BE to me what you ARE

Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress!" Psalm 31:2-3a

            David was a firm believer in the saving power of God, but more than that, he wanted to know God's power in real experience.  It's important for us to believe that God is a rock and a fortress, but it means nothing if we have no desire to experience his nature for ourselves.  In David's prayer, we find two keys for the Christian life - two characteristics which aid us in distinguishing between godly people and religious pretenders. 

            First, David believed that God was his rock and his fortress.  There was an individual nature to David's belief that many people know nothing of.  David was personally interested in God even as God was personally invested in David. Oh, there are many who say "I believe in God," but few who can sincerely claim that God is their God.  David's prayer was less a theological statement about God than a heart-cry for Him.  David wasn't nearly as concerned with scripture knowledge or religious disciplines as he was with experiencing the Living God for himself!

            This leads us to the second difference between a true child of God and a religious pretender.  David boldly declared "You are my rock," proving that he knew who God was. But he went beyond that declaration when he prayed for God to "Be a rock of refuge" to him. Oh, how many times do we believe something only to discover that belief itself is insufficient for the trials of life.  Yes, David believed in God's objective qualities, but it fueled his desire to plead for a deeper, subjective experience of them.  We can say "God is good," but have we experienced God's goodness? I can say that Christ is precious, but can I say without embarrassment that Christ is precious to me?  The academic mind will always be content with a stated truth (i.e., 'God is a rock') but the longing heart will forever cry out for God to be, in actual experience, that which he is in Divine essence. Theology is meant to lead us into the light of a fuller experience with God, but far too often we get stuck in our cave of creeds, hiding away from the living God who still does "whatever he pleases." Somewhere between the "experimental" faith of the Puritans and our modern age, we got duped into thinking that experience is wrong because it promotes an unhealthy seeking after emotion, causing believers to stop walking by faith.  But in the Psalms, we see modeled again and again a passionate longing after God himself, a journey from belief into a greater awareness of The One to whom all our beliefs point.  So let our prayer this coming year be that we might truly taste and see, for ourselves, that the Lord is good!