“Where can we turn?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, December 7, 2023

Psalm 18: 1-19 (Forward, p. 39) CEV p. 563

To the future King David, God’s intervention in his life was absolutely astounding, absolutely incredible. In fact, it is almost ‘beyond words’. Even so, David does his level best to describe it, and piles up image after image to try to tell what it is like for him.

First off, however, he must describe his own most perilous predicament:

“Death has wrapped its ropes around me, and I was almost swallowed by its flooding waters” (verse 4);

“Ropes from the world of the dead had coiled around me, and death had set a trap in my path” (verse 5);

What a set of images: imagine being bound tightly hand and foot with strong and unbudging ropes, ropes that had only one outcome, which

was death!

But then there was God’s intervention, and here, David uses even more flamboyant, more outlandish, more evocative imagery:

“You opened the heavens like curtains, and you came down with storm clouds under your feet. You rode on the backs of flying creatures and swooped down with the wind as wings. Darkness was your robe; thunderclouds filled the sky, hiding you from sight. Hailstones and fiery coals lit up the sky in front of you” (verses 9-12);

“Lord Most High, your voice thundered from the heavens, as hailstones and fiery coals poured down like rain. You scattered your enemies with arrows of lightning. You roared at the sea, and its deepest channels could be seen. You snorted, and the earth shook to its foundations” (verses 13-15);

Isn’t this incredible! In David’s eyes, even the elements of wind and storm became agents of God’s rescue and deliverance. The very forces of nature became his allies. Wow. That very idea is pretty astounding.

And on a more prosaic, less high-falutin level, he says:

“You reached down from heaven, and you lifted me from deep in the ocean. You rescued me from enemies who were too hateful and too powerful for me. On the day disaster struck, they came and attacked, but you defended me. When I was fenced in, you freed and rescued me, because you love me” (verses 16-19).

Most of this psalm so far is very poetic and unworldly—and almost unbelievable. But one fact remains, and can be ‘counted upon’, namely that God loves us—and acts accordingly. And so, even if we never find ourselves in such perilous situations, situations that are so far beyond our control, we can know that God is there for us and ever ready to help us in whatever way we need.

Forward notes: “My God, the rock in which I put my trust, my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my refuge, you are worthy of praise” (verse 2).

“In an emergency situation, how would I cry out to God? I learned the answer one spring night many years ago. I had taken my two daughters, then 8 and 6, into the Southern Appalachians, to camp on a grassy sag 6,000 feet about sea level. Before we finished dinner, a severe thunderstorm moved in. We dove into the tent. They lay in their sleeping bags as I sang the old hymn, “My life goes on in endless song,’ shouting it above the din of the storm. I held out my arms to each side, creating a beam to steady the tent. I was terrified, and I was acting on instinct, praying and singing.

“I found out how I would respond in an emergency. In those fearful moments, I drew on God, my rock in whom I put my trust. Then and still today, trusting in God can feel chaotic, even risky, but when I open my scared heart, God speaks and is with me, always.”

Moving Forward: “In moments of crisis, do you cry out to God?”