Psalm 59:17
My strength, I will sing praises to You;
For God is my refuge, the God who shows me favor.
David was being chased by the irrational King Saul and was surrounded by fierce and bloodthirsty soldiers whose mission was to kill him.
Fear has griped David and he cries out to the Lord… and what does David do? He sang and he sang about the mercy and might of God.
Sometimes when we are constantly fighting a battle, we can easily give up. We become weak and weary. Here the Psalmist experienced the same thing.
He had become weary and tired and fearful but he didn’t give up… Instead He began to look up and cry to the Lord.
Asking to be delivered from his enemies. And for God’s protection.
As today’s verse so beautifully expresses his need… “O my strength, I will sing praises to You, For God is my refuge, the God who shows me favor."
Repeatedly, he expresses that God is his strength and uses the word "MY"
You see, the God of history became the God of David’s experience.
David acknowledges that the only way to victory is to rely on God. Nothing else.
And we also need make God our personal God. It is important to have an intimate relationship with the Lord that we can lean on Him, rely on Him, run to Him and draw comfort from Him.
David also confesses and testifies of his victorious God.
He could have kept his victory private…
But no, David acknowledges this victorious God and shares it with others. He declares:
"I will sing your praises" "I will let everybody know that victory is because of relying on you and depending on you.”
Let this be our experience.
What is your experience of God in your situation?
When you go through sickness, can you say God is your healer?
When you go through anxiety, can you say God is your comfort?
When you are at a crossroads, can you say that God is your wisdom?
I want to tell you about the martyrdom of John and Betty Stam.
On December 6, 1934, in Qingdao, China. Betty was bathing their three-month old daughter when the Red Army surrounded the house. They took them captive and made them walk to Miaosheo.
There they bound John to a post for the night. The next day they forced John and Betty to walk in their underwear through the streets of the town and forced the people to come watch the execution.
Outside town in a clump of pine trees they beheaded John with a sword while his wife watched. And then when she fell over his body, they beheaded her.
John and Betty Stam went to Moody Bible Institute, they were in their mid-twenties and had a three-month old daughter, and they were beheaded by fierce and bloodthirsty soldiers. This is a true story that actually happened and so is Psalm 59.
This story and so many others, has been all through redemptive history.
The more the people of God have suffered—the more they have been forced to live on the brink of eternity where things are real and all sham and shallowness is blown away.
And through the suffering, the deeper and more beautiful has been the music and hymnody of the church. As Charles Spurgeon said, "The music of the sanctuary is in no small degree indebted to the trials of the saints."
You see… our place of experience is to be an altar where we can offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.
No matter what, we must not keep that experience to ourselves, but we must share it with others so that they will also know that this God is a personal God.
Life Happens…
Our Strength, our Security and our Satisfaction lies in our intimate relationship with the Lord and to let the God of history be the God of our experience.
And also sing as the Psalmist sang:
16 But as for me, I will sing of Your strength;
Yes, I will joyfully sing of Your faithfulness in the morning,
For You have been my refuge
And a place of refuge on the day of my distress.
17 My strength, I will sing praises to You;
For God is my refuge, the [God who shows me favor.
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