All His Benefits, Part 4
The Benefit of Renewed Strength
Part of a short series on Psalm 103
The final piece in Psalm 103 declares that your youth will be “renewed like the eagle’s,” and it too is an amazing benefit of Christ’s passion for all who let God’s glory rest upon their lives. There are actually two promises being made here. The obvious promise is straightforward: God is promising that when you are old, you will be made to perform as if you were young once more. The prophet Isaiah tells us that God “gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” The reference to eagles is clearly made in both passages, which is really exciting. The implied promise in this verse is that you will grow old. This echoes the promise made in Deuteronomy:
“You shall walk in all the way which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.”
Think about it. You can’t be strong in your old age if you don’t grow old in the first place.
We shouldn’t stand in judgment over those who are weak or infirm. We don’t know their walk with God, and we shouldn’t judge their lives. We should also not accept such evidence as God’s purpose and plan for our lives. The scriptures tell us that God is on our side, that he wants to renew our strength, especially when we are old. What a great blessing God has promised us. Instead of slowing down and retiring, God wants to ramp up your energy and health so you can work for the Kingdom (and for your family, friends, churches, and community) all the way up to your final day. Instead of sleeping your days away in an old folks’ home, praying for death to come and take you, you can renew your strength in God and be a strong and productive member of your community. Can you imagine the power and goodness that could flow from your life when you combine the vigor of youth with the wisdom and insight that comes from a seasoned life? You have a second career waiting for you that will be more glorious and productive than the first. The psalmist said this about the matter:
“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon: planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’”
What a great benefit Christ’s passion provides for us. Live with boldness, expecting the goodness of God to overtake you, even in your senior years.
To better understand this promise, we need to look into the lives of three biblical characters: Noah, Samson, and Daniel. You are familiar with the story of Noah and the ark. Noah was well over 500 years old when God commanded him to build the ark. Though we know people lived longer in this antediluvian age, they still grew old eventually. 500 years may have been the new seventy, he was still too old to build a massive boat without power tools or cranes. Though the scriptures do not explicitly say it, tradition has long held that God renewed Noah’s strength in order to accomplish this gargantuan task. Indeed, Noah is one of the best examples of a righteous man who found supernatural strength in his old age to accomplish important things for God. I think it is also important to point out that when God calls us to a task, he also provides the resources to get it done. God is faithful.
The story of Samson’s life should also be familiar to you. Samson’s birth was foretold by an angel who visited his mother and father. He said that Samson would be “a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” As Samson comes of age, he begins waging a one-man war against the Philistines, who ruled over the Jews during this age. The scriptures describe Samson’s amazing strength and cunning. At one point, he rips the city gates off their hinges—huge doors made of wood and iron—and carries them both on his shoulders up a hill for all to see. On another occasion, Samson battles a thousand Philistine soldiers and kills them all using nothing but the jawbone of a donkey. Such feats of strength are not natural. No man is so naturally endowed that he could accomplish such things. His strength was supernatural.
Later in the story, Samson tells Delilah the secret to his supernatural strength:
“No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
There was nothing special about Samson’s hair. His hair was simply a sign of the covenant his parents had made with God at the time of his birth, and Samson had honored this covenant once he was of age. As long as the covenant was honored, the supernatural strength God had granted Samson remained.
As you might suspect, Samson’s girlfriend was not very faithful to him. She tricked him into telling her his secret about the source of his strength, and then she arranged for his head to be shaved. The Philistines then came and discovered that he was as weak as any man, so they took him away, gouged out his eyes, and imprisoned him. The point I want to make here is that his strength was supernatural, and it went away in an hour’s time. He didn’t forget to work out, he didn’t grow soft over time, and he didn’t pull a muscle or throw his back out. One moment he was mighty; the next, he was weak.
At the end of the story, Samson repents of his poor behavior and asks God to give him his strength back for one final moment. Here’s his prayer:
“O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”
God grants him his prayer, and his supernatural strength returns to him one last time. He then surprises the Philistines who had gathered in the temple to mock him. The scriptures tell us that “Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.” No man can turn his strength on and off like this. It has nothing to do with muscle tone or training or physical prowess. This kind of strength comes from God.
For our next example, we jump into the Book of Daniel. The Jewish nation was in exile for their disobedience to God. Daniel and some of his friends found themselves in Babylon. They had been enlisted into the training school for the King’s court. It was here that they would learn the language and ways of their new government, and they were chosen because they were “without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace.” The King wanted these guys to excel in their training so they could properly serve his court in years to come, so he “assigned them a daily amount of food and wine” from his own table.
Daniel was a devout Jew and had no intention of eating the food from the King’s table, which was considered unclean by Jewish law. Daniel saw a showdown coming, so he called upon the wisdom of God and made a plea to the Captain of the Guard, who was responsible for feeding the new students. The Captain was reluctant. If Daniel’s health suffered, the Captain would lose his head. Daniel asked him for a trial run, suggesting that they be fed nothing but beans and water for ten days. At the end of the ten days, the Guard should then compare their health, strength, and appearance to those who had eaten the King’s food. If they looked meager, they would then agree to eat the King’s food and drink the King’s wine; however, if they were healthy and strong, the Guard should continue feeding them beans and water. This sounded reasonable to the guard, so he agreed to test them for ten days.
After the ten-day period, the Captain came and inspected the troops. Sure enough, Daniel and his friends “looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So, the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.” This is such a great passage of scripture. Some people have read this and immediately described it in natural terms. “Ah,” they said to themselves, “vegetables must be good for us since Daniel ate them and grew healthier than everyone else who ate meat from the King’s table.” In doing so, they launched a vegetarian movement in the modern church, which was surely to their detriment and the detriment of the Church. They forgot about Peter’s rooftop vision, where the Lord told Peter to “kill and eat” the whole list of unclean animals.
Let me explain my point of view. This is a supernatural event. Daniel wasn’t stronger and healthier than all the others because of the great nutritional value of vegetables. He was healthier because God gave the supernatural increase. This flowed out of their choice to honor God by avoiding unclean food. How do I know this to be true? Because the other two stories of salvation recounted in the book of Daniel are supernatural, as are all the prophetic events in this book.
The first story is about Daniel in the lions’ den. You know that story. Daniel chose to honor God by praying during the regular times, something that his enemies made illegal. They came and arrested him, charged him, and sentenced him to death in the lions’ den. When the King called down into the pit the following morning, he was relieved to hear that Daniel was still alive. Daniel responded by saying:
“My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.”
The King had Daniel lifted up from the lions’ den and rejoiced that he still lived. The King then commanded the guards to throw “the men who had falsely accused Daniel into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. Before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.” This can only be read as a supernatural salvation. The lions were obviously hungry since they immediately attacked the men and their wives and children. More importantly, Daniel’s own testimony tells us that “God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.”
The second story is about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The King had ordered everyone to bow down and worship the image he had erected, but these three Hebrews refused, preferring death to defilement. They would only worship the one true God. So, the King had a furnace built, and he “ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.” He had them bound with ropes and then ordered his guards to throw them into the furnace to die. The fire was so hot, the guards that threw them into the furnace died from exposure to the heat. The scriptures then tell us that the King was amazed to see four people walking around inside the furnace—unbound. The ropes had immediately burned away, but their clothes remained. So, the King called out to the three Hebrews: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” When they came out, they were untouched by the fire. Their hair was not singed, their cloaks were not burned, and they didn’t even smell of smoke. What an amazing supernatural salvation. The King then said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.” The fourth figure in the fire didn’t come out; he simply disappeared. The text calls him an angel, and rightfully so. It was probably the same angel that came to Daniel in the lions’ den. Some would suggest that this was a Christology—Jesus before His incarnation.
I think it is clear that Daniel’s request to eat only beans is a supernatural story, just like the other two. In plain language, Daniel asked the Captain of the Guard to feed them beans, which was the least likely thing to make them strong and healthy, and he trusted God with the results. As you know from the story, God came through for them. Had the other students in their cohort eaten beans, they would have wasted away and been in poor health. In short, it wasn’t the food they ate. It was their God that honored them with supernatural health and strength and vitality.
Before you misunderstand me, I want to clarify the importance of good lifestyle choices. I am not suggesting that you should tempt God by eating greasy burgers and fries seven days a week. On the contrary, I want you to participate with God in being healthy. You should eat right, exercise, and get the proper rest, which includes taking Sundays off as you honor the Lord on his Sabbath day. God has created our bodies as part of the natural order, and they function best when they are treated with care. Even as you make these proper lifestyle choices, put your faith in God to bring you health, strength, and vitality.
I want you to stay focused on the supernatural quality of this strength. Noah was strong in his fifth century because of the grace of God on his life, which was related to his calling to build the ark. Samson was strong beyond reason because of the calling on his life, which had to do with throwing off the Philistine governors that ruled the Jews during this age. Daniel and friends were strong and healthy despite their poor diet because God honored their choices. These benefits belong to Christians who host the presence of God in their lives. You should expect these benefits, and you should seek them out, asking the Father for grace to receive them. There is so much more to the Christian life than just fire insurance for your own eternal soul. The goodness of God is pursuing you in many avenues. Receive it, enjoy it, and share it with those around you.
This concludes the All His Benefits series.
About this series: Drawing from Psalm 103, these posts explored the rich benefits Christ’s passion has secured for his people. Forgiveness opens the door to healing, love and mercy crown our lives with shalom, and supernatural strength renews us even in old age. These are not extras for super-Christians—they are the normal inheritance of everyone who walks in fellowship with God in the Inner Room.