MY GOD IS MY ROCK

          When you read the psalms it becomes very clear that God is our DELIVERER.  While our human inclination (and sometimes the emphasis of our prayers) is to think of God as “The Great Preventer”, more often than not God chooses to allow the storms of life to shape us and mold us.  As we read the psalms we often encounter David and others in peril.  While David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), God does not encase him in a protective bubble.  In reading Psalms you will hear a frequent cry for deliverance.

This is seen clearly in the eighteenth psalm written by David:  The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of ungodliness terrified me (Ps.18:4).  Yet in his great despair David looks to the Lord for deliverance:  I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.  The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies (Ps.18:1-3).         

          In the New Testament this deliverance motif does not change, but in fact appears to be underscored all the more.  As one of God’s chosen ones (Acts 9:15), the apostle Paul was beset with more difficulties than one can imagine (cf. 2Cor.11:23ff).  Paul de-tails much of this in one of his many epistles:  we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;  Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope… (2Cor.1:8b-10).

          While our preference may be to sing songs about God as our SHIELD, the reality is that life on earth is full of turmoil (Job 14:1) and tribulation (Jn.16:33).  An additional truth that is often hard to accept is this:  God in His sovereign grace sometimes chooses to stir the waves around us.  Without a doubt we are shielded more than we will ever know, but the Scriptures also call us to take up the full armor of God (Eph.6:10).  Life lived under an always-present bubble of protection would need no armor.  Armor is for those embattled, is it not?  Could it be that “the waves” help grow our faith (cf. Mt.14:22-33)?  And furthermore, could it be that the pains and heartaches of life work to remind us that GOD IS OUR DELIVERER?  Even when we properly shod ourselves with armor, we are charged to be strong IN THE LORD, and in the strength of HIS might (Eph.6:10 - - cf. 2Cor.12:9-10).  Here again we read in the psalms:  The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation (Ps.118:14).

                                                  Terry Siverd / Cortland Church of Christ