Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us

May our priceless Jesus be ever more real to you, ever more your Help and Guide and Encourager. In this coming year. may we all cling to Christ, abide in Christ, cherish Him as our all in all.

We have had a lovely, quiet Christmas, and we do hope each one of you has been awed, undone, and filled to overflowing with the realization of what our Savior Jesus has done for us and continues to complete in each one of us.  This has been a challenging and painful year to some of you whom we love so much, and we do pray that God's comfort and perfect ordinances will surround you with peace and joy amidst the heart's sorrows.  I drove home alone, a couple of hours on the road in the dark of early morning, today, praying for the many people I love and treasure--some of you will be reading this, and please know you were brought before the Throne this morning with much love--and stepped out of the car to a flush of pink painted in the still-dark eastern sky.  A feast of beauty for several moments standing out in the freezing air, and I've been reflecting on this year past and all that God has planned for us in the year ahead.  This much we do know, He loves us more than we can imagine in our wildest heart-thoughts; He knows our path, and He is able to keep and sustain us.  He has given us many great and precious promises, filled with gospel power.  May we saturate ourselves in them this coming year, that we may know resurrection power, and that we may bring glory to our magnificent Creator and Lord-above-all.

May God's blessings surround you as you enter this new year, you whom I know and love who read here and the many whom I do not now know, from all corners of the world, but who will one day be met and embraced on the other Shore as we begin the Reality, the Home-life, for which we were made.

Today I am posting my favorite entry in the priceless Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Lettie Cowman, and I've read it many a New Years' Eve as we count down the last days of the year.  When I was 14, my closest friend and I began a tradition of praying from the last ten or so minutes of the old year into the first minutes of the new year.  We did this for 5 years until she married. Though we are rarely together now on New Years' Eve, we have carried on this tradition every year since then, regardless of where we are or who we are with.  Who knows all that has been wrought as a result of those prayers!--but it has been a very special way to welcome in a new year, for 33 unbroken years.

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (I Sam. 7:12).

The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet "hitherto hath the Lord helped us!" Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health; at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea; in honor, in dishonor, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation--"hitherto hath the Lord helped!"

We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from one end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves. Even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys.

Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely, there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received "hitherto."

But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark, and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the end; there are still distances to be traversed. More trials, more joys; more temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more toils, more strength; more fights, more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease, death.

Is it over now? No! there is more yet--awakening in Jesus' likeness, thrones, harps, songs, psalms, white raiment the face of Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fullness of eternity, the infinity of bliss. Oh, be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise thy "Ebenezer," for,

"He who hath helped thee hitherto
Will help thee all thy journey through."

When read in Heaven's light, how glorious and marvelous a prospect will thy "hitherto" unfold to thy grateful eye. --C. H. Spurgeon

The Alpine shepherds have a beautiful custom of ending the day by singing to one another an evening farewell. The air is so crystalline that the song will carry long distances. As the dusk begins to fall, they gather their flocks and begin to lead them down the mountain paths, singing, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Let us praise His name!"

And at last with a sweet courtesy, they sing to one another the friendly farewell: "Goodnight! Goodnight!" The words are taken up by the echoes, and from side to side the song goes reverberating sweetly and softly until the music dies away in the distance.

So let us call out to one another through the darkness, till the gloom becomes vocal with many voices, encouraging the pilgrim host. Let the echoes gather till a very storm of Hallelujahs break in thundering waves around the sapphire throne, and then as the morning breaks we shall find ourselves at the margin of the sea of glass, crying, with the redeemed host, "Blessing and honor and glory be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!"

"This my song through endless ages,
Jesus led me all the way."

all photos Geneva, Switzerland