The LORD is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed. - Psalm 28:8 (ESV)
Introduction
For a long time, I went to a local gym to work out with weights. Occasionally, I would use the bench press apparatus. This involves lying on a bench with your back and shoulders flat, lifting a bar off of the apparatus, lowering it to your chest and then pressing it upward. The bar would have an equal amount of weight on each side and this exercise would be repeated several times.
From time to time, as a lay on the bench trying to muster the strength to do the exercise a couple of more times, I would think about God having the whole world in His hands. I would think about the fact that God could, if He wanted to, lie down somewhere and bench press all of the universe. And that would not even be a test of His strength.
The God of the universe also shares that strength with His people. Let’s find out more about that as we study Psalm 28:8.
“The LORD is the strength of his people”
Strength makes itself known to us in a variety of ways.
On the one hand, strength can be known as the ability to push or take something away. Like a huge dump truck that moves big pieces of earth, or a muscle man who pushes a great weight. When we see these things, we know there is a great amount of strength involved.
Strength also is also shown from the ability to hold something together or to hold something out. When we think about windows that perform well during a hurricane, we see strength on display. When a submarine at the bottom of the ocean holds together, we know it is strong.
The same types of strength - pushing away or holding together - are also required in our everyday living, during the normal things that happen to us during life. At times we are called to keep pushing, to keep going, even though stopping or quitting would seem to be the much easier thing to do. And at other times, we have to muster the strength to hold together, or to keep other things out, when the pressure from the outside can seem overwhelming.
Christians and non-Christians alike face these same struggle. And you know what? It may seem blasphemous to say, but Christians and non-Christians alike make it through these struggles. For example, we have all likely heard lots of stories about people bravely facing death, and not all of these people knew Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Sometimes when we read passages of Scripture like “the LORD is the strength of his people,” we can arrogantly think that followers of Christ are the only ones who get through tough times. That is not the case and that is not what this verse means.
What this passage means is that “the LORD is the strength of his people.” We do not have to know how other people make it through their struggles or difficult situations - they may be applying the white knuckle approach. But we do know that God is OUR strength. We know that we are weak. We know that we are fallible. And we may not know how the situation or problem will work its way out, but we do KNOW that God will give us the strength to get through - because He is our strength. Perhaps the best reminder of this comes from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)
Forrest Gump told us that life is like a box of chocolates and we never know what we are going to get. This is true, but Forrest could have also said that life is like a roller coaster and we never know when we are going to get off. Many times when we are on the part of life that is a like bad roller coaster, we are white-knuckling the bar. We hold on tightly, with everything we have, as if the strength of our hands somehow keeps us from being flung from the roller coaster car.
The reality is that a harness has us securely strapped into the car, even though we may move around a bit, and the car is securely fastened to the rails of the ride. All of the strength and effort focused into our knuckles really is not helping us in terms of making it through the ride, but it feels like we are doing something.
Such is a ride through life. God has us. He is the harness and the rails of the roller coaster ride of our lives and He has promised to never let us go. God is the strength os
“He is the saving refuge of his anointed”
Psalm 28 was written by King David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So when he writes of “his anointed,” he is likely speaking of himself. He was the king. He was the leader of God’s people. He was the one who had been anointed. And he had a special relationship with God.
David knew that God was his saving refuge in at least two ways. First, God had saved him. He had a relationship with God. He would spent eternity with God. God, therefore, was his saving refuge.
But he also knew that the practical, daily benefit of a relationship with God. God was not just God for the future, for the time spent with Him in heaven. He is also the God of the present and David knew that God was where he could run for help related to all of life’s issues (though he might not have always done so). He knew that God is a strong tower and that he could run to God and be safe:
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe. - Proverbs 18:10 (ESV)
These two benefits are also available to all believers today. The same God and the same promises that were applicable to David, are also available and applicable to us. God can be our saving refuge for eternity and He can be our safe place for the everyday trials and struggles we face.
Application
The benefits of knowing God and having a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ are innumerable. Beyond the unbelievable concept of spending eternity with God in heaven, here on earth we are able to have a real relationship with the Most High God.
In this relationship, we look to Him for many things. For example, we seek the peace that passes all understanding that takes us through the storms and trials of life. We seek guidance that will be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And we seek God as our source of strength. Yes, God has provided us with bodies that move and do things with the energy He provides, but His strength is more than that. His strength and His power are made perfect - shown perfectly - in our weaknesses. Because of this we can totally surrender to Him. We can cease all of the vain striving and straining that we do to try to make life surrender to our will. Instead, when we surrender to Him, we can rest in His peace and wisdom and watch Him work. We can watch His mighty power on display and have rest for our souls.
Like most of the things discussed here, this can seem hard to do. This can seem unnatural. And, even when we want to do this, we can live lives that seem hypocritical to what we believe. But a life in Christ is best spent trusting in Christ’s strength and not our own. So no matter how we have approached this in the past, my encouragement today is to lean into God today. Strength can be described as being able to push something away or being able to hold things together and we have this fully in Jesus Christ.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. - Colossians 1:17 (ESV)