I. The first thing is to understand what is meant by "the salvation of the Lord." The salvation of the Lord here is something else than the first view which a sinful man obtains of pardon and peace, through "the great God our Saviour." It is the salvation which a man needs in any crisis of life, where he suffers under trial or is threatened with it. And, in those trials, hope and quiet waiting do not come at once into their fullest exercise. As long as human means can avail, it is a man's duty, trusting to Divine help, to employ them. The salvation of the Lord is when all conceivable means have been employed and have failed.
II. The second thing is to consider what is meant by these exercises of the soul towards God's salvation, "to hope and quietly to wait." (1) Hope: (a) The foundation of hope may be said to lie in desire. It differs from desire in this, that desire pursues many things that can never be objects of hope to us. We can only hope for that which is felt to be possible and reasonable. This, then, is the first thing for us to do, if we would strengthen hope, to see that its objects are right and good that is, accordant with the Divine will and beneficial for us; we may learn this by consulting God's word and our own thoughtful experience. (b) The next element in Christian hope is faith. Hope differs from faith in this, that we believe in many things in regard to which we do not hope. Hope is faith with desire pointing out the objects. (c) There is a third element to be added to make our hope strong that of imagination. (2) "Quiet waiting," or patience. It is the part of hope to seek the future; it is the duty of patience to rest calmly in the present and not to fret. Patience is strengthened (a) by faith, (b) by contentment, (c) by calm attention to duties.
III. Consider the benefit of uniting these "It is good bothto hope and quietly to wait." (1) The one is needful to save the other from sinking into sin. (2) The one is needful to raise the other to its full strength. We shall find increasingly, "how good it is." (a) It is good now in the depth of the soul in the conscious assurance that it is better to rest in the hardest of God's ways than to wander at will in our own. (b) We shall find how good it is in the enhancement of every blessing for which we have to wait.
J. Ker, Sermons,p. 347.