THE HEART OF HIS PROTECTION

Psalms 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

The ungodly, the ‘worldling’, has to rely upon himself for his safety and protection. He lives by his own means. He establishes his own righteousness. He is his own kingdom, with its own god: himself. He therefore has to provide for his own security and protection; he has to use locks and security guards of all sorts. His house is so guarder that it becomes his own prison.

With the child of God, it is different. With one who delights to do God’s will and whose righteousness is in God’s Law (Psalms 40:8), with one whose perpetual desire is to live close to God, God, the great Commander in Chief of the host of heaven is his protection.

In old-times warfare, the royal pavilion was situated in the middle of the army’s camp. Day and night, guards rotated shifts to protect it; there was no safer place in the whole camp. In the case of Israel, priests also protected the tabernacle of the Lord with their own lives. They would die to keep the impure from entering the Holy of Holies, and some did lose their lives keeping the Ark from falling into the hands of foreign invaders.

More important than anything else, the highest protection we need is that of the salvation of our soul redeemed by the King himself. Once the King has purchased our soul, there is no way possible that the enemy can own it again. He guards it with His own life.

So when we long for peace from the constant warfare that seems to plague our soul. When we yearn for the safety from the unceasing onslaught of the enemy upon our spirit? Let us not emulate the ways of the ungodly who has to provide for his own safety. Let us remember that staying close to our Lord, our dwelling in His house, our reveling in His beauty (Psalms 27:4) is our never failing protection.

Linguistic note:
The word translated as ‘rock” in our English Bibles is not always the same word in the Hebrew text. In this text, the word “rock” is the Hebrew “tsur”. “Tsur” is the same word for rock used in the following verses: Exodus 17:6; 33:21; Deut 8:15; 32:4; 32:13, 15,18, 31,37; and many others referring Jesus and salvation.