God is Our Help and Our Shield

One sentence is repeated three times within the span of three verses in the middle of Psalm 115: “He is their help and their shield.”

Psalm 115 was sung in worship and it was sung at the conclusion of every Passover meal.  It seems that verses 9-11 were sung in a call and response way, with a leader calling out the first line, and the congregation or the family providing the reply:

          O Israel, trust in the Lord!

          He is their help and their shield.

          O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!

          He is their help and their shield.

          You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!

          He is their help and their shield.

Warren Wiersbe points out, “When you know God’s name, you know God’s nature.  God’s names and titles reveal his nature.  They tell us who God is and what God can do.  Each name God bears is a blessing he bestows on us.”

In these verses, we are given two names of God and two blessings he bestows on us: God is our “shield,” and God is our “help.”

Our Shield: According to Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, a shield (magen in the Hebrew) was “a hard object, generally made of metal, with which a warrior protected his body from the weapons of the enemy.  In the biblical period, shields came in all sizes and shapes.  Some shields were made of leather or wood.”

What we learn here about the character of God and about the blessing he bestows on us is that God has committed himself to guarding our souls.  Dr. Larry Crabb puts it this way: “We are safe not from bombs, cancer, or family heartache, but from even an inch of separation from God who is in control of the Immanuel [God-with-us] Agenda.”  After missionary Ray Rising was kidnapped by guerrillas in Colombia, and while he was being held for two years, his wife, Doris Rising, shared, “Our protection and peace in these days of conflict depend on our nearness to God, not our distance from danger.”

Our Help: The word translated here as “help” (ezer in the Hebrew) is a very personal term, and is best understood not simply as “help” but as “Helper.”  God is not merely the help that we get; God is our Helper, the One who provides the help we need.  The first use of the word ezer in Scripture is in Genesis 2:18 when God determined that the first man needed the right partner to “help” him—to make his life complete.  That’s how personal this term is.

When Psalm 115 was translated into Greek in the Septuagint, the word used for “help” was boetheo which means to run to (in order to support) or to go to the aid of.  It provides us with a picture of God rushing to our aid when we are in need.

Joni Eareckson Tada expands on this in her book with Steven Estes, When God Weeps: “God, like a father, doesn’t just give advice.  He gives himself.  He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5).  He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isaiah 54:1).  He becomes the father of the orphaned (Psalm 10:14).  He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5).  He is the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26).  He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6).  This is what you do when someone you love is in anguish: you respond to the plea of their heart by giving them your heart.  If you are the One at the center of the universe, holding it together, if everything moves, breathes, and has its being in you, you can do no more than give yourself.”

          You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!

          He is their help and their shield!

I Admire Mary, the Mother of Jesus

I deeply admire Mary, the mother of Jesus. 

She grew up in a difficult time and in difficult circumstances.

She was Jewish, and it was a difficult time and place to be Jewish.  Her country had been taken over by a foreign power (Rome).  Her resident “king” (Herod) taxed the citizens so extremely for his building projects that the people were in deep poverty.  By examining fecal matter from that time, anthropologist Jane Cahill has found alarming evidence of extensive malnutrition.  Jean-Pierre Isbouts writes, “In sum, Jesus’ ministry unfolded in the midst of a humanitarian crisis that was absolutely unprecedented in the history of ancient Israel.”    

Mary grew up in the small town of Nazareth, which was home to no more than about 50 families.  Years later, a man named Nathanael asked with complete sincerity whether anything good could come out of Nazareth.  Nazareth did not offer much promise to any of its residents. 

As a woman, Mary faced tremendous devaluation.  Men of the time were taught to pray each day, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hast not made me a heathen, a slave or a woman.”  Teachers of the day taught, “Blessed is he whose children are male, and woe to him whose children are female.”  And it was taught, “He that talks much with womankind brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the Law and at the last will inherit hell.”  According to their customs, it was appropriate for women to lead a funeral procession, because a woman was seen as standing closer to death than a man does.  Women had no choice as to what they would do with their lives; they were ruled first by their fathers, then by their husbands.  An unmarried girl could be sold by her father into slavery or given to a husband of her father’s choosing.

Yet Mary had one good thing going for her.  She was engaged to a man who was considered to be a “righteous man.”  

When Mary was probably 14 or 15, if the normal custom was followed, Joseph and his father made a visit to Mary’s father, bringing with them a sum of money, a wedding contract, and a skin of wine.  When Mary’s father approved of the wedding, Mary was brought in, then Joseph poured wine from the skin into a cup and offered it to Mary.  In doing so, Joseph symbolically offered his life to Mary.  In taking the cup from Joseph, Mary agreed to the marriage.  From that moment on, Mary was considered consecrated—set apart to be married to Joseph.

Before leaving, Joseph would have given to Mary a coin or some other gift that was meant to remind Mary of Joseph while she waited for the day of the wedding.  Joseph then went off to build onto his parents’ home a new home for him and for Mary to move into following their wedding.  It might have taken Joseph up to two years to build that home.

While Joseph worked on the house, Mary would have been preparing everything she would need for their married life.  She had no idea when Joseph would come for her, but she knew that he would come with great fanfare, according to custom, with trumpets blasting and joyful shouting, and with music and dancing.  Mary would put on her wedding dress and her wedding veil and would join the procession as they wound their way to the couple’s new home.  The wedding celebration would last for seven days, and during those seven days the bride would be treated like royalty and even called Queen Mary.    

That’s what Mary was anticipating, but suddenly an angel showed up in Nazareth and things went in a very different direction. 

The angel announces that Mary has been chosen to bear the Son of God.  The one who was poor was filled with the richness of heaven: the Son of God.  The one who was disdained by society was granted the greatest honor ever granted to a human: to be the bearer of God-incarnate.  The one who was forbidden from being taught the Law became the home for the very Word of God.  The one who was thought to be closer to death had the very Creator of life growing in her womb.

Yet Mary is suddenly the subject of scandal, for she is pregnant outside the bonds of marriage.  Joseph could have exposed her to public disgrace, but he decided to divorce her quietly, until God intervened and changed Joseph’s mind.  By all appearances, though, the scandal continues, for three decades later people still questioned the legitimacy of Jesus’ birth.  Apparently, Mary never got the wedding she was dreaming of, and never enjoyed the townspeople celebrating her marriage and calling her “Queen Mary” for a week.

As the time drew near for the baby to be born, Mary and Joseph made a 70-mile trek through rocky highlands to the city of Bethlehem, probably over a span of three weeks.  When they arrived in Bethlehem, no one had room for them in their guestrooms, so Mary and Joseph bed down in the common area of someone’s home, where the family cow was kept for the night.  Here she gave birth to baby Jesus. 

I admire Mary immensely.  I admire her willingness to face the disdain of others.  I admire her courage to endure the challenges that beset her.  I admire her faith to face the unknown and the unknowable without turning away.  I admire her willingness to say to the angel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  I want to grow in the faithfulness of Mary. 

Do you own how precious we are to God?

How do you see yourself?  How do you see others whom you encounter as you go about your day?  What difference does it make?  

In 1^st Corinthians 3:16, Paul says something incredible about who we are.  He writes, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”    

In the Greek, the force of this comment is even greater.  Paul uses the Greek word naos, referring to the sanctuary—the holy place—within the temple, rather than the Greek word ieron, referring to the broader temple grounds.  Paul likens us not just to the revered and beautiful temple grounds, but to the holy place in the heart of the temple where God has chosen to make his dwelling place.

In other words, wherever you are, that’s where God has chosen to make his dwelling.  That’s how precious you are in the eyes of God!

Do you know how precious you are to God?  Scripture stresses that you are precious in God’s sight (Isaiah 43:4).  You are the apple of God’s eye (Deuteronomy 32:10).  You are adopted as God’s own child (Ephesians 1:5 & 1 John 3:1).  You are Christ’s friend (John 15:15).  You were bought with a price—at the cost of Christ’s own life (1 Corinthians 6:20).  You have direct access to God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:18 & Romans 8:26).  You are forgiven (1 John 1:9).  You cannot be separated from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).  You are held in God’s own hand (Isaiah 41:10).  By putting the Holy Spirit in you, God has put a “seal” on you, marking you as belonging to God (2 Corinthians 1:22).  You are God’s handiwork, God’s masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10).  You are God’s sanctuary (1 Corinthians 3:16).    

There are three great ramifications to our faith and to our lives because of the truth that we are deeply precious to God:

1: We need to know and to own that we are deeply loved by God so that the way we live can flow forth from God’s love.  As Mark Labberton expressed it, “We are made to live out of God’s belovedness first and primarily.  When that occurs, we have a far, far greater likelihood of coming to all else in our lives with more capacity to live and to love.” (Called, p. 108) 

When we do not own that we are loved by God, then we end up trying to earn God’s love or to win the admiration of others.  We cannot give away love freely and generously when we are trying desperately to earn it.  We can only give away God’s love freely and generously when we are already filled with it and intimately claim it as our own. 

You are deeply loved by God!  Own it, and live in it. 

2: We need to value others as equally precious to God.  Henri Nouwen remarks, “Once we deeply trust that we ourselves are precious in God’s eyes, we are able to recognize the preciousness of others and their unique places in God’s heart.”  Maya Angelou shares, “While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.” 

If we truly believe that we are precious in God’s eyes and that others are also deeply precious to God, do we dare turn a cold heart or a blind eye or a deaf ear to someone who is precious to God?  Or do we extend love that is in keeping with God’s love for them, and that is in keeping with the love of God that lives in us? 

3: We need to build onto our lives with worthwhile building materials. 

In verses 12-13, Paul writes, “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.” 

Later in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul will speak again about building materials that will not last in contrast to building materials that will last.  In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul writes, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”  Childish ways have to do with being self-absorbed as opposed to loving God and loving others.  Living a life of self-centeredness is the building material of hay or straw.  That kind of building material should not last or cannot last.  We need to move away from a life of self-absorption to a life of love for God and for others.  Thus, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”  When we build onto our lives with love, that is like building onto our lives with gold or silver or precious stones.  That’s the kind of building material that is lasting and rewarding. 

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Care

Each year at Passover, Psalm 114 is the second psalm sung by Jewish celebrants. As the psalm is sung, celebrants recall the miraculous ways God cared for his people in delivering them from slavery in Egypt and in bringing them to the Promised Land.

In poetic form, the psalm describes how the sea was parted so that the Jewish people could flee safely from the Egyptian army and how the waters of the Jordan River were held back enabling the Jewish people to enter the Promised Land at the end of their journey through the desert: “The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back…. Why is it, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?” (verses 3 & 5) 

In poetic form, the psalm describes the earthquake that shook the mountains when the Ten Commandments were given to the people: “The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs…. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob” (verses 4 & 7).

And in poetic form, the psalm describes how God brought water from a rock for his thirsty people: “Who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water” (verse 8).

The message the Psalm seeks to get across to us through the recitation of these geographical miracles is that no element of geography can prevent God from caring for his people. God is always with us and always caring for us.

As an Our Daily Bread devotional expressed it, “When the turbulent seas of adversity are threatening, we need to remember the awesome power of God. As the seas fled before him, so too can the obstacles that seem so overwhelming to us. They have no more resistance to God’s power than water in a teacup!”

Do Not Remain a Spiritual Infant

Some time ago, Leadership Journal reported, “A young man who works in an aquarium explained that the most popular fish is the shark.  If you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium.  Sharks can be six inches long yet fully matured.  But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet.  That also happens to some Christians.  I’ve seen some of the cutest little six-inch Christians who swim around in a little puddle. 

This is the problem Paul is grappling with in 1 Corinthians 3.

Paul begins the chapter with an analogy that refers to the Corinthians as infants who have not grown up: “I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food.  Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh.  For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?”    

A primary characteristic of a baby is that a baby is self-centered.  A baby is aware of his or her own needs, but of very little else.  A baby does not stop and consider how exhausted the mom or dad might be.  A baby doesn’t ask, “Would this be an inconvenient time to ask for a midnight feeding?  Or should I let Mom sleep a little longer?” 

For a baby, life revolves around me.  As far as a baby can tell, others exist for the purpose of meeting the baby’s needs.  If they don’t provide what the baby needs, the baby will cry.  If the need continues to be unmet, the baby will cry even louder. 

The baby’s needs are simple.  She needs someone to feed her, to clean up after her messes, to hold her, to entertain her, and to love her.  As long as these needs are met, the child will probably be content enough.  But if these needs are not met, stand back and listen to her scream! 

Paul suggests that the Corinthian believers are acting like infants.  They are focused merely on having their own needs met.  Each Corinthian is interested in getting what he or she wants. 

When they don’t get what they want, they throw fits and temper tantrums; they pout and sulk.  They are full of jealousy and quarreling.  They live out of a self-centered approach to life.

Paul appeals to the Corinthian Christians to grow up. 

What does it mean for a Christian to grow up?  It means, primarily, to turn away from a self-centered approach to life.  It means to make the two greatest commandments the driving force of our lives: Loving God with the whole of our being and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. 

Bill Morgan points out that on a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo is a portrait with the following inscription: “James Butler Bonham—no picture of him exists.  This portrait if of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle.  It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.” 

No portrait of Jesus exists either, but when we follow in Jesus’ ways—loving God with the whole of our being and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves—the likeness of Christ can be seen in his followers. 

Nothing too great for God; no one too small for God

For centuries, every year at Passover, Jewish people have sung six Psalms, two before the Passover meal and four after the meal.  The first psalm they sing is Psalm 113.

The renowned Hebrew Scripture scholar Derek Kidner subtitled this psalm: Nothing too great for God; no one too small for God.  So, every year, as people celebrate Passover, they turn their attention to the greatness of God and to God’s care for even the least among us.

The middle verse of this psalm, the center of this psalm (verse 5), asks the question, “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high?  The answer to this question is found in the combination of these two aspects of God: the absolute greatness of God and God’s incredible care for even the least among us.

Nothing too great for God: God’s greatness is beyond our comprehension.  Thus, Psalm 113 begins with praise: “Praise the Lord!  Praise O servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord.  Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time on and forevermore.  From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised.  The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.” 

How exalted God is above every aspect of creation is expressed well in the Jerusalem Bible translation of verse 6, “Enthroned so high, he needs to stoop to see the sky and the earth.”

Yet no one is too small for God: Verses 7-9 declare, “He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.  He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.  Praise the Lord!”

The first part of verse 7 is actually a quote from Hannah, when she thanked God for hearing her prayer and giving her a baby (1 Samuel 2:8), reminding us of the care that God showed to a dejected and barren woman, assuring us that God keeps an eye out for each of us.

Charles Martin speaks to this truth in his novel Chasing Fireflies, about an abandoned child looking for his mother: “A few minutes later, Unc walked up next to me and hung his arms across the fence railing.  In his hand he held an empty mason jar with holes punched in the lid.  He stood there a long time turning the jar.  Inside, a single lightning bug fluttered off the sides of the glass.   Every five or six seconds, he’d light his lantern.  Unc turned the jar in his hand.  ‘Scientists say that these things evolved this way over millions of years.’  He shook his head.  ‘That’s a bunch of bunk.  I don’t think an animal can just all-of-a-sudden decide it wants to make light grow out its butt.  What kind of nonsense is that?  Animals don’t make light.’  He pointed to the stars.  ‘God does that.  I don’t know why or how, but I’m pretty sure it’s not chance.  It’s not some haphazard thing he does in his spare time.’

“He looked at me, and his expression changed from one of wonder to seriousness, to absolute conviction.  ‘Chase, I don’t believe in chance.’  He held up the jar.  ‘This is not chance, neither are the stars.’

“I was hurting inside, and the streaks shining on my face didn’t scratch the surface at telling how much.

“He tapped me gently in the chest.  ‘And neither are you.  So, if your mind is telling you that God slipped up and might have made one giant mistake when it comes to you, you remember the firefly’s butt.’”