Psalm 63:6-8 (ESV) 6 when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
As a child of divorced parents, I would go every other weekend to my father’s home. We would go to the local comic book store, play some video games, go on walks, grill outside and play football or basketball...all your typical stuff for a preteen boy with his step brother.
One weekend however we were taken on a bit of an adventure! We had been camping so many times before, yet there was one time that really still to this day has been embedded in my memory. We went for a weekend camping trip to The Garden of the gods in Southern Illinois!Now this place was an absolute TRIP! You of course had your typical, moderately wooded camping zones. However, the really big attraction was the rock climbing and cliff hiking! You wouldn’t think that Southern Illinois, home to some of the flattest topography on the planet would have a park in it with giant rock cliffs, winding trails crossing spring fed streams, and tall pillars reaching up over 100 feet in the sky! Yet there it was!
We were all so excited! We had never been here before so it was a new experience. We had all these romantic thoughts of climbing up the tallest and gnarliest cliffs! We actually did climb up the “lesser smokestack” near the summit, but our daydreaming was far more adventurous than what we actually accomplished.
The day came when we got there, we set up our camp, and we hiked off into the cliffs! Man let me tell you some of the views were AMAZING! Shawnee National Forest is truly a spectacle of God’s creation! All was going great until we reached a cliff crossing. The trail got more narrow by the yard until it was no more than 3 feet wide. To make it even more tenuous, there was a cliff that was above our head that shot out over the trail we were on. It got to where you had to crawl on all fours to cross from one point to the next!
Each and every one of us went one at a time crossing the gap on their hands and knees. Then it came my turn. It was certainly a bit terrifying to look down and see a 40 foot drop. But I went on anyway! I was crossing just fine until my foot slipped for the final push to scoot across the gap. I remember a massive and sudden panic as I dug my finger nails into the sandstone and literally clung for dear life! One leg dangling off the edge and the other slipping fast. Then my father, channeling the strength of Arnold with the reaction time of a cat, grabbed me by the strap of my backpack and caught me.
The relief and joy I had when he helped me scramble up to the other side was immeasurable. I would have certainly fallen to my death had he not caught me.This memory from my childhood truly makes me savor this scripture in Psalms. We too are to cling to God as though for our very life! He is, after all, the source of it! We must use all of our earthly strength to take hold to Him as our firm foundation, knowing full well that although we may slip and fall, He will NEVER allow us to fully descend to our end. His hand will ALWAYS catch us, hold us, and lift us.
This is the very nature of our relationship with God. We so fully rely upon Him! The more we cling to Him for refuge, the more it will be evident that He is the refuge we seek and our hope is not in vain. The very creator of the universe is with you my friend. There is no situation too dire nor hopeless that will not ever be out of His reach. There is no weight to great that He cannot uphold.
There is no depth you can fall, that He cannot take hold of you and pull you back up by your backpack strap. Most important to all of this, is that there is no greater comfort than putting your faith in that.
SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!
