Psalm 57: 7 – 10 NLT
My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Again I find myself understanding why God said David was a man after His own heart. We might say, “He touches my heart,” and how could the Father’s heart not be touched from such an outpouring of love and gratitude?
Personally, I am stirred by David’s confidence. Continually the trust that David had in God appears in his songs. This confidence, or trust, was very real for David. He hung his life on that confidence. Even as a youth, David believed God and His word over the circumstances in the world. That was evident when he faced Goliath for he said to King Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine,” (1 Samuel 17: 37).
It also seems that David’s confident trust goes hand in hand with praise. Which came first, I wonder. Did praise strengthen his heart? How does one grow into the depth of faith David had in God’s faithfulness? He wrote that his confidence inspired praise, but from where did the confidence originate. One might say, “David was able to exhibit confidence in facing Goliath because he had overcome both bears and lions,” but where did he get the confidence to face a lion?
David was the youngest of all his brothers. His older brothers were experienced, strong soldiers while he was still tending sheep and yet he had the faith of a giant. When he faced Goliath, he wasn’t tall or strong, he wasn’t arrayed in the finest battle armor. Instead, he said, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.” Now that is some confidence!
I find myself envious of that depth of faith and my soul yearns to stand as tall as that young shepherd boy. Not only did he shame the Philistine army but imagine the reaction of the army of Israel? His own brothers were part of that force, a force that was afraid to march out against Goliath and his cohorts. Were they inspired by David’s heroism? Were they ashamed of their lack of faith in the mighty hand of the Lord? Let us hope that most of them took inspiration from his confidence in God’s unfailing deliverance. What of us? Can we look at this lad and from his faith and actions draw strength into our own spirits? Are we bolstered by his praises and confidence?
If one young shepherd boy can rise from oblivion to the throne, overcoming titanic obstacles along the way, then what can we do, we who have not only the throne of God as our backstop but also the faith of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit? What prevents us from being the mighty warriors of our age? I hope you, like me, feel that longing in the pit of your stomach. I hope you find a voice of praise which rivals even that of David because I believe we will find strength, trust, confidence and might in those praises. Lift your eyes, lift your voices and be strengthened in the innermost parts of your being.
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