EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (3)

Verse 10.—“Be still, and know that I am the Lord.” Not everyone is a fit scholar for God’s school, but such as are purified according to the purification of the sanctuary. Carnal men are drowned in fleshly and worldly cares, and neither purged nor lifted up to receive the light of God, or else indisposed by prejudice or passion, that they cannot learn at all. We will never savingly know him, till our souls be free of these indispositions. Among all the elements the earth is fitted to receive seed of the sower; if he cast it into the fire, it burneth; if in the air, it withereth; if in the waters, it rotteth, the instability of that body is for producing monsters, because it closeth not straitly the seeds of fishes. Spirits of a fiery temper, or light in inconstancy, or moving as waters, are not for God’s lessons, but such as in stayed humility do rest under his hand. If waters be mixed with clay in their substance, or their surface be troubled with wind, they can neither receive nor render any image; such unstable spirits in the school of God, lose their time and endanger themselves.—William Struther.

Verse 10.—“Be still, and know,” etc. As you must come and see (verse 8), so come and hear what the Lord saith to those enemies of yours.—John Trapp.

Verse 11.—“The Lord of hosts is with us.” On Tuesday Mr. Wesley could with difficulty be understood, though he often attempted to speak. At last, with all the strength he had, he cried out, “The best of all is, God is with us.” Again, raising his hand, and waving it in triumph, he exclaimed with thrilling effect, “The best of all is, God is with us.” These words seem to express the leading feature of his whole life. God had been with him from early childhood; his providence had guided him through all the devious wanderings of human life; and now, when he was entering the “valley of the shadow of death,” the same hand sustained him.—From “Wesley and his Coadjutors.” By Rev W. C. Larrabee, A.M. Edited by Rev. B. F. Tefft, D.D. Cincinnati. 1851.