WHEN THE LORD HIDES HIS FACE ~ Take heart, dear brethren

"My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen Thou me, according unto Thy word." -Psalm 119:28 [KJV]   

While the wicked are gay, alert, and merry, many of God’s beloved children go bowed down, from day to day, with heaviness of soul. When they compare themselves with the men of the world, under such seasons, they are tempted to write bitter things against themselves, and to pass a verdict in favour of others. Soul! in the heaviest season, and most dejected frame you ever experienced, say, Could you find it in your heart to wish to change lots with them? 

What! quit your faith in Jesus, and hope of eternal enjoyment of Him—for what? the momentary gratifications and short lived pleasures of time and sense. Alas! my soul is in such heaviness, that I doubt whether I have either a spark of faith or a ray of hope in Christ. My soul melteth: it bears no image nor impression of any grace, or of the power of any truth. Faith fails: hope decays: my heart sinks. I am burdened with a sense of sin; oppressed with temptations; and, what is heaviest of all, the Lord hides His face and deserts my soul. 

David felt all this: Peter experienced the same. Hence he says, “For a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” (I Peter 1:6.) Mind those two words; there is support and relief in them: “For a season.” Blessed be Jesus, heaviness lasts not always. He will deliver out of it. “If need be.” There is cause for it: good shall issue from it. What is the remedy when the soul is in heaviness? prayer: pleading God’s word of grace, and promises of love, for strength under burdens and deliverance from soul-heaviness. 

“Strengthen Thou me according unto Thy word.” Says wisdom, “Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop.” The poor soul sinks under its burden. “But,” says He, “A good word maketh it glad” (Proverbs 12:25.) Where shall ye find a good word? in the gospel of the grace of God. Here is a good word; enough to make thy heavy heart leap for joy, and thy burdened soul sing for gladness. O! meditate upon it, pray over it; and may the Lord, the Spirit give thee comfort from it. 

It is the work and office of Thy blessed Saviour: in His own time, way, and manner, He will most surely fulfil it. “To appoint unto them who mourn in Zion; to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that the LORD may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3.) 

In all my burden’d frames of heart, 

When sin and sorrow sinks me down, 

I still will cry, my God Thou art, 

Thy faithful promises to own. 

To Thee alone for strength I’ll cry, 

For strength can come from none but Thee; 

O Jesus, Thou art ever nigh, 

And full of sympathy.

 

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)