“… Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ” Isaiah 12: 2, NKJV
We thank You Lord, that instead of being afraid, we can trust You. Amen
Our promise for today is taken from a very short, but powerful, hymn of praise and thanksgiving! In the first verse the prophet makes mention of the fact that at first God was angry with Him, but now His anger is turned away, and in the place of anger God comforts Him. The closer we get to God the more changes we perceive in the relationship. He now refers to God as His salvation. And then comes the first part of our promise: “I will trust and not be afraid.”
Yesterday, I found out for the first time about “the potentially deadly US Spy satellite… with a tank onboard that is carrying 1,000 pounds of hydrazine, a toxic fuel…[that] could be hazardous if it landed in a populated area” (Robert Burns, AP Military Press). You can be sure, I was not happy. In fact, my first, and foremost, reaction was one of fear. What if…? The atmosphere is already filled with toxins, as it were.
As these thoughts raced through my mind, I realized that I had two options: to worry, or to trust. I have found that worrying has never improved my situation, so I decided to put our promise for today into practice, I would just leave it to God instead, and not be afraid! As soon as my mind went into that mode, I immediately relaxed. As I wrote on one occasion, it is amazing how we pray and fret, although one activity is supposed to preclude the other. Yesterday, when I decided to leave off the spiritual wavering, what a difference it made!
In the second half of the promise the prophet goes on to give the reason for his stalwart faith in God, “For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.” There is quite a difference between finding one’s strength and salvation in God, and singing about God. It is quite another situation when God becomes your strength to overcome, your song of victory, and your salvation, personified! Apparently that was Isaiah’s experience, as will be the experience of all who get to know the Lord in a personal, and intimate, manner!
Sometimes it is through a revelation, or a vision, sometimes it may be through hardship, or some traumatic experience, that we get a life-transforming view of the Lord. Perhaps it was the vision that Isaiah had of the Lord the year that king Uzziah died, that completely transformed the way he thought about God, and about himself. “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple…So I said: ‘Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6: 1, 5).
For Job it was after his experience of unutterable grief when God revealed Himself to him, that led him to exclaim, ” I knew you then only by hearsay; but now, having seen you with my own eyes, I retract all I have said, and in dust and ashes I repent” (Job 42: 5, The Jerusalem Bible, Reader’s Edition). (Emphasis provided.)
After you become acquainted with the Lord through personal experience, it becomes increasingly easier to “trust, and not be afraid.”