He alone is my rock and my health, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
Ps. 62:2 (Berkeley)
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
Ps. 18:2 (NLT)
These are incredibly unstable times we are living in. People are clamoring for something certain, something unchanging, something they can completely, utterly rely on that will not change, collapse or fail. Yet all around us, every day are the constant reminders that nothing is certain, that everyone and everything is subject to change, to break, or get sick, or fail, or die, or betray our trust.
How many people are watching right now as all their hopes and dreams may be going up in smoke? How many people walked down the aisle only a few years ago, pledging their undying love and loyalty to the love of their life, only to have that person now filing for divorce, and walking out on them? How many, at this moment, have watched much of their life savings disappear right before their eyes in the market disruption caused by a virus that cannot even be seen by the naked eye, sweeping across the entire world?
All of us want certainty, all of us want something we can trust. Something that will not change, will not die, will not fail, will not betray us, or collapse under the crushing weight of out of control market forces and unforeseen circumstances that come crashing into our lives.
Of all the people and writers in the Bible, no one proclaims “God is my rock,” more often than David. David seemed to uniquely grasp more than all others that only God is the Rock that will not change, the only one to build your world and your life around. Over and over again the Psalmist declares the “Lord is my rock.” He alone is my rock. He is my towering rock of safety. My mighty rock where I can hide. Why? Why did David state this over and over again? What did David seem to grasp and understand about God that so many others miss? What does David mean that God is my rock?
Over the last 45 years of my Christian life and my walk with God, I have studied and pondered the life of David. What I discovered brought me great encouragement, comfort, strength and insight.
There are some very significant facts about the life of David that we often miss or overlook. They help us to grasp why the permanent stability, reliability, dependability, the absolute certainty and security of God, the unchanging, unfailing nature of God, his only rock, meant so much to him. It was the great secret to David’s entire life, the only reason he did not completely despair of life, or lose his mind.
Most people primarily remember one great event in David’s life, the slaying of the giant Goliath. Consider these many other gut-wrenching and traumatic events of David’s very difficult life:
David’s brothers rejected him and belittled him when he came to the front lines of the battle to see how they were doing and he offered to fight Goliath on behalf of King Saul. David’s oldest brother vehemently accused him of being arrogant and a liar.
David saves Saul’s kingdom, saves his brother’s lives, serves Saul faithfully over and over again, risking his life for him and yet Saul betrays him, and tries to kill David himself, repeatedly and has others try to kill him as well.
David becomes Saul’s son-in-law.
David’s wife Michal saves him but then eventually abandons and betrays David and marries another man. Then she is given back to David only to make fun of David and belittle him for dancing for joy to the Lord and she remains childless the rest of her life.
Time and time again King Saul and his whole army chase after David doing all they can to hunt him down, kill him and destroy him. David spends years fleeing for his life and hiding out to keep from being killed by Saul and his army.
David has all of his family, his wife and children, and all the families of his faithful men, kidnapped and stolen from them by a vicious gang of brutal enemies. His men are so overwhelmed with grief and bitterness they begin to openly talk about stoning David to death!
King Saul and others bring many false witnesses, spewing slanderous lies, hurling false accusations against him, trying to destroy his life, utterly ruin his reputation and crush the life right out of him.
David had to deal with severe psychological and emotional strain and trauma from the many times he felt the crushing weight of emotional pain, anguish, and terror caused by these cruel and traumatic events of his life. The Psalms reveal to us that story of his inner world.
David has to deal with sickness that almost kills him and his health fails.
Jonathan is the closest and best friend David ever had. He promises David he will be by his side when David is the next king of Israel, then Jonathan dies on him and leaves David alone, never to fulfill the promise he made. David is heartbroken at such a great and terrible loss of the man who was probably the only human being in David’s life he could trust completely.
David’s son Absolom betrays his father, steals the hearts of the Israelites and conspires against his father David, to make himself king. David had to flee for his life. Then Absolom is savagely killed and David experiences deep anguish and sorrow from the death of his son.
At the end of his life, David’s son Adonijah betrays his father and leads a rebellion to become the king! Once again David is cruelly betrayed.
Who in the world could David even trust? Almost all of the important people in David’s life betrayed him, changed on him, and failed him miserably. Despite all the good David did, all that David did right, risking his life for his nation, for his king, nothing he did could stop them from being wicked or duplicitous to him. Over and over again he was severely mistreated, slanderously lied about, cruelly betrayed and maligned.
Oh, the heart of man is so treacherous, so disloyal and often love turns to contempt. Humans are incredibly unreliable, and capricious. Which makes all the institutions run by humans ultimately unreliable, subject to change, collapse, or fail us in some way.
Through all the terrible and difficult years of his life, the overwhelming grief and loss, pain, sorrow and betrayal, David discovered and understood profoundly and experientially that there is no one he could truly count on but God alone! God alone is my rock!
I have discovered the very same thing. As I look back on the last 45 years and all the great difficulties, the many betrayals, the great losses and sorrows I have suffered and endured, the cruelty and emotional abuse inflicted on me by other people, the great injustices, the traumatic events of my life, I have come to understand and experience this same tremendous truth!
I am profoundly aware that indeed God is the only Rock we have. Meaning, He is the only place, the only source of stability, unchanging certainty, and absolute reliability in the entire universe. There is no relationship, no organization, no church, no familial relationship that can even come close to being the Rock upon which we can build our lives, our hopes, our trust, our emotions, our peace, our confidence, and security. God is the only Rock there is!
The truth that most of us do not want to admit to ourselves is this: most of the time our peace, stability, and security comes from the people and relationships around us, from the security of our jobs or our money, and the good circumstances we may presently enjoy. When any of these changes or fails us, we are often crushed and overcome. We may find ourselves on the brink of despair, overcome by anxiety, crushed by such great heartbreak and disappointment.
All of us, no matter who we are will find ourselves shaken to the core of our being by the hurt that comes our way, when those things, or those people we trust, fail us and completely and utterly lets us down.
God will not betray you! God will not abandon you! God will not change his mind about you! God will not ever, for one moment, stop being who He is! God will never be unfaithful to you! God will not change his mind about his feelings towards you or his commitment to you. God cannot break! God cannot fail! God must always remain true to who He is! God cannot lie, ever! God will always listen to you, and answer your cries for help! God is not overwhelmed by the market forces of this world! God is not out of sorts by the viruses sweeping across the world! God will not and cannot let you down. God does not crumble under the crushing weight of all the world’s problems.
Dear friends, put all your hope in God alone. He is the only Rock there is, and He will not betray your trust in him.
Please take a moment to read and reflect on Isaiah 40:12-31 (NLT). During this time of confinement, please take the time and hear this message series and capture for yourself a fresh vision and perspective of God himself! You will be so glad you did.
There are 7 in this series. Listen to one each day for the next 7 days. Your whole family will be so uplifted by it.
