Only one hand can ease the trouble
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"The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble." Psalm 9:9
Do you not see how the scriptures always put together the malady and the remedy? How they unfold the promises as suitable to certain states and cases of soul? And how all the perfections of God are adapted to His people only so far as they are brought into peculiar circumstances? This vein runs through all the scripture. So here, the Lord is declared to be arefuge. But when? "In times of trouble."
We do not need Him to be a refuge when there is no trouble. Shall I use the expression without irreverence—'We can do without Him then.' We can—love the world—amuse ourselves with the things of time and sense—let our heads go astray after the perishing, transitory vanities of a day—set up an idol in our heart—bow down before a 'golden god'—have our affections wholly fixed on those naturally dear to us—get up in the morning, pass through the day, and lie down at night—very well without God.
But when times of trouble come—when afflictions lie heavily upon us—when we are brought into those scenes of tribulation through which we must pass to arrive at the heavenly Canaan—then we need something more than flesh and blood—then we need something more than the perishing creature can unfold—then we need something more than this vain world can amuse us with! We then need God! We need the everlasting arms to be underneath our souls—we need His consolations—we need something from the Lord's own lips dropped with the Lord's own power into our hearts!
These times of 'soul trouble' make God's people know that the Lord is their refuge. If I am in soul trouble—if my heart is surcharged with guilt—if my conscience is lacerated with the pangs of inward remorse—can the creature give me relief? Can friends dry the briny tear? Can they still the convulsive sigh? Can they calm the troubled bosom? Can they pour oil and wine into the bleeding conscience? No! They are utterly powerless in the matter! They may increase our troubles, and they often, like Job's friends, do so. But they cannot alleviate it.
Only one hand can ease the trouble—the same hand that laid it on! Only one hand can heal the wound—the same that mercifully inflicted it! Now, in these times of soul trouble, if ever we have felt them—we shall make the Lord our refuge. There is no other to go to! We may try every arm but His—we may look every way but the right way—and we may lean upon every staff but the true one.
But, sooner or later, we shall be brought to this spot—that none but the Lord God Almighty, who made heaven and earth, who brought our souls and bodies into being, who has kept and preserved us to the present hour, who is around our bed, and about our path, and spies out all our ways, and who has sent His dear Son to be a propitiation for our sin—that none but this eternal Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer, who made and upholds heaven and earth—can speak peace, pardon, and consolation to our hearts!
How sweet it is in these times of trouble—to have a God to go to—to feel that there are everlasting arms to lean upon—that there is a gracious ear into which we may pour our afflictions—that there is a heart, a sympathizing heart, in the bosom of the Lord of life and glory, which feels for us—to know that there is a hand to relieve, and to experience, at times, relief from that Almighty and gracious hand!
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