It’s just a quaint Sentence embedded in Psalm 54, but it sure claimed my attention this morning!
“The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.” That’s what David said, apparently when he was in some kind of trouble (not unusual for that dear Psalmist, King.) Actually the whole Psalm is set in a context of danger, hostility!
Note verse 3 of this short Chapter … “Strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul.”
1 Samuel 23 supplies the historical account of the Ziphites (in this Psalm called the Ziphims) betraying David to wicked King Saul.
“The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.”
It seems again and again someone (occasionally named but just as often unnamed) helps David and his men!
One could as easily say the LORD delivered the King to be … repeatedly! But our Verse this morning implies that God most often used human instrumentality in the process.
“The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.”
Wow!
Now, I want to take that short “Line of Thanksgiving” and apply it to life today in the so-called modern world. (Which is rapidly digressing back into the “dark ages.”)
Is anyone presently “upholding” my soul?
Your soul?
The verb “uphold” here is spelled “samak” in Hebrew. It means “to support, to sustain, to establish.” The proper word pictures is that of someone “leaning hard against me to keep me from falling!”
Wow!
My thought … THANK THE LORD FOR EVERY PREACHER, BIBLE TEACHER, EVANGELIST, MISSIONARY (ETC.) WHO HAS CARED FOR MY SOUL THROUGH THESE YEARS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE!
Undoubtedly I too can say … “The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.”
So surely, I must thank God for those individuals.
Pray from them as well.
And should I hear of a need he faces, help meet that “lack” in his situation.
And (as our verse today does so forcefully) … acknowledge their presence in our Christian lives, the effectiveness of their ministries on our behalf!
Just a thought this Thursday Morning in early September.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Turn this Verse into a prayer, too …
“Lord, please be with those who have upheld my soul. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!”
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