Tuesday, July 7, 2020

My rock and my fortress


Psalm 144:1-8

 


“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoplesunder me. Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?  Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.  Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!  Touch the mountains so that they smoke!  Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them!  Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.”

 

David declares, God you are my Rock and my Fortress, it matters not who you are, how much wealth you have, a time will come in each life where one needs God’s steadfast love, and nothing can take the place that only God can fill.

 

The Holman Christian Standard Study Bible tells us that Psalms 18 has a lot of the same thoughts as 144, and both use metaphors to convey God’s attributes.  Many of them relate to a military setting where God is seen as the real strength behind the person.

 

In verse three, David said; “Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?  Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”  Many today are asking the same question, in many different ways, but the answer is not hidden. It is found in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”  And after man sinned, he no longer had a heart that longed for God and yet God still had a great love for him.  You have heard the verse often, if you have been to “In and Out burgers you have seen John 3:16 on your drink cups.   Have you stopped and allowed the verse to speak what God is saying to all who will listen?  “For God so love the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  But if you stop reading you will miss the reason and never get a full understanding of God’s love for you it’s all centered on His grace.  Verse 17-18, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

 

God has already given us His Son, Jesus to rescue and deliver us from the hands of our enemy, the one Jesus tells us is a thief and a liar, whose goal is to kill, steal, and destroy.

 

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

 

  

No comments: