A Word from the Word

When My Foot Slips

 

Psalm 94:18–19

When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.     NIV

One thing I’ve always loved about the picture of God that we find in the Bible is this: that God is so understanding. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our frailties, and He does not ask of us that which we are not able to give. All He asks is that we give what we have – and beyond that, His grace supplies.

The psalmist here says, “My foot is slipping.” He was in a position where he was no longer in control. He couldn’t save himself, but he says with great gratitude, “Your love, O Lord, supported me.” How often that’s true. When we come to the place where our foot is slipping, then God reaches out in His great love and mercy and He supports us and saves us.

Then the psalmist says that “when anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.” Again, that’s true to experience. In times of anxiety and fear and testing, God moves in with His consolation, and in spite of all the trouble that we may be passing through, His consolation brings joy to our soul. In fact, it often happens that the greater the opposition, the greater the trouble, the greater the problem, the more wonderful is the experience of joy that we receive from God’s consolation.