"Hope And Quietly Wait"

by Jarvis, A. G. | Category: General | Nov 1963

Perhaps none of the prophets had such persecutions or such disappointments as Jeremiah. The contumely and reproach of the leaders of Israel, the rejection of the word of the LORD that he was commissioned to speak, and the foul dungeon into which he was put, form the background to his despondent soliloquy, recorded in Lamentations 3.1-19. His trials had been sore indeed, yet even in these he had proved that the LORD'S "compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3.22, 28). So in his darkest day there fell a bright ray of the mercy of God, recalling to memory the consistent faithfulness of God, that lie had known. Thus he records, "It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD" (verse 26). It is well for us if, when called upon to pass through dark days and deep trials, our memories of past goodness and mercy become real and vivid. Faith often needs the reinforcement of memory. It is good to be able to recall what we have known of the lovingkindness of our God.

So it was with the writer of Psalm 42 whose soul was cast down within him. He wrote,

"These things I remember,

and pour out my soul within me,

How I went with the throng, and

led them to the house of God,

With the voice of joy and praise."

Recalling these glad days, he calls upon his soul,

"Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him" (Psalm 42.4, 5).

David, too, comforted his heart in his dark days with similar thoughts. What an experience was his, when he and his men returned to Ziklag, to find the city burned, and their wives, their sons and their daughters taken captive! Then it was that his men spake of stoning him. "But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God" (1 Samuel 30.1-6).

This was the man who wrote,

"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD

In the land of the living, Wait on the LORD:

Be strong, and let thine heart take courage;

Yea, wait thou on the LORD" (Psalm 27.13, 14).

Jeremiah in his words stresses two essential attitudes of mind - HOPE and QUIET WAITING. How hard it is to wait quietly in dark days, even when hope still survives ! The stresses and strains of life result frequently in depression, though

"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick:

But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life" (Proverbs 13.12).

Due exercise before the Lord about our trials will surely yield the precious fruit of this tree of life, even the fruit of righteousness. Out of trials blessing comes. It happened so with Jeremiah, for when at last the city of Jerusalem was taken, Nebuchadnezzar charged his captain of the guard concerning Jeremiah, "Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee" (Jeremiah 39.12).

How true are the words of Miss Frances Ridley Havergal

"The ills we see, - The mysteries of sorrow deep and long,

The dark enigmas of permitted wrong, - have all one key;

This strange, sad world is but our Father's school;

All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule.

How sweet to know the trials which we cannot comprehend

Have each their own divinely-purposed end.

Darkness and mystery a little while,

Then - light and glory,

And ministry mid saint and seraph band,

And service of high praise in the eternal land."

Jarvis, A. G. | Nov 1963
General