476 Praying Through Psalms 61: The Rock Higher Than I

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Where do you turn when your heart is faint, your defenses are down, and you desperately need the pure relief of remembering how big your God is?

Join Jaime on the Praying Christian Women Podcast for a devotional on Psalm 61 — a beautiful, deep breath of a psalm where David trades lament for absolute, unshakable confidence in God's protection.

Jaime unpacks the vivid contrasts of David’s poetry, from the rugged military imagery of God as an unbreachable high tower lifted far above the enemy's arrows, to the tender, fiercely protective picture of a mother bird sheltering her young. She traces this comforting theme of hiding "under His wings" throughout Scripture, showing how it represents not just safety, but deep belonging, intimacy, and love.

We also dig into the striking echo of Moses in Exodus 17 — when he struck the rock at Horeb and living water poured out. God is not just a cold, distant stone fortress to hide behind; He is the life-giving provision that sustains us when we are placed upon the high ground.

Come ready to step off the battlefield and into the throne room. Let this psalm remind you that while we aren't taken out of the world, we are completely covered while we walk through it. Because He is the high tower. He is the living water. And He is the safe refuge under whose wings we can finally sing for joy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Life Audio. Hello, and welcome to another prayer through the
Psalms episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I am
Jamie and today we get to talk about and pray
through Psalm sixty one. This is confidence in God's protection
for the choir director on a stringed instrument, a Psalm

(00:23):
of David. This is back to kind of like what
I always picture. I picture the stringed instruments because they
talk about David playing the liar for King Saul. But yeah,
it's just another confidence in God's protection. Last time we
talked a little bit about David feeling surrounded and overwhelmed
and yet trusting in God. This next one is a

(00:46):
beautiful almost like a relief into just pure confidence. And
the imagery is beautiful. And if you're needing to be
reminded of how big God is, this is a good one.
So before we get started, let's pray. Lord God, you
are our rock, our stronghold, our protector, and we praise

(01:13):
you for being mighty and matchless. Just even saying that
just gives me this feeling of strength and security because
you are it. There's no yin and yang when it
comes to good and evil. In the big picture, you
are good, You are love, You are creator, And even

(01:37):
though Satan and his demons have dominion for a time
over this earth, they are no match for you. They're
not your equal and opposite like we sometimes think of
when we think of the battle between good and evil.
You are already victorious. So we acknowledge you and praise

(01:58):
you for that, for your pre eminence, for your omnipotence.
There is no one like you in all of creation.
And to be your child, to be loved like that,
to be protected by you, it puts everything else into perspective.

(02:19):
As we come before you today, we just ask that
you would just continue to be reminding us of who
you are, so that we can measure everything else against that.
Instead of trying to to bring you along into our
troubles or bring you along into our lives, I just
pray that we would be able to see you as
it you are what it's all about. Let's put you

(02:44):
in the driver's seat, Let's take you with us. Not
so we can just bring you along by tucking you
in our pocket and referencing you so that we feel
good about ourselves and our decisions, but like a kid
on the place bringing their father who is strong and capable.

(03:07):
There's nothing to fear. Let us bring you so that
we can listen for your instruction and your guidance, so
that we can hear you the voice behind us saying
this is the way, walk in it. Thank you for
being that God who can be both all powerful and

(03:31):
matchless in every way, and yet concerned for us, for
each one of us as if each of us was
the only child in the whole world. We love you, God.
Help us to continue to see you for who you are.
Help us to continue to fix our eyes on Jesus

(03:51):
so that we can live more like him, so that
we can love more like him. In Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, let's read through this psalm confidence in God's protection.

(04:16):
For the choir director on a stringed instrument, a Psalm
of David very straightforward. Hear my cry, Oh God, give
heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth.
I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead
me to the rock that is higher than I For
you have been a refuge for me, a tower of

(04:36):
strength against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever.
Let me take refuge in the shelter of your wing. Selah,
for you have heard my vows. Oh God, you have
given me the inheritance of those who fear your name.
You will prolong the king's life. His years will be
as many generations. He will abide before God for ever

(05:01):
a point, loving kindness and truth, that they may preserve him.
So I will sing praise to your name forever, that
I may pay my vows day by day. So I
love this because it is just one hundred percent. You
are refuge, you are protector, and it's so comforting for me.

(05:24):
I love the ones where he starts off lamenting, but
sometimes I just need this. I just need to be
reminded of how big God is. And so he talks
about God being a tower of strength, and in military terms,
a tower or a stronghold or you know, is like

(05:46):
this place that's high and protected from enemies, that's usually
encircled so that the arrows can't break through, and it's
going to take a lot to get to that place,
and it's very high and protected. And so this idea
of a rock that is higher than myself. We are

(06:09):
very vulnerable. We can't protect ourselves all the time. But
God is that refuge and it's anytime we ask, he
just lifts us up and places us on that high
place of protection and safeguard. Another interesting thing is that
this imagery of a rock, that word rock the actual

(06:32):
original Hebrew for that word rock. The first place it's
mentioned is in Exodus, where he struck the rock and
the water came out of it, Exodus seventeen, verse six.
That's from the topical lexicon. It's that word rock appears
Exodus seventeen, verse six, when Moses strikes the rock at Horeb.
This imagery is not just of protection and refuge, but

(06:54):
the word rock it also has imagery of provision, and
God is shown as living water that flows out of
the rock. And that goes back to our last psalm
Psalm sixty, where we were talking about these parched, dry
desert lands encrusted with salt. When the rain comes, that's

(07:15):
when all these plants in this life that we didn't
even know was there for most of the year would
start to spring up out of those cracks and crevices
of salt rock. And so that imagery of water, it's
life giving, it's protector, it's provider. And again that imagery
is so beautiful, and then it also talks about him

(07:38):
about let me take refuge in the shelter of your wings,
and so that imagery it's kind of feminine if you
think about it. I mean, I know, like penguins can
also like incubate the eggs, and the dads can do
that too. But most of the time, when you think
of a bird sheltering her young with her wings, it's

(08:03):
usually a mother. And I do love that the Bible
brings in this imagery of God as this strong, solid
protector and very masculine imagery most of the time. But
what I really enjoy is seeing this idea several times
in scripture where it talks about God as mother, as

(08:23):
a And I don't want to get into the gender
of God because obviously, you know, God created man in
his image, male and female. He created them, which means
that all aspects of female of the female gender and
the male gender embody who God is. But we do
think of him as a father because that's how Jesus

(08:45):
describes him to us. But actually want to take a moment,
and I want to read through these different passages where
God is described as covering us or sheltering us with
his wis because I just think for a meditation. This
is really helpful for me because it's very comforting, and

(09:07):
I just thought it would be nice, so Psalm seventeen eight.
Hide me under the shadow of your wings, Psalm thirty
six seven. People take refuge in the shadow of your wings,
Psalm fifty seven to one. I will take refuge in
the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
Psalm sixty one to four. I will take refuge in

(09:29):
the shelter of your wings Psalm sixty three to seven.
In the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy,
like this picture of having the bandwidth to sing for
joy because of being protected. It's a privilege to be
able to sing for joy right when you're being oppressed,
when you're being hit on all sides. But because of God,

(09:53):
in any circumstance, we are given that place of permission
and privilege to sing for joy because He protects us. Now,
I don't mean to say that if you're going through
something unspeakably difficult that you're going to always be in
that place, But we have that opportunity because of God.

(10:15):
And when we do find ourselves facing difficulties, it's because
of Him if we are able to be joyful. That
is why, and that is the only reason Psalm ninety
one to four. He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge. So it's
almost an image of a nesting bird, like you're under

(10:38):
the feathers and under his wings. And then in Ruth
Ruth two verse twelve, the Lord under whose wings you
have come to take refuge. And this was spoken to Ruth,
who was a foreigner but chose to follow Naomi. She
chose to follow Naomi. Your God will be my God.
Your people will be my people, Oh God, welcoming in

(11:02):
the outcast, welcoming in the foreigner into his fold. And
that was even before Jesus opened up the way. This
was when the people of Israel were just considered to
be the people of God. And God said, no, I
will welcome you in if you choose me, because I've
already chosen you Deuteronomy thirty two eleven. Like an eagle

(11:23):
that spread out his wings to catch them. So this
is not the underside of his wings. This is kind
of more being on the top, kind of like in
Isaiah when it talks about He'll raise you up on
wings like eagles. And then Matthew twenty three thirty seven
and Luke thirteen thirty four says something about how often
I've longed to gather your children together. This is Jesus

(11:45):
saying how often I have longed to gather your children
together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Again,
this inclusiveness of Jesus wanting to gather all of God's
people under his wings. So well, this is beautiful and
protective language. It's even marriage language. You know, we think

(12:06):
of it as a child language, but being under someone's
wings in ancient times and biblical times it had imagery
of protection, belonging, an even marriage language of being under
that umbrella of love. So let's pray, Lord God, we

(12:34):
just thank you so much for loving us, and we
just pray that no matter what is going on in
the world, that we can take time like now to
come into your throne room and just feel protected, be
reminded of your bigness and your goodness and your protection,

(12:56):
so that no matter what is raging on the other
side of those wings, that we know that we are
yours and you belong to us. God. We just pray
for perspective. It's not going to be easy. Once we
come out of a time of prayer and meditation on
your word, it's not going to be easy to maintain

(13:19):
the feeling of protection. But Jesus said, not that you
would take them out of the world. Jesus prayed for
his disciples, saying, I don't pray that you would take
them out of the world, but protect them from the
evil one. That's our prayer for ourselves, for each other,
for the people we love, that we would be able

(13:39):
to walk and operate outside of our bubble of throne
room time and still maintain that picture of your protection.
Not that you would just take us out of the
world indefinitely, because then we would not be able to
take your kingdom out into the world, but that you

(14:00):
protect us and shelter us even as we go, even
as we do the hard things, and that you would
just continually, your holy spirit would continually remind us of
your goodness and your bigness and your love and your protection.
That we could even just picture being under the shelter
of your wings, or being set upon that high place,

(14:22):
that rock of that stronghold, that high tower, that we
would remember that the victory is already one in Jesus'
name Amen. We'd like to take just a quick second
to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership
with us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio

(14:44):
dot com, you will find dozens of other faith centered
podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
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