Our song gives some hint of similar thoughts by passing from the
description of the qualifications for entrance to the celebration of
the security which comes from trust. The safety which is realised
within the walls of the strong city is akin to the 'perfect peace' in
which he who trusts is kept; and the juxtaposition of the two
representations is equivalent to the teaching that trust, which is
precisely the same as the New Testament faith, is the condition of
entrance. We know that faith makes righteous, because it opens the
heart to receive God's gift of righteousness; but that effect of faith
is implied rather than stated here, where security and peace are the
main ideas. As some fugitives from the storm of war sit in security
behind the battlements of a fortress, and scarcely hear the din of
conflict in the open field below, the heart, which has taken refuge by
trust in God, is kept in peace so deep that it passes description, and
the singer is fain to give a notion of its completeness by calling it
'peace, peace.' The mind which trusts is steadied thereby, as light
things lashed to a firm stay are kept steadfast, however the ship toss.
The only way to get and keep fixedness of temper and spirit amid change
and earthquake is to hold on to God, and then we may be stable with
stability derived from the foundations of His throne to which we cling.
Therefore the song breaks into triumphant fervour of summons to all who
hear it, to 'trust in Jab Jehovah for ever,' Such settled, perpetual
trust is the only attitude corresponding to His mighty name, and to the
realities found in His character. He is the 'Bock of Ages' the grand
figure which Moses learned beneath the cliffs of Sinai and wove into
his last song, and which tells us of the unchanging strength that makes
a sure hiding-place for all generations, and the ample space which will
hold all the souls of men, and be for a shadow from the heat, a covert
from the tempest, a shelter from the foe, and a home for the homeless,
with many a springing fountain in its clefts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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