The Revelation of God in the Walk of Faith
Verses: 1 Chronicles 17:20
“O Jehovah, there is none like thee, neither is there any God besides thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.”
There is a profound knowledge of God that cannot be found in books or learned through academic study alone. It is a knowledge etched into the soul through the intimate and persistent journey of walking with Him. This was the ground of David’s prayer, a testimony birthed from a life of dependence, failure, victory, and divine encounter. He had known the Shema, the ancient creed of Israel, from his youth. He could recite the words, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” But here, at this moment, he is not reciting a dogma; he is breathing a reality forged in the fires of experience. He declares out of his own spirit’s realization, a conviction shaped by God’s direct dealings with him, that there is truly no God besides the Lord.
When David says, “according to all that we have heard with our ears,” he is speaking of a cumulative testimony. It is the totality of a life lived with God—the whispered prayers answered in the quiet of the night, the battles won against impossible odds, the crushing weight of sin followed by the stunning grace of forgiveness, and the constant, faithful guidance through years of wandering and warfare. All of these experiences were, for David, lessons in the nature of God. Each one was a brushstroke on a canvas, gradually revealing the unique and singular portrait of the Almighty. He looked back over the landscape of his life and saw one set of footprints, one hand directing his path, one voice speaking promises and corrections. He saw that the active involvement of God in his affairs was not a universal phenomenon he observed in the nations around him, but a distinct and personal work of the God of Israel. This consistent, personal interaction confirmed for him a foundational truth: God is one. There is no other.
This revelation of God’s oneness is not a dry, theological abstraction. It is a necessary truth for the human heart. Why must we know that He is one? Because our souls are made for singular devotion. We are easily scattered, our affections divided, our worship diluted by a multitude of cares and false gods. The knowledge that God is one—that there is no other, that He is the sole source of life, purpose, and salvation—brings our entire being into a sharp, precise, and powerful focus. It concentrates our love, our faith, and our hope. It settles the ultimate question of existence, allowing us to pour our entire selves into a relationship with the One who alone is ultimate. If there were other ultimates, none would be truly ultimate, and our devotion would be forever fractured. But in the one true God, we find a center that holds.
This is where true testimony is born. It is not the repetition of a doctrine we have been told, but the declaration of a reality we have lived. It is the fruit of a genuine walk where God Himself becomes our teacher, revealing who He is and how He is. We may start with the traditions and scriptures, and we must, for they are our foundation. But as we walk diligently with Him, these truths become our own. He teaches us what we must know for our existence—not all the mysteries of the universe, but the essential knowledge of Himself. He shows us His heart, His character, and His singular supremacy. Our faith then ceases to be a borrowed garment and becomes the very skin we live in. We, like David, can then say from the depths of our being, having heard and seen and felt it all in our own story, “O Lord, there is none like you. There is no God besides you.”
Prayer:
O Lord, my God, as I walk this path of life, I ask not for mere information about you, but for the deep, personal revelation of who you are. Teach me in the quiet moments and through the difficult journeys. Make the truth of your word a living reality in my heart. Unite my scattered affections and focus my entire being on you, the one true God. Let my life become a testimony not of words alone, but of a relationship that has proven, through every season, that you are God, and there is no other. Let everything I have heard with my ears and experienced in my life confirm this one, eternal truth. Amen.