The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Psalm 61:1-3,
listen to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe."
David felt a vulnerability - a real threat from his foe. In his weak estate, in his need, "as my heart grows faint", he reached out to God. He had faith that God could provide him deliverance from his foe, God would be a refuge and a strong tower for him.
God has chosen for himself all who will place their faith and trust in him. Why should, why would, anyone reach out to God? David clearly did in this psalm. His motivation for doing so was the danger he felt, the vulnerability he felt. He did not feel secure, he did not feel safe. He felt a need to reach out to God in his trust that God would deliver him.
I find this as a dynamic that God uses to draw us all to himself. If we have trust in him, if we have faith in him, if we feel we can count on him for deliverance, we will turn to him. But... we may never do that unless we feel a threat, a need for safety, a need to escape danger.
We often feel that Satan is our foe. And he is a foe. Peter calls him our enemy, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8. However, we face an even greater foe. Peter tells us we can resist the devil, but this other foe we cannot. He can utterly destroy us. Jesus said, "I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." Luke 12:5. Who is this? God himself! When we are born into this world, God in his justice is our greatest foe, our greatest enemy, our greatest threat. "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them... Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:11-15. Paul calls us God's enemies, "while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son..." Romans 5:10.
God wants us to know this. He wants us to know of the grave danger his judgment represents to us. We are told that sinners will be cast into a fiery lake of burning sulfur at the end of the age, Revelation 21:8. He has told us of this ahead of time. To demonstrate to us our sinful condition and the perilous predicament we are in, he provided us his law. Some feel God gave us the law that we might all become do-gooders to make him happy. However, we are told the law was given us to show us we are sinners, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." Romans 3:20. Knowing we are sinners and knowing that all sinners will be cast into an eternal hell provides us the occasion of opportunity to feel what David did when he recognized his plight and was compelled to reach out to God in faith during his time of need for refuge and safety.
Without going into specifics (think of "global community", "safety nets", etc.) the world makes every effort in its attempt to thwart our felt need to reach out to God for help, to be saved, to provide a refuge. However, God, in his love, goes to great lengths to draw us to himself, that we might not fall subject to his judgment at the end of the age.
I suspect there are many times in each of our lives, even after we are saved, that the Lord sends us reminders of how much in need we are of him, how he is our refuge and strong tower for us.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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Trevor Fisk
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