Could there be any other God like you? You are the only God to be worshipped, for there is not a more secure foundation to build my life upon than you. Psalm 18:31 (TPT)
Substance Abuse – Armed With Strength Series – Part 1
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Could there by any other God like you?
This was a declaration, not a question, that David made several times during his life. (Or at least, wrote down several times.) His poetic gift enabled him to express the things he experienced to those beyond his own lifetime. And he experienced much.
David had been through a lot. A lot of it was his own doing, sins and fortunes included. And other things because, well, life happens. Rejection, betrayal, conflict, love, lust, death, division, leadership, victory, murder, family, repentance, hope, peace, challenge… He lived a life that only AMC (American Multi-Cinema Channel) could retell. The Divine was constant in presence through it all. Like a rock; a sure foundation.
Immovable. Unshakable. Heavy with faithfulness, weighty in love.
Stone, or rock, is an incorruptible substance. It doesn’t take on any contamination. It doesn’t rust or go mouldy. It doesn’t suffer from damp or melt in the heat. It doesn't decompose or disintegrate. This seemingly lifeless substance is what the writers of the biblical text often like God too. Psalm 18:31 in the ESV says, “And who is a rock, except our God?” I think it's kinda funny and paradoxical that we call the ultimate source of life a substance that doesn’t seem to have any.
But with God, spirit and matter are one. You cannot separate them. The Divine is in all things and through all things. The rock exists because of God, and it exists IN God. When we say that God is bedrock, we’re taking the most lifeless form and life-filled being and making them one. As God is in the rock, so the rock is in him. Unified. As God is in us, so are we in him. Christ, the living cornerstone upon whom we build our lives.
He’s not fixed and immovable in a stubborn and rigid way. His rock-like nature is transcendent. He enables me to carry the weight of life without getting squashed beneath it or beaten down by it seasons of heaviness. He doesn't obliterate my troubles or shield me from them, but he empowers me with his peace that is stable through chaos, a strength that is honed in weakness, and his wisdom that is learned through grace. He is weighty and tried and tested and true.
Permanent. Stable. Secure.
Living rock.
Speaking of the Exodus and the Israelites journey through the wilderness, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:3-4:
“All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.”
Hang on. Read it again. Paul was talking about the post-Egypt Israelites. The Exodus Israelites. Christ was with them?
Christ was with them!
He WAS the rock that traveled and journeyed with His people, a rock filled with living water spilling strength into all that gathered around it.
John opens his memoir of Jesus with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5).
He’s not talking about the Bible. It didn’t exist as we know it when John wrote his book. He was talking about Jesus the Christ. Christ didn’t just turn up for thirty-three years some two-thousand years ago. He has always been with us, hidden in the cosmos, woven into the fabric of the universe. He was there in the beginning and he is here now. Immovable, constant, incorruptible.
2 Samuel 22:2-4 “God is bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight. My God—the high crag where I run for dear life, hiding behind the boulders safe in the granite hideout; My mountaintop refuge, he saves me from ruthless men. I sing to God the Praise-Lofty and find myself safe and saved.”
What is it that you most need to recognise to move forward? Leave us a comment below.
Go to Part 2 – Wrapped in Power »
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