Psalm 108 — Power vs Frailty — Aneel Aranha
My heart, O God, is steadfast;
I will sing and make music with all my soul.
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.
Save us and help us with your right hand,
that those you love may be delivered.
God has spoken from his sanctuary:
“In triumph I will parcel out Shechem
and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth.
Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim is my helmet,
Judah is my scepter.
Moab is my washbasin,
on Edom I toss my sandal;
over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
Is it not you, God, you who have rejected us
and no longer go out with our armies?
Give us aid against the enemy,
for human help is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory,
and he will trample down our enemies.
The psalmist, probably David, begins with exuberant worship but then transitions into a plea for victory over adversaries.
He starts by singing: "My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul. Awake, harp and lyre!" This acknowledgment of God's grandeur gives way to a heartrending appeal as he cries, "Give us aid against the enemy, for human help is worthless" (Psalm 108:12-13).
I am sure we can all relate to this duality. We declare God's sovereignty on the one hand while also expressing our weakness on the other. We acknowledge the vastness and power of the divine, yet in our daily struggles, we feel our limitations.
The Apostle Paul wrote about this tension. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, he spoke about a "thorn in the flesh" and how he pleaded with the Lord to take it away.
The Lord responded, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul concludes: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."
Understanding this truth will bring us much hope that although we might be helpless on our own, our cries for help become the conduits for experiencing God's power. In our moments of deepest need, when we feel most vulnerable, we're not left alone. Instead, in these moments, we often find a deeper, more profound experience of the divine, a God who is sovereign yet intimately connected to our human journey.
So, being weak and helpless is not necessarily a bad thing!
God bless you.
