Psalms 94:17-23: a reflection

17Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul would have soon lived in silence. 18When I said, “My foot is slipping!” Your loving kindness, LORD, held me up. 19In the multitude of my thoughts within me, your comforts delight my soul. 20Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, which brings about mischief by statute? 21They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. 22But the LORD has been my high tower, my God, the rock of my refuge. 23He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. The LORD, our God, will cut them off.

The psalmist looks back and knows how close he came to being overwhelmed: unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have gone down into silence. He was slipping, sinking, near the end of himself, and it was God who held him. When I said, my foot is slipping, he testifies, your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. In the moment he was about to fall, God's love was the hand that steadied him.

And there is a further comfort, aimed at the inner life. When the cares within me are many, the psalmist says, your consolations delight my soul. He knew the experience of a mind crowded with anxious thoughts, worries multiplying within, and he found that God's comforts could reach into that turmoil and bring delight. God's help was not only for the outward crisis of a slipping foot but for the inward crisis of an anxious, crowded mind. And through it all, the psalmist found God to be his high tower, the rock of his refuge.

This psalm meets you at two common points of need. When your foot is slipping, when you feel you are going down and cannot hold on, God's steadfast love is able to hold you up; you are not kept by your own grip but by his. And when your mind is crowded with anxious thoughts, God's comforts can reach in and bring delight even there. Whether the crisis is outward or inward, turn to the God who is your high tower and rock of refuge. When you are slipping, he holds; when you are anxious, he comforts.

Lord, when my foot was slipping and I was going down, your steadfast love held me up, and when my mind was crowded with anxious thoughts, your comforts delighted my soul. Be my high tower and rock of refuge. When I am slipping, hold me by your love rather than my own grip; when I am anxious, reach into my crowded mind with your comfort. I take refuge in you. Amen.