WE stand on the threshold of another year. We know what we have passed through in the year that is gone; we know not what we have to pass through in the year we have entered. Some of those who read these lines will not see the dawning of another year. It requires no prophetic gift to make such a statement. The dawning of another year is like a milestone in the journey of life. It awakens within us thoughts of the past and longings to know what the future has in store for us. Happy are we if, on looking back on the past, we can say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (I. Sam. vii. 12). The year now gone may have brought unexpected and trying sorrow to many but if looking at the vacant places never to be filled on earth again they can in faith say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” they are entitled to be reckoned a happy people whether they can allow themselves to say so or not. Many of our readers as they look back on the past will have to mourn because of bitter disappointments in life; bright hopes were extinguished; high expectations were disappointed and dark and threatening clouds appeared on life’s horizon unlooked for and unprepared for; yet, if in the midst of it all the heart can say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” faith was not asleep and the disappointments were not unblessed. Over many a home in the land at present the dark shadows cast by the industrial depression have fallen and we feel for those of our readers with families who long for work and cannot get it. The amount of silent suffering endured by breadwinners because of the sad conditions of the times must be greater than most realise. Still if they can say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” they are to be envied.
Then surely the people who are journeying on to the place of which the Lord said: “I will give it you” have reason on looking back on the year that is gone to say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” He has never been a wilderness to His own and never will. He bestows His gifts as a royal Giver; with a lavish hand He scatters His blessings to His own inheritance. Whatever the future may have for them they know what He has done for them in the past and the same strong right arm that upheld and kept them in the past is quite capable of upholding them in the future. And this remains true notwithstanding all that Satan may be whispering in their ears with the purpose of paralysing them through fear. It is significant that in the words already so often quoted emphasis is laid on the fact that it was the Lord who helped. Unbelief would turn away our eyes to the creature. We are so ready to look to man and in doing so turn away our eyes from the Lord. Some one in the providence of God may have been instrumental in helping us—it may be in the preaching of the Word, or in kind and wise counsel given to us in a time of perplexity or it may be sympathy extended to us in the time of sorrow—and we are ready to give the creature the honour that is due to the Lord. But when we can say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” then the honour is given to whom it is due. Let us then in taking a look over the year that is past seek, by grace, to say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” and with our faces to the unknown future we will be encouraged to believe that the God who helped His people in the past will be with them in the future.
But we would be deceiving many of our readers if we led them to believe that what we have been saying applies to all. There are those who believe that they are quite capable of helping themselves who have no need of the strong help of Jehovah. It would be the emptiest mockery of such to say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” Their strength will be feeble in the day when it is most needed and surely this is a matter that ought to awaken the deepest concern and give them no rest until they come to know the mighty Helper of Israel.
In what way does the Lord help His people?
(1) By counsel from His Word; (2) by the strong consolations of the gospel; (3) by the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
(1) There is no counsel so heavenly, so worthy to be relied on as the counsel we have in the Word of God. Here is to be found eternal truth and eternal wisdom. Sinners are warned of dangers unsuspected; exhorted to be wise; to make choice of the good portion that will never be taken away; to renounce the follies of sin and to look to Christ as their only hope. Can we say honestly that His Word has counselled us, guided us, upheld us? if so, we are entitled to say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”
(2) By the strong consolations of the gospel. No message that ever came to man was so laden with consolation—everlasting consolation. It is like oil poured into wounds that seemed beyond healing; like wine cheering the heart of those that were ready to faint. To those who have heard this message as the gospel of their salvation may they not say: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”
(3) By the comfort of the Holy Spirit. He is called the Comforter, i.e., the Strengthener and what strength He has given to frail, timid men and women so that they were able to contend with the giants of evil that opposed the truth of God and also with the powerful enemies that had a lodgement in their own hearts until the happy day dawns when every enemy will be driven forth and the peace of God will take undisputed possession of their hearts forever and ever. When the dawning of that day comes they will be able to say with a fulness of meaning what they often lisped in broken words: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” He was their Helper all the way to their eternal and happy home.