“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14, ESV).
The psalmists sang of the Rock!
“He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:2, ESV). “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2, ESV). “The LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge” (Psalm 94:22, ESV).
I can go on... there are so many other references to the Rock!
“You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation” (Psalm 89:26, ESV). “For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock” (Psalm 27:5, ESV). “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:2, ESV). “God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer” (Psalm 78:35, ESV).
That’s not a comprehensive list, but certainly, it’s enough to prove the point. The Hebrew people worshipped God, their Rock!
The Rock was a FORTRESS where they were secure, safe, sheltered from their enemies. The psalmist pictured a boulder on high ground, a refuge from the deadly arrows of the enemy.
The Rock was a FOUNDATION, unshakable, immovable, unchangeable.
Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25, ESV).
The Rock became a FOUNTAIN of living water at Mt. Sanai. Moses, at God’s instruction, struck the Rock. Broken, it became an artesian well, satisfying the thirst of the Nation. That broken Rock was also a beautiful foreshadow of Jesus, broken at Calvary, to provide Living Water, the salvation of my soul! (I Corinthians 10:4).
Psalm 61 conjures up a distant memory...
When I was an adventurous dumb kid, a buddy and I went canoeing on a glacier-fed river high in the Cascade Mountains. Dumb! We flipped that canoe and I toppled into the freezing waters. As the rushing current plunged me down-stream, I saw a boulder, dead-ahead. It was my rock! I would have drowned, but I found refuge on the rock!
“I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Psalm 61:2, ESV).