The Feet of a Deer

Some of you will know that Florence and I live on a riverbank. I say bank, but in places it is more like a cliff, where the water course had run years ago before changing its route and had worn away the bottom of the bank creating some pretty treacherous terrain that requires a significant degree of caution. I was out there today and noticed tracks in the fresh snow. And it was quite obvious that the deer had, with great agility, negotiated the terrain that for me would have resulted in definite injuries to my person. I was reminded of the words of King David:

“He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.”
2Sam 22:34

[I found the King James version of this passage quite curious when I was a young believer…. ‘hind’s feet’. Wasn’t there a well known devotional called ‘Hind’s Feet on High Places’? Who was that written by?]

The words are actually part of a song that David wrote and sang and the context does include the background which helps us to appreciate what David meant by those words.

“David sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” 2Sam 22:1

Can you just imagine with me what it must have been like for David to have lived in exile in the wilderness all those years with Saul and others hunting him constantly? Can you picture David watching the deer scale the heights and thinking about how God protected him by giving him great abilities. Sometimes God just delivers us quite in spite of ourselves. But sometimes, in fact a lot of the time, God gives us abilities and these too we need to acknowledge Him for.

We come to the New Testament and we read the words of Paul:

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Phil 4:13

After all, God made the deer with his feet. So can God make my feet like the feet of a deer.

And then there is that notion of ‘heights’ again. I could launch into some musings about mountains but I’ll restrain myself. But I think it is just pretty cool – the feet of a deer… standing on the heights. What a picture!