My God and My Country

A Discourse On Meekness and Quietness of Spirit

  Abridged from the Rev. Matthew Henry

Edited by R.P. Woitowitz Sr.

A meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:4

Published by the American Tract Society

THE EXCELLENCY OF MEEKNESS

He enjoys his friends

 [T]hat is a thing in which lies much of the comfort of human life. Man was intended to be a sociable creature, and a Christian much more so. But the angry man is unfit to be so, that takes fire at every provocation; fitter to be abandoned to the lions' dens and mountains of the leopards, than to go forth by the footsteps of the flock. He that has his hand against every man, cannot but have, with Ishmael's character, Ishmael's fate, "every man's hand against him," [Read Genesis 16:1] and so he lives in a state of war; but meekness is the cement of society, the bond of Christian communion: it planes and polishes the materials of that beautiful fabric, and makes them lie close and tight, and the living stones which are built up a spiritual house, to be like the stones of the temple that Herod built, all as one stone, whereas, "Hard upon hard," as the Spaniard's proverb is, "will never make a wall." Meekness preserves among brethren that unity which is like the ointment upon the holy head, and the dew upon the holy hill.(See Psalm 133:1-2). In our present state of imperfection, there can be no friendship, correspondence, or conversation maintained without mutual allowances; we do not yet dwell with angels or spirits of just men made perfect, but with men subject to like passions. Now meekness teaches us to consider this, and to allow accordingly; and so distance and strangeness, feuds and quarrels are happily prevented, and the beginnings of them crushed by a timely care. How necessary to true friendship it is to surrender our passions, and to subject them all to the laws of it, was perhaps intimated by Jonathan's delivering to David his sword and his bow and his girdle, all his military habiliments, when he entered in a covenant with him.

He enjoys his God (a)

[T]hat is most comfortable of all. It is the quintessence of all happiness, and that without which all our other enjoyments are insipid; for this none are better qualified than those who are arrayed with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. It was when the psalmist had newly conquered an unruly passion and composed himself, that he lifted up his soul to God in that pious and pathetic breathing, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee." [Read Psalm 73:25-26]. We enjoy God when we have the evidences and the assurances of his favor, the tastes and tokens of his love—when we experience in ourselves the communication of his grace, and the continued instances of his image stamped upon us; and this those that are most meek and quiet have usually in the greatest degree. In our wrath and passion we give place to the devil, and so provoke God to withdraw from us. Nothing grieves the Holy Spirit of God, by whom we have fellowship with the Father, more than "bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil-speaking." [Read Ephesians 4:26-27](b). But to this man does the God of heaven look with a peculiar regard, even to him that is poor, poor in spirit, (See Isaiah 66:2): to him that is quiet, so the Syriac—to him that is meek, so the Chaldee. [So they both read]. The great God overlooks heaven and earth to give a favorable look to the meek and quiet soul. Nay, he not only looks at such, but he "dwells" with them; noting a constant intercourse and communion between God and humble souls. His secret is with them; he gives them more grace; and they that thus dwell in love, dwell in God, and God in them. The waters were dark indeed, but they were quiet when the Spirit of God moved upon them, and out of them produced a beautiful world.

This calm and sedate frame very much qualifies and disposes us for the reception and entertainment of divine visits; sets bounds to the mountain on which God is to descend, (See Exodus 19:12), that no interruption may break in; and charges the daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the hinds of the field—those sweet and gentle and peaceable creatures—not to stir up or awake our love till he please. (See Songs 2:7). Some think it was for the quieting and composing of his spirit, which seems to have been a little ruffled, that Elisha called for the "minstrel," and then "the hand of the Lord came upon him." Never was God more intimate with any mere man than he was with Moses, the meekest of all the men on the earth; and it was required as a needful qualification of the high priest, who was to draw near to minister, that he should have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way. "The meek will He guide in judgment" with a still small voice, (c) which cannot be heard when the passions are loud and tumultuous. The angry man when he awakes is still with the devil, contriving some malicious project;(d), the meek and quiet man when he awakes is still with God, solacing himself in his favor. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul," says David, when he had reckoned himself among the simple, that is, the mild, innocent, and inoffensive people. Return to thy Noah, so the word is—for Noah had his name from rest—perhaps alluding to the rest which the dove found with Noah in the ark, when she could find none anywhere else. Those that are harmless and simple as doves, can with comfort return to God as to their rest. It is excellently paraphrased by Mr. Patrick,(e) "God and thyself," my soul, "enjoy; in quiet rest, freed from thy fears." It is said that "the Lord lifteth up the meek;" as far as their meekness reigns they are lifted up above the stormy region, and fixed in a sphere perpetually calm and serene. They are advanced indeed that are at home in God, and live a life of communion with him, not only in solemn ordinances, but even in the common accidents and occurrences of the world. Every day is a Sabbath-day, a day of holy rest with the meek and quiet soul, as one of the days of heaven. As this grace gets ground, the comforts of the Holy Ghost grow stronger and stronger, according to that precious promise, "The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel."

It is not in the power of his enemies to disturb and interrupt him in these enjoyments. His peace is not only sweet but safe and secure; as far as he acts under the law of meekness, it is above the reach of the assaults of those that wish ill to it. He that abides quietly under "the shadow of the Almighty" shall surely be delivered "from the snare of the fowler." The greatest provocations that men can give would not hurt us if we did not, by our inordinate and foolish concern, come too near them. We may therefore thank ourselves if we be damaged. He that has learned with meekness and quietness to forgive injuries and pass them by, has found the best and surest way of baffling and defeating them; nay, it is a kind of innocent revenge. It was an evidence that Saul was actuated by another spirit, in that, when children of Belial despised him and brought him no presents—hoping by that contempt to give a shock to his infant government—he "held his peace," and so neither his soul nor his crown received any disturbance. Shimei, when he cursed David, intended thereby to pour vinegar into his wounds, and to add affliction to the afflicted; but David, by his meekness, preserved his peace, and Shimei's design was frustrated. "So let him curse;" alas, poor creature, he hurts himself more than David, who, while he keeps his heart from being tinder to those sparks, is no more prejudiced by them than the moon is by the foolish cur that barks at it. The meek man's prayer is that of David, "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I," (See Psalm 61:2); and there I can, as Mr. Norris expresses it,

—smile to see

The shafts of fortune all drop short of me.

The meek man is like a ship that rides at anchor—is moved, but not removed: the storm moves it—the meek man is not a stock or stone under provocation—but does not remove it from its port. It is a grace that, in reference to the temptations of affront and injury—as faith in reference to temptation in general—quenches the fiery darts of the wicked: it is an armor of proof against the spiteful and envenomed arrows of provocation, and is an impregnable wall to secure the peace of the soul, where no thief can break through to steal; while the angry man lays all his comforts at the mercy of every wasp that will strike at him.

So that, upon the whole, it appears that the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is as easy as it is comely.

(a) – Editor's thought – Suggested reading of Psalms 32 & 34. Both convey within themselves the joys of being an obedient servant of God, and likewise, being rescued, forgiveness, and the receiving of grace by Him through Christ Jesus. 

 

(b) – Notations from the GNV Translation Ed. 1560

He teacheth us to bridle our anger in such sort, that although it be not, yet that it break not out, and that it be straightway quenched before we sleep, lest Satan taking occasion to give us evil counsel through the wicked counselor, destroy us. [Secondly], If it so fall out, that you be angry, yet sin not: that is, bridle your anger, and do not wickedly put that in execution, which you have wickedly conceived. [And Finally], Let not the night come upon you in your anger, that is, make atonement quickly for all matters. 

 

(c) – Be still and know I am God – Psalm 46:10

(d) – How could one possibly hear the voice of God, by being continually in tumultuous way? If one is constantly thinking upon evil, the repaying of evil for good, or even evil, then you cannot hear the wisdom in the voice of God. Therefore you cannot find the peace you're seeking, nor the satisfaction either.

(e) - This might be a reference to Patrick Delany who himself was a contemporary of Matthew Henry. Patrick Delany, D.D. (1686 – 6 May 1768), was an Irish clergyman and described by A Compendium of Irish Biography as "an eloquent preacher a man of wit and learning. Source Wikipedia