The Lord is your support

Saul, the very first king of Israel, received the Lord’s anointing as king to satisfy the clamour of His people but he was not the Lord’s choice (1 Samuel 9:16). Saul turned out to be a reluctant leader who never truly held on to the Lord’s heart.

The Lord’s choice as king was David, a young man of whom He described as being a man after his own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). Before stepping into his divine anointing, David suffered years of struggle in the wilderness; he was hunted, abandoned, shot at, forced to hide in caves yet, through it all, he walked closely with the Lord who walked alongside David, giving him His support every step of the journey.

And though floods of destruction swept over him, David never stopped proclaiming the Lord’s greatness. He continued to write and sing the Lord’s praises and the Lord delighted in him.

One such song of praise is Psalm 18, penned by David after the Lord delivered him out of the hands of his enemies and from the hand of Saul, who had become more fixated on holding on to his position as king than his obedience to the Lord. As a result, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him (1 Samuel 16:14 NASB 1995), making him obsessed with killing David.

But David took refuge in the Lord; the Lord was David’s support, and he said of the Lord,

 He reached down from on high; he took me; he drew me out of mighty waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me because he delighted in me.

– Psalm 18:16-19 (NRSVUE)

Beloved, you may be struggling at this time, facing challenges you never bargained for, you might feel as though you’re sinking and being confronted by “haters” day after day, like David, praise the Lord through it all, keep holding onto Him, cling to His heart with gratitude in all circumstances according to 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

And it won’t be long before the Lord reaches down from on high to take you, to pull you up, to deliver you and bring you out into a broad place of refuge because the Lord is your support.

In difficult times it’s easy to think that the Lord is far away but He isn’t distant; He is in everything and He’s everywhere; He is not an abstract refuge but can be seen in what He has created (Romans 1:20). The Lord rustles in the treetops like marching troops (2 Samuel 5:24) when He hears your cries, moving heaven and earth to get to you. He meets you wherever you are, even in the most ordinary of places. He comes into the chaos of your life, pulls you out and sets you free.

The Lord is speaking but only when your heart is quiet enough to listen, will you hear His whisper. So, be still and surrender to Him, all that is.

There’s no need for you to be strong enough in the day of [your] calamity, for the Lord is your support. He reaches into the depths of your distress and uses it to make you a resilient person, prepared for entry into a broad place which isn’t a destination but a state of being where you discover the enormous capacity of God’s love for you.

Amen †

Shelley Johnson “The Lord is your support” © 2026 July 2, 2026