Bible Reading: Romans 5:1-5
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
How long will you assault me?
Would all of you throw me down, this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
Surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse.
Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
A Reflection:
King David was a great king of Israel, he is described in the New Testament as a man after God’s heart. Even so, life for David was not easy. As a shepherd boy he fought bears and lions, when he was anointed as the next king of Israel, he was pursued by the current king, and during his long reign he faced many problems, some of his own making, some from neighbouring kingdoms and some from within his own family. Enough to make anyone anxious or depressed.
When things were difficult, though, David’s first response was not to rely on his own strength to see him through, or the strength of his army, or even to his own wealth, David’s first response was to look to God as, in the midst of his troubles, he says, ‘My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.’
For David, his soul is his inner being, his true self, the core of his emotions, the seat of his wellbeing and the place where anxiety is prone to mount an attack. David knows that his inner self will find rest, only in God.
We may not face the same problems that David faced, but after two years of sustained attack by a virus and its ensuing variants, we may be physically healthy, but our inner self may be anything but at rest, and we may be saying with David ‘How long will you assault me?’ How long will this go on for? How long?
The answer is that we don’t know. But we do know that God is a rock on which we can stand when everything else is shaking, he is a fortress in which we can find safety, and in him we will find salvation.
Let us learn from David and put our faith, not in armies, or governments, or even in the scientists and health service, but in our God, in whom our souls will find rest, and from whom comes our hope and our sense of wellbeing.
Pray:
Lord, when I feel like a leaning wall or a tottering fence, help me to find rest in you, my rock, my fortress and my salvation.
Amen
My soul finds rest in God alone.
Comments