Thursday, January 7, 2016

Close to the heart of thy Savior,
Sure of His tenderest care,
Rest while the storm cloud is raging,
Peace and protection are there.

Close to the heart of thy Savior,
Boundless the strength of His love;
He will sustain thee while trusting,
Bear thee on wings as a dove.

Close to the heart of thy Savior,
Dwell in this haven of peace;
Jesus, the Ruler of tempests,
Maketh the tumult to cease.

Chorus:
Close to the heart of thy Savior,
Closer and closer each day;
Trusting His tender compassion,
He will not turn thee away.
                   Ada Powell


Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.   Psalms 62:8   
                
.....To trust in God is to cast our burden on the Lord, when it is too heavy for our own shoulder (Ps. 55:22); to dwell “in the secret place of the Most High,” when we know not where to lay our heads on earth (Ps. 91:1); to “look to our Maker,” and to “have respect to the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 17:7); to lean on our Beloved (Cant. 8:5; Isaiah 36:6); to stay ourselves, when sinking, on the Lord our God (Isaiah 26:3).  In a word, trust in God is that high act or exercise of faith whereby the soul, looking upon God and casting itself on his goodness, power, promises, faithfulness, and providence, is lifted up above carnal fears and discouragements; above perplexing doubts and disquietments; either for the obtaining and continuance of that which is good, or for the preventing or removing of that which is evil.....“Trust in him at all times.”  This holy duty is indeed never out of season.....Yea, but all time in respect of trust in God, is an appointed, yea, and an accepted time.  The wise man tells us (Eccl. 3:1), “There is an appointed time for every purpose under heaven:” a time to kill and to heal, to plant and to pluck up, to weep and to laugh, to get and to lose, to be born and to die.  In all these trust in God is not, like snow in harvest, uncomely, but seasonable, yea, necessary.  There may be, indeed, a time when God will not be found, but no time wherein he must not be trusted......The time of trusting in God cannot be lapsed.  But more expressly.  There are some special instances and nicks of time for trust.  1.  The time of prosperity; when we sit under the warm beams of a meridian sun; when we wash our steps in butter and feet in oil; when the candle of the Lord shines on our tabernacle; when “our mountain stands strong:” now, now is the time for trust, but not in our mountain (for it is a mountain of ice and may soon dissolve), but in our God.  Halcyon days to come are temptations to security, but to saints times for trust.....2.  The time for adversity.  This also is a seasonable time for trust; when we have no bread to eat, but that of  “carefulness;”.....but that of  “affliction” and “astonishment;” no, not water either, but that of our “fears.”  Now is a time, not for overgrieving, murmuring, sinking, desponding, but for trusting.  In a tempest, then, a believer thinks it seasonable to cast anchor upward.  Thus did good Jehoshaphat:  “O our God; we know not what to do:  only our eyes are unto thee.” 2 Chron. 20:12.  Thus David:  “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Ps. 56:3.  Times of trouble are proper times for trust, be the trouble either spiritual or temporal.....“At all times.”  1.  Quando:  When must we trust?  “At what time?”  At all times, omni hora, “every hour:”  so the Syriac version.  As a true friend is to love, so a sound believer is to trust, at all times. Prov. 17:17.  2.  Quamdiu:  The duration of this trust:  “How long?”  “All the day long.” Ps. 44:8.  All our lives long:  all the days of their appointed time must God’s Jobs not only “wait,” but “trust,” till their change come.  Yea, “for ever” (Isaiah 26:4); nay, “for ever and ever.” Ps. 52:8.   
                                                                                                                           Thomas Lye, M.A.

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