Taking Hold of God’s Strength.
xxvii. 5. Or let him take hold of My strength, &c.[1]
I. In what God’s strength consists. First, as we think of Almightiness, that irresistible power which created the world, &c. We are apt to forget those other and higher sources of strength which belong to God (1 Kings xix. 12). Wisdom is strength (Eccles. ix. 15, 16). Truthfulness is strength. Justice is power. Mercy to the weak is often the manifestation of the highest strength. England has often put forth her power; her soldiers have crushed the most appalling rebellions; her guns have sunk the mightiest navies; but history will perhaps record it as the highest display of her power when, under a sense of justice, she withdrew her forces when she might have crushed her foes (as in the late Transvaal war, 1881). Now, this element of mercy, as manifest in the work of Christ, is God’s strength (Rom. i. 16; 1 Cor. i. 24). God’s fatherly love is the essence of His power (H. E. I., 3206). Christ is the expression of that love. Christ is God’s strength. “And let him take hold of My strength.”
II. How may man take hold of God’s strength? 1. By submission (Rom. vi. 13; Ps. li. 10). As nothing is so reasonable, so nothing is so wise as submission to God. 2. By prayer. Prayer is the hand of the child stretching itself under that father’s protecting power. Prayer takes hold of God’s strength. 3. By obedience (1 Pet. i. 14). When Saul of Tarsus, after asking, “Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?” went straightway and did God’s will, then there came to him a moral power mightier than he had ever wielded before. 4. By implicit trust in God’s mercy.[2]
III. The result of thus taking hold of God’s strength. The result is that Divine strength is infused into our minds. We become “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” Trust is the medium through which God’s power is transmitted to man’s weakness (Heb. vi. 19). We can only really know those whom we love and trust (Dan. xi. 32). The most invincible and lasting institution in the world is the Church of Christ, because composed of those who are “partakers of the Divine nature,” and whom God has made strong.—William Parkes, F.R.G.S.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Cheyne translates and comments: “Or else. . . . A truly evangelical belief that God is willing to be reconciled even to His enemies. . . . Seize upon my fortress—Let him take sanctuary in the Name of Jehovah (Prov. xviii. 10); in short, let him become a believing servant of Jehovah. ‘Fortress,’ a symbolical name for a protecting deity, as xvii. 10, Ps. lii. 7 (9).” Kay: “Or, ‘Let a man lay hold of My strong refuge;’ let him flee to my altar of reconciliation (cf. 1 Kings i. 50).”
[2] “I think I can convey the meaning of this passage so that every one may understand it, by what took place in my own family within these few days. One of my children committed a fault for which I thought it to be my duty to chastise him. I called him to me, explained to him the evil of what he had done, and told him how grieved I was that I must punish him for it. He heard me in silence, then rushed into my arms, and burst into tears. I could sooner have cut off my arm than have then struck him for his fault; he had taken hold of my strength—he had made peace with me.”—Toller.