The Lord, My Strength

I was reading Psalm 18 again this morning (as I mentioned on Monday, Psalm 18 is a very special psalm for me). And this time verse 1 particularly caught my eye:

"I love you, O LORD, my strength."

The Amplified Bible brings out even more:

"I LOVE You fervently and devotedly, O Lord, my Strength."

This is my very real point of need at the moment. I got out of hospital yesterday, and although my spirits are high, my physical strength is extremely limited. I didn't eat for several days while in hospital (being just on a saline drip), while my bowel blockage was being drained, and the result is that I've lost several kilograms (13 lbs), down from 74kg (163 lbs) to my present 68kg (150 lbs). For the first time, I'm genuinely feeling weakened by the cancer and if you look at me, I'm starting to get that gaunt, skeletal "concentration camp" look. But, praise the Lord, the weight that I put on earlier last week gave me some reserves in preparation for this minor crisis.

So it is no coincidence that the Lord began to speak into my life out of Psalm 18:1. As I began to investigate the promises of God relating to provision of strength in the midst of weakness I was quite literally overwhelmed by the utter abundance of those promises. So bear with me as I walk through with you my own discovery this morning in God's Word - I have a feeling this blog will not be a short one!

I started off in a few places in Scripture where the writer expressed his own need of feeling of great weakness. In Job 6:11-12, Job wrote:

"What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?"

In Psalm 22:15, David also wrote:

"My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death."

Again, in Psalm 31:10, he wrote:

"My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak."

But it was in the midst of these experiences of great weakness that these men, and others, discovered a strength beyond themselves. For example, in Psalm 73:26, David put his faith in God when he said:

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

A practical example of this is actually recorded directly in 1 Samuel 30:6 when, during a time of unbelievable pressure and crisis, "David found strength in the LORD his God."

The Bible is clear that God is a source of strength beyond our natural human capabilities. Take a look at these verses:

• 1 Chronicles 16:11 - "Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always."

• 1 Chronicles 29:12 - "Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all."

• 2 Chronicles 16:9 - "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..."

• Psalm 22:19 - "But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me."

• Psalm 46:1 - "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

• Psalm 59:9 - "O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress..."

• Isaiah 33:2 - "O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress."

• Habakkuk 3:19 - "The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights."

• Zechariah 10:12 - "'I will strengthen them in the LORD and in his name they will walk,' declares the LORD."

There is also a common connection between the strength that the Lord gives and a supernatural, circumstance-defying joy (often expressed through song). For example...

• Nehemiah 8:10 - "...the joy of the LORD is your strength."

• 1 Chronicles 16:27 - "Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy in his dwelling place."

• Psalm 28:7 - "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."

• Psalm 59:16 - "But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble."

• Psalm 118:14 - "The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."

I've begun to put that into practice today - simply singing for joy to the Lord, despite the lack of physical strength. And guess what! It really does work! There is a supernatural infusion of strength that comes from looking to the Lord, turning your eyes from your own limitations, and embracing the power that he has made available to you.

Psalm 84:5,7 captures this strength-imparting quality of looking to the Lord:

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage...They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion."

There is a "from strength to strength" experience when we set our hearts on the Lord - and I'm taking a hold of that for myself today.

That famous passage in Isaiah 40:28-31 also captures the "from strength to strength" experience that is found in the Lord:

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

And Isaiah 58:11 explains the strengthening of the Lord in a different way:

"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."

I particularly love the description of Daniel's experience in Daniel 10:8,16-19. When he was confronted by the awesome presence of the Lord, all natural strength fled from him. Daniel 10:8 says:

"So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless.

Then Daniel 10:16-19 goes on to say:

"Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, 'I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I am helpless. How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.' Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. 'Do not be afraid, O man highly esteemed,' he said. 'Peace! Be strong now; be strong.' When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, 'Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength.'"

You cannot help but be strengthened when God speaks into your life. This is why Hebrews 11:34 speaks of those "whose weakness was turned to strength." It is the Lord who made the difference, the missing factor in the equation of strength.

The New Testament also has a lot to say about the infusion of strength that comes from the Lord's power. Ephesians 3:16 records Paul's prayer:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being..."

Paul described his own experience in Philippians 4:13:

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

And in Colossians 1:11, Paul writes:

"...being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience..."

In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul writes very personally, and I've really taken his words to heart in my own experience:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."

This means that my strength has nothing to do with physical measurements such as weight, or innate capabilities such as energy, but has everything to do with my receptivity to the power of God working within me. This is why Joel 3:10 declares:

"Let the weakling say, 'I am strong!'"

Paul knew this inner energising of God's power not as a theological theory but in personal experience. When confronted by intense personal weakness, his first reaction was to ask God to remove the weakness, but God's response in 2 Corinthians 12:9 was:

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Armed with this new understanding of how God's power "is made perfect in weakness", Paul's response in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 was:

"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

This was no casual statement on Paul's part. This was a profound reordering of his thinking, and I'm undergoing a similar kind of reordering - a paradigm shift that I know will have many knock on effects in my life. So in closing, I want to take you back full circle to Psalm 18:32, which is my promise for today:

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect."