1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
The Lord is our ferocious, mama bear protector! I love picturing that trait of Him: his deep, loving, loyal and fierce protective side! I like to envision myself hiding underneath his widespread arms and being safe, hidden and covered under there!
I have a random story of birds that my mom witnessed on Steilacoom Lake. She loves animals and watching how they live and act. So there was a mommy duck with her brand new ducklings out swimming and a bald eagle was overhead. The mommy duck was quacking and trying to reel her ducks in, but wasn't successful quickly enough. One by one, the eagle quickly plucked off some of her ducklings!!! My mom was horrified-screaming at the eagle and throwing rocks. The next thing though was incredible and totally unbelievable! A group of Canadian geese came over to the mama duck and what was left of her ducklings and completely surrounded the weaker, helpless ducks and honked loudly at the eagle, successfully warding the predator off.
When I heard that story, well, I cried cause I felt bad for the mommy duck and cause I was amazed at God's creation and how He weaves His nature into animals with the desire to protect, defend, and sacrifice.
God is so good and faithful! He protects us and shelters us from known and unknown predators! He loves to and doesn't just rise to the occasion to do so, but is knitting our life story together infused and designed with His safety and protection surrounding us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus-He is our safety, strong tower, refuge, strength, hope, defender, the Almighty One, and the Commander of a massive army of angels to watch over us and guard us! Abiding under His covering is all we've got and our only hope! We are deceiving ourselves if we feel safe and fine outside of His shadow. Let us love Him, acknowledging Him constantly and calling on His name alone. And in one way or another, our Lord will keep His promises (which our preschoolers learned this past Saturday)....at the end of this chapter He promises us that He will rescue us, protect us, call on us, be with us in times of trouble, deliver us, give us a long life and show us His salvation when we simply LOVE Him!!