God’s Perfect Peace

Isaiah 26 Imagine yourself in Jerusalem at the time that the nation is reeling from adversaries. Today, like then, we are reeling from adversaries brandishing their swords through flyovers and words. Isaiah’s time may have been long ago, but the scene is still the same. When enemies come to taunt, what do you do? Isaiah retreated to the Lord and wrote: Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. (Is 26:3KJV)

The word “stayed” is the same word “lean” as in Prov 3:5 trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. The enemy of our souls wants us to lean this way or that. James pictures it as a wave of the sea that is driven by the wind and tossed. Paul reminded the Corinthians to remain steadfast, immovable. That is how we gain perfect peace.

The lyrics of an old hymn echo that same refrain: “stayed upon Jehovah: “Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace, Over all victorious, in its bright increase; Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day, Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.”

Are you at perfect peace today? Is your mind wavering or steadfast?