My Dad's Last Sermon Part 6: I will uphold thee

Even that isn’t all!  He goes on to say, “I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness”.  We come to that place where we are not as steady as we once were.  We have to resort to walking sticks, walking aids, all sorts of things to make sure we don’t fall – something to hold us up.

We need that physically but, you see, spiritually we will not fall if our trust is in our God. He is able to keep us from falling.  “I will uphold thee,” he says, “with the right hand of my righteousness”.  We remember that Old Testament story about Moses.  Strong as he was he found he needed to be upheld.  When the Amalekites attacked the Children of Israel (we read the account in Exodus chapter 17) we read how Moses lifted up his hands.  When he lifted up his hands Israel prevailed.  When he dropped his hands then the Amalekites prevailed. So something had to be done.  We read in verse 12 that they took a stone and sat Moses on a stone.  Then Aaron and Hur came and held up his hands to ensure that the Amalekites were defeated and Israel triumphed.

But there’s someone greater than Aaron and Hur in this verse.  It’s the almighty God with his all-powerful hand and he says, “I will uphold thee”.  What a blessed thing it is, as we step out into 2013, that the almighty God, the creator of the ends of the earth, he says to us, “There’s no need to be fearful.  If you think you’re going to stumble, if you feel perhaps the pressure spiritually, you know that I won’t forsake you.  I will be with you and I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.”

William Williams, that well-known Welsh hymn writer, in our closing hymn that we are about to sing, wrote,

I am weak but Thou art mighty;

Hold me with Thy powerful hand.

I know if we can make that our prayer as we enter 2013 then we shan’t go far wrong.  We shall know that, by God’s grace, we shall be upheld.  So may the Lord hold us with his all-powerful hand.