Human names go in and out of fashion. (You’ll never meet a seven-year-old named Ken — apparently we peaked in the 1960s.) But God’s names stand the test of time. One of those timeless names is Jehovah Tsuri— the LORD is my Rock.
The image of God as our rock shows up everywhere — in psalms, in songs, in our worship today. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. The reason that line lands is because it’s true at every level. Jesus is the rock we build our lives on, and He is also the rock that was broken for us. I want to walk through both.
The first time we meet the name Jehovah Tsuri is in a song. Just before Moses dies, God gives him a prophetic song to sing over Israel, and it’s heartbreaking. God tells Moses that after he’s gone, the people will turn away and chase after lesser gods. Imagine being shown that your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would all walk away from faith. Most of us would trade anything to prevent that.
The song begins beautifully:
“I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.” (Deuteronomy 32:3–4)
But by verse 15 it has crashed:
“They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Saviour.” (Deuteronomy 32:15)
That’s where the name first appears — in a song of heartbreak about people who knew better, who had seen God’s faithfulness, witnessed His miracles, and walked away anyway. Like a child running from the safety of home because their parent said no to dessert, Israel runs from the very Rock that saved them.
The theme runs through the Psalms and finds its full meaning in Jesus. Peter writes, “As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him” (1 Peter 2:4). The Christian faith doesn’t gather around a tombstone. We don’t light candles for someone who used to be. Muhammad is buried in Medina. Buddha’s remains rest in shrines. Confucius lies in a tomb in China. The great minds of history are dead and gone. But the tomb of Jesus is empty. He walked out of the grave and never looked back. He is seated at the Father’s right hand, ruling and reigning, and right now He is changing hearts, healing wounds, restoring marriages, and building His church. Jesus is alive. He is the living Stone.
And listen to what He says about Himself: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Mark 12:10). It’s a callback to Moses’ song echoing through Israel’s history into our own. People looked at Jesus and rejected Him. A crucified Saviour? A suffering servant? A carpenter from Nazareth? People still look at Jesus and reject Him today: He said some nice things, but He’s not Lord; He was a historical figure whose meaning has been exaggerated; how could someone from so long ago still be relevant?
But the stone the world rejects is the one God has exalted. He’s the cornerstone — the first and most crucial stone laid in a building. Everything else has to be aligned to it. If the cornerstone is off, the entire structure goes crooked. You build everything else around the cornerstone.
So here’s the question: is Jesus the cornerstone of your life? Because if you have the wrong cornerstone, it’s just a matter of time before things start to fall.
Maybe they already have, and that’s why this hits close. Maybe the cracks are forming and you’re starting to feel the panic. Or maybe everything seems fine — and that’s the most dangerous place to be, because when it eventually falls, it will fall hard.
Jesus said it like this: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7:24–27).
Same storm. Two completely different outcomes. The only difference was the foundation.
This isn’t just a distinction between believers and non-believers either. Plenty of sincere, faith-filled Christians have a sandy foundation. They’re building lives on things that won’t survive when all is said and done.
The foundation of your life isn’t always easy to see, but here are three diagnostic questions that can help.
What do you fear losing most? That’s a gut check. The thing that, if you lost it, would unravel you — that’s likely what you’ve built your life on.
What shapes your decisions? When you make a big call, what’s the compass? Other people’s expectations? The internal script you’ve been running? Money? Whatever drives your decisions is probably your real foundation.
But maybe the most revealing question is this: what do you turn to when life gets hard? When the pressure is on, when the bad news comes, when the plan falls apart — where do you run? Because you always run to your rock.
So where do you run? Is it the bottle? Food? Shopping? Work? Your spouse? (That sounds healthy, but God never designed your spouse to bear that weight; only He can.) You always run to your rock.
My prayer is that you’d run to Jesus. That you’d fall at His feet. That you’d pour over His Word. That you’d lose yourself in worship. That He would be your refuge, your safety in the storm, your foundation. Don’t lean on what can be lost. You can lose your job, your health, your wealth, your reputation — even relationships. But you cannot lose the love of God in Christ. That’s why the only unshakable life is the one built on Him.
If God has been exposing cracks, the next question is, what now? How do I rebuild?
Sometimes you have to tear something down first.
For some, that’s a relationship. Maybe you’re dating someone who doesn’t follow Jesus and you’re hoping they’ll change. People sometimes call that “evangedating.” It’s not wisdom — it’s wishful thinking. Or maybe you’re living together or acting like you’re married without the covenant. You’re trying to build something meaningful, but you can’t put Jesus on top of something He never asked you to build. Jesus isn’t a patch. He’s the cornerstone. So maybe it’s time to move out, move on — or get married. I don’t know what your right next step is. But you might already know, and this is just the confirmation. You can’t have a firm foundation if you won’t realign your relationships around Jesus.
But more often, what really needs the wrecking ball isn’t a relationship — it’s a story. The one you tell yourself. The one that says you’ll only be valued, accepted, or loved if you hit a certain level of success, look a certain way, or get the number on the scale or in the bank just right. That story has quietly become your cornerstone, and that story didn’t come from Jesus.
Work hard, save and invest, take care of your body — those are good things. But that script you’ve been living under is not a good story. God has a better one. In Christ, you’re already loved. You’re already accepted. You’re already chosen. Your worth isn’t in what you do, but in what He has done. You don’t have to earn what He freely gives. Let that be the story.
Jehovah Tsuri is the rock we build on. But Jehovah Tsuri is also the rock that was broken.
In Exodus 17, Israel is just weeks out of Egypt, and they are dying of thirst in the desert. They turn on Moses: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Moses brings it to God, and God gives him this strange instruction: “I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out” (Exodus 17:6).
Two things stand out. First, God provides life-giving water to a desperate people from the most unlikely source — a rock. Second, look at where God says He’ll stand. In ancient legal custom, the guilty party stood trial before the judge. In this moment, God — the Judge — takes the place of the guilty. He stands on the rock and tells Moses to strike it. And when the rock is struck, water flows to a thirsty, undeserving people.
Fast-forward to the New Testament. Reflecting on this exact story, Paul writes, “For they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). The rock wasn’t just a rock. It was a preview of Jesus.
Just as the rock was struck to give water to a grumbling, undeserving people, Jesus was struck for you and me. On the cross, the innocent was pierced for the guilty. And out of His wounds flowed something far greater than physical water — living water.
Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
Do you see what’s happening here? In Exodus, the people were guilty — but God stood in their place. Moses struck the rock, not the people. At the cross, God Himself, in the person of Jesus, is struck for sinners. And from His wounds, living water flows.
We talked about false foundations — money, success, relationships, sex, image, control. We sip from those wells, and it works for a moment, but we’re never satisfied for long. We have to keep drinking, keep chasing, keep striving. Jesus offers something different: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37–38).
The invitation is simple: come. If what you long for is forgiveness, come drink from the well that never runs dry. If what you crave is peace, experience the living water of Jesus. If your soul is dry, come to the fountain of life.
The first time we come across the name Jehovah Tsuri is in a tragic song about an unfaithful people. But in Christ, both saints and sinners, both the faithful and the faithless, are invited to come to the rock and drink the living water that has been poured out for them.
Jehovah Tsuri. The LORD is my Rock — the rock we build on, and the rock that was broken for us.