WHERE DO YOU TURN?

Psalm 18:1-6

I love you, O Lord, my strength.
² The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
³ I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
⁴ The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
⁵ the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
⁶ In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.

Where do you turn?  Where do you turn when you feel like you are under spiritual attack and everything is weighing you down so much that you can’t keep your head up?  Where do you turn when the problems of life surround you and you are feeling beaten down?  Where do you turn when you face matters of life and death and the fear and panic start to creep in? 

I am so grateful that David wrote this psalm and others like it.  It is an encouragement to know that the great men of the Bible had to deal with the same things I have to deal with.  Notice the words he uses.  He felt encompassed by death; assailed by destruction; entangled by Sheol; and confronted by death.  Then, he says, he called upon the LORD.

Look at the way David describes the ministry of God in his life.  God is his strength, his rock, his fortress, his deliverer.  God proved to be his shield, his salvation and his stronghold.  God saved him from his enemies.  As David slipped down and down he cried out to God and God came to his rescue.  Doesn’t it sound like Peter who was walking on water one moment and then was terrified by the wind and the waves and began to sink?  He cried out to Jesus and the Lord reached down and pulled him up.

I have a dear friend who has really been going through the battles for the last several months.  She’s had to be away from her husband while taking care of her mother who was in hospice care.  I’ve had the privilege of receiving reports and prayer requests from her and I’ve heard the weariness and anxiousness in her tone.  But you know what?  Every time she writes she makes it clear that she’s looking to the Lord as her refuge, her rock, and her fortress.  Even though her mom has passed away she continues to say how God is holding her up in her time of need.

Do you ever pray the Psalms back to God in your times of devotion?  If not, this psalm is a great one to use as you learn to pray scripture.  We just read the psalm and either thank God for being our strength or tell him that we need his strength for the day.  We do the same with the rest of the psalm.  “Lord, you are my rock when everything at work is in an uproar and we don’t know how things are going to turn out.  Give me a strong place to stand in the middle of the blaming and arguing.”  “Lord, thank you for being my fortress, my safe place, my protection.  When other students at school attack me for my faith and for my standards I am not hurt because you keep me safe.”  We can use God’s own word to pray back to him.  Not only does it provide us a guide for devotion but it honors and glorifies God himself!