Psalm 31:4 – “Strength”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴Bring me out from the net, this [one] they hid from me, because You [are] my strength.

“Bring me out from the net, this [one] they hid from me…” David, being a king, had a lot of enemies. Some were obvious – like the Philistines – but too he would have had all the usual palace connivers, all the intrigue and scheming that goes on around thrones. The latter is what seems to be in view here and I think we’d all agree it is the more difficult to deal with. It’s one thing to have someone who openly hates us. It’s another thing to have those who pretend to be friends while they secretly try to ruin us. Absalom was of course a huge example of that in David’s life – his own son who would steal his throne.

I have had the blessing in my own life that I’ve seldom had to deal with people who were actually plotting my ruin behind my back. I’ve certainly had people who hated me and, to this day with most of them, I have no idea why. When in leadership positions, I’ve certainly had to deal with people’s opposition. But on the whole, I’ve enjoyed “people.” I really hope and pray this blessing can continue until I leave this world.

On the other hand, I have suffered grievously at the hands of two enemies. The first is myself, or should I say my dark side. I would not hesitate to say the evil me has ruined my life. It would be easy to say I would have had an altogether wonderful life if only I wasn’t always there. Sure I’ve known a few unpleasant people, but even then, had I done a better job of dealing with them, maybe they wouldn’t have seemed so bad. It was me and my stupidity that ruined it all.

The second is of course the enemy, the devil. Every night I read from the prayer of Psalm 143 which says in v3,4: “The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is stunned.” I don’t know of any more fitting description of my life than this. I am painfully aware that all day every day there is someone working against me, someone plotting my ruin, someone lying to me and luring me to my destruction. He is relentless in his cruelty. As David said there in Psalm 143, “… my heart within me is stunned.”

When I was younger, I don’t know how much the devil needed to bother with me. I did a pretty good job of wrecking my own life. But just in the last few years, I feel like the Lord has taught me such jewels of grace that perhaps we’ve tipped the scale. I feel now it really is the enemy who is most bent on wrecking my life. I’m of course always ready to give him a hand, but I really do feel these days he’s leading the charge.

And again, he is relentless. I feel all day every day his crushing and I feel my spirit growing “faint within me.” I can’t do this. Just a few verses ahead of Psalm 143, David prayed in Psalm 142:6: “…rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.”

Ah but thanks be to God, I’m not alone. David can pray for the Lord to draw him out of the net the enemy has hidden for him – and why is that? “Because You are my strength.” I love this phrase. It’s just three simple words in Hebrew, “Qi Atah maozi.” What is the Lord’s answer to the enemy’s relentless cruelty? “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor 12:9). “My strength,” the Lord says. I love His answer to Gideon when he plead his weakness. The Lord told him, “Go in this thy strength.” “Go.” “Just do it.” “I know You have no strength, but Mine will prevail.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started into my day carried by those simple words, “Go in this thy strength.”

I head into my day, even today, painfully aware of the enemy’s malice and of my stumbling weakness against him. But I go with hope because I have a Champion. Again, I really like David’s simple words, “For You are my strength.” “Qi Atah Maozi.” As I’ve been studying this verse, I’ve been struck with the thought that I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen the Lord as “my strength.” Of course I’ve known He was my strength in the sense that He gives me the strength to go on day after day, that I only succeed at all because He helps me. But it’s one thing to say of the Lord, “He is my strength.” It’s another thing to look Him in the eyes and say, “You are my strength.” You are my strength.

He’s all those other things to me – Rock, Refuge, Shield, Hope – and it is a blessing to add to that list Strength, but not just in a third person, matter-of-fact kind of way, but rather seeing this “Strength” is a Person. Someone observed that strength is one of the Lord’s essential attributes. It’s who He is. It’s not something He is because I need Him to be. He is Strength. And as I look in His eyes I can say to Him, “You are my Strength” – my very own, my very personal presence of the strength to go on even while the adversary would brutally crush the very life out of me. As David says in Psalm 143, “I lift up my hands to You.”

What a blessing to go out into this very real and, in many ways, this very difficult world but know that my Champion goes with me – and that He doesn’t just “help” me, He is “my Strength.”

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are saved” (Prov 18:10).

We can do this.