Psalms 107:30

Then are they glad because they are quiet.

The quiet of the Sabbath

I. Why on this day of rest ought we to be glad?

1. Because the week is the scene of perpetual activity.

2. Because the week is the season for impairing rather than increasing our spiritual vigour.

3. Because the week is the time in which we ale exposed to the most spiritual danger.

II. What the quiet of the Sabbath signifies and symbolizes.

1. It does not mean mental inaction. It does not signify having nothing to think about, and nothing to do on this day of rest; but having other things to think about, and other things to do, than those which occupy and all but absorb us during the week. And not only other, but better things, things connected with the life that lies beyond the grave.

2. The quietness of the Sabbath is intended to prepare us for the toil and tumult of the week. Let a Christian man enter the house of God with this idea, and he will never find the Sabbath tedious, or its hours of public worship a weariness; he has laboured to enjoy this rest, and now he rests to be fitted for ensuing labour.

3. The quiet of the Sabbath is a happy quiet, because it is an emblem of the heavenly Sabbath. Learn--

(1) The fitness of Divine ordinances to our human constitution. We must have rest and quiet: nature demands; God graciously supplies them; and he that believes enters into rest.

(2) Let us remember the danger we are exposed to of forgetting the claims of the Sabbath amidst the perpetually recurring anxieties of the week.

(3) Let us rejoice if in our intelligent appreciation of this day we can truly say, “This is the day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it”; and let memory ever say, “Then were we glad because we were quiet.” (W. G. Barrett.)

Memories of dangers passed

Thinking of the past, there may be a sense of not unwelcome lightening from a load of responsibility when we have got all the stress and strain of the conflict behind us, and have, at any rate, not, been altogether beaten. We may feel like a captain who has brought his ship safe across the Atlantic, through foul weather and past many an iceberg, and gives a great sigh of relief as he hands over the charge to the pilot, who will take her across the harbour bar and bring her to her anchorage in the land-locked bay, where no tempests rave any more for ever. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

He bringeth them unto their desired haven.--

The desired haven

I. Thy Port. “Their desired haven.” Comforting view of heaven this! ‘Tis a haven; not an “undiscovered country,” not a desolate coast chafed by storms, and strewn with wrecks and lifeless bodies. Entrance ample, water deep, anchorage secure, may be taken in all weathers; no blinding haze, no dreary night, no want, no sin. ‘Tis a desired haven (Hebrews 11:13; Hebrews 11:16).

II. The pilot. “He bringeth them;” not He driveth, as if behind; nor draweth, as from far-off spot, as the pole draws the needle of the compass by a cold and mighty attraction; but He bringeth, as the reaper bringeth his sheaves. Jesus bringeth! Not ahead to draw, not astern to drive, but on board to bring! Oh! is He not a Pilot? He sounded the channel, took the bearings, mastered the details, made the chart, and now goes in company with the believer to perform the voyage. You ask who erected the beacon, placed the lightship, anchored the buoy? Christ, all Christ. He unites the pilot and commander in one: never leaves nor forsakes. Oh, come to Him; “He bringeth,” He only; He bringeth unto. None founder under His command.

III. The providence. “So.” “His way is perfect.” ‘Tis not so short as you would like it, nor so easy, nor so pleasant, but it is “ so.” Sometimes He brings to wit’s end, makes men to stagger, and the great billows, which they think will bury them, only lift them higher up into safety and peace. (H. T. Miller.)

The port of glory

Whether we will or not, it is ours to sail across the sea of life. As the ship on the sea is subject to calms, and storms, and fair weather, and is exposed to dangers untold, and driven here and there by the force of winds and tides; so is every man’s experience; and it behoves each to ask himself whither he is bound, and whether he has a good hope of reaching his “desired haven.”

I. It is suggestive of rest. It is a “haven.” Fellow-voyagers, are you looking for rest? Beyond all this toil of the ocean, are you expecting the repose of the haven?

II. It is suggestive of safety. As the sailor cannot be endangered until the very harbour is destroyed; so, as long as Jehovah is, the Christian soul is safe. And this is true not only of his future, but also of his present state. Yes, God Himself is their protection.

III. It is suggestive of happiness. Do not blame us if we sometimes turn a longing gaze towards the “fulness of joy” which is in His “presence,” and to the “pleasures for evermore” which are “at His right hand.”

IV. It is suggestive of possession. He knows that when once the “desired haven” has been reached, all life’s dangers will be for ever over; all life’s mysteries will be for ever solved; all life’s labours will be for ever crowned, and he will “enter into the joy” of his Lord. “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (W. H. Burton.)

Sure sailing

1. The port, or harbour--“Their desired haven.” The spirits of the righteous, who have vanished out of their sight, are not flung upon the coast of some dreary country, desolate and unknown, whose shores are chafed with angry storms and strewn with wrecks. They reach “their desired haven” “when all the ship’s company meet who sailed with their Saviour beneath.”

2. The Pilot. “He bringeth them.” Adequate knowledge of the voyage is an important qualification in a pilot, and also a quick discernment or apprehension of dangers, and skill to avoid them. Every feature of perfect qualification is found in Christ, as the Pilot of humanity across the sea of life.

3. How He bringeth them is implied in this little demonstrative “so.” As professing Christians, it might be well for us to single out all the trials, sorrows, and calamities which are the result of our own folly, indolence, or presumption, and distinguish them from those over which we have no control and in the production of which we have shared no part. I believe that many of our trials in secular and spiritual matters are not God’s creations, but our own. (T. Kelly, D.D.)

Christ, the pilot’s Pilot

An old pilot of the Hudson River Line lay dying. A minister came in and talked with him, and he was respectful but unmoved. The preacher felt he must say something that would appeal to him. Just then the Spirit of God seemed to say to him: “Present Jesus as the pilot’s Pilot.” And so he said: “Now, you have many times piloted your steamer away from the rocks; the current is running against you now, and the fog is on, and you need a pilot. Jesus is the pilot’s Pilot; won’t you take Him on board?” The man’s attention had been caught and his heart won, and with tear-wet eyes he said, “I will,” and with the Saviour’s joy in his heart and a happy light in his eyes, Christ piloted him home. Will you take Jesus as your pilot to-day? (Sunday Circle.)