Listen to the message which the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to give to Israel when they were passing through the most trying experiences, a message that is for us even more than for the men who lived when it was spoken: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.” Isaiah 40.1, 2. Glorious assurance! The warfare is accomplished, the battle ended, the victory won! Shall we conclude therefore that we may safely go to sleep? By no means; we must be awake, and make use of the victory, which the Lord has won, for us. The conflict is against principalities and powers (Ephesians 6.12), but Jesus has “spoiled principalities and powers,” and made a triumphant show of them (Colossians 2.15), and has been raised to sit in heavenly places, “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1.20, 21), and God has also raised us up with Him, to sit with Him in the same heavenly places (Ephesians 2.1-6), equally high above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. We may, therefore, and certainly ought to say, from the heart, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
David understood and rejoiced in this victory when he was hunted like a partridge on the mountains. Yet one time he was hiding in a cave in the wilderness of Ziph, and the Ziphites came to Saul and treacherously revealed his hiding-place, and said, “Now, therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.” 1 Samuel 23.15-20. Yet David, knowing all this, took his harp and composed a psalm of praise, saying, “I will freely sacrifice unto Thee; I will praise Thy name, O Lord, for it is good. For He hath delivered me out of all trouble.” Psalm 54.6, 7. Read the entire Psalm, including the introduction. So he could sing, “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.” Psalm 28.3. The third Psalm, with its expressions of confident trust in God, and its note of victory, was composed while he was exiled from his throne, fleeing before Absalom. We need so to learn the twenty-third Psalm, that it will not be mere empty words when we say, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”