Wednesday June 22, 2022

Hello friends and family, I pray you are well and enjoying the summer so far. For my family, summer is much different than the rest of the year. If you are a teacher or have a teacher in the family, you know what I mean. I always enjoy the time Laura and I get to spend together, but by late August, we are both ready for school to start! Let's go ahead and take a look at today's verse:
Psalm 121:7-8
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.

   I think people tend to look at this verse and draw the conclusion that nothing bad can happen to those who follow Christ. Obviously, we know that to be untrue. Jesus says in
Matthew 5: 44-45
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may [ap]be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

When viewing the verse in Psalms, I think it's important to keep in mind that the poetry books (Psalms, Proverbs...etc.) speak in generalizations, rather than specifics. For example, "Train you child in the way they should go, and in the end they will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). Generally speaking, this is true, but sometimes it isn't. For our verse today, we can look at it 2 ways:
1. The author is referring to our spiritual selves...that if we follow Christ, then we are protected (spiritually).
2. The author is speaking in general truths, stating a guiding principle that is generally correct. 

​Either way, it is true that the Lord is our protector, our Rock and Shelter from the storm. We can trust His will for our lives, even though we sometimes struggle with the details.