The Lord is my rock(Jehovah Sali) and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
31 For who is God, except the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?
And who is a rock, except our God?
46 The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
Let the God of my salvation be exalted. Psalm 18:2,31,46
God is referred to as a rock approximately 50 times throughout the Bible. The characteristics of a rock are solid, heavy, permanent, immovable and these qualities are demonstrated in these 50 verses. As I looked at these verses I divided them into 4 categories - they all seemed to fit in one of these
1. Refuge/fortress/stronghold
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Ps. 18:2, 2 Sam 22:2,3
But the Lord has been my defense,
And my God the rock of my refuge. Ps. 94:22
Throughout the Bible we see people hiding in rocks or caves from their enemies - David as he hid from Saul, the 5 kings hiding from Joshua, The Israelites hiding from the Midianites, and in the end times as those in the tribulation hid from the wrath of God. Some views of end times prophecy see the Jews in the last 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation running to Petra where they will be supernaturally protected from the AntiChrist.
How is this pertinent to us? Ps.32:7 says God is our hiding place. When the cares of this world get too much for us, we can retreat into His arms and know that we are safe. Nothing can harm us there. We get reenergized, encouraged, and ready to go out and face the World. Unfortunately a lot of people in the midst of attack run away from the church, the fellowship of believers, and the Lord. Bad move!
2. "Chips off the block"
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have forgotten the God who fathered you. Deut 32:17,18
Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
You who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn Isa 51:1
Therefore I have set My face like a flint Isa. 50:7
Ezek. 3:8,9 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9 Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
Rock is used to refer to us; if God is the big Rock we, like Peter are little rocks made to resemble God. Believers were first called Christians in Acts which may have been a mocking, yet complimentary term, which meant "little Christs". 1 Cor. 15:58 illustrates why we would be called stones.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
3. Rock of our salvation and redemption
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer Ps. 19:14
They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer. Ps. 78:35
He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock my Savior Ps. 89:26
“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! 2Sam. 22:47
So why would He be called the Rock of our salvation? Because with God our salvation is permanent, secure, immovable, fixed, certain. No one can pluck us out of God's hand.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
You can see from the Psalms passage, there are 2 foundations to build your life on - the Rock (Bible) or sand (the miry clay-shifting foundation of the world) or as Psalms says - idols. Kyle Idelman and Tim Keller talk about these idols and you can categorize them in 4 ways
A. Idols of pleasure - food, sex, entertainment
B. Idols of power - success, money, achievement
C. Idols of love - romance, family
D. Idols of me - safety, peer approval, body, health, fitness, beauty
When you build your life on these idols they will eventually collapse or implode. If you think of how an atomic bomb works, an external explosion causes the atomic material to collapse or implode causing a tremendous counter release of energy. In the same way, when our foundation collapses, we have an explosion of anxiety, anger, worry, despair, etc. As a side note, you can use these explosions in your life to analyze your idols that you are trusting in.
When you build your life on the Rock, your foundation won't collapse or even wobble because God's word never changes. It is a firm foundation. Is that an archaic thought? Contemporary culture would think so judging by a recent song by Macklemore - Same Love
For those that liked the same sex
Had the characteristics
The right wing conservatives think it's a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don't know
And "God loves all his children" is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
Why do we feel that it still can be trusted?
1. Jesus trusted it John 17:17, Matt. 5:17-19
2. God is outside of time - It stands to reason He would write a timeless book
3. The inexplicable changed lives it causes
4. The fulfilled prophecy
5. The number of manuscripts we have even dating back to 100AD
6. The external evidence from historians both Christian and secular
7. Archaeologic findings
Psalm 119:128 says
128 and because I consider all your precepts right,
I hate every wrong path.
The root of precepts is the word from which we get prescription. God's word is our prescription. Prescriptions work because they are true remedies. They work whether you believe they will or not. Placebos are pills that aren't true but sometimes if you believe they will work, they do. Contemporary culture, which doesn't believe in absolute truth (they do, they just think they don't) treats religion as a placebo - if it works for you - great. This belief of no absolute truth causes great problems. The best treatment of this that I have ever seen is done by Frank Peretti - The Chair. If you have time watch it at this link. http://thoughtsfromtherightbrain.blogspot.com/2012/02/christian-world-view-peretti-video.html I Washington we have The Bureau of Standards where we have THE INCH and THE POUND and THE GRAM, etc. These are standards we need because everyone can't have their own unique yard stick or scales - that would cause chaos.
Like all the other names, in conclusion. The Rock is fulfilled in Christ.
" and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ"
Christ was that rock that was struck and out flowed the living water of salvation. That is a major reason why Moses striking the rock a second time was a major offence
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Heb. 6:4-6
What must our response be? The cornerstone, Christ (the most precious rock on which the building rests and it's precise lines determines the shape of the building) stands in our path and we must make a choice. Either we must fall on it humbling ourselves and pride and be broken before Him, or wait till the final judgment day and have Him crush us.
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
Blessed be my Rock!
Let the God of my salvation be exalted. Psalm 18:2,31,46
God is referred to as a rock approximately 50 times throughout the Bible. The characteristics of a rock are solid, heavy, permanent, immovable and these qualities are demonstrated in these 50 verses. As I looked at these verses I divided them into 4 categories - they all seemed to fit in one of these
1. Refuge/fortress/stronghold
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Ps. 18:2, 2 Sam 22:2,3
But the Lord has been my defense,
And my God the rock of my refuge. Ps. 94:22
Throughout the Bible we see people hiding in rocks or caves from their enemies - David as he hid from Saul, the 5 kings hiding from Joshua, The Israelites hiding from the Midianites, and in the end times as those in the tribulation hid from the wrath of God. Some views of end times prophecy see the Jews in the last 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation running to Petra where they will be supernaturally protected from the AntiChrist.
How is this pertinent to us? Ps.32:7 says God is our hiding place. When the cares of this world get too much for us, we can retreat into His arms and know that we are safe. Nothing can harm us there. We get reenergized, encouraged, and ready to go out and face the World. Unfortunately a lot of people in the midst of attack run away from the church, the fellowship of believers, and the Lord. Bad move!
2. "Chips off the block"
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have forgotten the God who fathered you. Deut 32:17,18
Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
You who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn Isa 51:1
Therefore I have set My face like a flint Isa. 50:7
Ezek. 3:8,9 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9 Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
Rock is used to refer to us; if God is the big Rock we, like Peter are little rocks made to resemble God. Believers were first called Christians in Acts which may have been a mocking, yet complimentary term, which meant "little Christs". 1 Cor. 15:58 illustrates why we would be called stones.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
3. Rock of our salvation and redemption
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer Ps. 19:14
They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer. Ps. 78:35
He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock my Savior Ps. 89:26
“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! 2Sam. 22:47
So why would He be called the Rock of our salvation? Because with God our salvation is permanent, secure, immovable, fixed, certain. No one can pluck us out of God's hand.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8:31-39
4. Our firm foundation
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.
4 Blessed is the one
who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods Ps. 40:2-4
who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods Ps. 40:2-4
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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. Matt. 7:24-29
A. Idols of pleasure - food, sex, entertainment
B. Idols of power - success, money, achievement
C. Idols of love - romance, family
D. Idols of me - safety, peer approval, body, health, fitness, beauty
When you build your life on these idols they will eventually collapse or implode. If you think of how an atomic bomb works, an external explosion causes the atomic material to collapse or implode causing a tremendous counter release of energy. In the same way, when our foundation collapses, we have an explosion of anxiety, anger, worry, despair, etc. As a side note, you can use these explosions in your life to analyze your idols that you are trusting in.
When you build your life on the Rock, your foundation won't collapse or even wobble because God's word never changes. It is a firm foundation. Is that an archaic thought? Contemporary culture would think so judging by a recent song by Macklemore - Same Love
For those that liked the same sex
Had the characteristics
The right wing conservatives think it's a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don't know
And "God loves all his children" is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
Why do we feel that it still can be trusted?
1. Jesus trusted it John 17:17, Matt. 5:17-19
2. God is outside of time - It stands to reason He would write a timeless book
3. The inexplicable changed lives it causes
4. The fulfilled prophecy
5. The number of manuscripts we have even dating back to 100AD
6. The external evidence from historians both Christian and secular
7. Archaeologic findings
Psalm 119:128 says
128 and because I consider all your precepts right,
I hate every wrong path.
The root of precepts is the word from which we get prescription. God's word is our prescription. Prescriptions work because they are true remedies. They work whether you believe they will or not. Placebos are pills that aren't true but sometimes if you believe they will work, they do. Contemporary culture, which doesn't believe in absolute truth (they do, they just think they don't) treats religion as a placebo - if it works for you - great. This belief of no absolute truth causes great problems. The best treatment of this that I have ever seen is done by Frank Peretti - The Chair. If you have time watch it at this link. http://thoughtsfromtherightbrain.blogspot.com/2012/02/christian-world-view-peretti-video.html I Washington we have The Bureau of Standards where we have THE INCH and THE POUND and THE GRAM, etc. These are standards we need because everyone can't have their own unique yard stick or scales - that would cause chaos.
Like all the other names, in conclusion. The Rock is fulfilled in Christ.
" and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ"
Christ was that rock that was struck and out flowed the living water of salvation. That is a major reason why Moses striking the rock a second time was a major offence
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Heb. 6:4-6
What must our response be? The cornerstone, Christ (the most precious rock on which the building rests and it's precise lines determines the shape of the building) stands in our path and we must make a choice. Either we must fall on it humbling ourselves and pride and be broken before Him, or wait till the final judgment day and have Him crush us.
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’
44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Some songs that go along with this are
