01 Help in Trouble!

Help in Trouble!

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!" 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"Though the mountains are shaken and the hills are removed — yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed — says the LORD, who has compassion on you." Isaiah 54:10

"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me!" Psalms 138:7

"For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his pavilion; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock!" Psalms 27:5

"God has said, ’Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ’The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’" Hebrews 13:5-6 "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you!" Isaiah 66:13

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever!" Psalms 23:1-6 "God is our refuge and strength — a very present help in times of trouble!" Psalms 46:1 To attempt to prove that man is exposed to trouble, and that man when in trouble needs help, would be a sort of mockery. Eliphaz, the Temanite, one of Job’s friends, was wrong in applying his argument to Job; but he did not at all misrepresent man’s condition, when he said, "For affliction does not come from the dust — nor does trouble spring from the ground. Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward!" Job 5:6-7

How uncommon to find any who say, "We have never known trouble!" Sometimes someone begins a sentence, "I may say, I scarcely knew trouble until" — then comes the mention of some trouble indeed . . .
that first bereavement,
that crushing calamity,
that serious illness, or
that deep, sharp, first conviction of sin and sense of danger for the soul. With others life has been, throughout a series of years, a succession of heavy troubles — wave rolling after wave, storm following storm — each trouble in some sense heavier than the preceding, because of the increased accumulation. And hence some err in judgment, like Job’s friends, and imagine that where there are the heaviest troubles — there must have been the greatest sins. "I know not what I have done," said a young man leaning on crutches, with his health gone, and his power of supporting himself gone with it. "I know not what I have done," he said to me, with a countenance showing an embittered spirit — "why God should send me such heavy troubles." I tried to teach him what may be the wise and loving purpose of God, afflicting in order to profit us, by drawing us to Himself through Christ our Savior.

But, I said, it is needless, it is also superfluous, to prove that we are exposed to trouble.

We need help. Is it enough to have human help in trouble? Man can but minister help, as God permits. Man’s help is very limited indeed — many troubles are far beyond his effectual help. How little he can do in mental and emotional troubles! Outward troubles are chiefly troubles — as they press upon the mind. What miserable comforters are worldly friends to one whose mind is pierced with anxiety! How poor are heir topics of comfort! How chilling is their anemic philosophy! It is often little better than stoic apathy, or brutish insensibility. For the whole class of spiritual troubles, from the first conviction of sin, to the last conflict between the flesh and the spirit — the worldly can give no help. That conviction, they would bid you drown in dissipation; that conflict, they would stupefy with narcotics. And then spiritually-minded men will all testify they can help only as instruments for God. They disclaim all idea of helping in any other way. "Being helped — we help. Being comforted — we comfort." Looking, with John the Baptist, to Jesus for help, we say, with him, to you, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 But God is our "help in trouble." Why look for help hither and thither, where it cannot be found — to the neglect of Him who alone can help effectually? Only think, if in your trouble you could have . . .
the richest of men to come and help to relieve your poverty,
the strongest of men to minister to your bodily weakness, and the wisest of men to counsel you in perplexity
— you would deem it a privilege and a favor. That you cannot have. But even that, if you could have it, might prove very insufficient help. But here you may have . . .
God in all the riches of His grace;
God in all the energy of His almighty power;
God in all the wisdom of His omniscience
— to be your "very present help in times of trouble!"

He is not a God afar off — but "very present" — close at hand, ready to work in you, speaking to your heart, applying to your soul His divine consolations and support. "Under me are the everlasting arms!" Yes, you may find "God a very present help in times of trouble."

You observe the climax of goodness;
God is "a help."
God is "a present help."
God is "a very present help in times of trouble." Can language be more expressive? Can heart desire more?

It would be easy to illustrate this from the dealings of God with His people as recorded in Scripture. To show how Abraham, so tried and troubled, was yet so comforted by God. How Jacob, who at one time exclaimed, "All these things are against me," would now testify, "All these things have worked together for my good!" How David, so persecuted by Saul, was so preserved by the providence and comforted by the grace of God. How New Testament saints join in with more ancient believers, to swell the concert of praise to a faithful, covenant-keeping God, as their "refuge and strength — a very present help in trouble."

Reader, I rather want your testimony. I long for you also to know God in your present and future troubles. You are in trouble now. It is quite enough to tell you so; there is no need of describing the trouble which oppresses so heavily. And now, I ask you, Do you truly know God? You have heard of Him I know, "by the hearing of the ear." But do you know Him by your own faith and experience, as "our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble?"

Remember, your experience is not only for your own life and comfort, but also for the attraction of strangers to Christ — for the encouragement of weaker brethren — for the edification of the whole Church of the faithful, and to glorify the all-sufficient grace of God. Abide, then, in Christ, your safe refuge. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might!" Glorify God in the fires of tribulation. Treasure up past and present experience for future encouragement. Trust God also for others — for all your fellow-believers. Encourage all the faithful to join their testimony with yours, "God is our strength."

Remember Martin Luther, who, when he and his brother-Reformers were in some new trouble, things seeming to go against them, used to exhort them, "Come, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm!" And he made a note, I have been told, by this Psalm, in the margin of his Psalter, "This is my comforting Psalm!"

So, in our day, in the progress of our revived reformation, when the clouds sometimes look dark, and some friends prove faithless, and others faint, let us refer to this comforting Psalm: "We will not fear." We will "be still and know that he is God;" and more, we will sing in the fiercest tumult, "The Lord Almighty is with us — the God of Jacob is our refuge!"

"Gracious and Almighty Redeemer, Your love surpasses knowledge. Oh, keep me near Your heart now, henceforth, and forever! Amen and amen."