“Abide with me,” David said to Abiathar in a great crisis. Abiathar—the one priest Doeg had not killed—had fled for his life and found refuge in the cave of Adullam. David welcomed him, saying, “Abide with me, fear not; he that seeks my life seeks thy life”; our lives, so to speak, are one; “with me thou shalt be in safeguard.”
Now what David said to Abiathar is, I think, what the blessed Lord is saying to us today. He says to each one of us, “Abide with Me, fear not.” It is our privilege to abide in constant, happy intercourse with Christ. The two who went to Emmaus said, “Abide with us.” They had got a taste of the sweetness and the blessedness of His company; He had made their hearts burn by unfolding to them the Scriptures, and then He gave them one passing sight of Himself. That sight positively electrified them, changed the currents of their thoughts and lives; they returned at once to Jerusalem, retracing their steps spite of the lateness of the hour, spite of eight miles of hilly road, all that was nothing, for had they not seen the face of their risen Lord? They had proved the blessedness of His company and were entranced; no wonder they desired Him to “abide.” “Abide with us,” that was their desire, as “abide with me” was David’s desire for Abiathar, and it is the Lord’s desire for us. It is the only happy place and the only safe place. We are “safeguarded” by Christ in an infinitely better way than Abiathar was by David, in perfect safeguard day and night. We are safe amidst the tossing billows of this stormy world when abiding with Jesus. You remember the storm on the lake in the end of the fourth of Mark, when the blessed Lord was asleep, quietly sleeping, undisturbed, undistracted. The alarmed disciples awake the Master, saying, “Carest Thou not that we perish?” Oh, how could they perish if they were with Him in the boat? If they simply abode with Him they were in safeguard, however terrible the storm. He slept in perfect tranquillity, and the same tranquillity would have possessed their hearts if they had been careful for nothing, if they had left everything in His hands. Well beloved, let us establish our souls in this all-important truth, that if we are really, consciously abiding with Christ, if we are walking with Him in humility and brokenness and exercise of soul, be the storm what it may, we are in safeguard, we need have no fear, we are in the same vessel as the Lord Himself, and as He will never perish, we shall never perish. Can Christ be defeated? Never. He has passed through the greatest conflict, He has abolished death, come victorious out of the grave; He is not only risen, but in glory; an omnipotent victor, all power rests in His hands. His word to us is, “Abide with Me, and fear not; He that abides with Me shall be in safeguard.”
Let me press upon my own soul, and upon yours, that it is our privilege and security, the true secret of rest and peace, deep down in the secrets of our souls, to abide with Christ. Now, if you can find a better road, if you can discover a better solution to the everyday difficulties than this, I should be exceedingly glad to get it. Can you tell me any other way to rise superior to them than simply and solely abiding with Christ, walking continually, habitually, during the day, closing our eyes at night, awaking when the day breaks upon us, still abiding in Him? Depend upon it, abiding with Him is the secret of power, joy, and victory.
“In Thy presence we are happy;
In Thy presence we’re secure,
In Thy presence all afflictions
We can easily endure:
In Thy presence we can conquer,
We can suffer, we can die;
Wandering from Thee we are feeble—
Let Thy love then keep us nigh.”