#DailyDevotion The LORD Is Our Shelter & Big Shield
Psalm 5 11Then all who find their shelter in You will be glad forever, shouting happily. You will shelter them. And those who love Your name will delight in You. 12O LORD, You bless the righteous man; You surround him with kindness as with a big shield.
On the one hand, at times our God gives his Church rest from all her enemies. It is much like a coach who works his team hard. They feel overwhelmed. He brings his team to the point of exhaustion, but that is what is needed for the team to grow in strength and endurance. So the Church and its individual members will at times experience the enemy and God will have them push us to the extremes in our faith towards the LORD. Then He hears our cries for help and mercy and delivers us from their hands.
There does come a day, when all who found their shelter in the LORD Jesus Christ will be glad forever and shout happily. All the cries for mercy, help, and deliverance will come to a full fruition. Much like as the Israelites cried out to the LORD for deliverance and with a strong arm delivered them. It took a while, but the LORD was teaching them and developing them into a nation. The LORD Jesus is developing us into a great people and nation now. On the Last Day, the LORD Jesus Christ will come with the blast of a trumpet, with a loud shout, and he will descend on the clouds with all his holy angels and they will uproot all wickedness and evil from the earth. All who love a lie, who steal, murder commit sexual immorality, who trust in something or someone other than the LORD will be cast into the Lake of Fire and the Church will live at peace.
Everyone who took shelter in the LORD, who confessed their sins regularly, who believed they were forgiven for the sake of Jesus and his work on the cross, will be sheltered by the Almighty. We will be purged of our sinful flesh and will no longer have to fight against the sinful urges of our flesh. We will no longer have to persevere but will have rest. We who love the name of Jesus will delight in Jesus and his reign over us. As it says in Rev. 21, “Look! God’s home is among the people, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, and there will be no more grief or crying or pain, because the first things have passed away.” Again it is written, 22But I didn’t see any temple in it, because the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple. 23And the city doesn’t need any sun or moon to give it light, because God’s glory is its light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25Its gates will never be shut any day, because there will be no night there. 26People will bring the glory and wealth of the nations into it. 27But nothing unclean will ever come into it, or anyone who does anything detestable or tells lies, only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
The LORD Jesus blesses the righteous man, i.e. those who put their faith in him. He gives us relief now from our enemies at times and perfect peace when he makes visible his kingdom among us. We will see on that day the kindness we were surrounded with at all times in our lives as a big shield. It wasn’t always apparent to us but there he was and as he had promised, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
Merciful and kind LORD, you have promised to protect us, to surround us with your kindness and deliver us from all our enemies as we put our trust in you. Grant us such faith to believe this when it doesn’t seem as if it is so, that we may delight in you when you reveal your Son Jesus Christ to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.