Day 25

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them? Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand - and when I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:17-18

We imagine David communing with God into the quiet dark hours of night until sleep overcomes him. When he awakes in the morning, he tells us, his soul is still connected with God. Perhaps, "when I awake" is looking beyond this life, though I doubt that. Either way, David writes of continual living in the presence of God.

David loved, trusted, and obeyed God, stepping out on limbs with Him again and again. It was there he experienced that things God had said to him were true. He learned it first as a young man. One day he took food to his older brothers fighting in a battle with the Philistines. Too young to fight himself, he quickly learned the whole Israelite army had been held to ransom by one strong Philistine: Goliath. David reasoned this was not a battle between men only, but a battle with God. Because neither King Saul nor any of his men would dare fight Goliath, David said he would, not on the grounds of superior skill, but on his trust in God. He shouted to Goliath: "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands." (1 Samuel 17:45-47). In other words, 'This is not about my skill with a sling and stones, nor yours with a spear and javelin. It is the Lord's battle, and it will be His victory to the one who obeys him and trusts Him.

Many of us have 'Goliaths' threatening us with defeat. Stepping out in obedience, with sheer trust in God is part of finding victory over our enemies. David was practical too of course, he collected five smooth stones as ammunition and brought years of practiced precision with a sling, but it was his dependence on God that gave him reason to step out boldly and experience victory.