“I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!” (v1-5,16-19,46)
When categorizing Psalms, roughly half of them are laments, and half are praise/worship – this one definitely falls into the praise category. For 50 powerful verses, David celebrates God delivering him triumphantly from the hands of King Saul and his soldiers (Saul is trying to kill David from 1 Sam 19 – 1 Sam 30; it is quite the persecution).
The main thing I’ll comment on from this Psalm is the name David uses for God: “Rock”. The word “rock” is used roughly 149 times in the Bible (NIV), and many of those instances (I will get an exact count at some point) are referring to God or Jesus being the rock. Almost every use of the word rock is one of the following:
– a name (for God, Jesus, or Peter [the Rock upon whom Jesus builds His church])
– a foundation (a firm starting point upon which something is built)
– a refuge (a safe place from adversity)
– a strong place/object (that can only be created/destroyed by God)
Often times when a rock is described as a foundation, refuge or stronghold, it’s done so figuratively, in conjunction with God/Jesus either being the rock or having power over the rock.
Rocks were frequently used as symbols in the Bible because they are something everyone understands – every person in the world has seen and experienced a rock, just as everyone in the world can experience God (if they choose to). Both rocks and God are universal constants – it wouldn’t surprise me at all if God made rocks just so He could use them as a metaphor to help us understand Him (because God doesn’t want to be taken for granite).
The thing that rocked my world today is just how steady and reliable God is, and how much I should be praising Him. Even though I don’t have physical enemies on all sides from whom I can be delivered, I still have a heart of stone that God is slowly turning to a heart of flesh, and strongholds of sin in my life that only God has the power to destroy. I pray that through my foundation of faith, Christ my Rock will solidify within me the the concrete principles of love and praise, so that the Holy Spirit within me may be a strong place of refuge for those who do surround me.
P.S. – I don’t know about you, but for the last 30 minutes I’ve had “I Will Call Upon the Lord” stuck in my head (look up the lyrics if you’re not familiar with the song, I think it’s probably based on this Psalm).
~ Conqueror in Training