GOD, MY ROCK
- Nanci Stoeffler
- Jan 3
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 4
Wrestling Life’s Questions within the Stability of God
I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?” Psalm 42:9
In this passage, the psalmist is in anguish and questioning God's presence and love for him. But isn’t it interesting, he begins his questioning by referring to God as 'my Rock'. By doing this, he's laying a wise foundation upon which his questions and pain can rest in two important ways.
First, what type of rock is God? Is the psalmist calling God ‘a’ Rock or ‘the’ Rock? No, he refers to God as ‘My Rock’. This indicates the personal, trusting and intimate relationship he has already built with God. This is most likely the reason he still desires to call on God despite his current distressing circumstances.
Second, how does he describe God? God is his 'Rock' which indicates something solid, immovable, impenetrable. This is extraordinary. His questionings about God, directed towards God, actually rests in God as his Rock. It is from this solid foundation, this solid footing that the follower can feel safe to question God; knowing his questions rest on something solid and will indeed be heard and resolved. This also is a way of acknowledging that even his questions are subject to the actual substance of this personal relationship as well as God’s character as Rock.
We also see the psalmist’s faith in the truth about God is not swayed by his circumstances. His feelings of abandonment are not the supreme measuring stick with which he engages with his God. Rather, he allows his circumstances to come under submission to the truth and fact of God as the ultimate authority. By doing this, he does not allow his personal struggles; no matter how real, present, ominous or painful, to dictate or define who he is to himself nor who he is to God nor who God is to himself.
Strength Strewn in Suffering
Along life’s dreary and treacherous terrain,
I’m accompanied by many moments of pain,
Weary and writhing under the strain,
I cry out to my God, who always remains.
My laments are released in a song, a refrain,
While I walk with Him and submit to His reign,
He reveals to me the impermanence of pain,
As I am sheltered and altered by His Eternal Name.
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