Kampi-kampi… that is the Pilipino term of teaming up or siding with. When we watched basketball games or tennis matches, we’d say “kanino ka kampi?” Whose side are you on? Like most children, when we were young, we had squabbles – and we would have our kakampis (allies). This morning I read Psalm 124 – a psalm of David.
Psalm 124
A song of ascents. Of David.
1 If the Lord had not been on our side—
let Israel say—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side
when people attacked us,
David was a warrior king. He fought many battles – the first of which was against Goliath. He was a young shepherd boy then. He had no physical built, he had no weapon but a sling and 5 pebbles, he had no war experience. Yet we know how he killed the giant. This is what he said to Goliath: (1 Samuel 17)
45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
We often thought we are rallying for the Lord – we on the Lord’s side. We defend our faith; we explain on behalf of God – we convince people that God is sovereign; that He knows what He’s doing as if He needs our help to defend His actions.
Yet there is a more important perspective. If the Lord had not been on our side… David knew that the battle is the Lord’s. David experienced victory because he trusted the Lord to be on his side. David was on God’s side because he was indignant that Goliath insulted God – “I come ‘against’ you in the name of the Lord Almighty… whom you have defiled.” To defile is to make something or someone unclean, impure or unholy. To defile God is belittle or make Him less worthy than what/who He is!
Today, what battle am I facing? For whom am I fighting the battle? For my own sake? For God? Am I on God’s side? Is He on mine?
When people and circumstances make me want to worry, doubt, be afraid, do I run and hide? Do I face them? What weapons do I use to fight my fears, my anxiety, my doubts, and all negative thoughts that tend to bring me down to the bottomless pit of depression and frustration?
If the Lord had not been on my side, I do not know what kind of a person I would be. If the Lord had not been on my side, I cannot imagine going through the challenges I face each day.
