The Promise of Peace
“The heart where peace abides is like the heaven,
The limpid dome where clouds in sullen might
May come and go; but through each rift appearing
The blue shines forth the same, serene and bright.
“Oh, send our hearts this blessed peace, great Father!
That thus endowed and cheered through Thy dear love,
This life become to us, Thy faulty children,
A foretaste of the better life above.”
“Perfect peace!” That is what we all want. That, too, is what Christ offers us in His gospel. Among His farewell words we find this bequest: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” (John 14:27) After His return from the grave He said to His disciples, three times repeating the same benediction, “Peace be unto you.” (John 20:19,21,26) Peace is thus part of the blessed evangel, and an essential element of true and full Christian life. Christ desires us to have peace. If we do not have it we have missed part of the blessing of being a Christian, part of our inheritance as children of God. It is not a peculiar privilege which is only for a favored few; it is for everyone who believes in Christ and will accept it.
Yet do all Christians possess peace? Have all taken into their heart and life this blessing bequeathed to them by the Master? How many of us really have Christ’s peace today? How many of us lived in the peace of Christ the past week? How many of us are kept in perfect peace through all the circumstances and experiences of our changeful lives?
What is wrong? Is the gospel really not what it claims to be? Are the blessings it promises only lovely dreams which never are fulfilled, which cannot be fulfilled? Is grace not able to help us to attain that peace? The Bible is full of great words like rest, joy, peace, love, hope. Are these words only illusions? Or can these beautiful things be attained? Do Christians as a rule expect to get these divine qualities into their lives in this present world?
We may say with perfect confidence that these words paint no impossible attainments. For example, peace—it is not a mocking vision which ever flees away from him who tries to clasp it and take it into his heart. It is not like the sunbeam which the child tries to gather up off the floor in its chubby hand, but which only pours through its fingers and slips from its clasp. Nor is it merely a heavenly attainment which we must wait till we die to get. It is a state into which every believer in Christ may enter here on the earth, and in which he may dwell in all life’s changes.
It is well worth our while to think what is meant by peace, as the word is used in the Scriptures, and then ask how we may obtain this blessing. The word runs through all the Bible. We find it far back in the Old Testament, in the benediction used by the priests— “The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” (Numbers 6:26) Here peace is offered as the gift of God, a blessing dropped from heaven into trusting hearts. In Job, in the words of Eliphaz the Temanite, we have the exhortation, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace.” (Job 22:21) According to this word, the way to find peace is by getting acquainted with God. It is because we do not know Him that we are not at rest. In the Psalms are many words about peace. For example, this: “The mountains shall bring peace to the people.” (Psalm 72:3) The mountains take the storms which beat in fury about their tall peaks. Down at the mountain’s base, however, the sweet valleys lie in quietness, meanwhile, sheltered and in peace. So it is that Christ met the storms, which exhausted their fury upon Him, while those who trust in Him nestle in security in the shelter of His love.
We have a beautiful illustration of this in two of the Psalms which stand side by side. The Twenty-Second is called the Psalm of the Cross. It tells the story of the crucifixion. Its first words, certainly, were used by the Redeemer when He was passing through His dying agony. The psalm is full of the experiences of Calvary. The storms are sweeping fiercely about the mountain’s brow.
Then how quietly and beautifully the Twenty-Third Psalm nestles in the shadow of the Twenty-Second, like a quiet vale at the mountain’s foot! It shows us a picture of perfect peace. We see the shepherd leading His flock beside the still waters and making them lie down in the green pastures. Even in the deep valley there is no gloom, for the shepherd walks with His sheep and quiets all their fears. This sweet shepherd psalm could come nowhere but after the Psalm of the Cross.
The prophets also tell us much about peace. In Isaiah, especially, the word occurs again and again. The Messiah is foretold as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Farther on, we come again under the shadow of the cross, and read that “the chastisement of our peace was upon him.” (Isaiah 53:5) The security and eternity of our peace are pledged in a wonderful promise which says, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” (Isaiah 54:10)
But it is in the New Testament that the wonderful fulness of the meaning of peace is disclosed. On every page the word shines. The angels sang at the Redeemer’s birth, “On earth peace.” (Luke 2:14) At the close of His ministry, Jesus said to His friends, “In me ye might have peace.” () Over eighty times the word appears in the New Testament, half of these being written by Paul, the homeless, persecuted apostle.