August 10

Call upon me in the day of trouble. - Psalms 50:15

THIS is the privilege of the real Christian, that he knows to whom he can go in the hour of distress; that though all be rough under foot, all when he looks up is clear overhead; that when he has little of the creature he has more of the Creator,” God over all blessed for evermore.” Jeremiah found him in the dungeon, and Daniel in the lions’ den, and the three Hebrew worthies in the fiery furnace; thus, when David was stripped of all he had in Ziklag, he encouraged himself, it is said, “in the Lord his God;” and this enabled him to say afterwards, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee; when my heart is overwhelmed within, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” Thus it was with Manasseh in his affliction; he sought the Lord his God, and he was found of him.

Had any of those who applied to our Saviour in the days of his flesh reason to complain either of those personal or relative troubles or afflictions which urged them to his feet? Here is the way, Christian, in which we are to learn, and to improve, and to sanctify the regrets, the disappointments, and the trials of life. We should be careful in our troubles that we do not fight against God, and creatures which are his instruments. Our troubles should lead us to God. And if they bring us to him, they can by no means hurt us. Our welfare can only be secured and promoted by intercourse and communion with God. It is well to be “drawn to him” by the “bands of love” and the “cords of a man.”

It is better to be driven to him, if we are driven as Paul was, by the buffetings of Satan, rather than that we should keep away from him. “Now I am weary of the world,” says a Christian; “I would not live here always; such a comfort is gone, and another is gone, and all are going, and I am going; and I am come, O Lord, to deal with thee on the subject.” “Now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.”

Our afflictions are sent us in mercy; they come and knock at the door of conscience, and say, “Well, what think you of sin now? Is it not an ‘evil and bitter thing?’ What think you of the world now? Is it not a poor resource? What think you of creatures now? Are they not ‘vanity and vexation of Spirit?’ What think you of the Saviour now? Can anything sustain and comfort you but the resurrection and the life?”

Are we burdened? God is a burden-bearer near us, who is saying, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”