My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Psalms 73: 26 (KJV)
The writer of this Psalm, Asaph is trying to make us understand ‘Who God is to us’ using two angles of thought.
The first is, the literal interpretation of the word ‘flesh’ in Hebrew, which is ‘She’eri’, or Sheer, this word means flesh in the sense of a near kinsman. A kinsman in the Jewish culture is an important male relative who had the privilege or responsibility to act on behalf of a relative who is in trouble, danger, or need of vindication (Leviticus 25:25, Leviticus 25:28, Ruth 3:9). The Psalmist seems to tell us that there are times in our lives that even that ‘one’ person we count on and rely upon may fail us. The council and wisdom of the ones we admire may thwart our future, our best friends and trusted confidant may turn against us.
The second angle is – we can never count on our strength, wisdom or merit, that too may fail us. Think of the many time that we have failed trusting in our self. Only to realize that the strength of our body, the power of the mind and the joy of our soul has been lost. We walk wearing the heavy burden of defeat. Situations do not have to be this way, Asaph says, our flesh and our reliable sources may fail us, but if we make God the strength of our heart – He becomes the source of our happiness, He is our friend, our comfort, our refuge, our protection, our rock who will never fail us.
Today, choose to walk confidently in the faith that, God is the strength of our life, we will not fail or be afraid (Deuteronomy 31: 6 & 8, psalms 118:6).
