The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.
Goodness a stronghold
The great design of religion is to bring us to God and true blessedness. In order to this, there must be full and practical confidence in God,--submission to His providence and law,--unquestioning repose in Himself. The text, though not possessing the form of a promise, is a declaration concerning God Himself, which includes the whole system of promise. Such is God. If such is God, then happy the people that is in such a case; yea, blessed they whose God is the Lord.
I. “The Lord is Good.”
1. The expression reminds us of the absolute goodness of the Divine nature, and especially of the Divine benevolence. Whatever goodness there is in the creature is derived--God is its source; it is limited--in God it is unbounded; dependent--in God it is essential and independent; mutable--in God it is changeless.
2. The active character of the Divine goodness. He “doeth” good. In inanimate creation are displayed His perfections. All living beings look up to God. He universally provides. But we are of more value than many sparrows. And He cares for us.
3. God’s goodness in its suitableness to man’s present condition. He is a sinner. Providential blessings continued. Evil tendencies of sin checked. A wisely ordered scheme of redemption; and hence, forbearance, salvation.
II. “A stronghold in the day of trouble.” Figure forcible in the East, where predatory expeditions are usual. God a “stronghold for defence of His people. Recollect what He is in Himself. All His attributes are employed for the benefit of His people. In the day of trouble they are shut up with God.
III. “He knoweth them that trust in him.” To trust in God implies satisfied persuasion He will be and do as He has said. Two results--we shall seek all good in Him. We shall abide with Him. Trust in God and doing good are ever conjoined--in nature as well as duty. (G. Cubitt.)
The goodness of God in seasons of calamity
This book is “The Burden of Nineveh.” Nahum was contemporary with Hezekiah. The immediate design of the prophecy was to minister comfort to the afflicted and alarmed Jews; for the defeat of the enemies of the Church involves its deliverance. The name of the prophet indicates this design;--it signifies comfort or comforter. The text teaches that the Lord is good, even in seasons of calamity.
1. Such seasons are not only not inconsistent with the Divine goodness, but m various ways manifest it. There is always much affliction in the world. When we suffer under calamities, unworthy thoughts of God are apt to rise within us, and especially suspicions of His goodness. If we indulge these suspicions, they will alienate our hearts from God and His service, and prompt us to impatience, murmuring, and impiety. But they are not inconsistent with God’s goodness. The punishment of transgression is not in consistent with goodness. Days of judgment on us may be merciful warnings, to others. They are often means of delivering and purifying the Church. They are instructors and monitors to future ages.
2. In seasons of calamity the Lord is good, for He reveals Himself to us as a stronghold, and invites us to flee to Him for safety and comfort.
3. In days of trouble the Lord is good, for He affectionately watches over all who honour Him with their trust. (James Stark, D. D.)
The Divine goodness a refuge in trouble
These words have been well compared to a burst of sunshine on a cloudy tempestuous day. The prophet opens his commission with setting forth the terrors of the Lord. But on a sudden this appalling strain ceases. As though impelled by an inward feeling which had obliged him to look around for something to uphold him amid these terrors, he thinks and speaks of the goodness of the Lord.
I. What this goodness is. We are not to understand here the Divine purity, or holiness, but the benevolence, the kindness, the graciousness of the Lord. The goodness of God, taken in this sense, is that perfection of His nature which inclines Him to deal graciously with His creatures; rich and happy in Himself, to give out of His riches and happiness, and make His creatures partakers of them, as far as their different capacities will admit. This goodness of God is, like every other perfection of His nature, infinite. By this I mean, it cannot be added to, it could not be greater. And His is holy goodness. It always moves and acts in conformity with His just and holy nature. Here it is that we make such mistakes in thinking of God. We take one of His attributes, and we look on it alone, as though God had no other attribute but that; and then a mystery comes over His nature and doings. This goodness is also self-moved, spontaneous, free. It requires nothing in us to call it into exercise towards us; it requires nothing whatever out of God to bring it into operation. It is not the Cross and work of the Lord Jesus that makes God good and gracious to us sinners. He was good and gracious to us before. It was God’s love to us that found for us a Saviour. The Cross and mediation of Christ is the way the Divine goodness has opened for itself into our world. It is the channel through which it flows to us, not the fountain whence it takes its rise.
II. What this God of goodness is to His people in the day of their trouble. “A stronghold.” This language conveys the idea of protection and defence. The countries in which the Old Scriptures were written were scenes of almost incessant warfare. Men were continually exposed to hostile inroads and invasions, and were obliged to have fortresses or holds to flee to for security. God is this refuge to the troubled soul in various ways. Sometimes keeping impending trouble off. At other times removing His people out of reach of trouble. More frequently giving them strength to bear their trouble. The prophet here intimates that the Lord’s goodness shall be the stronghold, the strength and the support. The mere thought of His goodness is to be a consolation and a stay.
III. What assurance they who trust Him have that He will be this to them. “He knoweth them that trust in Him. This brings the infinite knowledge of God to bear upon their case. When I make a living Being my refuge, when I fly to Him to protect me, it is clear that He must know I am come to Him for protection, and know too what my dangers are that He may shield me against them. He knows both us and our troubles. It is impossible for words to exaggerate the attention God pays to His suffering people. The mere act of trusting in God seems to be something spoken of here as something like a claim on His attention and care. Then if you are in affliction, encourage yourselves in the Lord your God. He is all-sufficient in Himself. Make Him the centre of your affections, desires, and consolations. Flee to Him to hide you. (C. Bradley.)
God a refuge
At Holyhead there is a splendid breakwater which cost a million and a half of money. Rising thirty feet above the waves it defies their utmost fury. We are not surprised that it should be built on so massive a scale, for in a great storm each wave strikes with the sledge hammer force of three tons to the square foot. Though a hurricane blow, and the sea be mountains high, shipping sheltered behind it ride in perfect safety. This is a type of the security God is to those Who trust Him.
God is our refuge
A heathen could say, when a bird, scared by a hawk, flew into his bosom for refuge, “I will not kill thee, nor betray thee to thine enemy, seeing thou fliest to me for sanctuary”: much less will God either slay or give up the soul that takes sanctuary in His name. (W. Gurnall.)
Secure in God
Readers of Darwin will recall the description he gives of a marine plant which rises from a depth of one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, and floats on the great breakers of the western ocean. The stem of this plant is less than an inch through; yet it grows and thrives and holds its own against the fierce smitings and pressures of breakers which no masses of rock, however hard, could long withstand. What is the secret of this marvellous resistance and endurance? How can this slender plant face the fury of the elements so successfully, and, in spite of storm and tempests, keep its hold, and perpetuate itself from century to century? The answer has leaped to every lip: It reaches down into the still depths, where it fixes its grasp after the fashion of the instinct that has been put into it, to the naked rocks; and no commotion of the waters can shake it from its fastenings. When a man has deep and inner clingings to God, when the roots of his life go down and take hold on God, mere surface agitation and pressures will not overcome him. He may be floated here and there within a given sweep like a plant bosomed on the sea, and there may be times when it is very rough arid the strain is great, but he will survive it all and preserve his integrity. (F. A. Noble.)
God’s shielding love
Astronomers tell us that every year millions of meteoric bodies make their way towards our earth with a speed many times greater than that of the swiftest cannon-ball. These, beyond doubt, would strike the earth and destroy its inhabitants but for the air which surrounds it, That air, soft and yielding as it seems, offers so powerful a resistance to the swift motion of the falling meteors that they become vaporised through increased heat, and if they reach the earth at all, it is only in the form of minute meteoric dust. This physical fact has its counterpart in the spiritual realm. The influences Of evil which assail the Christian as he goes through the world are often enough to crush and kill in him all spiritual life and joy and beauty, but round about him there is the atmosphere of the Divine love, and that love resists all evil, being as a consuming fire, keeping back from contact with the trusting soul everything that would destroy its purity and blast its blessedness. The love of God is a perfect protection to every Christian believer; with it around us we can walk with untrembling tread, knowing that no “weapon formed against us can prosper,” (Great Thoughts.)
God a refuge
I once heard of a lonely traveller who sought to cross one of the western prairies. The only thing he had to guide him was a path that had been made by other travellers in the rank grass. But he had not gone very far before the snow began to fall, at first in scattered flakes, like large white feathers, but by and by with thick and blinding fierceness. He soon lost every trace of the path along which he travelled. He was lost, bewildered, and as the darkness began to gather around him he was greatly alarmed. He cried out for help, but the wild winds only laughed at him as hey swept by. He was almost in despair when he saw through the blinding flakes a flickering light. Toward it he bent his exhausted energies. Stumbling and falling, over the drifts that had accumulated here and there, he at length came to a settler’s cottage. Can you imagine his thankfulness and joy when-he found the storm behind him, in that friendly hut? He was safe. He was happy. In the moment of greatest peril he had found a refuge. Now that is just what God is to every traveller caught in the storm of life. If you but see the light that streams out from the windows of His palace, of His heart, and follow it, you will be safe from harm. The door of mercy is always open; the fires of His love and forgiveness are always glowing; the welcome which He gives is always abundant.
God’s ways with friends and enemies
The sentiment of the passage is, that the same power which the Almighty displays for the destruction of His enemies, He employs for the protection of His friends.
I. The benignity of the ever-blessed God. “The Lord is good.” Goodness is associated with every idea it is possible to form of the Most High. Goodness is the perfection of His nature, the foundation of His actions, and comprehends all His other attributes, When His goodness supplies the needy, it is bounty; when it visits the miserable, it is pity; when it pardons the guilty, it is mercy; when it performs His promises, it is faithfulness; when it protects our persons, it is His power; when it orders events to our advantage, it is His wisdom; and when it converts and saves the soul, it is His grace. But where shall we look for its especial display? Not in providence but in redemption. His goodness here is love. This love is,--
1. Comprehensive in its objects.
2. Satisfying in its nature.
3. Exalting in its influence.
4. Perpetual in its existence.
II. THE REFUGE HE AFFORDS HIS AFFLICTED PEOPLE. “He is a stronghold.”
1. The distressing period to which the text refers. Such as national calamities; family trouble; soul trouble.
2. The refuge unfolded to our view. A stronghold, i.e., a fortification, a place of strength and defence.
III. The approbation he expresses in their confidence. “He knoweth them that trust in Him.” It is supposed that we betake ourselves to the shelter which Divine goodness provides foe our safety. A refuge, unless it be embraced, is no refuge at all.
1. What is the trust of which the text speaks? It is the fruit of faith.
2. What is the import of the term, “He knoweth them”? It is designed to express a distinguishing and an approving knowledge. He regards their confidence in Him with peculiar favour. (J. B. Good.)
How good God is
Two kinds of persons are spoken of here.
I. Those who are in trouble.
1. Trouble may be the result of our own imprudence. Or perhaps worse, of our sinfulness.
2. It may arise from family or business perplexities. Sometimes trouble is allowed to come and go unheeded. The rod is felt, but not the hand that brought it down. Sometimes trouble is received angrily or peevishly. It is very hard to contend against these feelings.
II. The characters that calmly wait for God; expecting some further development of His mind, and not venturing to judge according to present appearances.
I. Trusting in God supposes there is some occasion for trust. The work of faith is to trust in God when all outward things go wrong, and there is nothing but the Word of God to rely on.
2. Trusting in God is the highest manifestation of real principle.
3. Trusting in God is not an adventure. His revealed will puts a peradventure out of the question. (W. G. Barrett.)
The Lord’s favour to those who trust in Him
The Bible abounds with the most sublime descriptions of God, and represents, in a variety of passages, His awful character and glorious perfections. On reading the description in the passage connected with the text It may appear to contain a contradiction. It may seem to represent the Almighty under two different characters. We may be ready to think that He cannot be at once “a jealous God” and “good, slow to anger.” There is no real difficulty. God is in Himself the same, infinitely glorious in all perfections. The seeming differences in His character arise from the different characters of those with whom He has to deal. In this respect His character, like the cloud which accompanied Israel, has a dark side and a bright side. To His adversaries He is a “jealous God.” To His people He is “rich in mercy.” The description here given--
I. Of the people of God. “They that trust in Him.” Trust is often used for the whole of religion. It signifies a confidence in His power and faithfulness for protection and support, and for a supply of all things necessary to life and godliness. Things which characterise this confidence are--
1. It is habitual.
2. It is practical.
3. It is a patient and persevering trust.
4. It is a solid and well- grounded confidence.
Trust in God must be founded on His promise.
II. Of the favour of God to his people.
1. “The Lord is good.” God is goodness. Even His severity against sin is the effect of His goodness.
2. He is “a stronghold in the day of trouble.” The Lord s people are not exempt from trouble. But if they have peculiar trials they have peculiar support under them.
3. The Lord “knoweth them that are His.” He sees, distinguishes, approves. Especially has He respect to them as putting their trust in Him. He sees the humble confidence with which they repose in His truth and faithfulness. Surely blessed arc the people who make the Lord their trust. (E. Cooper.)