Entwisle.I. who can bring life out of decay? There are various reasons why we should constantly apply to God for a renewal of our spiritual strength. Reviving Grace. Halsey.We find here the true order of experience in life.1. (4) The many businesses in religion so much work to be performed. There is the soaring Godward, and there is the common drudgery of daily walk and conversation, the practical common life.(T. God is so near. Instead of this natural, and moral, and customary strength, they shall have a supernatural and spiritual given unto them. 3. And it is this that tries our mettle most of all. They could not suggest to the prophet his religious thought, but his inspired genius laid them under tribute to assist the utterance of a thought of higher inspiration. WHAT BENEFITS AND AIDS THEY RECEIVE WHO WAIT UPON THE LORD. We renew our strength in the battle with our besetting sin, in the conquest of fierce passions and unruly tempers, and in the maintenance and steadfastness of high resolve. differentism.(J. Reflections 1. --The Setting up of Idols a Defection from the True God. And this is done commonly, in the greatest uncertainty whether the means will prove effectual. This is my Bible. There was a time when our human nature seemed to possess much spiritual strength, but there came a time when it was all lost; and from that time, in the experience of every human being, it has had to be renewed. 2. Every thing is beautiful in its season. Renewal often comes to men in their extremity like this.3. "They that wait," etc. Waiting, in the Scriptures, sometimes includes the idea which we affix to it in common life; namely, that of attendance or service.II. Let the stream flow on uninterruptedly, and all your need in the way of weakness, helplessness, ignorance, emptiness will be met moment by moment. He was that, but that is not the last analysis of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Watch the bird in the air. "They Shall Mount up with Wings" (Isa. (Sunday School Chronicle. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received at the LORD 's hand double for all her sins. Like all Divine evangels, THIS GOOD NEWS FOR THE CAPTIVES OF BABYLON IS ADDRESSED IMMEDIATELY TO A SPECIAL NEED, AND ADAPTED BY ITS FORM TO EFFECT A PARTICULAR RESULT, namely, that of patient endurance of acute affliction. That is the time when we are spiritually aggressive, when we count as an active force in the world.3. But the margin speaks of this renewal as a change of strength, as if it would remind us of the mansidedness of the grace of God, and its perfect adaptability to our everchanging needs.II. 5 Then at thy feet Isaac WattsHymns and Spiritual SongsAt RestGerhard Ter Steegen Is. )Waiting upon the LordT. In rapturous contemplation of the things of God. If we are not of the eagle type and have but feeble aspirations; if we are not of the active, zealous type and cannot run, we may yet be able to walk, to move as fast as our poor, weak, or crippled limbs carry us, and if we do not wish to faint by the way we shall surely wait on the Lord. Reviving Grace. "Waiting upon the Lord." When men come to a higher Christian life they have days of spiritual insight; and those days grow longer and longer, like the days of the coming summer, when the sun goes down later and later, and rises earlier and earlier. God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. And then, before you pray, sit still, and shut your eyes and say, Will God now listen to me for certain? But, in order to obtain aid from on high, we must make use of the appointed and appropriate means. B. MeyerJohn the BaptistImpiety of Attributing a visible Form to God. A change from one kind of strength to another. We are not to devote all our lives to lonely musing. )God's grace sufficient for all life's stagesJ. This leads us to notice the three degrees of moral and spiritual activity presented to us in the figurative language of the prophet:. Booth by faith has changed the drunkard and the sensualist into saints. Faith can work miracles. --ISAIAH xl. In point of ease. The picture of Moses and the children of Israel singing, and Miriam and the women answering: a gush of national pride and of worship! (vers. 6. "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." What a cheering revelation: "Your God!" Capacity for the most strenuous exertion.IV. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her.". (1) The first typifies lofty aspiration and heroic action. THE RENEWAL OF STRENGTH IS TO BE OBTAINED BY WAITING UPON THE LORD. Reflections 1. Thank God for the flying stage while it lasts, for we do get visions in those flights that abide with us long after our wings have dropped off, and we have learned that the ether is not our element; visions whose memory helps to cheer us as hereafter we trudge along the monotonous and dusty ways of life's hard routine. (4) The many businesses in religion so much work to be performed. Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? It is often found in persons of weak understanding, and in minds not highly cultivated by refined education.3. Cf. "Even though this may happen, it is different with those who wait for Jehovah," i.e., those who believe in Him; for the Old Testament applies to faith a number of synonyms denoting trust, hope, and longing, and thus describes it . There is the strength of custom, and religious education. (LUKE 1.) Verses 21-31 are part of a longer section beginning in verse 18. In the power to endure it. View Associated File. There is no need for the word of inspiration to tell us that you can begin with a big inspiration and go on fast for a time, and then slow down to the ordinary tramp. If you want the flash of a new inspiration the man of God will receive it; if you want swift progress the man of God is equal to it; if you want steady perseverance you shall find it in the man of God also. And God, in His omnipotence and faithfulness, is willing to work in my heart every moment of the day.2. There are some kinds of people in the world who all on a sudden will amend their lives. And when a contrary disposition is charged upon Israel, the Psalmist expresses it by saying, "They waited not for His counsel": that is, they wanted it not, nor meant to follow it, and therefore would not wait to receive it. This is not arbitrary, but necessary. When the body is debilitated and needs to be strengthened, they spare no pains or expense to recover impaired health. But there is immense energy in us still. The least that.it can mean is they shall stand their ground.3. To walk we want something like continuous, sustained evenness of conduct, progressing quietly and steadily day by day in the common round of life; not impulsive, not capricious, not changeable; without show, humble, and always the same. Maybe in revolutions and bloodshed, for the wheels of God grind inexorably and small. There is no need for the word of inspiration to tell us that you can begin with a big inspiration and go on fast for a time, and then slow down to the ordinary tramp. Anderson. Alexander, D. D.)Condition and conductEvan H. Hopkins, B. A.Every river needs a channel; and the wider and deeper the channel the fuller and more copious the stream, provided the waters are inexhaustible. 3 I'd part with all the joys of sense To gaze upon thy throne; Pleasure springs fresh for ever thence, Unspeakable, unknown. "I can do all things," said Paul, "through Christ which strengtheneth me." When exhausted renew your power.(R. In Isaiah 40:30 the verb stands first, Isaiah 40:30 being like a concessive clause in relation to Isaiah 40:31. A. Waiting upon the Lord. The meaning is obviously, They, all depend upon Thee; men and beasts alike.2. Youth is full of impulses, full of excesses, full of exaggerations. They will run, and not be weary. A collected frame of mind.3. A weak Christian is a burden to himself as meeting with many difficulties which he cannot grapple with, but which prove too hard to him. This threefold description of mounting up, running and walking, presents three aspects of the same character. I. But He requires, as the condition of our receiving His grace, that we sincerely feel and humbly acknowledge our need of it; and that, ceasing from our own wisdom, and confessing from the heart our own weakness, we throw ourselves unreservedly upon His wisdom and strength. It is well to rise up on wings of eagles, but now and then we must come to the level of our fellow-creatures, and in their service we are to run and not be weary. What a cheering revelation: "Your God!" But the idea in his mind is not one of comparative motions. Tymms. "The men of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." I remember a sunset at sea, where the bosom of each wavelet that fronted the west was aglow with fiery gold, and the back of each turned eastward was cold green; so that, looking on the one hand all was glory, and on the other Alexander MaclarenExpositions of Holy ScriptureSalvation Published from the MountainsO Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! )Waiting upon the LordJ. It is the posture of expectancy for every blessing of which we stand in need, temporal and spiritual.II. And who did it? Reasons for this prohibition from Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. We are not always faint. 4 [There all the heavenly hosts are seen, In shining ranks they move, And drink immortal vigour in, With wonder and with love. When we have done flying, we go on running. He must give up all that he loveth for his Beloved, for Jesus will be loved alone above all things. Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Cultivate also the habit of waiting for orders. You see the eagle mounting up by a power that God has given it. We like a little bit of excitement or emotion. There is the soaring Godward, and there is the common drudgery of daily walk and conversation, the practical common life.(T. He gains wide outlooks; he breathes a clear and crystalline atmosphere. M. Donaldson, D. D.)Waiting on GodT. B. MeyerJohn the BaptistImpiety of Attributing a visible Form to God. "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" There are divers things which we are liable to faint at, which yet the Scripture takes us off from fainting at. Reasons for this prohibition from Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. 1The ConsolationComfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. At any rate he found in the matchless wing-power of the eagle a sublime image of an inspiring and God-seeking man. The figure of one flying through the heavens, coupled strangely with the promise of running without being wearied, represents the godly man as ever having courage to entertain great hopes. And it is this that tries our mettle most of all. It pleases God, also, to employ the companionship of friends and neighbours in developing men in the direction of their higher manhood. Halsey. The older Jewish commentators imagined they discovered here a reference to an ancient belief that at a certain time the eagle plunged into the sea and bathed off his worn-out plumage, and that afterwards new feathers grew. Among all the names that reveal God, this, the "God of all comfort," seems to me one of the loveliest and the most absolutely comforting. The bread of life for the hungry, the water of life for the thirsty.II. F. W. H. MYERS. There could be little doubt but that from childhood he had often looked upon some of those carved tablets on which men with wings of eagles fastened to their shoulders were common, that he had often looked on those colossal images of winged bulls and lions and men such as may be seen in our British Museum to-day. It is like a banquet spread before one who has no appetite or whose habitual food is altogether different, or like a rich and perfect performance of music to one who is altogether destitute of any musical sense.II. It is a running and a walking. All outward observances, whether private or public, have no meaning, and can have no avail without that conscious voluntary movement of the soul towards God. I. This is different, and surpassing the other. Let us not be impatient of them. HOW ARE WE TO RENEW OUR STRENGTH? The intellect is strengthened by holy exercises upon Divine themes.2. Halsey. Did the prophet put this last in his brief summary because patience is one of those Christian graces that has its perfect work the latest?(J. They are not. --ISAIAH xl. If they hear of a medicinal spring far off in the mountains they hesitate not to undertake the journey, and undergo the hardships of the rugged way, that they may test the efficacy of the mineral waters. As bodily health is only found in a well-balanced and healthy state of the corporeal functions, so spiritual strength can only be found in souls into which new life has been infused, and is in vigorous exercise. And then we come to the quiet, steady, persistent "walk." Yet I venture to question whether such a discourse would strike the central teaching of the prophet. The preaching of the apostles foretold12. This renewing influence must come from God; surely that is a statement in harmony both with reason and with Scripture. But all forms of waiting on the Lord involve the personal, conscious, voluntary act of the mind or soul within us, for which no mere ceremony or ritual can be a substitute. Prayer is the waiting posture of the soul.2. By continually waiting upon God. For those of you who are very strong, always able to cope and handle every situation. Thus Job says, unto me men gave ear, they waited, and kept silence at my counsel": which is as if he had said, "I had only to speak, and they were ready to obey my directions." Heavenly-mindedness. The ear is listening for the whispers of the Divine voice. To do this makes greater demands upon our moral steadfastness than to do either of the before-mentioned stages in our life experience. It is in the period of youth that we have our ambitious dreams, and take our higher flights. There are divers things which we are liable to faint at, which yet the Scripture takes us off from fainting at. This reputation led to his being called to the Central Church, Chicago, in which he succeeded Dr. David Swing, and where from the first he attracted audiences completely filling one of the largest auditoriums in Chicago. The river is God's infinite power; the channel is our conscious weakness. The whole world is God's; the heaven, even the heaven of heavens are the Lord's and he reigneth among the children of men. "THEY SHALL RUN AND NOT BE WEARY." Halsey.We find here the true order of experience in life.1. "These wait all upon Thee; that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season." The older Jewish commentators imagined they discovered here a reference to an ancient belief that at a certain time the eagle plunged into the sea and bathed off his worn-out plumage, and that afterwards new feathers grew. Divine consolation. There had been no heaven-sent sign to assure them that there was any F. So it is possible for the Christian to be moving on by a power that very soon expends itself, and by a process of exhaustion he falls back again under the gravitating influence of his evil tendencies. The bread of life for the hungry, the water of life for the thirsty.II. In short, to wait upon God is to be a religious man.II. xl. T he general style of the prophecies is poetical. That is the time when we are spiritually aggressive, when we count as an active force in the world.3. They will run nimbly enough after pleasure, wealth and fame, but not after the things which God bids them run after. They wait with humility and self-denial. This doctrine was the turning point of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Although we have a perfect right to go to God and pour out every wish and longing of our hearts, worthy and unworthy alike, yet this is not by any means the whole or the highest part of communion with Him. All the motives which the Gospel presents before him feed his hopefulness and increase his working power. That word "become," in the new version, is full of deep meaning in this connection. These two things seem very far away: man with his faintness, God with His eternity and inexhaustible omnipotence. 3:49:51. He has powers adapted to this exercise powers with which he can glorify his Maker; and he must not point those eagle faculties to the dust, but let them take wing and rise. This phrase is descriptive, not merely of an occasional exercise, but of what is, or ought at least to be, the constant temper and frame of the believer's mind.II.
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