He Is With Us Wherever We Go

Last week in 2 Samuel 7, I touched on how God is not stuck in a temple. The other nations of the Middle East thought their gods had power limited to their nation’s boundaries. If their gods were going to go with them to battle, they would have to carry a statue with them. David made some assumptions that the same is true of his God. So David desired to build a temple to “put God in.”

God corrected David by saying He was never in a temple before and that the tabernacle did not need to be present for David and his armies to be successful in battle. It seems like David may have learned something about that. We see in 2 Samuel 8 David’s conquest of many different nations. David recognizes that God went with the armies wherever they went. At the end of verse 14 it is recorded that, “ADONAI gave victory to David wherever he went” (CJB).

I found it interesting to me, during my current emotional downturn, that David traveled far and wide from Jerusalem in his war campaigns. David’s assignment from God was to physically subjugate all the original areas of the Promised Land to rule under one king. David’s objective was to create a united kingdom ruling over all the territories God promised Israel when they came to the Promised Land. And, so God was with him and working wonders in David’s life (as seen in the Psalms David wrote) and through David’s life for the benefit of all 12 tribes of Israel.

Today my battles are different. Most are tied up in my mental illness and other issues I face on a daily basis. Whether I’m sinking into a depression with the lethargy and lack of motivation, or zooming into a mania with its irrationality and irritability, I need to take the message in this chapter to heart: God is with me wherever I go. And the victory is His just as it was in David’s battles.

I need to recognize that God has already won victory for me. It says in John 16:33 (where Jesus is talking to His disciples shortly before His arrest), “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (NASB). He has overcome all the problems and situations this world can throw at me, and I may have peace as a result. Dropping everything going on in my thoughts down before Jesus, I can find that peace. It takes practice, but when I’m able to get my heart and mind into trusting Jesus, peace does come.