Stand By Me


We are familiar with terminology that portrays God as a rock, a fortress and a refuge. This imagery is found throughout the Psalms; good examples reside in Psalms 18 and 71.

But if we examine the Hebrew more closely in these passages we discover a remarkable word -- "crag" -- not present in the most common translations including the NRSV, RSV and NIV. At the beginning of Psalm 18 the psalmist sings fervently, "I love you, O Lord my strength, O Lord my stronghold, my crag, and my haven." And in Psalm 71:3 the psalmist begs God to "Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; you are my crag and my stronghold."

The fact that the Hebrew word for "stronghold" in these passages also implies the "home of an eagle" leads us closer to better understanding the intention of "crag" (a sharp outcropping of rock) as used here. God is not just an unshakable foundation on which we build our faith (rock), or a wall of steel that protects us from danger (fortress) or an entity within which we hide to be protected (refuge). No: God is also that saving feature of our desolate landscape onto which we grab in desperation as we feel ourselves falling, and to which we cling with whatever strength we have remaining. God is our last hope, our only hope. Without that crag which gives us once again a foothold onto life, we would perish.

In reading scripture, translations are everything. Compilations of the psalter which are attentive to this particular image of the crag, and which are beautifully faithful to the original sources in many other ways, include those in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (the worship book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and the Book of Common Prayer (the Episcopal Church in the United States of America).

Unlike the wonders of our natural landscape, God as crag is not located in some remote spot where we are unlikely to find ourselves in the first place. Rather, God's saving foothold is always beside us, present and ready to rescue us as we teeter on the edge of countless pitfalls. To remind ourselves of this we may sing with Charles Tindley,

In the midst of tribulation, stand by me.
In the midst of tribulation, stand by me.
When the hosts of sin assail,
and my strength begins to fail,
thou who never lost a battle, stand by me.   

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