Seize the Moment – Day 1253
The Lord is My Keeper!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, August 22.
There are times when God is described in human terms. This is called anthropomorphism; it’s a very common literary device in the Bible. In Psalm 121, the Hebrew word shamar is used six times to describe God’s activity as a military guard or night watchman. In verses 7-8, it is used three times, “The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.” [emphasis added] Scholars explain this robust Hebrew word, translated three different ways in the above passage:
The Hebrew verb shamar means “to keep,” but it is also translated in overlapping and similar ways: to care for, be careful, obey, guard, watch, or observe. Shamar is used by the Lord when He commands Adam to “take care of” the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15) or Eleazar “to guard” the ark of the Lord (1 Sam. 7:1).[1]
In the same way that God watches over us, we are to keep Him as the priority of our lives. God’s people have been charged with keeping the commandments of God (Exodus 19:5; 20:6; Leviticus 18:5). In the New Covenant, we are to “keep” ourselves in the love of God (Jude 1:21) and “be on guard” for ourselves and all the flock of God (Acts 20:28). We are to train into our own lives of faith the same diligence a soldier applies to his mission of protecting people.
Seize the moment and pray Psalm 121, meditating on your enlistment as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, who does not “entangle himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4). How are you training yourself to live on mission today? What distractions do you need to guard against so you can live a Christ-centered life?
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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FOOTNOTE:
[1] Eugene E. Carpenter and Philip W. Comfort, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 102.