David’s Rock
3 How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? 4 They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. (Ps. 62:3-4 ESV)
These words were written by a man named David. It was a hard time in David’s life. There were some nasty people in his life at this time. And to describe how they made him feel, David uses the image of an army with a battering ram. That’s how nasty these people were. Can you see them? They are shouting. They have their hands raised. They have this battering ram.
And then there’s David. David describes himself as a “leaning wall, a tottering fence.” He’s like a house or a castle. And these nasty people have been attacking him; so hard and so effectively that David’s walls are leaning in. These people have been beating against those walls. Again and again. And now, they are just about to topple over. Can you see them? These nasty people just need one more good run at David and the walls of his life are going to fall all the way in. And it’s going to bring the whole house, the whole castle, David’s whole life, down with a great fall.
Phew! That sounds like a tough season in life, doesn’t it? I wonder if you can relate.
Have you ever had nasty people like that in your life? People whose words, or whose actions, or whose lack of words, or whose lack of actions were like a battering ram beating against you. And you were like a house. And the walls of your house took those blows. Over and over. Until they started leaning and tottering. And it’s like they were just one blow from falling all the way in.
Or maybe it wasn’t people. Maybe it was an illness. Yours. Or someone you loved. Cancer. Dementia. And as it took hold of you or the person you loved, it was like a battering ram. And it just beat against the walls of your house. Again and again. Until those walls starting to lean. To totter. And they were just one blow away from falling all the way in.
Or maybe it was just circumstances. Not being able to find a job. Having to deal with a disability. Struggling with depression or addiction. Losing a loved one. And those circumstances beat against the walls of your life, until those walls were just leaning, just tottering and in danger of falling all the way over.
1 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation…5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. (Ps. 62:1, 5 ESV)
Yet look at how David experiences this storm, this battering. Even though the walls of his house are in danger of caving in, even know they are being beaten against, what’s David doing?
He waiting in silence. The phrase means to be still. It can mean to rest. To lie down. David’s not screaming out loud or running around in a panic. He’s quiet. He’s still. He’s at rest. All around him the walls are being beaten against. The walls are in danger of falling down. But David? He’s still. He’s at rest. Perhaps he’s even lying down.
It reminds me of that story in the Gospels when there’s a big storm and Jesus and his crew are in this boat and everyone in the boat is in this state of panic. But Jesus? He’s asleep. He’s still. He’s at rest. He’s waiting in silence.
That’s David. How can David do that? How is it possible to find such peace in the midst of such a storm?
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken….6 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. 7 On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. (Ps. 62:2-7 ESV)
Three times David says it: God is my rock. God is my rock. God is my rock. It doesn’t matter how hard the walls of my house are being battered. I’ve found a rock that stands firm no matter the storm. God is that rock. He is my rock. He is my rock. He is my rock.
And when I’m on that rock, David says, I shall not be greatly shaken. The first time he says it, he seems to leave some wiggle room. By saying “I shall not be greatly shaken” he seems to suggest “I may be a little shaken, but not greatly shaken.” But then, after thinking some more, he closes that loophole. He finally says, “I shall not be shaken.” Period.
David has found a way of being with God that makes it possible to be in the worst of situations, situations where it feels like every wall is caving in, yet where you have such solid footing you can rest, be still, be at peace.
Wouldn’t you like to have that solid footing?
Jesus’ Rock
This is the very image Jesus closes his Sermon on the Mount with:
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matt. 7:24-27 ESV)
Jesus, the Son of David, uses imagery very similar to that used by David. I will draw out for things for our consideration from Jesus’ words here.
First, tough times come even to devout disciples.
Jesus paints a picture of the fiercest of storms. And notice that even the most devout follower of his is a victim of the storm. Jesus is no believer in the health and wealth Gospel. Following Jesus even in the most devout way is no guarantee that you will be healthy and wealthy. Instead even those who sincerely hear and do everything Jesus has preached still become a victim of fierce storms just as David became a victim of the storm.
And the storm Jesus describes hitting the wise and the foolish is even worse than the one that hit David. Notice how comprehensive the storm Jesus describes is:
- ? The rain beats the roof.
- ? The winds batter the walls.
- ? The floods batter the foundation.
Every part of the house is beaten by the storm Jesus describes.
Some scholars, based on passages in the Old Testament and passages like 1 Cor. 3 suggest that Jesus has in mind the storm of God’s final judgment. Jesus may be including this in his image. But based on Psalms like the one we just read, Jesus almost certainly also has in mind the many storms that hit us during life.
And Jesus is saying that no one is immune from them. Not even the most devout disciple.
Our own family here at Highland exemplifies this. Just walk through the prayer list. Devoted disciple after devoted disciple, wise person after wise person is facing storms. Tough time times come to even the most devout disciples.
Second, there is no external difference between those who succumb to hardship and those who stand in hardship. If we were to stand on the outside of the two houses in Jesus’ story, these two lives, we would not notice any external difference between them. They would look the same to us. These two houses, these two people, they would have the same walls. The same roof. There would be nothing distinctive to set one apart from the other.
What makes the difference between the two is something much deeper, something in the interior, something hidden to the eye.
But we live in a culture that prizes the exterior. We live in a culture that says the best life, the most stable life, the most happy life comes from having the best exterior life. We live in a culture which says it doesn’t matter that much what is happening on the inside of a person or an organization or even a church. What matters is what it looks like or what he looks like or what she looks like. What matters is what profits the company can produce or how big that church can get. We are obsessed with the exterior.
And this is why even in our churches, we still have Christians and guests who make their way in and feel like they don’t belong because they don’t look the part. Even in our Christian circles what matters too often is the exterior. Going to the right school. Having the right job. Wearing the right fashion.
Here is a letter that illustrates this focus on the external:
Dear Fear-Of-What-Others-Think:
I am sick of you, and it’s time we broke up. I know we’ve broken up and gotten back together many times, but seriously, Fear-Of-What-Others-Think, this is it. We’re breaking up.
I’m tired of overthinking my status updates on Facebook, trying to sound more clever, funny, and important. I’m sick of feeling anxious about what I say or do in public, especially around people I don’t know that well, all in the hope that they’ll like me, accept me, praise me. I run around all day feeling like a Golden Retriever with a full bladder: Like me! Like me! Like me!
Because of you, I go through my day with a cloud of shame hanging over my head, and I never stop acting. The spotlight’s always on, and I’m center stage, and I’d better keep dancing, posturing, mugging, or else the spotlight will move, and I’ll dissolve into a little, meaningless puddle on the ground, just like that witch in The Wizard of Oz. I can never live up to the expectations of my imaginary audience, the one that lives only in my head but whose collective voice is louder than any other voice in the universe….
And yet according to Jesus when it comes to those moments in life that really matter, when the rain is falling and the wind is blowing and the floods are rising, none of that external stuff is going to matter. What is going to matter is something on the interior.
Third, the ability to stand comes by digging deep before the storm. I used to think that in this story Jesus was describing two houses built in two different locations. One house was built on sand, like on the beach. The other house was built on the rock in another location, like in the mountains. But when you read Luke’s telling of the story you realize that Jesus is not talking about two houses on two different locations. Instead Jesus is describing two houses built in approximately the same location, close to one another.
One house is built on soil that is fine and sandy. One house-builder is eager to get the house up. He is busy. He has a very full life. He has a lot of important things to do.
The other homeowner however is just as busy and has just as full a life. But he also wants a house that is going to withstand the storm. So he takes the time to dig down beneath the same sandy soil and to lay a foundation on the bedrock below. It is hard work. It is slow work. The other house builder has his house up long before this house builder does. But in the words of Jesus in Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount this house builder “digs deep.”
And it is only that hard and slow and hidden work of digging deep long before any storm hits that allows his house to stand when the storm arrives. If you wait for the storm to hit in life and then begin trying to shore things up so that you have resources to make it through the storm, it is too late. Generally speaking, you can’t wait for the cancer to hit, or the job loss, or the depression to start digging deep. The time to start digging deep is long before any storm hits so that when the storm arrives you have a deep foundation already set.
I once heard Dallas Willard at a California congregation. He said this: “Experiencing the presence of God in one’s life is something you’ve got to have before you need it, like water before a fire.” If you wait for a fire to spark before you secure water, you’re too late. If you wait for a storm to hit before you dig deep, you’re too late.
Fourth, digging deep comes through the ongoing discipline of listening to the words of Jesus and living the way of Jesus.
In Matthew’s version Jesus defines digging deep as the one who hears and does his words. The verbs Jesus uses indicate on-going action. Jesus is referring to someone who in an ongoing basis hears and does Jesus’ words.
Specifically Jesus is referring to the words he has just finished preaching in his Sermon on the Mount. These specific words, when listened to on a repeated basis and when put into practice on a repeated basis, carry the surprising power to help us root deeply into the heart of God so that we stand even in the hardest of storms.
More generally Jesus could be referring to any of his words and all of the Gospels. As we listen to all of Jesus’ words and as we put all those words into practice, as we engage in living the way Jesus lived, it’s like digging deeply into bedrock. And so digging deep then becomes an ongoing commitment to listening to the words of Jesus and living the way of Jesus. Jesus’ words and Jesus’ way provide a stability that remains even in the worst of storms.
The Shanghai Tower is the tallest skyscraper in China and the second tallest in the world. Before its massive height could be built, however, a deep foundation had to be set. Before lifting a single steel beam, engineers drove 980 foundation piles into the ground as deep as 282 feet. Then they poured 2.15 million cubic feet of reinforced concrete to create an 20-foot-thick foundation mat. This deep foundation allows this tall building to exist and to withstand strong winds and storms.
The same is true for our lives. When we dig deeply into God, as David discovered, as Jesus teaches in his Sermon, we are able to be in the midst of the worst gales, and rest, sit still, be calm, until the storm passes.
In an article in The New York Times Magazine, Dana Tierney described how both she and her husband John had rejected their childhood faith. They had their son Luke baptized to placate their families, but that was it. When Dana’s husband went to Iraq as an embedded reporter, she was fearful. But she was surprised at how calm four-year-old Luke was. She assumed he just didn’t really understand. Then one day when they were watching a TV interview with a U.S. soldier who was sharing his fears about returning to Iraq. Dana saw Luke form his hands to pray. When she asked him about it, Luke confessed that he had been praying.
Dana was stunned, partly by Luke’s faith, and partly by how his faith allowed him to be calm and by how her lack of faith caused her to be fearful.
Throughout the article Dana never patronizes believers. At one point she described how many of her non-religious friends feel freed from religion as if they’ve been liberated. Not Dana. She feels like she is missing out.
When we truly build our lives on the words and the way of Jesus, especially as outlined in his Sermon on the Mount, we find something that no one will want to miss out on. We find the capacity to be calm, to be still, to rest, even in the worst of storms.
