Dear Missionary Lady,
Greetings in the name of the God of strength. The God who is
and has all strength gives strength to His people. And, boy, do we need it!
Sometimes a day or week looms before us, and we know before
we start that it will be extra challenging. Maybe we don't even want to get out
of bed! It may be that church challenges are so great that we almost don't want
to go, dreading the weight that will accompany the service and the interactions
with people. A meeting with a government official may seem daunting. A special
challenge of one of our children may threaten to break our hearts as we feel
powerless to help. Whatever the difficulty, our frail human strength is not
nearly enough. I'm reminded of the words of the song, "When we have exhausted
our store of endurance, When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, Our Father's full giving is
only begun."
That's the kind of strength David needed in Psalm 59. This
time he is writing about when Saul sent people to watch his house to kill him.
Wouldn't that take the strength right out of you? Knowing that soldiers were on
guard around your house with orders not to come back without your head? Instead
of dissolving into a puddle, David waited on God.
He said, "Because of his strength will I wait
upon thee: for God is my defence" (v. 9). David knew his own strength was
insufficient, and he looked to God as his defense. He asked God to scatter his
enemies by His power (v. 11) so that they would wander without satisfaction and
without achieving their goal (vs. 14-15).
Even before the answer came, David was confident in God's
strength. He closes the psalm with a repeated intention to praise God for His
strength and His defense. David keeps using the word "sing."
"But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud
of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the
day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my
defence, and the God of my mercy" (vs. 16-17).
God did exercise His strength, and God did deliver David -
again and again. As He does with us. We don't even know all the jams that God
gets us out of, but if we were to stop and think about the ones we do know
about, we would be awed by God's strength. He has been a defense for us many
times and has exercised His strength when we had none of our own.
Martin Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our
God" is reflective of the strong defense David refers to in this psalm.
"Did we in our own strength confide,/ Our striving
would be losing;/ Were not the right Man on our side,/ The Man of God's own
choosing:/ Dost ask who that may be?/ Christ Jesus, it is He;/ Lord Sabaoth,
His name,/ From age to age the same,/ And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled,/ Should threaten
to undo us,/ We will not fear, for God hath willed/ His truth to triumph
through us:/ The Prince of Darkness grim,/ We tremble not for him;/ His rage we
can endure,/ For lo, his doom is sure,/ One little word shall fell him."
Yes, the enemies we face are real. The battles are fierce.
But we don't need to win in our own strength, nor could we. God, however, is
strong enough to win every battle! Be strong in the Lord and in the power of
His might.
Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com
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