What will help us to rely on Jehovah is to do as the psalmist did, that is, keep Jehovah at our right hand constantly. At Psalm 16:8 we find these encouraging words: “I have placed Jehovah in front of me constantly. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be made to totter.”
Now, it is well to keep in mind that the apostle Peter applied Psalm 16 to Jesus Christ: “God resurrected him by loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to continue to be held fast by it. For David says respecting him, ‘I had Jehovah constantly before my eyes; because he is at my right hand that I may never be shaken.”’—Acts 2:24, 25.
We can do the same as did David and the Lord Jesus Christ! We can mentally put Jehovah in front of us. As Jesus did, so we too can keep Jehovah in front of us constantly by trying always to please him. Be positive; know your God. By your keeping him at your right hand Jehovah can uphold you with his left hand as he fights for his people with his right hand. Yes, we know the prophetic promise given to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Melchizedekian king-priest, as foretold at Psalm 110:4-6: “Jehovah himself at your right hand will certainly break kings to pieces on the day of his anger. He will execute judgment among the nations; he will cause a fullness of dead bodies.” So, by following the example of Jesus Christ our Exemplar, and by placing Jehovah God in front of us constantly, keeping him at our right hand, we will never be alone; we will never totter.
Our hope helps to keep Jehovah close to us. In fact, the apostle Paul likens the Christian hope to an “anchor for the soul.” “This hope we have as an anchor for the soul, both sure and firm, and it enters in within the curtain, where a forerunner has entered in our behalf, Jesus.” (Heb. 6:19, 20) Since this anchorlike hope originates with God, it in effect enters into heaven, where Jesus Christ and Jehovah are. By our holding to this hope, never relinquishing it, it will bind us fast to Jehovah God and we will never drift away. So never let anyone sever your intimate connections with Jehovah or his organization.
As a faithful Christian keep ever in mind that you are never alone. Jehovah God, moreover, is nearer than any enemy. And as the psalmist put it at Psalm 46:1, 2: “God is for us a refuge and strength, a help that is readily to be found during distresses. That is why we shall not fear, though the earth undergo change and though the mountains totter into the heart of the vast sea.”
The wording of this psalm seems to accord with the crucial time in the days of King Hezekiah, when Jerusalem was threatened by the king of Assyria. Hezekiah could have felt that he was all alone, but he realized that God is “a help that is readily to be found during distresses.” So he prayed to Jehovah, and the city was delivered from its distress. (Isa. 37:14-37) Therefore, when true Christians are in distress, they too can keep this psalm in mind. In order to make God our Refuge we must flee to him, and to do this we need ever to stick to his righteous principles. By trusting in him, sticking faithfully to his organization, we make Jehovah our secure Tower and Refuge.—Prov. 18:10.
There is a time of great distress still ahead, when Gog of Magog, Satan the Devil, launches his foretold assault on us as Jehovah’s people. (Ezek. 38:1, 2, 8-12) But we are never alone, and Jehovah will help us to endure, whether we be in solitary confinement or not. We are determined to stand firm no matter what the future brings. In due time Jehovah God will go into vigorous action against all his enemies, and we will stand triumphant with his kingdom. After it is all over and the “great tribulation” is past, we will find that Jehovah has been our ready Help, our secure Height, our sure Refuge and our Strength.
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