Transcript

Let’s go to the book of Psalms, Psalm 144. Psalm 144. What amazing things the word of God shows us and as far as our capacity to understand God in this fallen and very finite state we’re presently in, that capacity is realized only through the word of God. God shows something of himself in nature. God reveals something of himself in our conscience but radically beyond that, he reveals himself fully in his word.

Psalm 144. David writes,

1 Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle; 2 My lovingkindness and my fortress, My stronghold and my deliverer, My shield and He in whom I take refuge, Who subdues peoples under me. 3 O LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? 4 Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow. 5 Bow Your heavens, O LORD, and come down; Touch the mountains, that they may smoke. 6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them; Send out Your arrows and confuse them. 7 Stretch forth Your right hand from on high; Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, Out of the hand of aliens 8 Whose mouths speak deceit, And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 9 I will sing a new song to You, O God; Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You, 10 Who gives salvation to kings, Who rescues David His servant from the evil sword. 11 Rescue me and deliver me out of the hand of aliens, Whose mouth speaks deceit And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. 12 Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace; 13 Let our garners be full, furnishing every kind of produce, And our flocks bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; 14 Let our cattle bear Without mishap and without loss, Let there be no outcry in our streets! 15 How blessed are the people who are so situated; How blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!

I have just simply entitled this “A Happy People.” David is reflecting back on the great things God has done, some things he’s requesting from God but I think also he is seeing himself having come through some great tribulations and trials and God was the one who brought him through. That’s why I. Notice he says, God is our rock. “Blessed be the LORD, my rock.” Why does he use the word “rock”? Because a rock is a rock. It’s a picture of stability, of strength immutable and immoveable, unshakable and unbreakable. God is our rock. So we see that powerful vision coming out of there. It’s like David says, “Everything else is fleeting. Everything else is moving. Everything else is weak but not God. He’s our rock.” David didn’t say, “I’m a rock,” he said, “God’s a rock.” We need to be founded on that rock.

Notice, first of all, I want you to think about David viewing God as a rock of courage. A rock of courage. It’s amazing how much courage this little guy had named David. He had heard about the Philistines, of course, attacking Israel, the people of God. And he heard about a mighty warrior among the Philistines named Goliath and David comes to King Saul and says, “I want to go and take out that Philistine.” King Saul, in fact, looks at David and says, “David, that guy will mutilate you. He is a massive giant. He’s not even human.” David said, “Well, I understand that but I’ve learned something about being in the will of God. If you’re in the will of God, God will give you the power and strength to do what you’re supposed to do. For example, it was the will of God for me to keep sheep. My father gave me that task and on two occasions I took on wild, ferocious beasts and killed them with my own hands. One time it was a lion and one time it was a bear.” And he said, “If you’ll just let me go, I’ll take care of that Philistine too.” So he got some smooth stones and his sling and sure enough went out there and slew Goliath. Killed him dead. Cut off his head. Held it up for everybody to see.

David had great courage. He had a rock of courage but his courage was not in himself, it was in God. It’s amazing how much courage you have if you’re really functioning in God’s will and through God’s power. Now, he had already had enough under his belt to know this was true and maybe that’s where some of us have been a little bit weak. Maybe too many times when the challenge was on, we kind of stepped back and went around some things and we