Protected!

Protected!

You are my defender and protector; I put my hope in your promise. Psalms 119:114 GNB

You’re my place of quiet retreat, and your wrap-around presence becomes my shield as I wrap myself in your word! Psalms 119:114 TPT

David is attributed as the writer of this very long psalm. Here was a man who had seen wars; his first experience of trouble was in private, away from roving and prying eyes. He encountered bears and lions while keeping his father's sheep, and he learnt how to trust God in private long before his devotion to God became public. The same applies today: don't seek public approval at the expense of a personal and private relationship with God. What I am in my private moments will always shine through in my public life. No wonder David had no problem publicly facing Goliath with the lessons he had learnt from God in private. 

If there are no wars to fight, battles to engage in or territories to conquer, today's choice of words will not make sense. Look at the words of today's extract: defender, protector, retreat. Anyone who has ever read about or engaged in wars knows what these words mean. You don't go to war without planning for protection for yourself and your troops. You don't plan for war without planning for the times when you have to take a break and quietly recharge. As it is in the physical plane, so is it in the spiritual. 

What do these words mean: a defender is someone who protects another from attack. It means that on this journey of faith, it is foolishness to think I will not encounter opposition or battles; I am comforted and assured by the promise that I have a God who is skilled in war, has been doing this for quite a while, and he hasn't yet lost a war. A protector is similar: a person or thing that protects someone or something. The protector isn't waiting for an attack first. He is on guard at all times, ensuring that if and when the attack comes, he is ready. Think of God in the light of the pictures above and take stock of the experiences God has brought your way. I am sure you will find several instances where the attributes above had come true for you. 

Then the caution: all of God's promises are what they are: promises backed up by the greatest power available anywhere, but they remain promises until a man takes hold of them and fulfils the conditions for them to become true. I can shout all of God's promises every morning, but they will remain only promises if I don't place myself on the path of fulfilment. How can I do that: by wrapping myself in God's Word. God's Word is an abundant treasure; mined by careful, daily and deliberate search. You don't command it into reality; you first submit to it, read it and obey it. That is the only formula for success. Oh, you can seemingly win in life outside of the Word of God. The world has its own principles of success and protection, but let it be known today that nothing the world offers lasts forever. The world itself will not last forever; God promises a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. Don't be carried away by the deceit of false protection the world offers. If the world could truly secure its own, high and electrified fences would have worked. Having nuclear and biological weapons would have guaranteed world peace, but we know that nothing the world offers can secure the kind of peace God's Word offers.

So the offer by God still stands: he offers all of Himself. I can take or reject Him; the choice, as always, is mine alone. We learn from David's life the danger of moving out of the protection God offers, when he did what he did with Bathsheba, but the same story teaches us the grace that God offers when we return to Him. He does not reject forever unless we reject Him to the end. As long as we breathe, the door of salvation and redemption remains open. I charge us to walk into it. We don't have forever to sort this out;  events around us keep reminding us it won't last very long now. In whom/what is your hope? If it all ends right now as you read this, where do you think you will end up? Questions, with eternal consequences. His time of favour is here.