In our text for reflection today we encounter David writing a song to the Lord, because God delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. In this Psalm David highlights a few things. He gave praise to God, because he cried out to the Lord and the Lord delivered him. The Lord not only delivered him, but also placed him in a safe place. God delivered David, because David did what was right in the sight of God. As a result of this God became a present and future power in David’s life. David declared that it is God who arms him with strength, gave him victory over his foes and established his throne.

As we look at this Psalm and in particular verse 32 we can safely say that David had an encounter with God that brought him to a point of realization. David realized that the strength to deal with his foes and his circumstances came from one source and that is God. I like this Psalm for its practicality. David cried out to God during his time of difficulty (verse 4-6). The truth is regardless of who we are we will face adverse circumstances. Circumstances that will threaten our lives and livelihood. We will face people who will come against us and try to destroy us. But in those moments of fear, uncertainty, doubt, dismay and hurt we can cry out to God. We can put away our pride and shame and just call out to God for help. We can put away our fears of what others might think of us and just call out to God.

When we call out to God He will answer!

That’s the assurance we have when we bring our concerns to God. God is not a God of partiality; it’s not David’s prayers alone that he will answer. God will answer our prayers as well. However, God doesn’t always answer our prayers in the time we think he should. God answers our cries in the time that is best suited for God and us. But in this period of waiting for God to answer our prayers, what he does is arm us with strength to endure.

This is one of the revelations garnered by David. It is God who gave him the strength to face each day of his problems and it is God who gave him strength to overcome each problem.

 The word used in this text is ‘arms’ and it is not just a giving of strength. The strength given by God is meant to be used as a tool or weapon to get through life, but we have to choose to use it as such. God gives us the strength needed and we must use it to arm ourselves. We do so through constant prayers with God and not giving up. We are bigger than our problems, because of the strength God gives to us.

Christopher Euphfa