Food for the Battle
Rightly understood, the Christian life is a battle. We war not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness in heavenly places (Eph 6:12). We fight the fight of faith. Consequently, there are many times we find our faith being stretched to the max and can get battle-weary. Therefore, it is very essential that we continually mine the Word of God for “soul food.” That’s what I have been doing the past two days in Psalms 55-62. In these Psalms we find incredibly honest admissions of weakness, heart-stopping fear, and godly complaining to God.
Repeatedly; however, what jumped out to me this time in these Psalms are the numerous statements of faith the poet David recited to himself (to renew his mind), as well as back to God in prayer. Though these songs were written by David in the context of actual, physical war, they are in the form of poetry and, therefore, can so easily be applied to the reality of our own spiritual war.
To strengthen your heart and soul, and feed your sometimes-weary faith, follow David’s example. Pray these Psalms back to God. Here are some of the confident affirmations of God’s strength that fed my soul the past few days, which I wrote down in my journal. Recite these to yourself over and over again. Pray through them for yourself, and for fellow believers who are also under spiritual attack, or for those whose faith is being tested.
- Psalm 55:16 “But I call to God, and the LORD will save me.”
- Psalm 55:17 “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.”
- Psalm 55:18 “He redeems my soul in safety”
- Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”
- Psalm 56:3-4 “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”
- Psalm 56:8 “You have kept count of my tossings;put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”
- Psalm 56:9 “This I know, that God is for me.”
- Psalm 56:11 “…in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
- Psalm 56:13 “For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.”
- Psalm 57:1 “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.”
- Psalm 57:9-10 “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.”
- Psalm 59:9 “O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress.”
- Psalm 59:10 “My God in his steadfast lovewill meet me”
- Psalm 59:16-17 “But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.”
- Psalm 61:2-3 “…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, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.”
- Psalm 62:1-2 “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”
- Psalm 62:5-8 “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.”
