October 10

From the ends of the earth I call out to You whenever my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. — Ps 61:2 BSB

There’s something in the expression “rock” in our text that sheds a beautiful light on what Jesus means to the poor and needy. The rock must reach down to the very bottom of the deep waters, as well as rise above them, to be a true place of refuge for the shipwrecked sailor. If the rock didn’t go all the way down to the depths, it wouldn’t be firm—it would be a quicksand. Doesn’t this fit perfectly with the Spirit’s testimony about the humanity of Christ? His humanity went deep into all our sorrows, our sufferings, our sins, and our shame! No matter how deep the waters are, the rock is deeper. No matter how deep the Church’s sufferings, sins, and sorrows may be, the sufferings and sorrows of “Immanuel, God with us,” were infinitely deeper. Yet, no wave or billow can shake the rock from its place. So it is with Jesus, the Rock. All the sins, temptations, sufferings, and sorrows of the elect, along with the wrath of God and the fury of hell, beat against that Rock, but they never move it from its place.

This rock is also described as “higher than I.” That’s where we see His divinity. If Jesus were not God as well as man, the God-man, how could He support a sinking soul? How could His atoning blood cleanse us? How could His justifying righteousness have power and glory? How could He be a Savior for the utterly lost? But, being both God and man, the great and glorious Immanuel, He could descend in His humanity to the very depths of the fall and rise in His divinity to the throne of the Most High. Like Jacob’s ladder, its bottom rested on the earth, but its top reached to the clouds. Isn’t this the constant cry of our soul: “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I”? There is no salvation anywhere else, no peace anywhere else, no comfort anywhere else. When we are buffeted by the waves and nearly drowned by the billows, we need to be led to that Rock. And if we are led there, brought there, and kept there by the Holy Spirit, we will find in it a safe and secure refuge for eternity. What other Rock can save our souls? What other Savior, with salvation free and without price, can meet the needs of such ruined souls as ours?