Safe and Secure

DEVOTION

PSALMS

SAFE AND SECURE

Ps 18:1-6

I love you, O LORD, my strength.

2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 5 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

NIV

It is said David wrote this psalm when he was delivered from the hand of Saul who was trying so desperately to kill him. This psalm is fairly long so it might do us well to take it in smaller portions. First of all, it is always good to start the day with those words, “I love you, O LORD, my strength”. It would be especially good today as this is the National Day of Prayer, as well as we just heard God moving about in the heavens, a great rumble of thunder just we said, “I love you O LORD, my strength”. God is our rock, he is our fortress and our deliverer. We can always take refuge in him. There are many enemies at the gate of our heart. The world has its battering rams, Satan has his flaming arrows, even our own heart has areas within that want to let them in. But God saves us from our enemies because we call on the LORD who is worthy of praise. The enemy of our soul wants to wrap the cords of death around us and entangle us. He wants us to believe we will be destroyed by all the temptations he flings at us. The world attacks at every place along our wall and rams at our gate, our heart and mind. It says we will overcome you, we will beat you down until we take charge of your heart and mind, until you start believing in our way, until you forget about trusting God and start trusting in yourselves. Satan shoots his flaming arrows in hopes one will strike at the core of our faith, and we give up on God and look to either the world or him for the fulfillment of our pleasures. But that brings death, and even if we are distressed by all those, we will call out to our LORD for help. We will always know he is our rock, our deliverer. He will hear us from his temple, our cry will come before his ears. Who do we have to fear, he has armed us with his armor, and it protects our heart and mind. The Breastplate of Righteousness, Jesus, covers our heart, the Helmet of Salvation, Jesus, covers our mind, our inner parts, our loins are belted up with the truth, Jesus, and he has given us a Shield of Faith, Jesus, to extinguish all the flaming arrows, all the temptations, all the attacks of the enemy. We can take our stand on the Rock of our Salvation, the Lord God Almighty. He is our fortress, the walls will not be scaled by the enemy. Jesus is the gate, no wolves will get into his pen and do harm to his sheep. We are safe and secure from all alarm.