anxiety. This One who is Yah or Jehovah in the Old Testament, came to reveal God to us in the New Testament. His name is called Jesus.
According to the explanation of these verses in the Believers Bible Commentary, it was from this expression that Augustus Toplady got the idea for one of the greatest hymns in the English language, "Rock of Ages." Seeking shelter in a cleft in a rocky crag during a violent thunderstorm, he wrote:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment-throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Anticipating a New Year
We certainly do not know what this next year will hold but we can have perfect peace about it. Of course, we will have to die to self and and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us (or control us). We won’t be able to tell God how to do His business, we will have to let Him tell us. And of course none of us could do that without first coming to an end of ourselves and trusting the Lord in order to get right with God. It is not possible to depend on the Lord when in reality we are depending upon self.
Surely
I have to admit that there are a lot of things this last year where I have not had “perfect peace.” But that is my problem, not the Lord’s. David could say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6).” I like that word “surely.” Surely those of us who have found the Lord to be our shepherd can enjoy the same assurance that David enjoyed.
As we go into a new year, I want to enjoy that “perfect peace.” I take courage in the fact that the Lord died to save us, prayed for us before going to the cross in John 17, gave His Holy Spirit to guide us after we are saved, and has promised that He is coming again for us. With regard to financial matters He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).” If He will not forsake us financially, I am sure He will not forsake us in other matters. So why shouldn’t we enjoy “perfect peace?”
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of December 29, 2013