1 If the LORD had not been on our side--let Israel say--2 if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, 3 when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive; 4 the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, 5 the raging waters would have swept us away. 6 Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. 7 We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

“If the Lord had not been on our side…” Can you imagine how this sentence would end in your life and in mine? When we faced that insurmountable financial problem, with no end in sight and yet things seemed to “work out”. When our marriage was gone because of one foolish mistake but somehow we managed to fix it. Or the myriad list of other things that could be named and it seems that everything somehow came out alright. And so we say, “what luck” or “what determination on our part” or it “must have been coincidence”. The truth is that the Lord is on our side and he has promised to take care of us. When in the darkness we cry in our loneliness, in our agony we are sure that no one can possibly understand our pain, in our distress we feel like we cannot keep going, we can turn to him and know that he is there and he does understand and will give us the strength to keep going. When Jesus was carrying his cross up the hill to Calvary, he gave way under the load and could no longer carry it on his own. God lifted his load and carried it for him. O yes, it was Joseph who took it but was it not God who put Joseph there and gave him the strength to help? You see, God has his wonderful ways of carrying our burdens, of lifting our loads and giving us the help we need. The more we recognize the presence of God and feel his nearness to us the more we will praise him and thank him for his abiding love. As Paul once said, instead of getting totally frustrated or angry we can “rejoice in the Lord always”. Then he adds that we are to let our patient spirit be known to all around us because the “Lord is near”. I don’t have the answers to your problems or to mine or the solution to all the things we seem to face but God does. Praise his holy name, the Lord is on our side!

O God, creator of the universe, I thank you for being on my side and being my constant help. I know that without you I am nothing, I am but a poor beggar. I cannot carry my own load or fix my own problems. Yet, in your wisdom and lovingkindness, you already know the solution and give me strength to carry on. I thank you and praise you for your constant presence in my life. Increase my faith to see you more clearly. I pray in Jesus name.

May God give each of us strength and wisdom to live for him today.