Tuesday, August 27, 2024  

---

Today's Scripture
Psalm 125

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time on and forevermore.

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous might not stretch out their hands to do wrong.

Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts.

But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways the Lord will lead away with evildoers. Peace be upon Israel! (NRSV)

---

Reflection

Strength.

Did you see any of the Olympics? Leon Marchand (the French swimmer). USA Women’s Rugby. USA Men’s Gymnastics (especially our 2024 version of Clark Kent/Superman; it’s newly cool to be bespectacled). All paragon athletes — exemplars of strength.

For those of us immersed in leadership, creating our “inner citadel” — an unending quest, conceived by the ancients — becomes a reservoir of strength, security, and the fuel for calm.

And for any of us, a trip west, particularly by air, and strikingly by foot in the Rockies, connotes the immenseness of the mountains and a sense of impenetrability. We become small, childlike. We are awestruck. Our fast mind sees strength.

Yet our more studious slow mind knows each of the foregoing models of strength holds fallibility. The presumed sense of security is false and subject to failure with our naked fears, disappointments, and defeasance fully exposed. It is apparent that we source strength absent the only true reservoir there is. Our trust is ill-placed.

The psalmist refers to the hill in Jerusalem, “Mount Zion,” (at 2500 ft elevation, just barely a mountain), not to represent it as a fortress — it is not — but to relate the eminence of God’s protection for God’s people — those who are good, righteous, and upright in their hearts. I repeat, “upright in their hearts” (definition of those who know God, Psalm 36:10).

We are offered peace; we can exhort, “I’m safe.” But God’s citadel, the Lord’s Mount Zion, our spiritual fortress, is not intended to protect our physical being or our home, health, or even our families. It is intended to give our souls divine, unceasing strength. The strength to suffer, to cry, to love, to persevere, and to navigate this journey called life.

We hold faith to take that immaculate journey into God’s fuller presence. Is that not scary? It is OK to be frightened; we are wont to tremble in the presence of God.

Isaiah 40:31 — “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”

Psalm 121:1–3 — “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.”

Let us harvest true strength from the only unwavering and invincible source there is — God’s love.

---

Prayer
Finally, let us know calm when we tremble; seek to be upright in our hearts; and be strengthened by the Lord.* Amen.

(*from Ephesians 6:10, KJV)

---

Reflection written by Clyde Yancy, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection © Fourth Presbyterian Church

Devotion index by date | I’d like to receive daily devotions by email