One of the things I love about the Psalms is David’s passion. He is absolutely desperate for God to come through. He starts off Psalm 17 by saying, “Hear me, Lord, my plea is just; listen to my cry.” For some reason, when we pray, many of us feel the need to convince ourselves and others that we are not desperate. That it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if God didn’t come through. David doesn’t play this game. His pleas throughout the course of the psalms express a much different sentiment. He is letting God know that if he doesn’t come through, David isn’t going to make it. His story will just end.

This is where God can’t just be an idea for us. He can’t be just some cosmic force floating around in the unseen universe. You never know if you really trust a knot until it’s the only thing keeping you from falling to the ground. I’d like to make a distinction here between belief and faith. What I’m about to say has less to do with what these words actually mean and more to do with two different ideas. I could say all day long that I believe in God and it not make much difference in my life. What I would be communicating to you is that I intellectually ascribe to the belief that there is a God out there, but that’s where it ends. When I tell you that I have faith in God, I’m saying something different. I’m telling you that he’s the knot that keeps me from falling. I’m telling you what David is telling us in this psalm. That if God doesn’t continue to show up, I’m toast.

So what about you? If we can agree momentarily on this terminology, do you have belief or faith? Is God the knot that is keeping you from falling or an idea that you intellectually ascribe to? This is what I love about the psalms. In this psalm, David is cracking open his heart and showing us what it looks like to be radically dependent on God. That’s how I want to live. I can sit back all day long and say that I trust the knot and the person who tied it. I can “believe” that it will hold my weight and feel a sense of confidence that it won’t give out while I’m climbing…..but until it’s the only thing that’s keeping me from falling, I can’t really say that I have “faith” in it.