My People Shall Dwell in Quiet Resting Places

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by Charles Spurgeon

“My people shall dwell in quiet resting places.”-Isaiah 32:18

Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the peculiar possession of the Lord’s people, and of them only. The God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon Him. When man was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that His words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of His word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of His grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of His people, and when we draw near to Him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of approach to Him to be the return of peace to our spirits.

“I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
‘Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah’s name,
‘Tis stable as His steadfast throne, for evermore the same:
The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,
This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh.”

From Spurgeon’s Evening by Evening Devotional for December 9th.

8 thoughts on “My People Shall Dwell in Quiet Resting Places”

  1. Hi Brother Mike
    The last sentence of this reading sums it all up so beautifully

    “The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of His people, and when we draw near to Him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of approach to Him to be the return of peace to our spirits.”

    Just reading it makes me sit back in myself and go “aaaaahhhh!” No other kind of peace quite like it, is there?
    Bless you

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  3. And he has to break us over and over so that we will enjoy his peace in the long run. Sometimes I feel like he lets me up just enough to get some air to breathe and then another trial is waiting right behind the other one. He knows how to remove our comfort zones doesn’t he?

    I spent several hours working on an article today. I had every kind of distraction and difficulty interrupting my work today. My computer wouldn’t pick up my router, my work didn’t get saved, and my frustration with everything made me hit the publish button at the wrong time when my work was full of errrors. Immediately following that, the web server was performing maintenance, thus preventing me from removing my published work loaded with errors. This went on for hours. I was so grieved and distraught. Then when I got back online, it wouldn’t pull up my saved work. I had been working on the computer for 7 or 8 hours doing some research as well.

    Finally, I got back online and finished editing things, and wouldn’t you know it.. It didn’t save my work again because the server was still performing maintenance. I had to get up and cool down some. I have never been so frustrated in such a long time.

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  5. Josh,

    Yep, that sounds like the sort of days I have sometimes. In every circumstance we are commanded to rejoice though. How are you doing on that Josh?

    In Christ

    Mike Ratliff

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  6. Doing better. I finished correcting the problems with one article. I wasn’t able to even start on the second or third ones, but I did get the research complete. The most recent article is at the bottom of the ‘Heresy Hunting?’ page. Yesterday’s is at the bottom of one of the other pages. I put two from your website on their since it went along with the subject matter. There is also a newer video with Paul Washer just below your article on page 1 (Filthy in God’s Sight).

    As far as rejoicing. As soon as things cool down and the trial is over I rejoice. There are times when I am content and know not to freak out in the midst of my trials. Other times, I just bite my tongue and bow my head and pray. Just depends on how hot it gets or what God is doing with me. Whatever the intensity, he matures me and grows me in grace nonetheless.

    I’m not a spiritual giant. Sometimes I rejoice not out loud but with a calm sense of peace and understanding. Knowledge is power!

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  7. Hey Josh
    I am sure most of us can identify frustration especially with the computer…. It is one of the few things outside of the Lord that has had my husband in tears on a few occasions when we have an 8.30am deadline to meet and things just won’t work out and it is 2.30 am on the same morning ! 😀

    I am slowly learning that when situations like this arise (and they do rather often…) I just say to the Lord, “Ok, Lord, what now? What would you have me do here?” I am learning not to rant and rave, but accept it all as from His hand and know that He is allowing whatever it is, as part of His moulding and shaping and maturing. It’s real tough, but as you said –

    “Whatever the intensity, he matures me and grows me in grace nonetheless.

    I’m not a spiritual giant. Sometimes I rejoice not out loud but with a calm sense of peace and understanding. Knowledge is power!”
    Amen brother! Bless you 😀

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