You Raised Me Up

I had resigned myself
to the life of a shepherd.

Everyone else was in the king’s army,
fighting wars
and here I was,
left behind with the sheep.

“Why can’t I go and fight?”
I asked my father,
again and again.

“Your job is to take care of the sheep, son,”
he would answer.
“Someone has to do that.”

And so my fate seemed decided.

I did all I could
to protect what was given to me
lions and bears I fought and killed with my bare hands.

The rest of the time,
I wrote poetry.
I sang to Adonai with my lyre.

Resigned to my fate.
Resigned to my life.

Just when I thought
nothing better could come of it,
my father called me.

Samuel the prophet
wanted to anoint me.

Me.
A nobody.
Just a shepherd boy.

He anointed me
to be the next King of Israel.

How was that even possible?

I barely knew how to read.
I didn’t know how to lift a sword.

Yet the anointing was not a lie
it was truth.

God had a plan far greater than me.
I understood that much.

But was I ready
to let Him mould me
into what I needed to become?
Those questions
haunted me.

Then, out of the blue,
I was called to the palace
to play and sing for the king.

For the first time,
I saw what nobility looked like.

Later, while running an errand for my father,
I saw my brothers on the battlefield.

And I don’t know what came over me
as I watched a brute
mocking the God of Israel
and His people.

And before I knew it
I had slain the giant who mocked my God.

From that moment,
everything changed.

I was trained to be a warrior.
I was made commander of the king’s armies.
I was praised more than the king himself.
His daughter was given to me in marriage.

And then
I was hunted like a deer.

The king chased me,
driven by envy.

I cried out to God,
“Why did you choose me?
I never asked for any of this.”

And He answered
by giving me outlaws
men with nothing to lose.

Their numbers grew.
They became an army.
The finest men I could have hoped for.

Adonai made us unconquerable.

And at the appointed time,
I was crowned King of Israel,
to reign until my dying day.

God raised me up
from shepherd boy
to king.

If He had such a great plan for me,
won’t He have one for you too?

If He transformed me into what I was meant to be,
according to His purpose, won’t He do the same for you?

    Psalms 30:1 (CJB)

^2 (1) I will exalt you, Adonai, because you drew me up;
you didn’t let my enemies rejoice over me.

 

Jeremaih 29:11 (CJB)

¹¹ For I know what plans I have in mind for you,’ says Adonai,‘plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future.