May 1931
209
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The Lord the Harbor of His People B y F. J. H orsefield (In the “Life of Faith”)
seemed to be against us. Our plans have not matured; our hopes have been frustrated; our best efforts have met with crushing disappointment. Even in Christian service, this is often the lot of God’s people, for their motives are frequently misunderstood and their characters maligned. Or, perhaps, we have met with the sharp, biting east wind of poverty or pain or bereavement. Or, having been tempted by the fact that the south wind of prosperity has blown softly, we have launched upon some course that has proved our undoing, and have been caught in a temptest that has been like the Euroclydon of Acts 27 :14. If we have escaped such gales as these, we may yet have been driven by the west wind-fehe breeze that comes from the land of the setting sun—when, tired out in body and mind, burdened with the weakness of old age and infirmity, we have too often forgotten to 'trust in the unfailing faithfulness of the eternal Lord. From whatever quarter the tempests come, however, God is “the harbor of his people” and will ever prove Himself a perfect “shelter in the time of storm” to every soul that takes refuge in Him. A P lace of R est A harbor, however, is more than that. Vessels go there for other purposes than to find safety from the storms. Let us take our place for a moment by the side of some great harbor that is open to the commerce of the world. Probably many ships come there to part with their cargoes and to unload the burdens they have borne across- the great deep. May we not see in this a picture of what the Lord would be to His own believing children ? He desires that in His presence we should unbosom all our cafes, bring to Him every burden, every anxiety, ev ery grief. If we have been troubled by the strangling grip of an evil habit or oppressed by a sense of failure, our lives can be transformed if we are willing to enter this harbor and there cast upon God all that has marred our work or our testimony or has robbed us of our joy. How good it is to know that in Him we have a Father whose love is so strong, so enduring, so infinitely tender, that He would have us bring to Him all that makes life hard and burdensome. Again and again in the pages of Holy Writ we are invited to do this. We, think, for example, of the marvelously gracious words of Psa. 55:22: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee” ; or those of Psa. 37: 5: “Commit thy way unto the Lord,” where the literal translation is, “Roll thy way upon the Lord.” We may link up these texts with the well-known injunction in 1 Pet. 5 :7: “Casting all your care (R. V., anxiety) upon him; for he careth for you.” In these passages, and many others, we are called upon to unload the burdens of life—to cast upon the
“The Lord will be the hope of his people” (Joel 3:16). gSjjgggHE marginal readings in the Bible are often j a p " most illuminating and suggestive. The text before us is a striking illustration of that fact; for while we can appreciate the statement that JjlLjjf “the Lord will be the hope of his people” and rejoice in that assurance, yet the margin tells us that the Hebrew may be rendered literally : “The Lord will be the place of repair (or the harbor) of his people.” This at once suggests the picture of a vessel that has been sorely buffeted by frequent storms, finding the shel ter of a haven where it will not merely be protected from the fury of wind and waves, but will be enabled to ef fect such repairs as have been rendered necessary by its tempestuous voyage; the Lord is compared 'to such a harbor, and in Him we can find not only peace and rest amid all life’s vicissitudes, but also thé means for repair ing the damage wrought by the storms we have en countered. What a magnificent, landlocked harbor we have in Him! It is sheltered by the great cliffs of His omnipo tence and His wisdom. At the entrance we may always find burning, even in the darkest hours, the beacon light of His love to guide us into this safe and pleasant shel ter. Once we make that harbor our refuge, we shall find calm and quietness. A P lace of S afety As we review our experiences, we recall that some times on life’s voyage we have encountered the rough north wind of adverse circumstances. Everything has
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