'The good hand of my God.' What blessed words! Let trouble come, or
temptation come, or death itself come, I will not fear. The good hand of
my God is over me. None can pluck me from that hand. 'All my times are
in Thy hand, O Lord,' and are safe there from even the fear of danger.
Oh, how blessed to be one so sheltered, so shielded, underneath the good
hand of my God! But the same hand is against them that do evil. I must
either be in the hand, or have the hand raised against me! Which shall
it be?

All is ready now, the preparations are ended, and Nehemiah, accompanied
by his brother Hanani, and by a royal escort of soldiers, sets forth on
his long journey. Jerusalem, the City of David--how often he had dreamt
of it, how earnestly he had longed to see it! Now, at last, his desire
is to be granted. The travellers could not sing, as they rode slowly
over the scorching desert, 'Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O
Jerusalem,' for the gates of the city were burned with fire, and only a
blackened space showed where each had stood, but they may have joined
together in that other psalm, which was probably written about this
time, Psalm cii.

'Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her,
yea, the set time, is come.

'For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and it pitieth them to
see her in the dust.'

There is no misadventure on the journey, they travel safely under the
care of the king's guard; but surely Nehemiah saw a dark cloud on the
horizon as he handed in his letters to the governors beyond the river.