“REST IN THE LORD” – Charles Spurgeon

REST IN THE LORD

Introduction:

“Rest in the Lord.” Psalm 37:7. The occurrence of our text in the Psalm before us is an instance of the great rule that the Lord does nothing by halves. In this priceless Psalm, the Lord found His servant, in the first verse, liable to fretfulness and envy—and He exhorted him to cease from fretting. Then, in verse three, He taught him to trust. In verse four, He led him on to delight. In verses five and six, He conducted him into a peaceful committing of his way unto God, and He did not stay the operation of His grace till He had perfected that which concerned him and brought him up to the elevated point of our text, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.”

God does not merely cure the evil in us, but He confers unspeakable good! He takes away the disfiguring wound, but He imparts, also, comeliness and beauty. If any of you, this morning, are in a low state of grace, so that you have even fallen into fretfulness at the prosperity of the ungodly, do not cast away all hope, for the grace of God abounds toward us in all wisdom and prudence, and He will restore your soul! Remember how David said, in the 73rd Psalm—“I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” “So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a beast before You. Nevertheless, I am continually with You: You have held me by my right hand.” The Lord knows how to bring His people, again, from Bashan, yes, and to lift them up like Jonah from the depths of the sea! And He can bring you, this day, by the operation of His grace, upward from doubt to assurance, from fretfulness to rest!

Rest as a Blessing:

Rest is a blessing which properly belongs to the people of God, although they do not enjoy it one-tenth as much as they might. Under the Old Testament dispensation, there was considerable provision made for rest. Typically, the chosen nation was shown that one great end of the visitation of the Lord was to give His people rest, for on the seventh day they rested and did no manner of work. Yes, more, in the seventh year they rested according to the Divine precept. “Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.”

When they were obedient to the Lord’s commands, they thus enjoyed a whole year of rest, and were no losers by it, for, no doubt, the seventh fallow year so benefited the land that it brought forth all the more fruit during the other six, so that there was none the less store in their barns. Over and above this, once in 50 years, when the seventh year came round, they carried out, still further, the Sabbatic idea and the Jubilee Year was a time of peculiar and emphatic rest and festival. For thus had the Lord commanded. “A Jubilee shall that 50th year be unto you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of your vine undressed. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.”

So very prominently, even in that somewhat servile and yoke-bearing dispensation, there was brought before the mind of the Israelite the privilege of rest. And those who possessed the Inner sight, as Moses did, realized the promise, “My Spirit shall go with you and I will give you rest.” Indeed, Canaan, itself, was intended to be the type of rest—the land that flows with milk and honey, the land of brooks and valleys, the land that the Lord your God thinks about, the land upon which the eyes of the Lord rest from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year, was meant to be a place where every man should rest under his own vine and fig tree, and look for a yet deeper rest in God.

Had they known it, in giving them Canaan, Joshua had given them a fair picture of rest. They did not see through the type so fully as to understand its significance, but, nevertheless, there it was.

The Modern Christian’s Struggle with Rest:

O Christian men and women, you, also, miss much of your rest! You have too much of fretfulness, too much of care, too much that is servile. The land does not keep her Sabbaths as she should, neither does your soul rest as it might! And as for jubilees, how very scarce they are! If Christians lived near to God and enjoyed the peace which Jesus gives, they might keep Jubilee every year and Sabbath every day! The Lord grant that we may have power to enjoy His rest and that it may never be said of us, “They could not enter in because of unbelief.”

God’s Own Example of Rest:

Brothers and Sisters, the Lord, as if to show us that He would have us rest, has been pleased to speak of resting, Himself! It is inconceivable that He should be fatigued! It were profanity to suppose that He who faints not, neither is weary, and of whose understanding there is no searching, can ever be in a condition to need rest! And yet He did rest, for when He had finished all the works of His hands in the six days of creation, the Lord, “rested on the seventh day and sanctified it.”

When afterwards that rest was broken because His works were marred, we find Him further on smelling a “sweet savor of rest” in the sacrifice which was offered unto Him by Noah, whose very name was rest. These two facts are highly instructive and teach us that God rests in a perfect work and that when that work is marred, the Lord rests in a perfect sacrifice, even in the Lord Jesus Christ! He has a rest there and He speaks of our “entering His rest” as it is written, “they shall not enter into My rest.” There is a rest of God, then, and there remains a rest unto the people of God.

Steps to Rest:

First, dear Brothers and Sisters, let us consider certain steps to this royal chamber of rest. How are we to reach this place of sacred repose? The steps are in the Psalm before us. The first is, “Fret not yourself.” You are out in the fields among the wild beasts—cease hunting them. You are among those who toil in bondage, suffering all the brunt of ill weathers and hard seasons—get away from them. Come within doors, into your Father’s house. By the help of the Divine Spirit leave the green bay trees which have cast their shadow upon you and enter into the sanctuary.

No longer be as the carnal who envy one another. So long as you are out there among those who lust after evil things and fret against the Lord’s Providence, you cannot rest. While you are agitating yourself to gain what other men lust after and to enjoy what other men take pleasure in, you are missing the peculiar privileges of the children of God! While your spirit is running with worldlings in the race and wrestling with them in the battle, you cannot enjoy the peace which Jesus left as a legacy to His disciples. Get away from them, then, for the first step to rest is, “fret not yourself.”

The griefs which make the ungodly pine are not for you, for the objects which they seek are not your objects! The losses which make them despond must not make you disconsolate, for their treasure is not your treasure. Get away from them and stop admiring their transient felicity and lamenting your present distress. Have you been envying transgressors? Count yourself to have been foolish and ignorant in so doing, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb! Rise above the things which are seen, for they are temporal! Spurn the things which make the flesh smart, for this light affliction is but for a moment. Let not the world weigh you down, for you are bound, as an heir of Heaven, to tread the world beneath your feet—and all its honors you are called upon to despise! And in order that your soul should not lust after its dainties, come away unto your God and no longer fret yourself.

Steps of Faith and Action:

When you have thus come out of the field and have arrived at the palace of Love, the first staircase is described as trust and do. Read the third verse, “Trust in the Lord and do good.” You believe in the Lord’s love? Prove your confidence by committing yourself to the keeping of Him who loves you. You believe in the Atonement of Jesus? Fly for cleansing to the blood which was shed for you! You believe in the Glory of your risen Lord? Commit all your future to Him with whom you are one day to sit upon the Throne! As for all your trials, come, now, and believe in God concerning them. Do not let anything make you mistrust or distrust your God. Know that He is God and “His mercy endures forever,” and trust in Him forever!

But let this faith be practical—“Trust in the Lord and do good.” A dead faith will bring you but poor comfort. Yours must be a faith which can do as well as receive. It is through the exercise of faith that comfort comes to the heart, even as the exercise of our limbs warms our bodily frame.

Resting in Trust and Delight:

When you have learned to trust and to do, you will have ascended a noble staircase of the royal palace—and where does it land you? It lands you in the king’s dining room, where it is written—“Verily you shall be fed.” Observe the promise—if you have a living, active faith you shall be provided for! Your bodily needs, as they come, shall be relieved. Your mental needs, also, shall be satisfied. And as for the vast demands of your spirit, God All-Sufficient shall supply them all—“So shall you dwell in the land and verily you shall be fed.”

It will be a happy circumstance, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you can come up the first staircase this morning, leaving the fields, leaving the elder brother who complains concerning the many years of service in which his Father has never given him a kid, that he might make merry with his friends—if you, I say, can come up rejoicing to do the will of the Lord out of motives of love!

Leave the sinner and the grumbler alone, and go up those stairs of active faith! Then sit down where a feast is spread, even a feast of fat things full of marrow and of wines on the lees well-refined!

The Royal Chamber of Rest:

We must ascend somewhat higher and climb the next staircase which is marked, Delight and Desire. “Delight yourself, also, in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Think what a good God you have, yes, what a blessed God He is! Remember how good He has been to you in the past. Think of the richness of His Word, the sureness of His promises, the tenderness of His love, and the power of His arm until your soul shall say, “Whatever I have not, I have my God! Whatever is unsatisfactory, He satisfies me! And whatever grieves me to think it is so unfit for me, nothing grieves me in my God. I would not have Him changed, nor have Him change in any respect. He is a sea of blessedness in which my soul does swim.”

When you have delighted, begin to desire. Open your mouth wide and the Lord will fill it! Enlarge your petitions and He will grant them to you. Desire more Grace, more holiness, more love, more knowledge of Christ, more Heaven below and all these shall come at your call.

Rest in the Will of God:

Finally, let us rest in the will of God. It is a high point to arrive at to feel that my Father’s will is such that I can entirely rest in it, be it whatever it may. Yet it would not be so difficult if we were not so depraved. O for conquering Grace to crush down self! I would be as a grain of dust blown in the summer’s gale without power to change my course, carried on by the Irresistible Spirit of the Lord—forever made willingly unwilling to will anything but the will of my Lord!

This is to rest in the Lord! Beloved, may the Lord, by His Holy Spirit, grant you abundantly, from this day forward, to enter into this which is man’s first, man’s last, man’s sweetest, truest rest—the rest of the sinner coming to Christ—the rest of the saint abiding in Heaven! This is the only real rest that can be found on earth or Heaven—rest in the Lord! God grant it to us by faith, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Charles Spurgeon