THE CHEERFUL COURSE OF THE GODLY
Isaiah 55:12. Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, &c.
There is resolution and effort on our part, and help and guidance on God’s part. We “go out” and we are “led.” We must not forget either side of the truth. The farmer works in harmony with the rains and sunshine; the sailor in harmony with the winds and the sea. These two things, “going out” and “joy,” do not naturally agree. Going out is naturally more or less painful. Even although it is to make your position better, there is yet pain in leaving. But God says to the believer: “These two incompatible things will meet in your case; nay, the one shall be the occasion of the other.” The text also speaks of leading forth, and says of it that it shall be “with peace.” The Christian’s course is like a stream bounding forth from its native darkness with joy, and then gradually acquiring the tranquil flow of the broad river in the plain. Some applications—
I. In conversion, the soul goes out with joy and is led forth with peace. Conversion is the soul’s first and great “going out.” That is the essential idea of conversion. It is not so many prayers and tears and resolutions. It is turning our back on the old life of sin and selfishness, and coming out into the light of God, as really as the emigrant leaves one country and goes to another. This coming out is a joyful thing. The Israelites celebrated their leaving of Egypt by a feast; and surely the coming out of the soul from darkness to light, from condemnation to life, may well be the signal of joy. And in the case of the soul delivered from death there is the peaceful leading, as well as the joyful departure. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,” &c.
II. In the varied changes of life, the Christian goes out with joy and is led forth with peace. If we are the people of God, if we meet all changes in a spirit of faith and obedience, we may go forth with joy. Let us meet all our changes clinging to God’s guidance, taking a firmer hold of God as the scenes get stranger and stranger, as a child takes a firmer hold of his father the further he is from home.
III. At death the believer goes out with joy, and is led forth with peace. He may have looked forward to it with misgiving, with something like dismay. But at midnight, when the cry comes, he rejoices greatly because he hears the Bridegroom’s voice. Like a tired labourer, he goes thankfully home, like a welcome and expectant guest, he goes rejoicing to the banquet.—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 122.