Our Strength and Song

“The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.” —Psalm 118:14; Exodus 15:2; Isaiah 12:2

THE ABOVE SCRIPTURE speaks of two of the outstanding privileges and blessings of the consecrated children of God; namely, that God is our strength in all our experiences in the narrow way; and our song; the chief subject of our thoughts and conversation. Our text shows that this is to be followed by his becoming our salvation, or our deliver-er into the heavenly kingdom. This is the salvation to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Let us acknowledge that God is our strength, sustainer and upholder in every experience which comes to us; our source of grace to help in every time of need. If we are fully consecrated, the Lord unites himself with us in all we do. As Abigail said to David, “The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God.” (I Sam. 25: 29) With such experience, we may in all humility speak of ourselves as “strong in the Lord.”—Eph. 6:10

Strange as it may seem, to be strong in the Lord means to feel very weak in ourselves. Indeed, a realization of our own weaknesses, as well as a knowledge of the dangers and difficulties of life and the ominous forces of evil around us, is what causes many to turn to the Lord. However, whatever motives may have first prompted us to leave the world and go to the Lord, we know that in every experience he is our strength and helper; without him we can do nothing toward walking in the narrow way successfully.

We can, therefore, with the psalmist, continually pray, “Give thy strength unto thy servant” (Ps. 86:16); and with the assurance of our prayer being answered, we may say, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” (Ps. 71:16) “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps. 27:1) “God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”—Ps. 73:26

THE LORD IS MY SONG

What may be called a life-theme or song, may be our calling or an interest which occupies most of our waking hours. With some, it may be their home or family; with others, their business, or possibly a calling in fields of art or science which occupies most of their thoughts and conversation. But to those blessed with the light of present truth, their ‘song’ is the Lord, and the great plan of salvation he has provided, very appropriately called by the Revelator, “a new song.”—Rev. 14:3

Those who are victorious over the beast and his image, sing the same new song, but in Revelation 15:3 it is described as “the song of Moses … and the song of the Lamb.” The truth concerning the Divine plan is, indeed, our song, the theme of our thoughts, the subject of our conversation.

The psalmist, however, voices our sentiments, saying, “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.” (Ps. 71:8) Thus the Spirit of the Lord constrains us to give a witness concerning the truth on every possible occasion; and today, this united testimony of the Lord’s people brings about the fulfillment of the Master’s prophetic utterance: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”—Matt. 24:14

MY SALVATION

The Lord God is already our salvation by faith, in that he has provided his only begotten Son as our ransom sacrifice. (I Tim. 2:6) He has called us to himself, justified and begotten us to a living hope. (I Pet. 1:3) Hence we may understand this to mean that after the Lord has been our strength and song throughout our earthly pilgrimage, he will be our salvation at the end of the way—salvation to that wonderful inheritance to which he has called us. In order to give us the strongest possible confidence in his promise, the psalmist speaks of this salvation as though it had already come to pass and were now in our possession—he ‘is become my salvation’.

What comfort and inspiration have such assurances been to weary pilgrims as they have contemplated the bright and eternal home toward which they journey! “I go to prepare a place for you,” and “will come again, and receive you unto myself.”—John 14:2,3

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