Call Me Clingy

The Word is first...

Psalm 63:8 (NIV)

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984

I have some friends who are rock climbers. Though I can't climb a canyon wall, I delight in seeing them scamper up the side of a cliff as though it were ladder. But there are times when the going gets tough and they have to hold on with all their might lest they fall. Their hands are strong from years of use and hours upon hours of clinging to small outcroppings and crevices in the rock formations.

I've seen similar hand strength displayed by other people who are far less conditioned for such activity. For instance, I've thrown a rope to a person who is trapped in the middle of a raging river and in imminent danger of being swept away. It is amazing how tightly they were able to cling to that rope as we pulled them in against the current. Once they reached the shore, it was equally amazing how reluctant they were to relinquish their grasp on that literal lifeline.

Both these examples share some things in common. They both involve physical strength and they are both about what an individual can do when properly motivated. They are also practical examples, metaphors if you will, of the concept of clinging to that which offers us hope, safety and salvation. Both serve to illustrate the importance of holding on to the appropriate thing at the appropriate time that life may be preserved.

Now take that concept and apply it to spiritual matters where it is even more important to cling to that which sustains and to release that which drains. For truthfully, if the rock climber loses his grip, he loses his life and if the canoeist loses their grip on that rope they are swept away in the current to be dashed against the rocks downstream. But if our soul clings to something that is unstable, if we pin our eternal life upon something that is false, then have lost something far more important that our physical life; we lose eternal peace. If our soul relinquishes its grasp upon that which is stable or willfully removes its piton from the one true hope, then all hope is lost as we are swept away in the current of worldly living. And in the end, when the truth is revealed, we too shall cry out for one more chance only to hear the empty echo of our own voice calling back to us.

Today's study verse was written by David as he traversed the desert. Though hunger and thirst ravaged his body, though physical death was ever present, David never relinquished his clinging grasp upon the rock that is our God. He wrote "My soul clings to you" as a proclamation of his faith and as an example to us. But he didn't stop there for that concept again speaks only of the efforts of the individual and does not adequately portray the truth of the matter.

Consider the drowning man to whom I threw a lifeline. As you envision the situation, put yourself in that position. And now, honestly evaluate the circumstances by which you were saved. Did God throw you a lifeline? I believe He threw me a line to hold on to but he didn't haul me out of the raging current of my sinfulness by that line. I was sinking beneath the surface when he plunged his hand into the river and scooped me out of the water. It was not by the rope that I was saved, it was by His hand that I was rescued. It was his beautiful, nail-scarred hand that lifted me to new life. Was it the same for you?

Apparently it was the same for David for even as he wrote "My soul clings to you" he continued with "your right hand upholds me." Isn't that a beautiful picture to consider? Our clinging to God as he carefully picks us up out of death and lifts us to a new life in Him?

And now that God has saved me from the suffocating flood of selfish, sinful, wastefulness I too cling to Him and I too am upheld by His right hand. You can call me clingy if you like, I call it blessed.

Shalom,

Carl