“He leadeth me beside still waters…,” “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 23:2. Psalm 46:10
In Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Jesu, Lover Of My Soul,” he wrote a remarkable stanza which is a portrait in and of itself of what it means to rest in Christ. He wrote: “Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on Thee; Leave, ah! Leave me not alone, Still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stay’ed; All my help from Thee I bring; Cover my defenseless head, With the shadow of Thy wing.” What is Wesley seeking to convey to us by these words?
Wesley first speaks of that which Christ can be to the soul. His testimony is based upon WHO Christ is, and His relationship with the soul. In this testimony, and profession faith in Christ, Wesley reveals what His vision of Christ is, and what He desires to be in and through the life. He speaks of God being our refuge, but not only this, but the perfect and entire refuge, upon whom the entire weight of one’s trust can be placed. Wesley speaks of a knowledge of himself also, and the convincing conclusion to which he has been brought, that being his own helplessness, not only with regard to the things of this life, but more importantly, concerning the eternal matters that surround and lie before him. With the vision of Christ in His sufficient, protective, and keeping glory, Wesley brings to the altar before God his own helplessness. It is there, when the helplessness of man and the abundant sufficiency of God meet, that there is rest, for there the soul trusts only in Christ, and none other. Wesley expresses this by writing: “All my trust on Thee is stay’d; All my help from Thee I bring.” Wesley has come to see that in a total surrender of himself to God, and all that that means in body, spirit, and soul, there is rest, for there is a ceasing from one’s own efforts to justify oneself to God, or to oneself. One is shut up to the wonderful faithfulness of God to BE and to DO all that He has promised. Wesley concludes this stanza in this great hymn by writing: “Cover my defenceless head with the shadow of Thy wing.” Here is the appropriation of Christ as one’s keeper and strength, one’s refuge and protection, one’s “blessed assurance” of all that is good and holy. Wesley has laid his burden down, the entirety of it, in order to trust wholly in Christ alone, there to learn what it means to wait on God, not in passive idleness, but in quiet, resolved, acceptance and anticipation of God’s sustaining grace.
Where then does God desire to bring us in our relationship with Him, in our knowledge of Him and His ways? For David, it was the quiet blessedness of His peace, when soul and spirit have been tested in the difficulties and pressures of life. The wonder of Christ’s quietness, and peace, is known by the one who would trust Christ to BE his peace, and to lead him there again and again “beside still waters,” when the battle rages on against a holy life. David knew the reality of such a peace, one that was not so much derived from pleasant circumstances, as that which was received by the very real experience of the peace of God in Christ, the same peace that is given in this day by the Spirit of Christ.
But how does one allow the Lord to be his peace, in order to know this peace in fullest measure? When Jesus laid down the conditions to follow Him, those of denying oneself, and taking up one’s own cross, He was dealing with the matter of surrender, the deliberate yielding of the authority of one’s life to God. It is only by turning deliberately away from ourselves, embracing whole-heartedly, and decisively a life lived henceforth for Christ by His enabling Spirit. Surrendering all is essential to receiving ever increasingly Christ’s peace.
Dear Father, Keep us in peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.