#DailyDevotion We Need The LORD To Guard & Protect Us
Psalm 17 7Do Your wonderfully kind acts. With Your right hand save from their enemies those who trust in You. 8Keep me like the pupil of Your eye. Hide me in the shadow of Your wings of
Do you have enemies? We don’t always seem to have them. But sometimes there are those who oppose us unjustly. As far as we know we haven’t stepped on their toes. They don’t like what we are doing. It opposes what they want done. They can’t seem to get what they want through proper channels so they scheme behind our back to get what they want even though it hurts us. David certainly knew what this was like. Jesus knew what this was like. They turned to these psalms to voice their complaint and their hope in God.
So we pray with them to the LORD to do his wonderfully kind acts. We ask him to save with his right hand those who trust in him. We should see we are putting these things in the hands of God and not scheming to get revenge ourselves. The LORD saved his people with his wonderfully kind acts in Egypt. He did it as Israel’s enemies came down upon them and they trusted in him. So we pray he does the same for us now. David prays to be kept as the pupil (apple) of the LORD’s eye. We protect our eyes instinctively. We want the LORD to protect us similarly. We want the LORD to hide us in the shadow of his wings. Imagine a mother hen covering her chicks with her wings so a hawk cannot see them or get at them. There are times we need the LORD to do with for us from those who want to cause us harm.
9from the wicked who violently mistreat me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.
Who is it that we need protection from? The wicked who mistreat me and mortal enemies that surround me? Well I have had some who mistreated me. I can’t say I’ve had mortal enemies, i.e. they were seeking my mortal life. I have had some who wanted my life to be miserable. Your mileage with this may differ. For us, there is always the devil and those spiritual forces at work who do want us to die eternally with them. They tempt us to sin and not trust God. They want us to believe Jesus’ sacrifice for us isn’t real. They tell us God is holding back on us and doesn’t want our ultimate good.
Against these forces of evil and wickedness we can direct this psalm. They may be using wicked people to attack us. If the LORD would put a brake on the spiritual forces prompting these people then we would have some peace. They may be attacking us directly though. Think of Job. Sometimes it may just be (and this is no light thing) an attack on our thoughts. This psalm can put our minds at ease as we put ourselves in the hands of the Almighty and trust in him. He keeps our soul and preserves it. As Jesus reminds us, “Don’t fear those who can kill the body but fear the one who destroys both in hell.” Fear here means worship, revere, trust and respect. We should not give other people or beings the fear that rightly only belongs to God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. In that fear, we appeal to Him to save us, deliver us and preserve us.
Heavenly Father, treat us as the apple of your eye and hide us under your wing from all evil forces that would tear us from you and your Son Jesus Christ, so we may live in peace though chaos and our enemies surround us wanting to destroy us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.