The Lord Will Keep You

July 24

"The Lord will keep you from all harm — He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore," Psalm 121:7-8.

Nations may rise and fall. Freedom may ebb or flow. Happiness may attend our way or elude us. Human love may be our portion or it may be far from us. Our only constant in a world fraught with upheaval and transition is” Christ and Him crucified,” II Corinthians 2:2, and as the Apostle Paul affirmed, that truth is the only thing worth knowing.

At opposite ends of the human spectrum we have the great achievers who develop amazing technological and medical and military advancements and at the other end of the equation we have the people who languish on government handouts who expend no effort toward enriching mankind or themselves.

Neither the former nor the latter probe the truth of God or desire a relationship with Him, although He lovingly extends it to all who will receive. In this one immeasurable regard, all—from the most gifted to the most inert—perish for a lack of the knowledge of “the One whom to know is life,” John 17:3.

Yet to those who know His name, to those who abide in His salvation, to those who honor His Word, He has made great and precious promises! Whatever life may hold; whatever trials may be encountered in this Vale of Tears, whatever successes or failures, whatever loves gained or lost, whatever prizes won or forfeited, the child of God knows that he “abides under the shadow of His wing,” Psalm 91:1.

Our Father God assures us that “He keeps us as the apple of His eye,” Deuteronomy 32:10, Psalm 17:8. Just as the entire structure of the face is configured to protect the eye—eyebrows, eyelashes, eyelids, bridge of the nose, cheekbones, forehead—so the resources of God are available for the protection of His children.

His love covers His people so they may say even if trials come, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” Job 13:15. If His hedge be removed and we perish, we may say as did Stephen, the first Christian martyr as he was stoned, “I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God,” Acts 7:56. Jesus was standing to receive Stephen to Himself as he transitioned from the fleeting life in this veil of flesh to Eternal Life at the footstool of the Holy One.

If our hope were in this life only, we would, as Paul said, “be of all men most miserable,” I Corinthians 15:19. But our confident expectation transcends time so we have “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” I Peter 1:8. May we abide in His joy, which is our strength, Nehemiah 8:10; may we rest in His love which never fails, I Corinthians 13:8; and may we hope in His coming which is promised, Acts 1:11.