“The king rejoices in your strength, Lord… Great is his glory in your victory.” (Psalm 21:1,5)

It’s September again.  Soon the leaves will be changing color.  It’s a time of the year that always reminds me of running Cross Country back when I was in school.  To this day—whenever the air again grows crisp and cool, and the leaves begin to crunch underfoot—I am always transported back in my mind to swifter, younger years and good memories.

One of the many traditions our Cross Country team used to have back at Martin Luther College was to elect a Bible verse to serve as our theme for the year.  Since many of us were pastor track guys, that Bible verse was (of course) in ancient Hebrew.  And there was nothing quite like gathering in a circle with the guys and putting our hands together, before  shouting in Hebrew at the top of our lungs.  One year our chant was this: Gadol kevodo bishuatecha, or in English, “Great is his glory in your victory!” (Psalm 21:5)

It was a needed reminder.  When we won the conference championships my junior year after multiple injuries and a season with many unexpected turns, it was definitely a God-thing.  But even when everything goes according to plan and you work hard and accomplish something great, still, why is that?  Why didn’t the ball bounce the other way?  Why did you manage to have the strength on that day when others didn’t?  Why did everything come together just so?…  Was it really you? 

As I’ve gotten older and seen all that can go wrong in this world, Psalm 21 rings truer and truer with every passing season.  If we want success, if we want victory—if we want the ultimate victory of salvation over sin—it his to be through Him.  God is the only one who can truly restrict the sin that is at work in every person and prevent it from preventing you from being successful.

Without the Lord our efforts will fall apart.  Only with him do we find victory and glory.  It’s true for kings, and it’s true for you.  It’s true in every season of life, and it’s true in this season too.   So whatever challenges and difficulties a new year in school or another year at work or another passage around the sun brings to you… God will achieve great victory for you in this season as well.  You can be sure of it because he has already achieved the greatest victory over our sin at the cross in his Son, Jesus. 

–Pastor Walther