February 12 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

2 Samuel 22:1-20:

¹And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:
²And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
³The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.
⁴I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
⁵When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;
⁶The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;
⁷In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.
⁸Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.
⁹There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
¹⁰He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
¹¹And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
¹²And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
¹³Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.
¹⁴The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.
¹⁵And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.
¹⁶And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
¹⁷He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters;
¹⁸He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.
¹⁹They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.
²⁰He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Devotional

We often read of a rock in the Bible. When we think of a rock, there are three thoughts that immediately suggest themselves.

First, the rock as a foundation or cornerstone. Only the house that is built upon the rock can withstand the floods and the storm. "The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock." This rock is none other than Jesus Christ, rejected indeed of the builders, but become the head of the corner.

Second, the rock as a refuge. "A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land." Thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm.

Jesus is a rock in a weary land.
A shelter in the time of storm.

Rock of ages cleft for me.
Let me hide myself in thee.

The third thought is that water flows from the rock to refresh the weary pilgrim. The children of Israel in the wilderness drank water out of the rock. Paul tells us, "They drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Christ."

In Christ all our needs are supplied.

Prayer

O Lord, our God, when the storms of life overtake us, and the deep waters come upon us, may we be founded upon the Rock that can never be moved. May Jesus, the Rock of Ages, be our refuge from the stormy blast, a hiding place from the wind, and shade from the heat. In the wilderness of life through which we must pass may refreshing streams of living waters flow from the spiritual Rock, even Christ, to quench our thirst. May all our needs be supplied in and through him, until we reach the heavenly Canaan. In his Name we pray. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Matt. 7:25; Ps. 118:22; Isa. 32:2; 25:4; 1 Cor. 10:4.

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