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Now May the God of Peace A prayer for sanctification in the fight against sin
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
Lord, I desire Your will My heart yearns to obey Though daily I am faced with sin Enticing me away
So, help me rise each day Battle and war with sin I long to see You face to face And final vict’ry win
Lord, You have so designed This fight with sin in me That as I struggle, watch and pray I learn humility
So, help me to obey Holiness to pursue Deepen repentance when I fail Strengthen my faith in You
I rest within the hope Your Spirit dwells in me Completing that which was begun So holy I may be
Now may the God of Peace Sanctify me wholly And keep me blameless ‘til the day Christ comes in victory
Many voices in our day are crying out for justice. We see oppression and we want it to stop. We see pain and we want to bring relief. We know that there is much wrong with the world and we want to make things right. But try as we might, evil and suffering persist. We still live in a fallen and broken world. How are we to overcome pain and find peace? How can we offer forgiveness, yet achieve true justice? How can we pursue reconciliation, yet punish evil? The answers to these questions elude us. Our ways fail and fall short. The world simply cannot provide the justice and righteousness that we long to see.
But there is hope! Where we stumble, God triumphs. His ways are not our ways. He alone can accomplish what we cannot. His ways are astounding! His ways are astonishing. Isaiah speaks of “the latter days” when
Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:3–5)
God judges the nations. He will bring us true and lasting peace. Through the prophet Hosea, God gives us His promise.
“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the Lord.” (Hosea 2:19–20)
God is righteous and just. He cannot overlook our sin. His Law demands that He punish our sin. Yet God is merciful and abundant in lovingkindness. He looks upon us with compassion. He has made a way to rescue us from sin. How can He do both? He has accomplished both by sending His Son. In Christ we see His perfect righteousness as well as His abundant lovingkindness. At the cross He united justice and mercy. In Christ there is hope! In Him there is righteousness that we could never attain on our own. In Him we find true peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation. We must go to the cross if we are to be made whole.
How astounding! How astonishing Are the ways of our God! Look to His Word, Find rest in His love, Come walk in the light of the Lord!
“O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:5).
How can we know what’s just and right? The world is dark and blind. And where is hope for those condemned? Forgiveness who can find? When sinned against and faced with wrongs, The world decries its loss; But God says look beyond our grief To hope found at the cross
How astounding! How astonishing Are the ways of our God! Look to His Word, Find rest in His love, Come walk in the light of the Lord!
We seek for justice, yet we know, The world can’t satisfy. Its methods to atone for sin Fall short or go awry. The righteousness we long to see, The world cannot provide. The only place where sins are cleansed: The cross where Jesus died.
How astounding! How astonishing Are the ways of our God! Look to His Word, Find rest in His love, Come walk in the light of the Lord!
The full forgiveness of God’s love, The world can’t comprehend. For it seeks justice in its own Perpetual revenge. But in the Gospel of God’s grace Is love the world can’t give. Because we are forgiv’n in Christ, We also can forgive.
How astounding! How astonishing Are the ways of our God! Look to His Word, Find rest in His love, Come walk in the light of the Lord!
So come and see the love of God Unto the world revealed. Come kneel before the cross for there Our deepest pains are healed. Believe the promise in His Word, The world our God so loved. He will forgive, raise up, and call A sinner His beloved.
How astounding! How astonishing Are the ways of our God! Look to His Word, Find rest in His love, Come walk in the light of the Lord!
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1–2).
Isaiah 40 begins with some amazing words of hope. In the midst of pending judgment, Isaiah points the nation of Judah to the coming of the Messiah. He speaks of Christ who would come and tell the weary and downcast:
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).
In 1741 George Fredrick Handel opened his oratorio Messiah with a setting of Isaiah 40. Seventy years earlier, in 1671, a German minister named Johannes Olearius fashioned the same passage into a hymn: Comfort, Comfort Ye My People. Olearius was born in 1611 (the same year the KJV translation of the Bible was completed) and he attended the University of Wittenberg (where Martin Luther had taught theology).
The hymn is set to a tune from the Genevan Psalter composed by Louis Bourgeois to fit Psalm 42. Psalm 42 includes the refrain:
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
(Psalm 42:5)
Olearius’ hymn is a beautiful setting of God’s words of comfort to His people. It was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth in 1863.
Comfort, Comfort Ye My People
Comfort, comfort ye my people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ‘neath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem,
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
And her warfare now is over.
Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved His anger
He no more will see or heed.
She has suffered many a day,
Now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever springing gladness.
For the herald’s voice is crying
In the darkness far and near,
Bidding all men to repentance,
Since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet Him,
And the hills bow down to greet Him.
Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o’er earth is shed abroad;
And all flesh shall see the token,
That His word is never broken.
Thus they discoursed together till late at night; and after they had committed themselves to their Lord for protection, they betook themselves to rest. The Pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber, whose window opened towards the sun-rising. The name of the chamber was Peace; where he slept till break of day, and then he awoke and sang:
“Where am I now? Is this the love and care
Of Jesus for the men that pilgrims are?
Thus to provide! That I should be forgiven!
And dwell already the next door to heaven!”
Following supper, Christian continues the conversation with the family at Palace Beautiful until late in the evening. The opportunities we have to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ are precious and valuable. We should not rush through them or take them for granted, but savor the time we have together.
As the family prepares to sleep, they trust themselves to the Lord.
I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
(Psalm 4:8)
I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the LORD sustained me.
(Psalm 3:5)
The spacious upper chamber where Christian finds rest represents Christ. Its window opens to the rising sun. Jesus is the “sun of righteousness” who rises “with healing in its wings” (Malachi 4:2). He is the light of the world (Isaiah 60:1; John 8:12), the Dayspring who gives “light to those who sit in darkness” (Luke 1:78-79, Isaiah 9:2).
Christian’s bedchamber is called “Peace.”
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
(Isaiah 26:3)
Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). In Him we find rest for our souls; He tells us:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).
Peace is a gift of Christ (John 14:27) and a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). And peace is a hallmark of Christ’s church. Most of the letters in the New Testament, written to encourage and instruct the churches, begin with a reference to peace: Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 1:2; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philemon 3; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2; 2 John 3; Jude 2; Revelation 1:4.
Paul exhorts us, as we fellowship and walk together in the church, to endeavor “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). The peace and unity we share in household of God is a demonstration of the power of gospel. It is a miracle of grace that God can take diverse and sinful people and make us one in Christ. It is Jesus Himself who is our peace, who rescues us from sin and selfishness and unites us together as His people for His glory. Paul explains:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:13-18).
It is Jesus who cares and loves us. He is our Savior and Redeemer. It is He who brings us near to God and near to one another in the family of God. As with Christian in Bunyan’s story, this truth should stir our hearts with joy and song.
A Guide to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress See TOC for more posts from this commentary
