The best-equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior.
Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory—for all its strength, it cannot save you. …
Psalm 33:16-17 (NLT)
I had the privilege of participating in a team meeting with the catalytic team in Poland. Marek Marcinowicz was leading us through a time of reflecting on Psalm 33. Everyone had great comments on the psalm, but I really loved Marcin Kolton’s perspective on the verses above:
“To see spiritual movements we don’t need a smart strategy, a lot of resources or putting our hope in people’s strength but it is walking with God and in His loving-kindness that will deliver us.”
“Contemporary Catalytic Paraphrase”
I loved this because it reminded me how often we put our hope in strategies, methods, models, and in so many other outside things that we think will allow for God to work. It is also so easy to think that things outside of our control are barriers to God’s promises of what He wants to do in our scope. We look at things like the religious attitudes of the surrounding culture, the difficulty of working with today’s students, the lack of good churches and qualified disciplers, as well as at any number of things as bigger than God. And in doing this we forget that this is God’s work. If He can make the universe out of nothing – if He can breathe the word and stars pop out of His mouth (v.6, The Message) – then He can do anything!
This reminds me of the Israelites in Numbers 13 who sent out spies to see if the land God promised was conquerable (God had already promised the people that He would give them victory over the enemies currently living there). When the spies returned, the majority reported that it was impossible to possess the land (Num.13:27-29). They took their eyes off of God, and this is what they saw:
“The land that we explored is too large to conquer [it devours its inhabitants]. All the people we saw are very tall. We saw [giants] there. We felt like grasshoppers, and we looked like grasshoppers to them.” (Numbers 13:32-33)
In their view the people living there were too large and powerful, and that the cities were too heavily fortified to be taken.
This is a good reminder for us. When we remember who our God is, then even the giants end up looking like grasshoppers! Yes, there are some difficult things that stand in the way of what God has promised that He wants to do among unbelievers. But when we put our trust in the One who made the promises, we will have hope because we know that He is with us.
Let’s return to looking at our great and mighty God in Psalm 33:
The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts (ruins) all their schemes.
But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; His intentions can never be shaken. (vv.10-11)
We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. (v.20)
The Lord is well aware of what is going on in your scope. He knows what He is doing. Put your hope in Him because He alone can conquer your giants!
Questions to consider:
Have you or you team started to look at the circumstances surrounding building movements everywhere as ‘giants’?
What makes you feel like a grasshopper?
How do you ‘conquer the giants’ in your scope?
Passages to ponder:
What other passages of Scripture does God use to strengthen your heart when your surrounding circumstances begin to appear as ‘giants’? Here are some that encourage me:
Psalm 33
1 Samuel 17
Numbers 13 and 14
Deuteronomy 1:19-33 (and to the end of the chapter if you are brave!)
Awesome perspective, Coleen! And a good exercise for our team!