1 Sweet is the light of Sabbath eve,
And soft the sunbeam lingering there;
For these blest hours the world I leave,
Wafted on wings of faith and prayer.
2 The time, how lovely and how still;
Peace shines and smiles on all below;
The plain, the stream, the wood, the hill,
All fair with evening’s setting glow!
3 Season of rest! the tranquil soul
Feels the sweet calm, and melts in love;
And while these sacred moments roll,
Faith sees a smiling heaven above.
4 Nor will our days of toil be long:
Our pilgrimage will soon be trod;
And we shall join the ceaseless song,
The endless Sabbath of our God.
(https://hymnary.org/text/sweet_is_the_light_of_sabbath_eve )
As we reflect on this hymn this morning; our focal passage is from Philippians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phl 4:7 ESV)
What a wonderful verse to hear in the middle of the week!
The previous verses in this passage say:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Phl 4:4-6 ESV)
AND….
A connecting word from the greek, “???” which means: “and, also, even, indeed, but” (Strongs G2532)
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phl 4:4-7 ESV)
This is all one thought. Rejoice in the Lord always—AND—the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds!
This is something to celebrate and to rejoice over that this peace is available to you today!
Now the first question to ask is what is peace anyway?
I like what Catherine Marshall said about peace. She said “Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart.” (How to Find Peace, Brighton Books, 2003, page 11)
One of the things that is truly clear to me is that this world never stops. There is always something going on.
Just look back at your calendar and see all of the things that you did last week—all of the back and forth, then there are the family illnesses, and things breaking. Not to mention the routine tasks that just have to get done.
In the middle of all of this madness stands you—are you going to have peace?
Listen to the first verse:
“Sweet is the light of Sabbath eve,
And soft the sunbeam lingering there;
For these blest hours the world I leave,
Wafted on wings of faith and prayer.”
When you live your life on “wings of faith and prayer”…that is peace.
Do you have this peace in your life?
The peace that only comes from a God who can calm the storms as they swirl around you?
He is waiting for you today—if you will trust in him.
This peace, the Bible says, “surpasses all understanding”
Peace like this does not make sense.
Robert Frost wrote in his poem “The Secret Sits”
“We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”
We like to walk around in our circle and come up with great solutions for all of life’s problem. But the secret is right in front of us….right in the center. I do want to put words in Frost’s mouth, but I believe that secret is peace. It doesn’t make sense. We think we can accomplish so much by our own worry and despair. But God’s peace doesn’t make sense—it surpasses all understanding!
I love the words of this second verse that reads:
“The time, how lovely and how still;
Peace shines and smiles on all below;
The plain, the stream, the wood, the hill,
All fair with evening’s setting glow!”
One of the aspects of peace is that stillness.
I think of the water in a pool or a lake that is untouched in the early morning. It stands still. There may be ripples from the breeze around it, but the water is peaceful and still.
I am reminded of the stillness, in this case, the evening around sunset. Where the heat of the day is beginning to dissipate and the noise of the day is fading into the black, and all that is left is stillness and peace.
Let’s look at this verse one more time:
Philippians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phl 4:7 ESV)
This peace…isn’t just peace for the sake of peace. This peace “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The Bible says much about guarding yourself.
Paul talks about the “Shield of Faith” We need to guard ourselves from the fiery darts of Satan—and one way to do this is to embrace peace. To not allow ourselves to fall for the lies that we can make things better by panic!
Typically, when we think of guarding something—particularly in the military, we think of fortification—but here we have guarding ourselves with peace! Peace that is driven by faith in knowing that God is in control.
We aren’t surrounding ourselves with walls, but we are standing on the confidence in the savior.
So, this morning, we are reminded of peace.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phl 4:7 ESV)
I encourage you today that you will walk through every fire and face every obstacle with that peace. And that we look forward to that rest…
The endless Sabbath of our God.
A-Men
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Photo by Thomas Galler on Unsplash