THE STRONGHOLD OF MY LIFE
Psalm 27
“The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”
When you think about it, this is true, isn’t it? If God is on your side, the only thing you need to be fearful of is losing him.
And God assures us that it is not so easy to lose him: “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” We all know how tough and tenacious the love of parents can be yet David tells us, based on his own experience, that God’s faithfulness and love is even more tenacious. This is not a brittle and unstable love, ready to take offense at the slightest hint of ingratitude. Paul wrote, in 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
And yet I am often overwhelmed by my own fears, the uncertainty of the future, my weakness and lack of capacity to deal with problems that may arise, and, if I may confess, my fear that I may be abandoned. These fears, I think, are often more real to us because we are in a hostile world, not just the people, or society, but the world itself seems to be more and more hostile to our life, with natural disasters, pandemics, new diseases and climate change. These days, life, more often than not, runs through the valley of the shadow of death. When we take our eyes off our God then all we see is the enormity of what we are up against, and our weaknesses.
The remedy is seen in David’s example in this psalm: a constant conversation with his soul, reinforcing his faith in the God he knows, and training his soul to respond to the reality of God, his faithfulness and love, to lean on him and learn from him.
At the same time there is also a constant conversation with God, seeking his help, his protection, his guidance, and his grace.
David knows where his salvation lies. He knows where his strength and resources come from. And he is determined to make sure that God remains in his mind, his heart and soul.
May we keep our soul safe in the presence and power of God.
“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”