#DailyDevotion The LORD Jesus Is Our Strength, Fortress & Shield
Introit (Ps. 28:1–2, 6–7; antiphon: Ps. 28:8) 8 The LORD is our Strength and a fortress for His anointed one…I’m calling You, O LORD, O my Rock, don’t turn silently away from me. If You are silent, I will be like those who go down to the grave. 2 Listen to me plead as I call to You for help, as I raise my hands toward Your most holy place…6Praise the LORD —He has heard my call for mercy. 7The LORD is my Strength and my Shield. My heart trusts Him and so I’m helped; I’m delighted and praise Him in my song.
That the LORD is our Strength and a fortress for his anointed one is a common theme in the Psalms. That Jesus is both the LORD and his anointed one is a bit of a mystery. However, since you have been given faith in Jesus and anointed with the Holy Spirit in baptism, the LORD is a fortress for you as well. If we depend upon our own reason or strength in spiritual things we will find ourselves on sinking sand. Even depending upon him for mundane things is required of us lest we turn our mundane things into gods we turn to for help.
So in our Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday the Phoenician woman and the friends of the deaf-mute call out to the LORD. We know the woman was not a Jew. It is possible the friends of the deaf-mute were not Jewish either in the Decapolis. Yet they placed their faith in the LORD Jesus Christ for help, one for her daughter, the others for their friend. From the other Gospel, we can almost hear the woman as Jesus ignores her, “don’t turn silently away from me.” You can hear her say, “Listen to me plead as I call to You for help,…” Jesus was her Rock. Jesus was the Rock of the friends of the deaf-mute.
We too should follow their lead. In good times and bad times and when things are just blah, we need to turn to the LORD to be our strength, our fortress and our Rock. If we would not have the LORD be silent to us we need to open our mouths to Him. Plead your case before the LORD your God. Use Jesus’ name as he promised and you will be heard. Jesus reminds us our Father in heaven is not like our earthly fathers who give us bread instead of a stone and an egg instead of a scorpion. He certainly will answer our prayers in the way that is best for us. All good things come from the Father of lights. We may not always see how he answers our prayers and how is answer is best, but we can trust Jesus’ promise that it is so.
So indeed, the woman’s prayer was answered. The friends request was fulfilled. They all praised the LORD as he heard their call for mercy. They trusted in him and they were helped. Trust in Jesus and you will be helped. Trust in him from the center of your being. Remember he is your Strength and Shield. When all of life seems to be going against you he will be your Strength to enable you to stand and endure it.
As the LORD Jesus Christ intercedes for you at the right hand of the Father and you see the answer to your prayer be delighted in him with songs of praise. Thank God we have hymnals which have praise songs and hymns of praise when we don’t know what to say. We also have these Psalms which also give us the way to express our thanks and praise.
Heavenly Father, open our lips that we may make our needs known to you and be our Strength, Fortress, and Shield in every aspect of our lives and deliver us from all evil and want. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.