For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
Psalm 62:1
Today I would like to give you some more extracts from a sermon by George Morrison of Glasgow entitled; ‘Leaving it there’ based on Psalm 62:1, ‘My soul finds rest in God alone.’ Mr Morrison bases his sermon on the Moffat translation of that statement which is: ‘Leave it all quietly to God, my soul.’
“There are times in life when it is a great help to have someone say to us. ‘Leave all that to me.’ When one has a difficult schedule or has arrangements to make for a marriage, or a funeral, to have someone who is competent or an expert take over is often an untold relief. There are crosses that each of us must carry and burdens nobody can take away. But how much more difficult life would be in times of anxiety or strain were there not someone standing by us to say to us, ‘Leave all that to me.’
Now this command which the psalmist gave his soul is one of the secrets of the spiritual life. No passing of ages has made it less imperative.
Think for instance of those ways of providence which it is impossible to understand, for in every life, however blessed and happy, there are things impossible to understand. When prayers seem to go unanswered, when someone dear and young is taken away, when those who would not harm a living creature are bowed under intolerable pain, how hard it is to say that God is good, and saying it with a confidence that is pleasing in His eyes. We want to know. We want to understand. Sometimes like Job we are brought to the margins of despair.
How much wiser the attitude of David, plunged into the very sea of deep trouble – ‘Leave it all quietly to God, my soul.’
Think of all those intellectual problems which visit and perplex the human mind. There are times in life when these are very perplexing. Who that has ever thought at all has not had anxious thoughts about the doctrine of election? What, too of the foreordering of God and of His sovereignty, universal and particular, if I am really a creature of free will? Such things and a thousand things like these, puzzle and confound the human mind.
There are times when it is well to consider such things. A great problem may be an inspiration. The opposite of faith is never reason; the opposite of faith is sight. But there are other times when the highest part of wisdom is not to torment ourselves with things too high for us, but to give our souls the counsel of the psalmist – ‘Leave it all quietly to God, my soul.’
Some day we shall arrive and understand. We shall see His face and His name shall be on our foreheads – it shall be written in the region of the brain. Meanwhile we have a life to live, a heart to cultivate, a service to perform.
Again we are to remember the psalmist’s counsel when we have done our best – and failed. Every Sunday-school teacher knows it, every mother with her growing family, and every preacher of the Gospel. So little accomplished, so little difference made, so little fruit for the laborious toil, although the seed sown may have been steeped in prayer.
Well then, are we to give up in discouragement? Are we to leave the battle-line and become spectators because we hear no cheering sound of triumph? My dear reader there is a better way, and it is just the old way of this gallant psalmist – ‘Leave it all quietly to God, my soul.’
Often when we fail we are succeeding. We are doing more than we dreamed. We are helping with our rough, coarse hands because Another with a pierced hand is there. Do your best, and do it for His sake. Keep on doing it and don’t resign. And as to fruitage and harvest and success – Leave it all quietly to Him.
When obstacles and trials seem
Like prison walls to be,
I do the little I can do
And leave the rest to Thee.
Sincerely,
Bill Hughes