Year 6, Day 321: 2 Chronicles 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Ahaziah comes into power.  He rules for a single year.  You know a king just didn’t get along well with God when he only reigned for a single year.  Ahaziah goes out to meet the king of Israel.  God takes advantage of the opportunity.  As Jehu was sent out to deal with the house of Ahab, he takes care of Ahaziah, too.

What is really neat, though, is the story that follows.  We know that God promised to have a descendant of David upon the throne.  When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, sees that her son is dead, she sets out to kill the rest of the royal family.  She nearly succeeds, too.  A faithful servant of God, Athaliah’s own sister, finds her actions despicable and plans against it.  She takes Joash and hides him from Athaliah so that she can’t kill him.  She hides him in the temple.  God’s house literally protects Joash from Athaliah!

God’s protection is really amazing, and often unexpected.  Who would have thought to care about a small child?  Who would have thought to care about him for a number of years?  Who would have been devoted to hide him in the temple?  God’s faithful servants, people who care about God’s will being done, make sure that God is heard.  God’s protection starts with God and is planned by Him.  But we are the hands and feet of His plan of protection, reaching out into the world to help in unsuspecting ways.

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Year 6, Day 314: 2 Chronicles 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Asa comes to reign in Judah.  The Bible is clear on two points.  First of all, Asa had peace in His reign.  Note, though, that Asa was not without conflict with the world.  Kings rose up against Asa, but because God was at peace with Asa they had His protection.  The peace that they endured was an internal peace between the nation and God.  Second, Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

What I really want to focus upon is why these two things occur.  Asa is able to have peace for the same reason that Asa is able to do what is right in the Lord’s eyes.  Asa himself gives us the reason why is 2 Chronicles 14:7.  These things can happen because they have sought out the Lord.  Because they have sought out the Lord, they have God’s protection.  They have peace with God.

Peace comes when we seek the Lord.

Just remember, though.  When we say that peace comes when we seek the Lord, that doesn’t necessarily mean peace with the world.  This chapter itself contains an example where Asa was not at peace with the world around him.  Many of God’s prophets were not at peace.  Jesus Himself was crucified by the world.  Jesus’ disciples were persecuted heavily.  Peace, an internal peace and a spiritual peace, comes when we seek the Lord.  But when we don’t have peace with the world, we know that we will have God’s eternal protection.

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Year 6, Day 298: 1 Chronicles 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

As I read through the chapter for today, I have to admit that my first thought was, “How would have liked being selected for the gatekeeper duty?”  Honestly, there is a certain blandness about this chapter.  The people selected today just stand at the gates and watch the people come in and out.

Then I have to stop and ask, “Am I really that vain?”  After all, how self-centered does a person have to be to say to God, “No, really, I’d rather do something else, something that isn’t as boring as watching over the people.”  The reality is that when we have this reaction to a chapter like this, it can show our priorities and our perspective.

Let me spin this chapter in a different light.  What were the gatekeepers tasked with doing?  Remember, there were twelve gates into the temple.  The gatekeepers were tasked with making sure that each of these gates were safe and secure.  The gatekeepers were tasked with making sure that people went where they were supposed to go and people were following the rules.  Remember, there were areas in the temple for Gentiles, women, men, priests, and high priests.  Each of those had to be regulated.  Each of these had to be administered.  Thousands of people would be coming through the gates wanting to make their yearly sacrifice.  This was no easy job.

That brings us to the idea of protection.  What these gatekeepers were tasked with doing was protection.  They were protecting the people and making the temple safe.  But they were also protecting the holiness of the space.  They were tasked with protecting the spirituality of the people as they came in contact with a holy God.  When put in this perspective, this is no small or insignificant task.  God seeks to place His protection into our life.  We should never think that His protection is a small or trivial thing.

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Year 6, Day 247: Micah 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Listen to the anguish of Micah as he speaks about the social environment around him.  The godly perish.  The people are not interested in being upright.  Everyone around them seems to be willing to use each other for their own personal gain.  Even the people who are assigned to watch over the people – princes and judges – ask for bribes.  Neighbors cannot be trusted.  People twist one another’s words.  Children treat their parents with contempt.

What is Micah’s response?  Look in Micah 7:7.  As for me, I will look to the Lord.  I will wait for the god of my salvation.  He will hear me.

The rest of the chapter speaks largely about the deliverance that comes from the Lord.  He forgives our iniquity.  He pleads our cause when we are unable to do so.  He executes judgment.  He brings light into darkness.  He shames the unrighteous enemy.

In the end, we can speak like Micah.  Who is like our God?  He does not hold onto His anger.  Instead, He prefers to deal with His people in love.  He is the faithful one.  He is the one that we can depend upon when we are in need of protection.

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Year 6, Day 176: Matthew 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Herod smells a rival and wants to be done away with this would-be-king.  When he sees the magi coming, he also smells innocent people who are so unaware of the political milieu that he could take advantage of them.  This is the context of this chapter.

Notice, however, that the Father makes a case about being able to protect.  The Father will protect His Son until the time of His death has truly come.  The Father puts a plan into motion that will confuse Herod and prevent him from harming His Son.

Part of this protection is also protecting the magi.  Yes, He protects them physically by sending them home a different way.  However, the Father also protects their innocence.  They are simply coming to worship at the feet of someone that the heavens also worship as shown by the star.  God protects their innocence and does not allow them to because Herod’s pawn.

Naturally, god protect Jesus and his family.  Joseph is warned in a dream to go to Egypt.  When they come back they are given the wisdom to settle in Nazareth.  God sets up His Son on a path of protection against the wrath of the human leadership around him.

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As an aside, when I first read this chapter for study, I thought that I was going to write a blog on authority.  After all, it is clear that this chapter is about authority in our life and the competing authority of God and Herod.  The magi choose God’s authority.  Joseph chooses God’s authority.  But in the end, I think that is all really self-explanatory, which is why I looked at protection instead.

Year 6, Day 140: Ezekiel 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

This is a tough chapter to hear.  It begins with God telling Ezekiel to confront these people in their idolatry.  Confrontation is never easy.  Confronting elders and respected people is even less easy.  But God gives a stern warning.  If the people continue to part from God in order to be with their idols, then God threatens to part with them.

After this, we hear a series of harsh prophesies.  Because of their idolatry, God will not save them.  Even if Noah, Daniel and Job were among them, God would not save them!  God is comparing these people to the time of the flood, when God destroyed the population of the world because of their sin.

Yet, there is something interesting in these passages.  If Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, they would save their own lives.  And here we get a truth about God’s protection.  God may bring judgment against a nation, but He does not overlook the righteous ones in their midst.  Judah may be falling to Babylon, but God will spare a righteous remnant.  Of course, we know this to be true because we have studied the book of Jeremiah.  God spared Jeremiah even when the city fell completely.

God will remove His protection when we fall as a community.  But He will continue to walk with the righteous even when the community falls.  He is a righteous God in His protection.

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Year 6, Day 137: Ezekiel 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Ezekiel 11 is a sad chapter.  Here we get the promise of the last few chapters.  The glory of the Lord departs Jerusalem.  The presence of the Lord departs Jerusalem.  No longer will the Lord protect the people.  They have turned their back upon Him; He will walk away from them as well.  They will be judged in their arrogance.

Yet, at the same time this chapter is a chapter of promise.  God doesn’t get rid of all Jews in every place.  No, God simply removes His protection from the Hebrew people in Jerusalem.  The Hebrew people in exile will still Know His protection.  God will be able to bring a remnant out of their captivity.  Those who allowed themselves to be humbled will find a God who loves them and welcomes them and forgives them and protects them.

When we look at this dichotomy, we really see just how much control God puts into our hands.  He wants to love us and protect us.  But He gives us the ability to reject His protection and walk away from Him.  When we do that, He will depart from us and give us the freedom to make that choice.

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Year 6, Day 119: Lamentations 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance, Protection

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.
• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

This is a very bleak chapter.  Then again, the book is called Lamentations, after all.  We should expect a bleak chapter.

As I read through this chapter, I couldn’t help focusing on what it must have felt like to see your very own God taking steps to bring about your subdual.  Imagine watching holy people slaughtered in the very temple of God.  Imagine watching the people left in Jerusalem survive only by cannibalism.  Imagine watching foreign people invade your land and shake their head in awe at the destruction of what once was considered one of the most beautiful cities.  Imagine realizing that this is all happening because God has decided to righteously judge your nation.

Can you imagine what it would be like to live without God’s protection?  Can you imagine what it would be like to live without God’s guidance?

Of course, God did not abandon His people eternally.  Even when we are reaping the consequences of our sin, God does not abandon us eternally.  His guidance is always there for us when we are willing to receive it.  His eternal protection is always available to us.  Thanks be to God.

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Year 6, Day 104: Jeremiah 52

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Protection may seem to be an interesting topic to choose on the day that we hear a recap of the destruction and deportation of the Hebrew people.  Certainly the topic of the deportation, Jeremiah’s kidnapping, and the destruction of the temple is not a chapter that sounds like God is watching over His people.  I get that.

However, notice how this book ends.  After all of the bad things – the judgment due to Judah – happen, we see that the king of Babylon releases Jehoiachin from prison and Jehoiachin is treated nicely by the king.  In fact, we are told that Jehoiachin is treated more favorably than any other vassal king under Babylon.  What God is showing in this action is that if God can spare a single person in Jehoiachin, the rest of the people can look forward to redemption as well.  God typically starts with one person as an example before bringing His action into the greater context.

This shows us that we are in God’s hands, even in a time of judgment.  Even when God is in the process of judging us and bringing us to a point of humble repentance, He is watching over us.  If we are willing to be humble, He is willing to forgive and bring us into new life.  And He is willing to watch over us and protect us through that process.  That’s why we can talk about protection even at a time when we are reading about the fall and destruction of Jerusalem.

For what it is worth, this is seen in the prophets as well.  Remember Daniel?  Daniel was brought to Babylon from Judah.  But Daniel was lifted up and protected in Babylon by God.  Even in the midst of judgment, God protects.  We can rest comfortable even as we are judged because God is in control of it all.

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Year 6, Day 92: Jeremiah 39

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Jeremiah 39 is a dark chapter.  I’m still remember the day that I read this chapter 3 years ago.  I remember the study of the consequences upon Zedekiah.  But I’ll get to that in a second.  For the beginning, I want to focus on Jeremiah.

Can you see God’s protection?  Jeremiah had been tormented by the Jews in Jerusalem.  But Jeremiah remained faithful to God and stayed in Jerusalem.  Jeremiah proclaimed God’s messages – even when they were not popular.  But in the end, God protects Jeremiah.  Nebuchadnezzar’s men come for him and keep him safe even while the rest of the people head off into captivity.  God protects Jeremiah.

In fact, we also get to hear the story of God protecting Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian.  He is the man who went to Jeremiah in an earlier moment of captivity and then went to Zedekiah and pleaded for his safety.  Ebed-Melech watched out for God’s own and he now enjoys the protection of God.

Having looked in on two shining examples of God’s protection, we now turn to Zedekiah.  Here is a man who gets to watch his sons executed.  Then his own eyes are plucked out, ensuring that the last thing he ever remembers seeing is the brutal death of his own children.  Here is a man who refused God’s protection because he was too proud to surrender to Babylon while submitting to God.  Zedekiah had been given plenty of opportunities from Jeremiah.  But he refused to listen.  As a consequence of His stubbornness, Zedekiah does not have the protection of God.  He is punished hard by Nebuchadnezzar.  There are usually consequences for our rebellion, especially when we are unrepentant.

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Year 6, Day 77: Jeremiah 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

When I was growing up, the Babylonian captivity was always an enigma to me.  After all, why would God let His own people go into captivity?  Why would God let some nation that worships other gods triumph over His own people?  From the perspective of a naïve child, this makes no sense.  The strongest God should have the strongest people, after all.

It is chapters like Jeremiah 24 that are lost on the naïveté of childhood.  What I didn’t understand is that God was actually protecting His people by ushering them into captivity.  In captivity the faithful would be pressed into faithfulness.  In captivity, the faithful would have to choose to remain faithful.  We know that great pressure makes the best diamonds.  We know that good steel is only make through much exposure to fire.  In the same way, faithful people are built under the pressure of trials and persecution.  That’s why the good figs in Jeremiah’s parable are the people who are already exiled.

On the other hand, we hear that the bad figs are the ones who remain in Jerusalem.  The good figs are removed so that the bad figs can spoil all the faster.  The good figs are removed so that the bad figs can prove what they really are.  The exile happens to forge strong faith out of the faithful and to expose the faithless for what they really are.

How does this all come back to protection?  As a child, I saw the Babylonian exile as a place of doubt in my understanding of God’s desire to protect His own people.  As an adult, my perspective has changed.  The exile is a means for protecting the faithful from the rottenness of the rest.  God is protecting His people even in the midst of an exile.

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Year 6, Day 69: Jeremiah 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

It is finally in this 16^th chapter of Jeremiah that we get a glimpse of God’s full plan.  Yes, there have been all kinds of promises about judgment in the prior chapters.  There is even a healthy dose of that here in Jeremiah, too.  But it isn’t the judgment that makes this chapter special and unique.  It is the promise at the end.

As we finish this chapter, we hear the Lord make an unusual claim.  There will come a day when people stop talking about the Hebrew people as the people who were brought up out of Egypt by God.  That should make us raise our eyebrows a little.  After all, the Exodus is one of the greatest stories in the Bible!  God’s power was on full display!  Why would they stop talking about that event?  God then tell us that there will come a say when people remember the Hebrew people as the people that God brought out of the northern country.

Think about this claim for a second.  What this means is that God will have beaten the Egyptians – the big power in the world for many centuries.  Then God will have beaten the Assyrians and Babylonians, the next two big powers on the scene.  God is telling the Hebrew people – and the world – that He can protect His people from even the biggest nations in the world.  Human and worldly power means nothing to God’s plan.

But God goes further than just promising protection.  God tells us how He is going to do it.  God tells us that He is already preparing to send fisherman to catch the people who go into captivity and who turn to Him.  {As an aside, I love that the occupation represented the most among Jesus’ disciples is the fisherman!}  God tells His people through Jeremiah that hunters will go out and seek the lost.

This is what I love about God’s protection.  God isn’t passive about His protection.  He doesn’t just say, “I’m a shelter if you come to me.”  God says, “I will actively protect you.”  God says, “I will actively send people out into the world to protect you.”  That’s God’s protection.

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Year 6, Day 9: Isaiah 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling, Protection

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.
• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Isaiah 25 is one of my favorite hope chapters in the Old Testament.  Here we see very clearly that there will be a day when God wipes away every tear.  There will be a day when God sets out an incredible everlasting provision for us.  There will be a day when God delivers us and protects us even from the clutches of death.  That’s a testament of hope!

But as we go through this chapter, we need to really understand the issue of calling.  It is God’s calling to save us.  Isaiah 25:9 is really clear about this fact.  It is God who saves us.  We are not righteous enough to save ourselves, He will bring salvation into our midst.

Then what is our calling?  If we are not to save ourselves, what are we to do?  Again, Isaiah 25:9 tells us quite clearly.  We are to wait for Him.  When He saves us, we are to rejoice in His glory.  What is our job?  Our job is to wait for Him to act and then join Him in His action.  Once He acts, we are to rejoice in whatever it is that He is doing.

So often we want to be ahead of God.  So often we want to guess what God is doing so that we can be in on the ground level.  But that really isn’t what we are called to do.  We are called to wait until God works and then join Him.  We are to let Him lead so that we can follow.  We get ourselves into trouble when we try and anticipate God.  He doesn't need us anticipating His job so that He has to correct our assumption.  He needs us to wait patiently and then get on board once He works.  That is our calling.

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Year 5, Day 361: Isaiah 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Isaiah 11 is a chapter of deliverance.  Isaiah tells the people that the day will come when Assyria will trouble them no more.  There will be a day when the Hebrew people have a highway to let them out of Assyria and enabled them to return to their homeland.  We know that this actually did happen – although not within Isaiah’s lifetime.  Babylon conquers Assyria as well as Judah.  Then the Persians conquer Babylon and decree that the Hebrew people may return to their homeland and re-establish their national identity in God.  The point of this chapter is that God will protect them long enough for that remnant to return.

In fact, this chapter is specific about how that will come about.  God will lift up shoots from the stump of Jesse.  In other words, leaders will come from the lineage of David and lead His people home.  We know that this happened from a historical perspective.  Zerubabbel is the grandson of Jehoiachin, who we know to be of the line of David.  He is the first to lead people out of captivity and back into the Promised Land.

Of course, this chapter is true on a spiritual level as well.  We know that this passage likewise points us to Christ.  He is the ultimate shoot from the stump of Jesse.  He leads us away from the captivity of sinfulness and into a spiritual Promised Land.  And God is willing to keep us and protect in that process as well.  God is willing to protect us from the natural consequences of our own actions and allow us to know His grace and peace in eternal life.

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Year 5, Day 336: Ecclesiastes 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

I think this is going to feel a little strange at first.  In my blog post from three years ago, I look at this chapter largely through the lens of happiness.  After all, that’s ultimately from where Solomon comes throughout this whole chapter.  If we are not able to enjoy what God has given us, what’s the point of having it or doing it?

This got me thinking about why I don’t enjoy the things around me.  I think there is one main reason why I don’t enjoy life more: me.  I don’t enjoy life more because I end up chasing the wrong dreams.  I don’t enjoy life more because I worry about the wrong things.  I spend a good bit of my life chasing after what I want instead of what God wants for me.  As Solomon says many times, this is a great evil.

This is what leads me to the idea of protection.  I need to protect myself from myself.  What good is a life spent in the acquisition of money if I don’t enjoy it?  I might want a lot of money, but if having the largest pool of money as possible becomes the goal in the place of God, am I doing any good?  Will I enjoy my life in that case?  As I read through this chapter of Ecclesiastes, I really do see my need for God to protect me from myself.  It is so easy for me to slip into a vain life just by following my own desires and not the call of God within my life.

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Year 5, Day 279: Psalm 141-142

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

We speak a lot about protection in the psalms, because many of the psalms are written from the perspective of a person who is in trouble and needs the Lord to watch over them.  Such is the case for Psalm 142.  In this psalm we hear a typical plea for the Lord to watch over the life of the psalmist.  People have laid a trap for the psalmist.  They are looking for his downfall.  The psalmist knows that he cannot navigate the evil of mankind on his own.  He needs the protection of the Lord.

However, in Psalm 141 we have a really neat twist on this idea of protection.  Do you hear what the psalmist says in Psalm 141:3-4 and then carries throughout the rest of this psalm?  The psalmist asks for protection against his own tongue!  He asks that his mouth not be his downfall.  He asks the Lord to protect his heart.  The truth is that harm does not only exist outside of us.  Harm also exists within us.  We need the Lord to protect us from that which is outside of us as well as the sin that dwells within.

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Year 5, Day 277: Psalm 137-138

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Psalm 137 is a fairly depressing psalm.  The psalmist is in captivity under the Babylonians.  As a trained musician, he is asked to perform.  Yet he doesn’t feel like performing because he is in captivity and sorrowful because he would rather be free in his own land.  This moment of sorrow brings the psalmist to a place of asking God to remember them and watch over them until they have been vindicated.

Psalm 138 is written several centuries prior to Psalm 137.  It is a psalm of David.  As David looks at his life, he realizes the reasons that he has to give glory to God.  Chief among those reasons is the protection that he has felt throughout his life.  David might walk in the shadow of trouble.  Who among us doesn’t?  But when David walks in the shadow of trouble he remembers the security of the Lord who walks with him.

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Year 5, Day 271: Psalms 124-125

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Psalms 124 and 125 speak to us about protection.  In Psalm 124 we have a great blunt statement.  God has not given us as prey to their teeth!  God has allowed us to continue!  God has not abandoned us to neither our sinfulness nor the sinfulness of other people.  He watches over us and keeps us from the full brunt of evil in the world.

Psalm 125 takes this idea a little more abstractly.  The main thrust of Psalm 125 is that evil cannot abide in God’s righteousness.  Evil cannot reside where God is present.  Our greatest form of protection is the presence of the Lord.

I know that this is true in my life.  Many times people have come against me with the desire to do harm.  Yes, they have been able to impact my life.  But I’m still here.  God’s righteousness is still with me.  I am still to be found in god’s kingdom.  The evil of this world has not overcome me.

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Year 5, Day 246: Psalm 118

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

It would have been simple to write another blog post on Up, especially in this chapter.  However, I believe that three days on a single focus is good enough.  So today I am going to focus upon protection.

Look at what the psalmist says.  The Lord answers us in our distress.  The Lord is on our side, why should we fear?  We can take refuge in Him.  Our enemies may surround us, but He surrounds them!  When we fall, the Lord helps us up!  He answers us.  He has become our salvation!

This psalm is full of reasons to give God praise.  But most of the reasons for this praise are that the Lord can protect us.  He is capable of being what we truly need Him to be in our darkest moment.

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Year 5, Day 240: Psalm 109

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

This is a challenging psalm.  I am always challenged by the tone of this psalm.  My challenge comes because this psalm is so human.

Who hasn’t desired to see their enemies encounter difficulty?  Who hasn’t desired to watch those who oppose them get what we think they deserve?  Who among us hasn’t wanted to know the grace of God for themselves but then ask God to judge their enemies?  That’s what this psalm is all about.  The psalmist is asking for judgment upon the enemies of the psalmist.

In the end, though, while the psalmist’s perspective is clearly human his fundamental need is legitimate.  What the psalmist is fundamentally doing is asking for protection.  The psalmist is feeling persecuted and is asking God to do something about it.  This is not a bad thing.  We should call to God for help against those who persecute us.

But I have to end on this.  A godly perspective asks for our enemies to change and come to know God, not ask for their swift judgment.

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