Praise the Lord, who is my rock.
He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle.
Psalm 144:1
Before taking me to my first day of first grade, my dad gave me some advice about a kid I was have issues with from the year prior. “If they hit you, you hit them back.” My dad is the one of the most mild-mannered people you will ever meet, so this was crazy advice coming from a guy who had never been in a fight himself. This notion absolutely terrified me because fighting with someone else, physically, didn’t give me the same thrill as it did to the kids I grew up with.
Being told that made me to believe that if I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done, and I would be on my own and lose the fight. Being the oldest, while also growing up in a single parent household, I was fiercely independent. A lot of things I did, I did on my own and wasn’t into asking for help which led me to grow into the mindset that if I wanted something done, it was up to me to figure it out and fix it because no one else would have the time to help me.
But Psalm 144 says a different word. “Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle.” In a physical fight, your hands are probably either balled in a first or rearing back preparing for a blow. But I cannot help but think that in this Psalm that is so beautifully crafted, that it’s actually not about a physical battle, but a spiritual one!
How are hands positioned when it’s time for that kind of war? Are our arms crossed over our chests in anger? Or are our hands down to our sides nervously fiddling and worried about what’s to come? Are the positioned by our face ready at the first sign of unwanted movement? I would like to think that my hands are always positioned palms facing upward either ready to receive or give unto him (we really do love to think highly of ourselves) but in truth, my hands are in the position of defense a vast majority of the time.Body language is key in communication with others and I think that just because we cannot physically see God, that we are under the impression that it doesn’t matter how we come before him in our posture—be it spiritual or physical. But he can see us. Our heart posture and our physical posture as well.
But the reassuring notion about God’s character is that I can come before him in total defense and fear—believing that I’m the only one looking out for me, that in the end, if I want it done, I’ll have to fight it alone, fists balled and all—and he won’t judge me for it. And the more I talk, he’ll slowly uncurl my hands and hold them while I tell him about the thing I’m afraid of most, or what I need help with. He will “rescue me from deep waters” (verse 7).
How refreshing it is that I can lower my shoulders, let out a ragged breath, open my hands and my heart and know that no matter what, he will go before me and fight for me every single time, regardless of learned behavior and unhealthy patterns. His ways are not mine and thank God for that! I want to live hand and heart open wide before him, welcoming whatever may come my way because he goes before me while preparing my hands for what’s to come.
Brianna Garrett
God, You know the fights that are waiting for us before they even arise in our world. Thank you for that. Would you help us to lower our shoulders, to breathe out in knowing that joyful are those who live like this before you: knowing that you are you have prepared us and prepared the way and that we have nothing to fear because you have positioned our hands for the fight. You are the most skilled trainer that we could ever have. Help us to believe that with our whole heart.
Lord, help us to remember when we start to forget that you will deliver us every time, even when we can’t see a way out of it. There might be giants in the land, but there’s also a promise there too. Amen.
