Cling to Your Father

Recently, during one of the Bible studies I lead, someone mentioned the importance of clinging to God and His Word. As she was saying those words, a vision filled my mind. Have you ever watched a child grab hold of her daddy's leg and remain stuck to him even though he's moving around the house? Maybe you recall doing that as a child or have experienced one of your children or grandchildren grip onto your leg. I've watched my children do it many times and it always brings a smile to my face. Their desire to grasp onto their dad, or me, and not let go, reveals that they trust us and want to be with us. 

As I pondered this vision, I began to look up occurrences of the word "cling" in the Bible. There are many times the word is mentioned, but one stood out above the rest. Psalm 63:7-8 says, "Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings. I cling to You; Your strong right hand holds me securely."

The word cling in Hebrew is davaq. It means to adhere, stick, cleave, or join. 

I love the word adhere in this context. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, adhere means to hold fast or stick by as if by gluing, suction, grasping, or fusing. I personally believe when the writer of Psalm 63 chose the word davaq, he was implying that he wanted to hold fast to God, as if being glued or fused to Him.

There are times in life when things are smooth and steady, but there are also times that feel like a tornado is passing by and our lives are being wrecked. Wherever we are, whatever we're going through, we all need to cling to God. We need to adhere ourselves to Him, like we've been fused to Him. Many of us tend to loosen our grip when things are going well and once the storms arise, we desperately try to draw near to God. I wonder how different things would be for us if we clung to God even in the smooth moments, then when the chaos commences, we would already be fused with the Peace-Giver, the Way-Maker, the Comfort-giver. 

If you're in a storm today, its not too late to cling to the only One who can calm that storm. But if you're in a smooth season of life, I encourage you (and myself) to begin clinging to God now, before the next tornado passes through. As the psalmist said in Psalm 63, because God is our helper, we can sing for joy in the shadow of His wings. When we cling to Him; His strong right hand holds us securely.

If we are already fused with our Helper, we can sing from the shadow of His wings. That means we will already be protected when the difficulties arise. When we cling to Him, adhere ourselves to Him, He promises to hold us securely with His strong right hand. 

It doesn't show weakness for us to cling to our Father, in fact, being aware that we desperately need to stay glued to Him, is a sign of spiritual maturity. So, as Father God's children, let's figuratively wrap our arms and legs around Him, trusting Him and staying close to Him, just like a child does with her father. He promises to protect us and hold us when we do.