Devotionals

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Your give me your shield of victory, O Lord, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. Ps 18:35

Battle in David’s day was primitive. (David used rocks and a sling to kill Goliath, remember.) Most weapons were the kind of weapon that you launched away from yourself. For example, you launch the arrows in your quiver, then you’re done shooting arrows. Winning a battle had much to do with quantity of weaponry you could carry in with you. A shield helped you survive until you could fight the enemy when he didn’t have the longer range weapons. Although passive, a shield was invaluable because it spared your life by deflecting the weapons unseen or long range. The Lord’s shield of victory surrounds us and He shields us from the long-range weapons of the enemy, the unexpected onslaughts, and the enemy standing against us.

“You stoop down to make me great.” Stooping down for us involves a folding together of our bodies, a making smaller of ourselves, a placement of our line of sight at the level of our interest. God “folds’ His vast power to fit into the smallness of our problem (compared to his might); He – upon invitation – comes to us in ways that we can receive (partial revelation: “We see through a glass darkly”) and puts us in His line of sight. In God’s meekness we become great, because even his weakness is stronger than our worst problem, and his wisdom is grander than wise and knowledgeable of this age. It is an example again of a poured out life, making ourselves accessible to others at their level of understanding, It is a picture of godly fatherhood, and the Fatherhood of God, that we are invited to enter as His children.

When you were a child, did anyone ever take you by the hands and spin you around till your feet left the ground and you were flying? Or did you ever cross the street holding both parents hands and pick up your feet and not walk and feel like you were floating? When God stoops to us, he picks us up, creates motion and energy, picks our feet up off the ground and we land in a whole new place, victorious, perhaps winded, a little dazed, but victorious and joyful. God’s stooping included a stop at the Cross, which makes anyone great who is willing to receive the exchanged life.

Stoop down, O Lord, into our lives today. Hug us in your strong able arms, lift us away from defeat and bring us to the place of victory and joy you have for us.

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