Strong in the Struggle

Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.
—Psalm 24:8 ✝︎

For today's world, I might translate the answer to the question, "Who is the King of glory?" as "The Lord—powerful, mighty; the Lord—strong in the struggle." Usually I try to get closer to the Hebrew, not further from it. But we don't always relate to the warrior God our ancestors in the faith worshiped. But if few of us understand a battle God, most of us want to relate to a God who's with us when we struggle.

And we're struggling now. So to know that the "King of Glory" that we hear so much about is none other than the Presence we can count on when things get rough, when we lose our jobs, when we can't open our businesses, when disease strikes, when we feel threatened, when we're lonely, when we're not even allowed to go to church.

Though God is "strong in the struggle," we are not actually guaranteed freedom from struggle. What we are guaranteed is the abiding presence of One who will see us through, and who, in the Incarnation, intimately understands our lives. The King of glory became like us that we may, in the end, be like him.

O Christ, The Master Carpenter, who at the last through wood and nails, purchased our salvation, wield well your tools in the workshop of the world, so that we, who come rough-hewn to your bench, may here be fashioned to a truer beauty by your hand. We ask this for your Name and for your sake.
 —Iona Community, Scotlan
Our Father...