Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless. (Psalm 108:12, NIV)
We all know the secret to winning a scramble. It’s your ringer—the player you bring along who can hit most every shot and be counted on as the anchor when you have a putt to make.
No mighty man, no military alliance, could defeat the enemy. Only the hand of God.Let’s be honest. A scramble is designed for bad players. It allows you to toss away all your uglies and move on up to the best ball in the bunch. But whether your best ball is 200 yards in the rough or 280 down the middle has everything to do with your ringer. You’ll have a good time without such a player, but you won’t win anything, because, well, every other team brought their ringer.
In the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, the Philistines brought their ringer. His name was Goliath. So confident were they in his ability to win the day that they reduced the contest to one-on-one: “Let your best battle our best. Winner rules.” And since it Goliath himself barked out this challenge, he was feeling quite sure of his own abilities.
David, the shepherd boy from Bethlehem, was unimpressed. It wasn’t David’s size that had him feeling confident—not his strength or his guile or his battle-tested experience. It was his ringer.
“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the Living God?” David asked, and his words reached the king. Saul called David into his presence and suggested that David was only a boy, incapable of handling a warrior like the champion, Goliath. But again David called on his ringer. “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine,” he told the king (1 Samuel 17:26, 37).
We all know what happened next. David stood in the Valley of Elah, called on God, released the stone from his sling, and watched as Goliath fell defeated.
Perhaps it was this very hour that David recalled as he wrote Psalm 108. Again enemies were before him. Again he needed a ringer. No mighty man, no military alliance, could defeat the enemy. Only the hand of God.
Maybe you find yourself in such a place today. The forces lined up against you are many and strong. Before them, you recognize your desperate weakness. Where can you turn?
Go to the ringer, the LORD God of hosts. Call on his name. Defer to his strength. “With God we will gain victory, and he will trample down our enemies” (Psalm 108:13).
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Jeff Hopper
July 3, 2017
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.