Skip to main content

Your Defense, Psalm 23:5

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Psalm 23:5 (NIV) David knew what it meant to be attacked emotionally, verbally, and physically. As a young man, he was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel, but Saul was still king. Even though David served him loyally, Saul was jealous of the future king and decided to kill him. David had to hide from Saul in caves while lies were being told about him across the kingdom. Yet David never said a bad word against King Saul. He never retaliated—because God was preparing David to be a king who followed God’s heart. David said of God, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5 NIV). Does it sound like David was stressed out? No! He didn’t have to use up all his energy defending himself, because he trusted God to be his defender. It takes a lot of faith and humility to trust God and rest when you’re under attack, when you’re misunderstood, and when rumors are spreading about you. When that happens, everything in you wants to rise up and do something about it. How do you handle people who attack you? You don’t. You let God handle them. Trust God to be your defender. Not only does God want to defend you, but he also wants to fellowship with you: “You’ll welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to you. Let the party last all night! Stand guard over our celebration” (Psalm 5:11 The Message). Both Psalm 23 and Psalm 5 paint the picture of a banquet, or a party, at an unlikely time—not just when good times are happening but when you’re under attack. If you’re in the heat of the battle right now, God knows about it. Maybe you’re fighting for your job. Or you’re fighting for your health. You’re fighting for your sanity. You’re fighting for your dignity. While the battle is going on, he wants to throw a banquet for you to offer just a little encouragement. God wants to give a party in a combat zone, to host a banquet on a battlefield. That kind of encouragement is available to you today when you surrender your worry, pain, and control to Jesus and rest in his promises to you. If you’re a child of God, your heavenly Father is proud of you. Critics may ignore you, ridicule you, but they can’t stop God’s blessing on your life. As the Bible says, “He brought me to his banquet hall and raised the banner of love over me” (Song of Solomon 2:4 GNT).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LEARNING DISABILITIES

The term learning disability refers to many different types of learning issues that can vary widely in levels of severity. Students with a learning disability have at least average intelligence. They have areas of high functioning and areas of difficulties. Their learning disabilities are not caused by problem, such as vision or hearing impairments, or by primary emotional disturbance, and their challenges are not the result of poor schooling. Students with learning disabilities take in information, such as sights or sounds, but may have difficulty understanding or attaching meaning to it. They find it hard to organize information so that it is readily accessible. Retrieving the information from either short or long term memory is difficult. In addition, expressing the information, either verbally through speech or writing, or nonverbally may be a problem. Students with learning disabilities often exhibit wide discrepancies between different skills areas, in other words, they may be g...
32 comments
Read more

Reaction to Globalization

Globalization and the attendant concerns about poverty and inequality have become a focus of discussion in a way that few other topics, except for international terrorism or global warming, have. Most people have a strong opinion on globalization, and all of them express an interest in the well-being of the world's poor. The financial press and influential international officials confidently assert that global free markets expand the horizons for the poor, whereas activist-protesters hold the opposite belief with equal intensity. Yet the strength of people's conviction is often in inverse proportion to the amount of robust factual evidence they have.As is common in contentious public debates, different people mean different things by the same word. Some interpret "globalization" to mean the global reach of communications technology and capital movements, some think of the outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, and others see globalization as a byword for...
50 comments
Read more

A TEACHER’S TRIBUTE TO STUDENTS

Teaching is a passion, and my experience as a teacher has been beautiful, emotional and fulfilling. Over the years, I’ve watched the student – teacher equation evolve: From Guru, as all-knowing to Guru as friend and equal, as someone who doesn’t always know the best. Today’s teacher and the learner are partners in the process of teaching and learning. We inspire, motivate and learn from each other; if I don’t know, I can admit it to my students. The teacher is only a facilitator; one who will help the student grow, become a self-learner. The teacher is only one of many sources. Not infrequently, there is a role reversal. With children being so tech-savy, often I am the student and they are my teachers. Has teaching changes the way I think ? Yes, most certainly. My students have shown me how to manage time. I marvel at how deftly they juggle sports, academics, dance, and theatre, for instance. I have learnt how to accept failure as I see my students taking success and failure with equan...
16 comments
Read more