This I Know, Because God is FOR Me

When I cry out to You,
Then my enemies will turn back;
This is know, because God is for me.

(Psalm 56:9)

What a bold declaration of faith: God is for me! He’s not against me; He’s on my side. How could David speak with such confidence? Because He was in covenant with Yahweh and a great exchange took place. David’s enemies became Yahweh’s and Yahweh’s enemies became David’s. So David’s troubles were no more about David, but about God.

Joshua and Caleb walked in this same confidence. When Moses sent the twelve spies to reconnoiter in the Promised Land, ten came back and gave a lame report: “There we saw the giants … and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33)

But Joshua and Caleb gave a very good report and called for bold action:

The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into the land and give it to us, a land which flow with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them. (Numbers 14:7-9)

The ten faithless spies saw giants in the land, and reckoned themselves as grasshoppers. In their foolishness, they supposed that this is how the inhabitants of Canaan saw them. Joshua 2:8-11 reveals how wrong they were. The “giants” were ready to melt in fear.

But Joshua and Caleb saw things much differently. They looked at God and saw that He was with them. That was all they needed to know. They realized that the giants of the land were grasshoppers in the eyes of God.

This was the heritage David drew on, and so He placed His trust in God, and God was with him. It was covenant.

Today we have an even better covenant based upon better promises. It is the covenant made in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that God made Him to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

No matter what your troubles are or who your enemies may be, when you cry out to God, He will turn them back. For He is for you — this is the assurance we have through faith in Jesus Christ.

For more on the dynamics of faith in the history of Joshua and Caleb, see “When It’s All About God,” in God’s Word in Your Mouth.