B. Meyer, B. A.Any racehorse will start at full speed; but how few have staying power! )The continued renewal of strengthR. How shall we avoid it? A. Impatience, too, weakens. He sees the clouds and mist around the planet, but not the world itself. "He is Faithful that Promised." He walks and does not faint, and he will not have to stop and take rest and food because he is faint, but goes on and on. True piety has no greater enemy than fanaticism, which some are so undiscriminating as to confound with the fervours of true religion. We are shown the infinite powers that He concealed in the heart of a solitary man of faith. It should put the worshipers of idols to shame. While Charles Haddon SpurgeonSpurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 18588Th Day. xl. The word does not say anything about the rate at which they go, and is used of the flight of the arrow through the air, or of the way of the ship driven before the wind, or of the gait of a swift-footed animal, or of the ordinary pace of man. "Waiting upon the Lord." "Mount up with wings as eagles, run, walk," and one might almost dare to add a fourth "stand still!"(F. What is the reason of all this? "They shall renew their strength." If we take the running of the text to mean the rendering of active public service to God, and the walking to mean steadfast advance in character, the Christian requires the strength needed for both in the approach to God. Comforts the people.Dictionary of Bible ThemesIsaiah 40:314612birds4690wings5763attitudes, positive to God5767attitudes, in prayer8150revival, personal8463priority, of faith, hope and love9612hope, in God9615hope, results ofIsaiah 40:27-316233rejection, experienceIsaiah 40:28-315537sleeplessness8724doubt, dealing withIsaiah 40:29-315057rest, physicalIsaiah 40:30-315178running8145renewal, people of GodLibraryApril 18. "They shall renew their strength." "So I saw in my dream that he went from running to going, and from going to scrambling on his hands and knees, because of the steepness of the place." When the determination of the will is not only fixed but strong, then the soul is in a vigorous state. After a brief general preface (Is. As the result of a whole life of education and practice in Divine duties men may come, at last, into that state in which the Spirit of God shines with a steadfast lustre upon them. Untroubled quiet.4. Then come the social affections, with the elementary forms of the intellect. If we can bring these two together, what a wondrous thing will happen! But He requires, as the condition of our receiving His grace, that we sincerely feel and humbly acknowledge our need of it; and that, ceasing from our own wisdom, and confessing from the heart our own weakness, we throw ourselves unreservedly upon His wisdom and strength. "Keep mercy and judgment," says the prophet Hosea, "and wait on thy God continually." The prophet, by the omnipotence of God18. (2) Our manifold afflictions (Hebrews 12:5). Thus Job says, unto me men gave ear, they waited, and kept silence at my counsel": which is as if he had said, "I had only to speak, and they were ready to obey my directions." This implies a declension of strength, fainting, and fatigue; to all of which the Christian pilgrim is more or less exposed.1. But the period comes when these youthful impulsions give place to the more restrained and disciplined energies of life, like those of the runner who has trained himself to maintain his pace, and to maintain it by not exceeding it. 2. That is the way to finish. "Our soul waiteth for the Lord; He is our help and shield." What did your man of the natural order stop running for? So it is in the spiritual life: we can make no provision of grace for the future; we are called to depend upon God day by day. It was the experience of its necessity and efficacy that made Luther what he was, and G. T. Harwood.God: I. This phrase is descriptive, not merely of an occasional exercise, but of what is, or ought at least to be, the constant temper and frame of the believer's mind. They are willing to receive direction and instruction from Him.3. The man who waits upon God has three cardinal qualities which above all others will tend to the conquest of the world buoyancy of spirits, activity, and perseverance; the man who can command these is the man who will win.(F. Is prayer less a privilege than it has John Ross MacduffThe Faithful Promiser"And the Redeemer Shall Come unto Zion, and unto them that Turn,"Isaiah lix. Our spiritual strength seems to include chiefly three things 1. xl. All this renewal of vitality was the result of waiting on one of those wonderful healthfountains. We are not to devote all our lives to lonely musing. It is when all the romance is past, when all the effervescence of youth has subsided, when all incitements from without and all excitements from within are over, when life has settled into its groove, and, surrounded by the monotonous and the sordid, we find our horizon limited by "the daily round" and "the common task" it is then that faith rises to its true heroism, enabling us to maintain our spiritual level and hold our ground against the deadening inroads of formality and in. 3. A more appropriate beginning of the book of consolations' could scarcely be conceived. One of the oldest and best tried rules of religion is THE SACRED DUTY OF COMMUNION WITH GOD. If anything were needed to teach men the necessity for connecting their own spirits with the Divine, it is the quick exhaustion of individual resources. But how does God reveal Himself when He calls upon us to wait upon Him? God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. 1The ConsolationComfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Sleep comes upon him; and through its influence the waiting body recovers all its vigour, so that the man rises again in the morning ready for his toil. It is precisely because he is not tired that the man of God does not stop. Another sense in which the word "waiting" occurs in Scripture is, a willingness to be directed by the person waited upon. know what it is to mount up. In many circumstances we require the protection and assistance of our fellow-creatures, but in all circumstances we require the protection and assistance of our Creator. "They that wait upon the Lord SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH." Consideration of an objection taken from various passages in Moses. But the Christian has had that care upon his heart daffy, and he knows how to bear it, and before whom to lay it. B. Meyer, B. A.Any racehorse will start at full speed; but how few have staying power! What is the highest service? "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.". But waiting on the Lord implies much more than this. The intellect is strengthened by holy exercises upon Divine themes.2. And when He Calls us home, He who sits upon the circle of the heavens, and sees all the sorrow of this world as you and I can never see it, bids us "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." To "wait" is more than to pray. The excellency of dignity and the excellency of strength go both together, and he that falls from the one does, with Reuben, fall also from the other. "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." There are many who run, but run themselves out of breath (Galatians 5:7). "Renew" means to "change your strength."1. Experience has proved that, to a great many souls, public worship is the greatest help they ever get, that it gives wings to their holiest prayers and brightness to their gladdest songs of praise, and that it does bring them nearer to God than any other external agency that they know of. Third in the order of time, and last, is the spiritual nature. The wall of Jerusalem, of the second temple, would never have been built but for men like Nehemiah and Haggai, men who had their times of fear and depression and weakness, hut who went to God and came back not only strengthened themselves, but able to strengthen their brethren, so that the great work was done. Voysey, B. "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart." If they hear of a medicinal spring far off in the mountains they hesitate not to undertake the journey, and undergo the hardships of the rugged way, that they may test the efficacy of the mineral waters. I brought but little there. For such patience not only carries within itself the germs of strength, but also places the soul in that condition in which it is most susceptible of quickening influences and can most readily take advantage of fresh opportunities. )Waiting upon GodT. Now when he ceases from self and takes God as his strength, he changes his strength.2. They will run nimbly enough after pleasure, wealth and fame, but not after the things which God bids them run after. . Purer air.2. WAITING UPON GOD HATH IN ITSELF A NATURAL TENDENCY TO ESTABLISH AND STRENGTHEN THE SOUL. 1, 2), the words occur which are quoted by St. Matthew and St. Mark (Is. His understanding is infinite; there is no searching it. You see the progression of ideas; it is strength that has to be renewed, and it has to be renewed by God, and God gives it when we wait upon Him. They shall grow more steady and established in religion. Becoming weak as water, he shall not excel (Genesis 49:4).2. Such a vision restores the heart of faith. The most vigorous pinion will never reach the sun, but yet it may reach so high that earth-bound creatures shall fail to track its flight, and lose it in the glare of the excellent glory.2. In rapturous contemplation of the things of God. WE SEE HOW A TRUE CHURCH MAY BE DESCRIBED. But once we understand that it is God that must work it in us, then I understand that my highest passivity will be my highest activity, for when I give myself entirely away to God, God can work in me, and then I will work as they that wait upon the Lord."1. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper.3. The one verse says, 'He is strong in power'; the other, 'He giveth Alexander MaclarenExpositions of Holy Scripture, O Thou that Bringest Good Tidings'O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!' Have we made the hope that is laid up in God our own? xl. And then, before you pray, sit still, and shut your eyes and say, Will God now listen to me for certain? 21 and 28. To save items to a SermonFolder, please sign in to your account. There must be a regular feeding on God's Word and promises.III. It is for God's glory and our own usefulness. But how does He leave it? Thomas, D. D.I. The expression "wait upon" is a most felicitous one, because while it includes prayer it means and covers so much more.1. (1) The delay of answering our prayers (Luke 18:1). "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." The excellency of dignity and the excellency of strength go both together, and he that falls from the one does, with Reuben, fall also from the other. The meaning is obviously, They, all depend upon Thee; men and beasts alike.2. Do not all the influences which go to make up the ever-teeming society? Elevated devotion. Who, of all men who ever lived upon the earth, was the One who had the sorrow of the world nearest to His heart? Patiently to endure, persistently to press on whatever the burdens we must carry, whatever the inequalities and roughnesses of the way, whatever the obstacles that lie and the enemies that lurk in our path, whatever the tempests that beat overhead requires a strength of character and a heroism of soul that are the last achievement and the highest triumph of the spiritual life.(J. Use all strength as a gift of God. He flies in company with the sun. All men are influenced and governed by some kind of faith; but worldly men have no true faith in things spiritual and invisible. The highest point in his destiny is to be conformed to the image of the Son of God. What has he to trust in for the continuance of the hope that these desires shall be gratified? And s., also must we. For this we need power. But the message of the recuperative power, that you shall mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, and go on and on knowing neither weariness nor faintness, this is the word of inspiration alone. What do you say, Christian tradesman you upon whom God hath laid the responsibilities of home and family you Christian citizen-you whom the arrows of affliction have wounded you proclaimer of the Lord's message?2. The nature of the blessed God strengthens this encouragement. "They shall mount up with wings as eagles." The boy who never knew what it was to be fagged out at school is not worth much. It is possible for the best of men to lose much of the influence of religion from the heart, and for a time to be very unconscious of it.2. He points us also to the condition on which this Divine energy is to be recovered: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."1. They are interlocked, as it were, by the recurrence in the latter of the emphatic words of the former. Study and love your Bible, but remember it is God who must give the orders, and you will fail if you take them from a book. So to-day in every Christian Church, in every Christian enterprise, in every modern fight for righteousness and truth, there are some men who never know when they are defeated; there are some men who, because of this, are invulnerable men; and the men who, when cast down always say there is lifting up, the men who can live and die for Divine ideas, the men who to-day are converting savage races into Christian peoples and working out in painful and prosaic details, and with much danger to their lives in some cases, the glowing dreams of ancient seers respecting the transformation of mankind, these are they who wait in secret on their God.(T. God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. Anderson. Faith and hope and love itself, so dewy fresh in the morning, spend themselves in noonday's scorching heat, and run low at eventide. hast thou not heard?' T he particulars of the great "mystery of godliness," as enumerated by the Apostle Paul, constitute the grand and inexhaustible theme of the Gospel ministry, "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on John NewtonMessiah Vol. It is often found in persons of weak understanding, and in minds not highly cultivated by refined education.3. This sounds as if they were in danger of becoming weary and faint in their minds. Love your Bible and fill your heart with it, but let God apply it in your daily life.3. Tymms. art thou conscious of thy declining state? "These wait all upon Thee; that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season." Elevation. He never is weary. But the strength spoken of in our text is evidently not corporeal strength; it is a power seated in the mind; but neither is it intellectual vigour. HOW SHOULD SPIRITUAL STRENGTH BE EXHIBITED?1. --ISAIAH xl. Then I have a question to ask. When, again, we think of those whose pleasures are more purely intellectual, we know that an enfeebled memory puts an effectual check on the acquisition of knowledge.3. -- ISAIAH xl. 31. But he saith of a certain number, "My people." THE BASIS OF LIFE'S EXALTATION. So there is no word of truth, but it hath a season and time in which it is beautiful. When I look at what He does for the stars, I realise that His work is done every moment. He who cleaveth to created things will fall with their slipperiness; but he who embraceth Jesus will stand upright for ever. The tyro in cycling will go at full pelt; but only the experienced rider can walk or stand. C. View Associated File. In point of honour, and that especially with God Himself. So it is possible for the Christian to be moving on by a power that very soon expends itself, and by a process of exhaustion he falls back again under the gravitating influence of his evil tendencies. They do not know by experience the blessings of communion, and therefore these outward aids in public worship are of little use to them. ACCORDING to the Synoptic Gospels, the public appearance and preaching of John was the fulfilment of the prediction with which the second part of the prophecies of Isaiah opens, called by the Rabbis, the book of consolations.' The will is strengthened by holy exercises in godly purposes. Halsey. Booth by faith has changed the drunkard and the sensualist into saints. We are rich and strong, not by the things which we possess, but by the amount of true manhood which is developed in us.5. We belong to a better time, but still we can feel its grandeur. I have often gone to Saratoga, in the heat of the early summer, quite run down, and my vitality burned out as coal gets exhausted in the bunkers of a steamer. There is no weariness in love.(D. If you are to wait aright upon the Lord, you must learn to know Him, you must turn away your thoughts and eyes and heart and trust from everything, and set them upon God alone, My conduct in waiting for a man, or waiting on him, will depend entirely upon what I think of him. "Mount up with wings as eagles." In 1899 he was called to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, to succeed Dr. Lyman Abbott in the pulpit VariousThe World's Great Sermons, Volume 10Of Loving Jesus Above all ThingsBlessed is he who understandeth what it is to love Jesus, and to despise himself for Jesus' sake. (vers. Love your Bible and fill your heart with it, but let God apply it in your daily life.3. They are said, in our text, "to mount up on wings as eagles." (Andrew Murray. Knight, M. (2) While only the few can thus fly, many can only run. In simplicity of intention. Paul had had his eagle "flights," but he did not make much of them. You throw a stone into the air. L. Wiseman, B. A.The knapsack that galls and oppresses the novice at mountain climbing is borne without fatigue by the guide who is accustomed to it. Among all the names that reveal God, this, the "God of all comfort," seems to me one of the loveliest and the most absolutely comforting. 31. But there is one doctrine that is never out of season, Hugh BinningThe Works of the Rev. Instead of this natural, and moral, and customary strength, they shall have a supernatural and spiritual given unto them. Study and love your Bible, but remember it is God who must give the orders, and you will fail if you take them from a book. Because they wanted this principle of spiritual strength.3. For even before conversion there is a kind of strength which does appear, and that also in reference to religion, and the duties of it, but it is not such a strength as any are to rest themselves contented with. He walks and does not faint, and he will not have to stop and take rest and food because he is faint, but goes on and on. The tyro in cycling will go at full pelt; but only the experienced rider can walk or stand. Just such a well of spiritual force is the Lord Jesus Christ. The figure of one flying through the heavens, coupled strangely with the promise of running without being wearied, represents the godly man as ever having courage to entertain great hopes. (3) The afflictions of others, and the scandal of the Cross (Ephesians 3:13). )The power to realise idealsF. But there are other thoughts that come to us in the quietude of the Divine fellowship. HOW SPIRITUAL STRENGTH MAY BE ACQUIRED; AND HOW RENEWED, WHEN IT HAS BEEN IMPAIRED. The more alert and bold a youth will be, the more certainly he will at some time overtask his strength. He gains wide outlooks; he breathes a clear and crystalline atmosphere. That is the teaching of the prophet. M. Donaldson, D. D.)Waiting on GodT. The prophet, by the omnipotence of God18. This is not arbitrary, but necessary.1. But how does God reveal Himself when He calls upon us to wait upon Him? Luther changed the course of the centuries by faith. We are not to devote all our lives to lonely musing. )Waiting upon GodAndrew Murray.One brother in the ministry asked me, "Is there not a danger of too great passivity?" Howells. The man of God, the man who waits on God, is equal to any emergency, is equal to any strength. We use the word "wait" with reference to service: a servant "waits" upon his master or his master's guests. Though it seems tiny, it is real fire, and it can set the world ablaze. But you picture the life of the Lord Jesus Christ from the wrong angle, if you picture Him only as "the Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." 3 I'd part with all the joys of sense To gaze upon thy throne; Pleasure springs fresh for ever thence, Unspeakable, unknown. xl. Doubt seems so impossible, and elements of character are forming then that we should be poor indeed without in future time. Those who have not eagle's wings still have some power of motion, they can run on the earth and in the path of God's commandments. He comes down from the mount made ready, like Moses, for work in the camp at large, or in the retirement of his tent. They are not. Our text speaks not only of flying, but of running and walking. In vain all my lonely musing, in vain all my bustle in the kingdom of Christ, if consistency of daily life does not accompany the whole. Perhaps that is the commentary on this verse. Untroubled quiet.4. There is the strength of civility and moral principles. In quality. What has he to trust in for the continuance of the hope that these desires shall be gratified? At the end of Isaiah Chapter 40, we read some well-loved verses that have encouraged generations of Jews and Gentiles, through many centuries of time, "Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall BUT those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. THE DEMONSTRATION OR CONFIRMATION OF THIS. It is better not to seek to produce ecstatic experiences in anticipation of the normal methods.3. Spiritual weakness is a disparagement, especially as a relapse, and after some former degrees of strength. Sleep comes upon him; and through its influence the waiting body recovers all its vigour, so that the man rises again in the morning ready for his toil. 13. THE SEVERAL BRANCHES OF THE PROMISE.(S. Voysey, B. Running. Thine Arms, to whom I turn and cling With thirsting soul that longs for Thee; Frances BevanHymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and OthersHis Schools and Schoolmasters. It was in this greater exigency that his inner ear caught the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee."(J. L. Wiseman, B. And this is done commonly, in the greatest uncertainty whether the means will prove effectual.2. WHAT IS THIS WAITING?1. We are not to devote all our lives to lonely musing. He who has only seen the sorrow, the grief, the sin of the world has not penetrated to the depth of the problem. We fret and chafe in our sufferings and under our chastisements, when to patience and meekness the God of all comfort comes with His sweetest and most refreshing revelations. M. Donaldson, D. D.No man is as strong as he desires to be. ''Have ye not known, have ye not heard? S. Plumptre, M. A.I. "Because of His strength," says the Psalmist, "I will wait upon Him, for God is my defence." "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart." "Our soul waiteth for the Lord . 21 and 28. Faith can work miracles. All your youthful energy will be useful in the service of religion, and you will find it much more happily employed than in the service of the world and of Satan.(F. This mood comes at the beginning, and not at the end of our career. For the less strength we feel we have, the more we shall need and ask from Him. It promoteth that humility which is our greatest security, and restrains that pride which goeth before a fall. -- ISAIAH xl. Spasmodic efforts are dangerous. The picture of Moses and the children of Israel singing, and Miriam and the women answering: a gush of national pride and of worship! If, then, truth is eternal, and faith is omnipotent, why should any difficulties, however stupendous, or failures, however extensive, lead us to despair? It is for God's glory and our own usefulness.III. He was that, but that is not the last analysis of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. In so far as the spiritual life is one, it is a life in God. )Untiring progressF. The more willing we are o wait upon God the better it is for us; for He pays for time and gives us the more because we have waited.(T. Some who like to trace the analogy between the works of nature and the works of grace, may perhaps have seen a flower which the storms of night have severely shaken, towards the morning turn wistfully to the dawn, and seem to be waiting for the coming day. Then I repaired to one of the tonic springs and "waited" on its bubbling waters, trusting them and taking them into my system. 3 I'd part with all the joys of sense To gaze upon thy throne; Pleasure springs fresh for ever thence, Unspeakable, unknown. "Waiting on the Lord" by prayer has the same effect on them that it has on an empty bucket to set it under a rain-spout.