Week Thirty-Three - God Is For Me

Psalm 56 is precious. Written when David fled to Gath to escape Saul, the psalm is full of phrases revealing David's precarious situation and solid expectation in God. Before discussing the phrase God is for me, let's read a few of these little verses.

You might already know verse 3, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." I taught that one to my children when they struggled to sleep, afraid of the dark. It is a verse we all need to memorize because fear comes too easily.

Verse 8 is comforting as well. "Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?" God is so attentive, even to our tears. Nothing escapes His attention.

One more verse, verse 13: "For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?" Our souls have been delivered from death by salvation and are protected by His Spirit as we walk in sanctification upon this earth. God watches and guides our every step.

Verse 9 is our focus for today. It reads, "When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me."

Spurgeon took the "for me" phrase and ran with it, saying, "He was for me before the worlds were made; He was for me, or He would not have given His well-beloved Son; He was for me when He struck the Only-begotten, and laid the full weight of His wrath upon Him. He was for me, though He was against Him; He was for me, when we were ruined in the fall. He loved me notwithstanding all; He was for me, when I was a rebel against Him, and with a high hand was bidding Him defiance. He was for me, or He wouldn't have brought me humbly to seek His face. He has been for me in many struggles; I have been summoned to encounter hosts of dangers; I have been assailed by temptations from without and within; how could I have remained unharmed to this hour if He had not been for me?

He is for me with all the infinity of His being; with all the omnipotence of His love; with all the infallibility of His wisdom; arrayed in all His divine attributes. He is for me - eternally and immutable for me; for me when those blue skies in the distance shall be rolled up like a worn out vesture; for me throughout eternity. And because He is for me, the voice of prayer will always ensure His help. This is no uncertain hope, but a well-grounded assurance - this I know!"

Oh, friend, do you have this assurance? God is for you in more ways than you can imagine. If you can grasp this truth, you can agree with David and Paul when he writes in Romans 8:31, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"