Psalm 27:1-2, 13-14 (NIV)

The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid? I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

There are so many beautiful and powerful thoughts and notions and declaratives throughout the pages of Scripture, but sometimes they seem too good to be true…or perhaps more accurately, “easier said than done.” This is the honest reality that undergirds the power of the Psalms. David ebbs and flows his way through the peaks and valleys of his life as he looks to, cries out for, and eventually lands on the intervention and faithfulness of God. It reminds me of that old children’s book, “The Little Engine That Could.” Do you remember that one?

The original engine broke down and could not carry the children’s toys over the big mountain, so the toys cried out to various other engines to help them…but alas, none of them would. Finally, a little blue trainyard engine shows up on the scene and decides to give it a shot, even though he had never accomplished anything of the sort because he was just a small engine with very little power…but, he had a great attitude. “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can…” he says out loud, over and over again as he goes from hooking himself to the freight cars to climbing up and up and up…and eventually over the mountain. As they pull into the town with all the toys for the little girls and boys, the little blue engine says over and over again, “I thought I could. I thought I could. I thought I could.”

While the little blue engine had a hopeful attitude, some confidence in himself, and an unrelenting work ethic…David had so much more. So, do we. Additionally, and like David, we have a history of mountains and broken-down engines to look back upon where it was not our strength that got us through, or over, but the strength and love and faithfulness of the Lord. How quickly we still choose to lean on “I think I can” rather than placing our hope and faith in the one who simply Can.

There is an old Christian newspaper/magazine of sorts called, “The Gospel Herald,” and in Volume L, printed in 1882, you will find the following exhortation written by C. Masterson and entitled, “A Word of Good Cheer.” I could think of no more profound and helpful way in which to finish today’s devotional:

“Poor tried believer, are you in darkness of mind, distressed in soul, bewildered and shut up? ‘Wait on the Lord,’ for He is thy light and salvation. Are you pressed down with a sense of weakness, discouraged because of the way? ‘Wait on the Lord,’ for He is thy strength; ‘He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.’ ‘They that wait on the Lord’ shall renew their strength. Take notice of the absolute nature of the promise – ‘They shall renew their strength.’ Bear in mind, exercised child of God, that in every situation, every circumstance, every event of life, there is some kind of promise of grace, mercy, and peace – an assurance of safety here and glory hereafter, of comfort in every hour of sorrow, relief in every time of peril, and guidance in every season of perplexity.”