“Mighty Metaphors!” – FBC Morning Light (4/23/2024)

Good Tuesday morning to you. I hope you had a good start to your week yesterday, and today's off to a good start as well. Did you have the opportunity to take some time and be in God's Word? I hope so.

If not, now's a good time to get at it. We're reading today 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18, and the two are connected. Psalm 22 gives us a historical framework for Psalm 18. In fact, what we read in Psalm 22 is basically copied, if you will, in Psalm 18.

This psalm that David wrote, we read in chapter 22, verse 1, is a song that he wrote on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And so he wrote this, and it's put in the historical context in chapter 22, but then it gets included in the Hebrew hymnal, if you will, the book of Psalms, the Old Testament Psalter.

So what's interesting about this psalm, first of all, is that it's a song written in reflection. David is reflecting back on his experiences of running from Saul when Saul was trying to kill him over and over and over again, and how every step along the way, God graciously protected him, delivered him from Saul's attempts.

And then also, he's looking back over his career as the king and reflecting on the various enemies that tried to undermine him, tried to overthrow him, and that God never let that happen. And so right off the bat in this psalm, David sings about the Lord and uses these metaphors, just one right on top of another, that emphasize something very, very important about the God whom we serve.

He says this in verse 2, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my strength in whom I trust, I will trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior, you save me from violence.

Now look at the piling up of those metaphors for the Lord God as Savior and protector. Rock, fortress, deliverer, strength, shield, horn of salvation, stronghold, and refuge. Now there's a sense in which these are all synonymous, they're all communicating the same idea, that the God is a protector, but each of them also has a little different nuance.

You think about a fortress, and you can go to different places, historical places in our country where forts were built, I think several years ago, in fact I think it was on our first anniversary, my wife and I went to St. Augustine, Florida, and there's the Fort De Soto in St. Augustine, the oldest city in the North American continent and in the United States, the oldest city, and there's this fort, and it's really fascinating to see it.

Another time we were visiting in Ontario, or was it Quebec, I can't remember off the top of my head now, but anyway, right on a lake or the sea there was a fort, and you could go and visit this fort. It communicates protection, strength, safety, and security, and this is all communicated in the idea that the Lord is my fortress.

Then this idea of the rock, the two often went together. A fortress would often be built up high on a rock that speaks of stability and protection, high above the enemy being able to get to me. He's my rock, he's my fortress.

I think about those two images and the hymn of Martin Luther, we just sang it recently in one of our worship services. A mighty fortress is our God, and indeed he is, but he also speaks of him as my deliverer.

Now this goes beyond the, I wouldn't say passive function of a rock and fortress, but those are stable, those are just solidly there, but the deliverer has a more active role in protecting from the enemy.

He's the God of my strength, that is, he's the one who gives me the strength to be able to stand and to endure. He's my shield. Of course, you get the imagery there of a soldier carrying a shield that protects him from the firing arrows and thrown spears and so forth, they deflect those things away.

God is our shield, the horn of our salvation, he is our stronghold, our refuge. What a wonderful repetition of ideas that communicate the basic truth that the God whom we serve, the God who is our Father, the God who is our Savior, is the God who is our protector, our deliverer, our stronghold, in whom we can trust.

I don't know what you're facing, I don't know what kind of darts are being thrown your way today, I don't know what kind of difficulties and challenges you're struggling with, I don't know how the wicked one is trying to assault you, but if you're a follower of Jesus, you can take refuge in your God.

He is a stronghold for you, a fortress. Trust in him, go to him, trust him for those things today. Our Father and our God, we do thank you, even as David went on to express that we will call upon you, our refuge, our fortress, for protection and deliverance, and you are indeed worthy to be praised.

Your people shall indeed ultimately be saved from all of our enemies. We thank you and trust in you. Amen. All right, listen, have a great rest of your Tuesday. May the Lord bless you in it. Good day.