V 7 – 8 – “The LORD will keep you from all harm – He will watch over your life; (The LORD will guard you from all evil; He will preserve your soul.) The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”
At the beginning of August, I attended a wonderful women’s conference where four of us women taught. Maria Hietanen gave a great speech about going up the mountain and she mentioned Psalm 121. I asked her if I could use a few of her quotes which really caught my attention – “Going up the mountain challenges us, but we just need to be willing to climb…” “On the mountain we can see God’s views…” but… “The world blurs our view.”
It is amazing that when we are on top of the mountain; we can see things from a different perspective, where we realize that we are small, but our Lord is very big and awesome. Only HE can help us in our most challenging circumstances. What harm does He desire to keep us from? He wants to protect us from falling into the habit of seeing things from the world’s point of view, the world’s “normal” way of accepting and doing things. He needs to preserve us from evil, from worldly sins which so easily and subtly tempt us.
Psalm 12:7 states, “You, LORD, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked…” King David often battled evil physically, emotionally and spiritually. The one thing that kept him most from harm, was his implicit trust in the Lord. Whenever he was in scary situations, he CALLED UPON THE LORD, and he also looked back at how Father God had preserved him from evil in the past. Aaron Armstrong wrote, “God works providentially to accomplish His purposes for us.” God will always work our circumstances out for us according to His plans for us when we trust Him.
One of my favourite Bible verses is Psalm 91:11 – “He (God) commands (orders) His Angels to guard us in ALL our ways.” God’s protection for us should cause us to have a greater sense of humility, so that we can say like David did in Psalm 8:4 – “What is man (us humans) that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” The fact that Abba Father protects us like He does, is because of His merciful love and grace. He is our shelter, our Refuge, our Hiding place, because He cares very deeply for us and gave His life for us.
Thank You blessed Abba Father God, that You watch over us diligently and carefully. Please teach us Your ways, so that we can walk safely in them. Thank You that You watch over ALL (and not some) of our comings and goings. You desire us to walk in Your righteousness, and that we put on Your humility and courage. Please help us to not let any part of our bodies become instruments of evil. Please assist us to be totally immersed in Thee, to be dead to sin, to exhibit the new life You have given to us, so that we can use our whole bodies as instruments to do what is right, with truth and integrity, for the glory of God. Amen
Myrtle Turunen