Daily Manna · Day 349 · December 15
Rock, Salvation, Defence
“He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.”
Watch what your hand reaches for in the week the money runs short, or the week the test results are due. That shows what you are really standing on, whatever you might say about it in church.
David is honest in this psalm in a way that is easy to miss. Notice exactly what he claims: "I shall not be greatly moved." That one extra word, "greatly," is worth more than a bigger promise would be, because it admits that a wobble is coming.
The small word that carries this psalm is "only." It is one Hebrew word, used six times in the psalm, and it can also mean "surely." In the KJV you can find "He only is my rock" twice, and also "They only consult to cast him down" and "My soul, wait thou only upon God." In Hebrew the same little word appears six times, because it also stands behind "Truly" in the first verse and "Surely" in the ninth. David is turning down the arrangement most of us actually live by: God plus our savings, God plus our good name, God plus the person who has always come through. David has one foundation, and everything else in the house is furniture. Later he says what the furniture weighs: "men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity."
Then comes the detail that rewards reading the whole psalm. Four verses after today's verse, David says it again, and the extra word is gone: "he is my defence; I shall not be moved." At the start he would only say he would not be greatly moved, and by verse six he says he will not be moved at all. He talked himself the rest of the way there while he was praying.
So be honest with yourself. Name the three losses that would truly panic you. Then ask what you would still be standing on if one of them happened tonight. You may not be able yet to say what David said in verse six. But the God he stood on is the same God you can stand on, and this psalm shows that trust can grow while you pray.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 349 is The Spirit Is Willing (Matthew 26:41).