Original: September 18, 2007
McMinnville, OR
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. 8 The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Psalm 28:7-8
You get what you paid for. If you save up, pay cash and buy the best, you only suffer once. There is a reason the cheaper, off brand is less expensive. To risk dollars of clothing but to risk quality at the cost of your life is quite another issuer. In the mountains faulty equipment may cost your life, a few toes or a lot of suffering. The obvious question is, “Can the quality of my fitness level handle it?”
The second is item is similar yet a little more complex, “Will my gear hold up?” One item that I discovered needed an upgrade was as inexpensive bivouac tent I purchased through Cabelas for only $49.99. It boasts of being rain proof and it is light enough at only 3 pounds but it never rained the two times I tested it, and the one time I used it we ran into snow. Thank God I had and emergency tarp!
Needless to say I now own a slightly larger, more expensive, high quality tent.
That old bivouac reminds me of David calling the Lord his “strength and my shield” in Psalm 28:7. He continues to say that his “heart trusts in Him.” This really intrigues me. Essentially, David is saying that the Lord is his strength and his shield because David chose to trust in Him. My old one-man tent will never protect me from the elements if I leave it in the garage. It must be carried into storm country, unpacked, put up, and slept in. Only when I actually trust my life in the tent that it may (or may not) be “my shield” from the elements.
I know a lot of men that never experience God as their strength nor their shield. Some of these men go to church but never leave the comfort of church to test their faith in storm country (Psalm 66:10). Storm country is where the integrity of our faith (tent) is tested. Others reject the Church to build their own shelter outside of the Word of God. But when the elements of life bombard against their human shelters, they topple, and with them fall a man’s strength and will to push on. Man’s strength is taken when those things in which he trusts do not shield him during the storm of life. Jesus warns us against this..
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash" (Matthew 7:24-27).
On the other hand, I constantly see the weakest of men transformed (Psalm 12:1-7) into the epitome of strength because they hid under the shelter of Christ (1Peter 5:6-8) during the most torrential storms of life. It is safe to say that God will only cover a man to the degree that he is willing to trust in Him. The Bible says that “he who trusts in Him will never be disappointed” (1 Peter 2:6-NASB).
Will you take Christ as your shelter into storm country?
