Current news makes this verse poignant. Some of you reading this have seen the torrents of raging waters up close and personal. “If the Lord had not been on our side.” Was he? Is he? Most of us have smelled the breath of someone’s anger about to swallow us whole. A flood of anger is never comfortable. And it also can traumatize.
Interesting to me that David would pen these lyrics. He smacked the lion and the bear and dropped a giant in his tracks, yet here he is singing of his dependency. In spite of his episodes of bravado in battle and taking matters (like a mighty man’s wife) into his own hands, he had a keen sense that his security came from “the Maker of heaven and earth.” Even when he walked through the valley of the shadow of death.
Maybe you have walked through that valley. I have. Was the Lord on my side? I know now that he was, but I’m not in the valley now. Then? It was hard to tell at the time.
There’s our challenge. Can we trust God is with us down in the shadow of despair and evil? Will I choose to trust him there? I want to learn to do that better. He is always worthy of my trust and gratitude, regardless of where I am swept by the raging that surrounds me.