Lessons for Victory
Psalm 60:1–12
With God we will gain the victory. Psalm 60:12 (NIV)
What lessons is David learning as he reflects, first on his people’s defeat by Edom and second on the promises of God to give an eventual victory? It seems to me that there are two of them.
1. Only God can give victory. There were a number of well-fortified cities in Edom, the source of the country’s strength and great pride. But when David speaks of “the fortified city” (v. 9), he can only mean Petra, the most inaccessible and apparently impregnable mountain stronghold of Edom. Only God could give victory over a fortress like that, and David knew it. So he cries to God, acknowledging that “vain is the salvation of man” (v. 11).
2. We must ask for it. David was also learning that, although only God can give victory, we must nevertheless ask for it. And so he did, anticipating God’s positive answer.
These lessons are applicable to us in terms of the spiritual battles we are called to fight. We are members of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our task is to advance his kingdom in this spiritually hostile world. The apostle Paul said, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). How can we gain this victory? Not by ourselves, or even with the help of other Christians. In this battle “the help of man is [truly] worthless” (Ps. 60:11 NIV). We need God to fight with us and on our behalf.
The second lesson applies to us too: we must ask for God’s help. The book of James says, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). Jesus expressed the other side of James’s words when he said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). We can ask for many things wrongly and so fail to receive them. But the one thing we can be sure of receiving is victory on behalf of the gospel. Do you remember Nebuchadnezzar’s vision that troubled him so much? It was a vision of a great statue representing in sequence all the many great kingdoms of this world. At the end of the vision a rock not cut by human hands struck the statue and destroyed it, and then grew up to become “a great mountain” that “filled the whole earth” (see Dan. 2:34–35). That rock is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that mountain is his kingdom, which is destined to triumph.
If you believe that, then this is the banner around which you must rally and on behalf of which you can confidently fight.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.