Psalm 144:1-2 “Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me." This episode talks about the idea that God trains each one of us personally for our own battles. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
He Is My Fortress
Psalm 144:1-2 “Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
I find this verse very intriguing. When I read this, what came to mind wasn’t people in the military, although I have been around the military a lot over the last 20 years. God definitely does help out the military. I’m amazed when I hear the stories of the old testament in the Bible. I am surprised how old war is. I guess I never really gave it too much thought. If there are lots of people in one area it makes sense that they would not all get along and they would need someone to help settle disputes. Likewise, if there are various lands, it makes sense that people would want to conquer other people’s land. It is in our broken nature. It makes sense and yet, it just never occurred to me that they had huge armies way back in the old testament.
However, this is not what I thought of when I read this verse. What came to my mind when I read this verse is how specific it is. The verse does not say that the Lord trains us for war. It does not say that He trains His people, or the multitude, it says that He trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. This verse is talking about each one of individually. Likewise I believe he trains each one of us for our own personal war. He knows our stories even before we do, even before we were born He could see our future. Therefore, he can train each of us individually for what we are going to need to face.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation and you had no idea why you were in it? Have you ever wondered why you took certain paths in your life? Paths that didn’t seem to make any sense at the time you took them? These could have been training for things you are to encounter in the future. I grew up in a family with 11 kids. That’s a lot of people in one house. Even though we all grew up in the same house, we all learned different things from that experience. We all have very different take aways. This is because we all needed different things to combat our very different futures. I would say a big thing I learned from growing up in a house full of kids is to not over react. Kids will do wild and crazy things, and they will survive. My parents had learned after having that many kids that they didn’t have to over react every time someone did something wrong because the older kids had survived. Now, if you ask my older siblings they probably did not learn this same lesson as my parents probably hadn’t learned this lesson yet when they were little.
This lesson served me well as I ended up having three boys very close in age and boys tend to do some crazy stuff, specially if there is more than one of them. I knew from my past experiences that this would happen as I had three older brothers. I knew that they would probably survive just fine and I did not need to over react. Do you see how that training was specific for me. Someone who wasn’t going to have any children would not need that specific lesson. Can you look back over your life and see how God has trained you to make it through the battles that you have faced? Think back to those paths that you took and you didn’t know why you were taking them. Does it make sense now? Can you see how the things you went through on those paths prepared you for the future you have now? Isn’t God amazing!!
The next part of the verse says, “He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” Isn’t this lovely? “He is my loving God and my fortress.” I think that is beautiful imagery. I love to imagine God as this castle built around me. He is my fortress, he is protecting me from all that wants to hurt me. Not only has God trained you to fight the specific war that He knows you are going to have to fight, but He is also your fortress. It says later in this verse, he is my shield, in whom I take refuge. He has trained you to fight and yes, you ready. And also, he is your refuge and your fortress. When you need a break from the war, when you need to rest, you can rest in the comfort of His arms. He is your stronghold and your deliverer.
I feel so loved when I read this verse. This verse shows us that God knows exactly what we need. Yes, He is there to show us how to fight, He will even fight along side us. It shows us that all the things we go through in life are meant to build us up so that we can be strong enough to face the next thing we are going to encounter. We often wish that things would happen in our timing. We don’t understand why we have to wait on God’s timing. When I read this verse I feel better about waiting on God’s timing. I feel as though God is showing us that He is taking the time to train us and if we rush it, we won’t be ready. We may not have all the skills we need to have to face the upcoming task.
Have you ever had to go through something and other people don’t understand how you have the strength to go through it? You have the strength because you have a loving and caring God. You have a God that knew you were going to have to face this and He has trained you to have the faith. Also, He is there with you in it. He is your fortress, so when you don’t have the strength you can fall down inside the walls of the fortress, behind God’s shield and take refuge. He will be strong for you, when you can’t be.
Whatever it is you are going through, know that God has personally trained you for this specific occasion. You may now feel you are equipped and you may not feel like you are qualified but God wouldn’t let you enter into a battle your couldn’t win. When you are struggling remember that God has trained you for this. Also, remember that He is you loving God and your fortress, your stronghold and your deliverer, your shield, in whom you take refuge, who subdues peoples under you.” You will make it through this difficult time. I promise if you keep going, if you don’t give up, as we talked about yesterday, you will make it through this and you will be better equipped to handle the next thing that comes your way. God is your trainer, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to rely on you when we are in time of trouble. Help us to see that you are our fortress and our shield. Help us to see that we have your protection anytime we want it. Lord, please also help us to see that you have trained us for each battle we face. You have given us experiences that have lead us to this point and will get us through this point so we will be better prepared for the next thing we will face. Lord, you are so amazing and we are so grateful for the way you lovingly prepare each one of us for our specific challenges. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!