Our Tower

One of the metaphors used for the Lord in the scriptures is that He is a tower to us.  The image is used to represent a few different characteristics of the Lord.  The Psalmist wrote, “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower” (Psalms 18:2). 

Here the use of the word tower is means to signify something that is strong and worthy of our trust.  The Lord is our tower because He is a pillar of strength for us that we can rely on.  After David was delivered out of the hands of his enemies, he said, “The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge” (2 Samuel 22:3).  In this context comparing the Lord to a tower is meant to show how He protects and delivers us.  Towers keep their inhabitants safe from the elements outside, and so the Lord protects us from the evil around us.  In Proverbs we have something similar:  “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).  The Lord gives us safety just as a tower might provide us a place of refuge.  In our dispensation we read, “And he hath sworn by the power of his might to be her salvation and her high tower” (D&C 97:20).  The Lord is the one who provides salvation, just as a tower’s protection my save us physically.  The metaphor is also used in the scriptures to refer to the prophets of the Lord who sit as watchmen, seeing higher than us, and protect us from the wickedness around us.  The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah, “I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people” (Jeremiah 6:27).  In the story of the Tower of Babel, the people tried to be their own salvation by building a tower with their own hands that would get them to heaven.  The devil “put it into the hearts of the people to build a tower sufficiently high that they might get to heaven” (Helaman 6:28).  But the Lord doesn’t want us to make our own tower and trust in our own strength.  He desires that we make Him our tower so that we trust in him for protection, strength, and ultimately for our salvation.