The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.   (Psalms 18:2)

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. (Psalms 18:2)

Oh, dear believer in Christ, let us keep this every near our hearts that Jesus Christ is All our salvation. (2 Samuel 23:5) Jesus is the Rock and eternal foundation of my soul and upon Him alone is the church of God built. (Isaiah 28:16; Matthew 16:18) Jesus is my fortress and a wall of fire about me so that none of Satan’s arrows of accusations shall reach us. Even because Jesus Christ has obtained for me an eternal righteousness by His blood and obedience. (Zechariah 2:5; 3:2; Daniel 9:24) Jesus Christ is the deliverer of our souls from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of Christ through faith in Him. (Colossians 1:12-14) Christ is all my strength even because He bares the full weight of responsibility for the salvation of my soul. (Ephesians 1:3; Genesis 43:9; Hebrews 7:22) Therefore He will carry me to glory upon his own shoulders. (Luke 15:5-6) Jesus Christ is the protector of our head. Jesus Christ has for us endured the full measure of God’s Holy Justice upon the cross. The sword of the Mighty God struck Jesus His fellow and therefore Justice that cannot demand twice payment will never fall upon us. (Zechariah 13:7; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:11)

Believer, if Jesus Christ is our foundation under us, our wall of fire round about us, and our refuge over us, who then can ever pluck us out of His hand? Who will undermine this Rock upon which we are built? Who shall scale the walls of fire to accuse us before God seeing he Justified us? How can divine Justice that was satisfied at the cross demand of us to suffer for our sins?

Then there is none that can ever remove us from His Great salvation! Jesus is a high tower that has reached to the throne of God. Therefore we have boldness to enter the very presence of God, which is to us a thorn of grace in time of need. Do you need forgiveness of sins? Do you need deliverance from the enemies of yours soul? Do you need faith, hope, love or any grace? Then come now with Christ in view, for He is your foundation, your wall of protection, your refuge, and your high tower. In Him we are saved and safe.

–   F. E.

The path of the Christian is indeed a mysterious one, full of harmonious contradictions and heavenly paradoxes. He is never easy when at ease, nor without a burden when he has none. He is never satisfied without doing something, and yet is never satisfied with anything that he does. He is never so strong as when he sits still [Isaiah 30:7], never so fruitful as when he does nothing, and never so active as when he makes the least haste [Isaiah 28:16]. All outstrip him in the race, yet he alone gains the goal, and wins the prize. All are sure of heaven but himself, yet he enters into the kingdom, whilst they are thrust out. He wins pardon through guilt, hope through despair, deliverance through temptation, comfort through affliction, and a robe of righteousness through filthy rags. Though a worm and no man, he overcomes Omnipotence itself through violence; and though less than vanity and nothing [Isaiah 40:17 2 Corinthians 12:11], he takes heaven itself by force [Matthew 11:12.]

Thus amidst the strange contradictions which meet in a believing heart, he is never so prayerful as when he says nothing; never so wise as when he is the greatest fool; never so much alone as when most in company; and never so much under the power of an inward religion as when most separated from an outward one. Strange mysterious creature! He cannot live without sinning, yet cannot live in sin; cannot live without prayer, and yet for days together cannot pray; continually finds religion a burden, yet would not part with it for the world; lusts after sin as a delicious morsel, yet hates it with a perfect hatred; esteems Christ the Chiefest among ten thousand, and yet is at times tried with doubts whether He is a Saviour at all.

                                                                 – J.C. Philpot