Catch Me 'Cause He Can

“When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.” (Ps 94:18 AV)

How often do we use this verse?  Quite a bit, I imagine.  When we are at the end of our rope and we cannot hand on anymore, the LORD seems to catch us when our strength abates.  When we don’t think we can g another day, the LORD is there to give us His strength that pushes on.  When we cannot take one more hit, then LORD seems to know just how much we have taken and eases our burden so that we might continue on our journey.  When I think of this verse, I think of my hero, Job.  How much can a guy take?  Losing his family, wealth, and health were all bad enough.  But then having to endure hateful opinions from those who called themselves his friends was too much to bear.  After a few rounds of debate and accusation, balanced by Job’s request for mercy and understanding from his friends, the LORD spoke to Job.  The LORD would not allow the circumstances to continue.  The LORD put an end to all debate.  He comforted Job by asserting His sovereignty.  God spoke and that ended the torment.

There were several recreational skills my Dad wanted all of us to learn.  One was swimming.  The other was ice skating.  My father intended to give us a few things we could do outdoors to keep us occupied in the outdoors rather than be entertained by the TV.  When I think of the verse above, I think of the many hours my father taught us to ice skate.  There was a publicly assessable ice rink with a very minimal cost which he took us to quite a bit.  I remember the day I learned to ice skate.  It took a while.  My dad would lace on the double-bladed ice skates we all used to learn.  He would then take us out on the ice and allow us one time around while holding onto the wall.  Then he would take us on the open ice.  Between his legs, he taught us to skate straight without losing our balance.  When we did slip and begin to fall, he held onto our arms.  We may have lost our balance, but we never went down.  Then he showed us how to push off with one foot while keeping the other on the ice at all times.  Lastly came two feet.  It took a while, but he was able to show us how to get around on ice skates.  The thing is, as long as we were between his legs, we would not go down.  It was only when we got a bit too overconfident and ventured out on our own before we were ready that we often took a fall.  As long as we were under the shadow of my father’s strength, we were ok.

There are times when the reality of the above verse is obvious.  Most of the time, it is not noticed until after the fact.  When we can step back and look at the deep waters of which we just came, and realize it was impossible without God, we begin to understand just how much God enabled us to get through it.  My wife’s recent cancer surgery is a great example.  While amid this turmoil, a person simply hangs on for dear life.  Circumstances take hold of you and there is little, if anything, one can do about it.  It is a bit like an amusement park ride from your nightmares.  There is nothing anyone can do by hanging on.  Then, one practically lives at the hospital.  All the treatments, doctors' appointments, and consultations take up a lot of time and bombard you with more information than a human being can process.  One becomes very overwhelmed.  Then comes a period where one settles into their new normal.  Life begins to seem like old hat.  Predictable, dependable, and survivable.  When you reach that plateau, you look back on the last year and wonder how you ever made it through it all.  Just look above.  The writer of this Psalm knows how!  Unless I had God’s mercy, I would have fallen rather hard and deep.  Praise the LORD for His mercy!