Psalm 147:10 (NIV) “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;”
It’s been 50 years since I have seriously considered the concept of a life verse. As a teenager growing up in what many would have called a fundamentalist church, we regularly heard in our Sunday school classes, youth group programs and from the pulpit, the importance of having a life verse. Two events within the past month brought this concept to the front of my mind. The first was seeing an advertisement for “The One Year Life Verse Devotional” by Jay K. Payleitner. The front cover of the book claims it contains 365 stories of remarkable people and the Scripture that changed their lives. In Payleitner’s Introduction, he defines a life verse as “a piece of scripture that God used to inspire, challenge or rescue you at a turning point in your life.” My concern as a teenager with picking out a life verse was that I knew there were would be many challenges and questions in front of me. However, I had no idea what they might be. How could I be sure that one verse would answer all my questions? In high school, I was fairly confident that God was calling me to teach mathematics in a college setting. I couldn’t find any verse that specifically talked about teaching mathematics at the college level. So I never sat down and picked a life verse.
The second event of the past month that brought me face to face with the concept of a life verse was my reading of the verse Psalm 147:10. I know I had seen it many times before. However, this time it hit me between the eyes. I read it and I said, “That’s me. That’s my life verse.”
What in the world am I talking about? How would the fact that God did not find pleasure in the strength of a horse nor delight in the legs of a warrior have anything to do with me? Why this verse struck me at this time has to deal with two items. The first is my given name Bayard. I will admit that “Bayard” is not the most common given name. I was aware of a few other individuals with the given name Bayard. Growing up in Delaware, I was also aware of a much larger number of people with the family name of Bayard.
As I researched the name Bayard, I found that there were 3 places where the name arose. The first was Danish mythology. Bayard was the name of a horse with magical powers. The second was from old English and French contractions of “bay of the yard” or roan colored farm horse. The third was from a gallant French knight who was named Sir Bayard, because of his bravery and his chestnut colored hair.
So here in one verse, the Psalmist speaks of strong horses and brave warriors. He is using my name.
But it goes even deeper. For 50 years I ran. I wasn’t running from God, but I was trying to outrun age. I played an hour of basketball each day for at least five days every week. I strengthened my legs. On my 50th birthday, I played in a Gus Macher 3-on-3 basketball tournament. My team made it to the semi-finals. Even at age 60, for pick-up games, I was the first one on the court and the last one to leave. I had the nick name of “Old Iron Legs.” But that was soon going to change. Due to all the pounding on the hard wood, my knees finally gave out and I couldn’t find a surgeon who would fix them. I had to switch to a stationary recumbent bike to get my exercise. In 2008, I pedaled at least 30 miles a day, at least 200 miles each week, and more than 10,000 miles for the year without moving an inch. My knees might have been shot, but my legs were strong. They looked like the legs of a young athlete, with huge, solid thighs and hard, firm well-defined calves.
Then in March 2009, all that changed. I had a blood vessel in a brain tumor burst. It technically wasn’t a stroke since no blood was cut off to the brain proper, but I had all the after effects of a stroke. It was several months of therapy before I could walk a hundred feet without wobbling. Since that event, I have had two other events that showed me that my legs were not my strength. In December 2009, I had 4 tonic-clonic seizures that left me unconscious in a hospital for 3 days. I was now battling epilepsy. In December 2010, I was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson’s. It was back to therapy. In March 2011, I had a pacemaker implanted to try to help control an atrial-fibrillation condition that was starting to get out of control.
Four times in my lifetime, doctors have said that they have no medical or scientific reason that they can give me as to why I am still alive. They said my physical conditioning was a big help, but it couldn’t explain everything. Several of the doctors went so far as to say, I was a walking miracle. All I could say to that was: “Amen, I know it.”
My cardiologist has given me permission to get back on the bike as long as I monitor my heart while exercising. I am only doing six or seven miles a day on the bike, but now I know for sure that my strength comes from the Lord and not from my legs. It is not our bravery or the strength in our legs that pleases God. Psalm 147:11 tells us that:”the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. .” (NIV) Our bravery and our legs will fail us, but God’s love will not.
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