The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
The righteous run into it and they are safe.
Those are almost identical to the words from verse 10:
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe.
It's a powerful image, that the name of the Lord would be a safe, strong place to be protected. In that day, a fortress was always an important strategic place to be protected from one's enemies. What we almost miss is the next verse (verse 11) which is truly the focal point of verse 10:
The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;
they imagine it a wall too high to scale.
There are a lot of challenges with this verse because it makes wealth and money sound inherently bad - which they are not. As we know from scriptural teaching that this isn't necessarily the case: Look at this verse from 1 Timothy 6:10:
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Of course we need to have some kind of security in this world to provide for the basic needs we have - and money is the accepted means that assists us in obtaining that security for home, food, clothing, warmth, travel, etc. And we know well enough that nearly every person who is striving for these things might desire a bit more of it to add to their security.
But we must take the words from the Bible as wisdom offered to us regarding our pursuit of that security. If we believe for a moment that having more will protect us from the dangers of the outside world, we are going to be in for a rude awakening. It will only provide a false sense of security... "they imagine it a wall to high to scale". If we desire money over all things, eventually someone or something is going to knock down that wall and it won't be pretty.
Trust in the name of the Lord over all things.
The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;
they imagine it a wall too high to scale.
There are a lot of challenges with this verse because it makes wealth and money sound inherently bad - which they are not. As we know from scriptural teaching that this isn't necessarily the case: Look at this verse from 1 Timothy 6:10:
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Of course we need to have some kind of security in this world to provide for the basic needs we have - and money is the accepted means that assists us in obtaining that security for home, food, clothing, warmth, travel, etc. And we know well enough that nearly every person who is striving for these things might desire a bit more of it to add to their security.
But we must take the words from the Bible as wisdom offered to us regarding our pursuit of that security. If we believe for a moment that having more will protect us from the dangers of the outside world, we are going to be in for a rude awakening. It will only provide a false sense of security... "they imagine it a wall to high to scale". If we desire money over all things, eventually someone or something is going to knock down that wall and it won't be pretty.
Trust in the name of the Lord over all things.
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