Psalm 37: 5, 7 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord (Be still before the Lord) and wait patiently for Him.
King David wrote this as a teaching psalm to remind the people of Israel what their faith was all about, to trust in the Lord and to enjoy Him. If we do this, God will give us what we need most of all, Himself. Every, day amidst his travails in the jungles of Africa, David Livingstone, the great nineteenth-century missionary explorer committed himself to God through this psalm, seeking His strength to carry on. It is only as we are still and quiet before God that we can hear His voice as He reaches out to us.
But the psalmist’s knowledge of God was only partial. The full revelation was given in Jesus Christ. He invites us to come to Him for rest.
Matthew 11: 28-29 Come to Me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.
Jesus does not extend this invitation to the strong, but to the weary and burdened. He calls them to Himself. The “yoke” of Jesus, in contrast to the burden of the law made by the scribes and Pharisees, is “easy” because in Him we have true rest for the soul. Jesus took the burden of our sin on the Cross and did what the law could not do, offer us forgiveness when we come to Him in repentance. Through His death and resurrection He invites us to a new life where we find rest for our souls.
Christine Lumsden
