When I was a boy, my dog was walking with us in the mountains and we happened upon a porcupine. He thought he was saving us and so he went to bite the porcupine. He ended up with a mouth and nose FULL of quills, buried deep. As he struggled to get them out with his paws he only succeeded in making the barbed quills drive deeper and deeper. We all had to hold him down while my dad used needle nose pliers to literally rip them out of his mouth. The dog almost went insane from the pain.
Do you know that fool dog did that 2 different times? All in the name of protecting his family.
Have you forgotten to put on your armor today?
The question is, do you even want to put it on...
Let’s look at 2 passages. 2 amazing insights to connect. Psalm 142 and 1 Samuel 17:33-37.
‘I cry aloud to the Lord ; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, O Lord ; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.’(Psalm 142:1-7)
‘Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”’ (1 Samuel 17:33-37)
Lets begin with the truth.
What is truth?
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
If you are a Christian,
The truth is Jesus is in you and you are in Him.
The arrow of your enemy is to make you believe you are in prison.
The truth is you are already free! He died for you to set you free.
Even courageous David, knowing to put his strength and confidence in The Lord, even the fighter of LIONS and BEARS, fell into his own prison. He wasn't just hiding in a cave from Saul.
The psalm is called a maskil.
It means that there is a deeper meaning to the words, a hidden meaning.
David is talking about a prison of the mind. A place where even the most courageous of us can trip and fall.
When my spirit grows faint within me. When I want to run away and when I feel more like a coward then a courageous fighter....
Even David found himself there.
Set me free from my prison so I can sing your praises.
Create in me a clean heart. Why. Why?
Because the one I have is foul.
Your truth is that you are already free. Free in Jesus.
If you aren't yet filling your shoes, His peace, it's because you don't yet stand on that truth.
Those residual, left over, garbage feelings of worthlessness are only a matter of the breastplate.
You're holding onto a bit of your own righteousness, which is what your enemy wants because he knows he can beat you that way.
If you haven't felt that peace coming in its because you are not solidly standing on His truth and what He has already done.
Future generations will be told about The Lord. They will proclaim HIS righteousness to a people yet unborn, (IE me and YOU)
FOR HE HAS DONE IT
Done what?
What has He done so magically that David doesn't even need to explain it in the verse?
Only conquered sin and death. No biggie. Really?
Of course satan doesn't want you standing on that righteousness.
How could he kill you and destroy you and tear you apart if you remembered you are invincible WHEN you are IN The Lord
The theif comes only to what?
He has to steal you, then kill you, then destroy you.
He has to steal you first!
But can you be stolen?
Not if you're standing on the truth.
You are RANSOMED.
Paid for.
Bought.
And nothing can snatch you from the hands of the Living God.
Nothing but yourself, and the prison, and the lie.
Do you feel His peace coming in yet? Is it INVADING you? It should feel like that. It should feel pervasive, flooding,
Seeping into every corner of your soul.
Only then do you know you are fully standing on that truth, His righteousness.
Do you feel it like it's a fresh breath of the most crisp and clean mountain air, with a hint of evergreen scent?
And now you can put on the helmet.
There is a day for you. A room custom designed by Jesus, waiting for you.
It is for you only. It will not suit any other. And it is perfect for you.
That day is coming. Salvation. How blessed it will be! Such victory must be the sweetest of tastes that we will ever know.
It is your compass. Your reminder.
Your heart and your mind are not protected by the highest security known to the universe if you have not put on your helmet.
You aren't finished.
Pick up your sword.
You look like a pin cushion, like that sorry dog with a snout full of quills, because you have not been parrying your attacks. You've been receiving them...deeply.
It's time for some parrying.
Strike, counter strike! You have the cloud of witnesses.
You have His word in your heart.
Acts 16...
After they were beaten and flogged, were they defeated and finished?
Of course not.
In prison...they were FREE.
FREE!
Singing praises!
Converting criminals!
Even guards.
Anyone who would listen.
And how could you plug your ears to men bloody and disfigured, singing through busted and split lips about this truth that we speak of even today, that David said we would one day speak of yet hundreds of years before them.
This One who said, in this world you will have trouble. But take heart, chin up.
Don't fret...
I have overcome the world.
And now all authority is His.
All privilege is ours.
To call Him
Master.
Savior.
Daddy.
We are His.
Our Dad is a Warrior.
And now there is only to pray,
Which is the greatest thing we can do.
Now is where we present our requests, our complaints, just as David,
to the King.
We cry to Him!
Save us Lord. Nobody cares. We don't understand. But we run to You.
We are not anxious.
We know You are near.
And Your peace that passes all of our understanding is so, totally, worth it.
Fill us up Lord.
Forgive us.
We have life stained all over us. We are one big stain.
We know one day you will wipe every tear.
It's Your promise.
We will be whiter than snow,
Standing together in the beautiful light of You, and nothing else will compare. Everything else will seem like such a light and momentary trouble in view of
Your mercy and grace.
We hope in You.
We ask for more.
Enough to give away for life and still run over the cup.
It is such a privilege and honor to look to You.
To show others who You are.
How much You love!
There is no bottom to You. The deep is so much more than we will ever comprehend.
Please dote on us more. Please don't take Your hand away. Keep Your Spirit upon us.
Until we come home to You.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
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