Saturday, January 16, 2010

God is our Protector

"The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul." Psalm 121:7 

As we have seen in verse 2, the LORD is the Creator of heaven and earth. The LORD (when written in the Bible in upper-case letters) is the self-Existent, Eternal God, Jehovah. He depends on no-one else; we, on the other hand, depend on Him for every breath we take. He is all-powerful; He is our Refuge and Strength; He is the One to whom we can turn for help.

Shall - the Psalmist speaks on the LORD's behalf - He shall preserve you! It is definite. But what does it mean to be preserved?

Preserve - this word appears 3 times in the last portion of this Psalm. The Hebrew word means to hedge about, as with thorns; to guard; to protect. None of us would consider attempting to pass through a hedge of thorns in order to reach an objective. So God protects us by placing a thorny hedge around us - impenetrable to Satan; he cannot break through God's hedge and attack us. Jesus wore a crown of thorns, so that we could be eternally secure from Satan's attacks.

From all evil - everything the prince of darkness can throw at the human race, to cause us to turn away from Jesus.

Your soul - the Hebrew word used here comes from the root word "to breathe" - as in the breathing creature. The word is also used in the sense of body and mind. Thus, the entire, living person.

And so our verse can be written: Jehovah, the Eternal God, shall place a thorny hedge about you, so that nothing the evil one does will harm you. He shall guard your body and your mind.

We serve an awesome God! Give Him your body and your mind this day.