Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise Thou stillest them.
(Ps. 89, 9.)
IT is in times of distress and danger that the Lord’s people are specially favoured in their God. The idols of the heathen nations are all fair-weather gods; Baal was thought to be good enough till put to the test by fire; a test that must try every man’s work. Baal was the work of man, as every false God is, and he failed as all his class will; but the God of Elijah did not fail. For Him every test, whether by fire or flood is but another opportunity for the display of His eternal power and God-head. Such an opportunity occurs when the sea rages and the waves thereof arise. Then God, the One Living and True God, reveals Himself as ruling and making His mighty power known.
There are many kinds of storm as well as those on the high seas; storms in the mighty far flung seas of human affairs; storms in the deep seas of spiritual experience, and storms encountered by the Church of Christ as she sails on to her destined haven. For all these the same truth holds good,—THOU rulest. What we have specially in view in this article is to note the fact that even in the unsettled conditions so prevalent to-day by reason of world-wide war God rules with absolute sovereignty and power. The significance of this great and consoling truth is illustrated when it is considered in relation to a natural storm on the ocean. Few scenes in nature are so impressive as a tempest on the high seas. The howling of the winds, the surging of the waves, the heaving and boiling of mighty ocean currents rising to the surface from unknown depths, the constant motion of the ship as she rolls and pitches, rises and falls, and over all the dark threat of a gloomy sky, all combine to create impressions of awe and apprehensions of danger. Puny man stands, as it were, aside, a helpless onlooker, overwhelmed by a sense of weakness and impotence, conscious only of vast forces, irresistible in their might and utterly beyond his control, and filling each moment with peril.
But to the eye of faith with which the devout onlooker beholds the same scene there is a truth of vastly greater significance impressed upon his mind; it is the fact that even in the raging of the sea THOU over it dost rule; that in all the seeming confusion, in the gloom and the danger, in the conflicting movement and convulsive upheaval of mighty forces contending for the mastery there is after all but one Master, one Lord, one God unseen but ever present. We are told that He holds the waters in the hollow of His hand, that the Lord sits on the floods as King and ever shall. These scriptures, and a host of others, all proclaim the majesty of our God. He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, He ruleth with perfect control while the storm rages, and finally when it has run its appointed course and done its appointed work, He stills the waves and there is a great calm. By reason of our sin, unbelief and ignorance this fundamental truth is not soon nor easily learned, and its significance is not known. We must be called time and again to the exercise of being still and knowing that Jehovah is God indeed. It is only by faith deliberately exercised at the very time when the storm rages that this truth can be learned. It is only as a result of the experience gained by the continued exercise of faith in such circumstances that the real significance of this truth sinks into our hearts. Not until then can we enjoy the wealth of comfort and reassurance it is fitted to produce and to maintain. And, oh, what comfort it is! Think, for instance, of the 46th psalm, where the Church is enabled triumphantly to say, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea: though the waters thereof roar and are troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” How great is that mercy which brings the soul of a poor trembling sinner to rest on this Rock, and to say “this God is my God, my Covenant God, my Redeeming God! He will even unto death me guide.”
These reflections will perhaps help to illustrate what is actually taking place in the confusion which exists in the world to-day. For the past four-and-a-half years Britain has been passing through what is generally recognised to be one of the most severe storms in her long history. During that time events of the greatest political and military significance for the future of mankind have succeeded each other in bewildering rapidity. And now we are warned by those in authority that the storm has just about reached its most critical phase. Before these lines appear in print the Allied Armies will, in all likelihood, have invaded the Continent in the West, and millions of men will be thrust into the battle. The whole nation is being called upon to brace itself for the conflict. Whatever the outcome may be—God alone knows that—it would be an act of folly on our part were we to blind ourselves to the sorrow and suffering inevitably connected with such a prospect. Modern warfare of the magnitude with which this one is being waged cannot be won except at enormous cost, “for every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood.” But God rules even in the raging of warring armies locked in deadly strife. In justice, righteousness and wisdom He exercises supreme control; the destiny of men and nations, the outcome of every battle, the flight of every bullet are but the fulfilment of His supreme will. Even in the raging of the sea THOU over it dost rule.
And now is there no voice that speaks out to us from the midst of the storm? Are there no lessons for us to learn? Shall we find an answer to the question “Why?” Many are asking the question “Why all this upheaval, why all this sorrow, why all this cutting off of lives? if God rules, why should these things be?” These things are just because God rules. The nations of the earth have sinned and have set themselves against the Lord and His anointed. They have said “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,—the Bible is discarded, the Sabbath is desecrated, the Spirit is grieved to depart; and what have we? “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak to them in wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.” Oh, that we heard His voice and understood.
The voice of God is heard in the tempest also calling upon the wicked to forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and to return unto God. Has our personal sin no place in those causes on account of which God, who delights in mercy, is pouring out the vials of His judgments. Shall we in self-righteous complaisancy shift the awful burden of responsibility on to shoulders other than our own. Well, let him that is without sin among us cast the first stone. No, my dear friend, the call is to you and to me, a call to sincere repentance and earnest prayer, a call awful in its solemnity and unmistakably clear. Shall it speak in vain?
Again, there is a message here for all those whose duty requires that they go out into the storm and face its fury. Remember that even when the tempest rages at its height God rules in it, through it and over it; God who sent His Son into the world to save sinners; God who in Jesus Christ made an end of sin, abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel; God who calls even unto the ends of the earth, Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else. To one caught up in the storm of war with all its dread possibilities could anything be more satisfying and reassuring than to be bound up in the bundle of life with this God. While we follow you in our thoughts and prayers as you go out into the fray, we, at the same time, beseech you, as in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God, and thereby the peace of God shall keep your hearts.
To the relatives of our fighting men—wives, parents, children—left at home to spend anxious days and nights, we would say lift up your eyes on high; in the very midst of the storm there is One greater than the storm, the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. Seek Him who turneth the shadow of death into the morning. His promise to those who know Him is “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”