Thomas Watson is my favorite Puritan. He lived from 1620 to 1686 during a tumultuous period of English history and served as pastor of St. Stephen’s Walbrook in London for 20 years. For the first time, all his works have been collected into one series, handsomely designed and published by Reformation Heritage. I’ve been reading through the first volume, one sermon a day.
In London in 1679, Watson preached a message called “Light in Darkness”—an encouragement to believers in England during a period of distress and despondency. Watson acknowledged the situation was grim. He likened England to the disciples’ boat in the Gospels, in danger of being swamped (Mark 4:35–41). Yet he exhorted his congregation not to mourn the state of the world like those without hope.
Nearly 350 years later, surveying our cultural moment and the darkness in our world, I find wisdom in Watson’s counsel. His sermon remains a ballast for believers in stormy seas. Let me sum up the sermon and lay out his suggestions for persevering.
Promise of Light
There’s no better place to go than the psalms during a time of turbulence. Here, Watson says, we find what we need, “exactly fitted to every Christian’s condition.” If your affections for God are frozen, here you can “fetch fire.” If you’re weak in grace, the psalms give you armor. If you’re feeling faint, the psalms are medicine to reinvigorate you.
For this sermon, Watson chose as his text Psalm 112:4:
Light shines in the darkness for the upright.
He is gracious, compassionate, and righteous.
“These words are calculated for the comfort of God’s Church in all ages,” Watson says. “This text is like Israel’s pillar of fire, which gave light in the wilderness. Or it is like the mariner’s lantern, to give light in a dark night.”
No matter how dark the moment or how despondent we may feel, we trust it is “God’s great design to lighten his people’s darkness.”
Watson doesn’t shy away from the situation or minimize the severity of cultural decay. No, the uttering of this promise implies even righteous people will experience nighttime. “Godliness does not exempt us from suffering.” Dark seasons will fall over us.
God’s people may even experience “a night of desertion” where the smiling beams of God’s favor are fully withdrawn, leaving only darkness. When the sun is eclipsed and the circumstances dire, believers can shine brightest by responding with faith and patience, and those signs of grace bring glory to God. “We prefer our comforts,” he says, “but God prefers the actings of our graces.”
How do we persevere through dark times? How do we keep from losing hope? How do we move forward? How should we behave in a time of cultural decay? Here are several suggestions I’ve drawn from Watson’s sermon.
1. Remember others who are faithful.
The upright are never alone. Unpacking this verse, Watson describes the upright as full of grace and holiness, full of compassion and charitableness, and full of righteousness and fairness. They fear God. They feed the poor. They do to others as they would have others do to them.
The upright begin with the right principle—faith. They act by the right rule—the Word of God. And they have the right goal in mind—the glory of God.
What spark of light should bring you comfort in a dark world? The realization that “there are many upright ones in the land.” If God’s judgment is delayed, surely it is, in part, because of all the godly who remain faithful. The upright are “the flower and cream of the creation” and “the glory of Christ,” Watson says. It’s for their sake God may choose to extend mercy and grace to a wayward nation.
It’s easy to become so distraught at the state of the world that we overlook the points of light that dot the landscape. Across our country and around the world, we can find thousands of healthy churches. Good organizations engage in God-honoring ministry. There are believers who seek justice. Christians who show compassion. Ordinary churchgoers doing their best to follow Christ daily. Disciples devoted to loving God and loving others.
Watson encourages us to celebrate the contributions of God’s people in the land, to take heart when we see candle after candle—the little points of light that keep the world from succumbing to the shadows.
2. Search your heart and pray.
When distressed at the state of the world, “go into your chambers,” Watson says. By this, he means both the prayer closet and the inner chambers of your heart. Search yourself. Meditate on God’s Word. Lean into mighty prayer.
“Prayer is the wall and bulwark of the land,” Watson says. “The key of prayer, oiled with tears and turned with the hand of faith, unlocks God’s heart.” The vision of prayer in this sermon imagines a warrior striving powerfully in intercession for the world.
Watson’s exhortation is daring: “Prayer finds God free—but it leaves him bound.” The only way Watson can make such a striking statement is by holding God to his promise to never wholly leave us. We believe “Christ Jesus, praying over our prayers again, presents them to his Father and perfumes them with his sweet fragrance, which makes them go up as incense.”
As you mourn the state of the world, look at the state of your heart, Watson says. Don’t neglect the inner self. Is it possible we’re busy serving God but don’t love him? Do we cry for the world but fail to cry out for the living God? “Are we carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot of love?”
It’s pointless to try to set the world right if all isn’t well between us and God. What evidence is there that we belong to heaven? Should we not bemoan the little faith we have and plead for more? Watson challenges us not only to look at the dire and desperate circumstances around us but also to look inside to see how things stand between us and God. The darkness outside should prompt clarity inside.
3. Rest in God’s promise of mercy.
To retreat to the inner chambers of the heart, searching ourselves for signs of salvation and fervor for God, would only lead to more despair if not for the mercy of God. When you see the remaining sin in your heart and mourn the brokenness of our world, take hold of the comfort God has promised to those who mourn! God promises strength for the weary and a crown of glory for the one who endures. Jesus tells us he will never leave us or forsake us. We take refuge in his Word.
God’s promises are sparks that lighten the path when the night is darkest. We remember God’s mercy, the attribute “he loves most of all to magnify,” Watson says. It is mercy that pleases him, “as natural for him to show mercy as for the bee to give honey.” Resting in God’s character and promises, we trust him to extend mercy, even when our country is undeserving.
The mercy God promises isn’t only for salvation but also for healing. Mercy can heal the backsliding of God’s people, Watson says. When we pray, do we believe in the power of healing mercy? Do we really believe God can reclaim the persecutor, soften the hardened heart, and bring back believers who have gone astray? Unless we believe in the power of God to bring renewal, and unless we believe in the heart of God—that he wants to show mercy—we will not pray. We will lose hope.
4. Commit yourselves to the Lord’s protection, and wait for God to move.
Watson urges his congregation to commit themselves to God’s protection, trusting him to safeguard and keep them. To commit your way to the Lord is to entrust yourself to his care. We soldier on, following the Lord’s instruction and trusting him to look on us with favor and love. It’s our responsibility to cast our cares on God, Watson says, and it’s God’s responsibility to take care of us. We are the orphans; he is the guardian. We are the children; he is the father.
We express our faith by waiting for God to move. We wait for the dawn to appear on the horizon. We wait for the night to pass and the morning light to appear. We believe God can and will move. “God can suddenly disperse the black clouds,” Watson says. “God can create light; God can strike a straight stroke by a crooked stick; God can remove the mountains that lie in our way until light arises.”
With patience, we expect and await God’s blessing. We invest ourselves in prayer, trusting we’ll receive rich returns of mercy. We long to see peace and truth prevail. We seek to shine the beauty of holiness against the contrast of a dark night. All our current struggle will be worth it when we witness the triumphal procession of Christ and all the upright honored and renowned “like the wings of a dove covered with yellow gold.”
Watson closed his sermon with Isaiah 30:18, describing the heart of God toward us in seasons of discouragement. Fitting words for a fearful age:
and is rising up to show you compassion,
for the LORD is a just God.
All who wait patiently for him are happy.
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