Sunday, February 28, 2016

Our battles are real and so is our mighty God

    Psalm 56
February 28
     I find fascinating how versatile and applicable the psalms are to our lives three thousand years later. And while application is always a must, these writings were most applicable to the situations in which they were written.

     We might think, “David was so scared, so afraid” but we must remember that David was in battle, hand-to-hand combat much of the time in which these psalms were written. He had literally killed more than 10,000 men without weapons of mass destruction. David was literally a prisoner of war and there were no Geneva Convention codes back then.

     I say that because I am honored to serve at a church on the doorstep of Fort Hood military installation, the most populous military installation in the world. I see the hardships that many military families go through and as a minister, I want the soldiers and their families to draw strength and healing from the words of the Scriptures, especially the psalms which were mostly written either in the battlefield or with the battlefield in mind.

     “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You,” (Ps. 56:3) is a great verse for children to memorize in a thunderstorm, but it was written by a mighty man of valor. The following verse (56:4), “I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” was quoted in the New Testament (Heb. 13:6) as well as elsewhere in Psalms (118:6) and later in this same psalm (verse 11). Verse 8, “Put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book” was not written by a timid man but shows that God cares and will care for us.


    Whatever you are going through, man or woman, boy or girl, God is with you and He will fight for you!