“Deadliest Catches” is a show on the Discovery Channel about crews fishing in oceans with 30-foot waves. The boats are battered as they plow through waves. The crew on deck constantly position themselves for survival as waves can wash over them, crab pots skid across the deck while they haul in their catches. King David in the Old Testament wrote Psalm 27, and I have been living his prayer through my own storms of feeling overwhelmed.
God is not light, nor a fortress in Psalm 27. No. He is MY Light and he is MY Fortress/Strength. It is personal. It is the reason why I can face my fears with confidence. In the Psalm, David shares all manner of danger from his enemies who are out for his blood. There have been many times in the last few weeks where I have reminded myself that God is MY strength and light. He has given me the energy I needed to get my work done. He is the one who has given me the clarity I needed to not fall into the trap of saying what I would have regreted.
Psalm 27 reminds me of Jesus during his ministry. The way the religious leaders tried to entrap him, the way they misrepresented him, falsely accused him so that they could get him tortured and executed by the Romans. Jesus would often take time out by himself and pray. I can imagine him praying Psalm 27 for himself. A declaration of his confidence that his Heavenly Father was his Light and his Strength/stronghold. Christ willingly went to his death for, me alone, so that I can face feeling overwhelmed, confident of Christ’s presence with me. When I feel overwhelmed, stretched too thin emotionally, I recall that the LORD (Jesus Christ) is my Light and my Strength.
Thanks to Paul Tripp’s book Suffering (Crossway; Illinois, 2018
Photo by Rachel Strong on Unsplash
Life with Christ 