David saw God do a lot in his life. If he were like most of us, he would have been tempted to conclude, “I did some pretty good work there! Not bad for a backwoods shepherd boy, huh?” Instead, as he looked back on his life, David saw something else: God, a steady rock when everything else was uncertain; God, a powerful shield when his enemies were innumerable; God, a safe stronghold when his entire life was filled with danger.
If there is one thing David’s life teaches us, it’s that God will be the rock and shield and stronghold for all those who trust in him.
God was David’s deliverer when David rushed out to face Goliath. That gave David a courage that no one else had—not even Saul in all of his armor.
God was David’s strength when he, an unlikely young shepherd boy, was anointed king of Israel. Nobody else believed in David—his own dad even skipped right over him. But God didn’t need a strong candidate; God would be the strength.
God was David’s shield when he hid from Saul. David even calls God his “rock,” which harkens back to the literal mountains David was hiding in. It’s as if he was saying, “I might have hidden behind these giant hunks of granite, but the real rock and refuge of my life was never a mountain—it was always God.”
David’s life screams one thing: Hope in God, hope in God, hope in God.
Hudson Taylor once said, “All of God’s ‘giants’ have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.” That was it—just weak people, shepherds, who knew God was with them. God’s giants are weak men and women who reckon that God is with them, and their hope for any kind of success is the grace of God.
The sovereign God, the Ancient of Days, Israel’s Rock, the sustainer of the ends of the earth, Alpha and Omega, is with us always. The one who walks on water, the one who raised a little girl from the dead, the one who made the lame walk and the blind see—that’s who’s walking with us each and every day. Our God, our hope.
This article on building a great church originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
