Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the sustainer of my soul.
Psalm 54:4
The One Step Daily Devotional is intended to provide just one step each day for your journey with God. Every journey requires water breaks. Here is a water break for you.
We all need help some times. We all find ourselves in a place where we feel that we are not enough. In fact, if greater humanity is anything like me, we all need help a lot of the time. Jesus knew this, so when He left His time of incarnate ministry, He let the disciples know that the Father would send the Helper in His name (John 14:26).
Psalm 54:4, written long before the time of Christ’s arrival, refers to God as Helper. the word for helper used here is עָזַר (ʿāzar [also ʿēzer, or ʿezrâ]; pronounced, aw-zar´;).* This word does not refer to coming alongside and assisting people who are doing their part.* This word we translate “helper” denotes assisting people who have no hope without the help. John Goldingay explains,
“Help” is thus a rather feeble equivalent for ʿēzer, which suggests a powerful person taking decisive action on behalf of a weak person who is in dire need. In English, without “help” we might manage OK but a little less comfortably; in Hebrew, without ʿēzer we would often be dead*
At it’s root, ʿāzar means to surround, protect, or aid.*
This is who God is; this is who we are in contrast to God. God daily brings us life-saving aid; we are completely helpless without HIm. Without God, we have no hope.
Do you know who else God sent to help us? It’s someone that our society historically devalued, minimized, and cast aside. It’s someone whose contribution was often hidden or ignored. Who could this be? Woman.
In Genesis 2:18, 20-22, God tells us,
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”… The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
The word translated into “helper” in verses 18 and 20 is āzar! God’s creative purpose for providing Eve for Adam was not to supplement some assistance to an already-capable being who would be fine without the help. God saw a life-or-death need that someone needed to fulfill. That person, whom Adam could not live without, was Eve.
Adam and Eve are both created in the image of God, and one portion of the picture of God that woman reflects in our world is (borrowing Goldingay’s words) “a powerful person taking decisive action on behalf of a weak person who is in dire need.”
Today, take a step. Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to reassess how you view women. Perhaps today He wants you to reassess how you view God. Maybe today He would have you reassess how you view yourself.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.
Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!
*Goldingay, J. (2006). Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 90–150 (T. Longman III, Ed.; Vol. 3, p. 757). Baker Academic.
Strong, J. (2009). In A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Vol. 2, p. 87). Logos Bible Software.
Christian community matters. This devotional found it’s origin in a conversation across the table from a friend. God wants to speak through others. Community is a space where that can happen.