God’s Names – Mighty Rock

I love the picture YouTube chose for this video. It summarizes my character pretty well.

Psalm 62:7
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

We are going to do a little Devotional Series on the Names of God. Not the more “formal” names we might think of, but the personal character-names the Psalmists give God…like Shepherd, Portion, Help, Salvation, Rescue, Fortress, Shield….etc. There are so many great ones.

To start I want to talk about God our “Mighty Rock.”

One of my college summer jobs was being a beach lifeguard at Port Aransas, Texas for a really cool camp. We would position two guards on the beach about 50 years apart and 2 guard in the water at the 2nd sandbar (maybe 50 yards out, about 4 feet deep), making a big square that the kids had to stay in. Several times while being out in the water we’d have a teenager that was getting overwhelmed with the water, current, waves or exhaustion and begin to panic, frantically dog-paddling and feeling like they are going to drown. We’d go over to the kid, speak calmly to them, telling them that all they have to do is stop flailing about and…simply stand up. It looked like the water was deep and the future dim, but in fact there was solid ground available, if they would just stop, and stand.

This is my daily life. It happens in the little things and the big things. Like Peter in Matthew 14 the “wind and the waves” eclipse Jesus and I can’t see how or feel solid ground. And Jesus reaches down, time and time again, to lift me back up and “set my feet on a rock.”

In real life my feet search for solid ground…acceptance by other, financial security, physical health, relationship healing…so many things that I desperately want in order to feel secure. But EVERYTHING in this world is shifting sand. Things change, people fail (especially me), stuff falls apart, injustice continues, pain is chronic. But not so with Jesus. As Peter himself wrote, quoting Isaiah 28

1 Peter 2:6
For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

  • When my financial sand moves, Jesus provides.
  • When my relationships shake, Jesus loves.
  • When I feel all alone, Jesus is the Immanuel.
  • When I am rejected, Jesus was rejected so that my Father will never reject me.
  • When I feel unable, Jesus gave me the Spirit to empower and gift me.
  • When family is difficult, Jesus has made me a co-heir of the Father.
  • When death looms, Jesus died so that it no longer has power.
  • When my body deteriorates, Jesus’ resurrection promises me a new body.


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