“From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
– Psalms 61:3 [NASB]
God Never Promised Us a Rose Garden
When people come to faith in Christ, we tell them that they will experience love, joy, and peace, which is so very true. But we fail to mention that these byproducts of the Christian faith are often couched between hardship, suffering, and struggle.
God seems to be more concerned with our character than our comfort. In the everyday Christian experience, struggle is the name of the game.
The Treacherous Terrain
In our scriptural reference, David finds himself fainthearted and overwhelmed by the isolation and trials of his spiritual voyage. Like the Psalmist, our spiritual odyssey is like a journey up a rocky mountain with uncertain terrain. With the length of the trek and the unsure footing, we become fatigued.
We reach up for one more rock above us, but our hands start to slip off the rock, and we realize our strength is not sufficient to pull us up. One last time we call out, “help Lord,” as we extend our hand.
It seems as if an arm from heaven comes down from behind the rock and latches on to our forearm and our hand onto His, and He pulls us to the cleft of the stone. And one more time, we realize that when our strength has failed, God’s grace has prevailed.
The Ongoing Journey
We breathe a sigh of relief and, for a time, bask in His presence. About the time our wounds from the journey are healed and we feel pretty secure in our rocky refuge, we turn and look up the mountain. We understand that we must either continue up the mountain or descend back to the lowlands.
There is no such thing as the status quo in the Kingdom of God. We are either moving toward God or away from Him. So, we continue our ascent up the mountain, experiencing one impregnable rock after another, never being able to scale any cliff in our own strength, but only with God’s help.
As we go from one rocky crest to another, we discover that we get a clearer view of the glory of God. We are motivated onward. We still get weary from time to time and ask the Lord, “how many rocks must I climb”? We answer our own question as we realize that it will be as many as it takes to get to the top. Whatever is required to get to the rock (the Lord Jesus) who is higher than I.
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