The One Who Keeps You
You know what’s kept me up at night lately? As silly as it sounds, it’s the fear of a break-in. As soon as we turn the lights off, I’m convinced that someone’s gonna walk right through our front door. They’ll catch me by surprise. And all the little creaks and noises from our 100+-year-old farmhouse and the wilderness surrounding it aren’t helping my mind’s case.
I wonder if you have a fear like that too–something that shows up when everything else gets quiet. How do you seek peace in those anxious moments? Deep breaths? Calling a friend? Keeping your eyes open until you fall asleep by accident? I’m right there with you. When we’re anxious, we’d do a lot of things just to feel safe.
Usually when I’m fearful, I’ll pray until I feel better and move on. But this fear is different. It just keeps rearing its ugly head every night while I guess if that shadow is our lamp or an axe-murderer. After some good conversations with friends and a little soul searching, I realized my fear is rooted in doubt–specifically, doubting God as my Protector.
After all, we live in a fallen world where terrible things can happen to people who love Jesus. Most of the apostles were killed for their faith, and their deaths weren’t pretty. At the same time, God never falls short. So how did God perfectly and divinely protect Paul when he was beheaded, or Peter as he was crucified upside down? How does God protect us when evil still runs rampant in our world today?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer. My fear continues to fester because I can’t make sense of divine protection’s inner workings. I believe this mystery, until God reveals everything to us, is beyond our understanding.
But when I consider the previous question, how does God perfectly protect us today, I’m neglecting what I can understand here and now–God’s character. I’m so fixated on what could happen to me that I lose focus of Who is in control, even if things turn out ugly. Psalm 121:3-8 reminds us of God’s protective character during our most fearful moments:
“3 He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. 4 Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep. 5 The Lord protects you; the Lord is a shelter right by your side. 6 The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night. 7 The Lord will protect you from all harm; he will protect your life. 8 The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever.”
Comforting, right? God is our Protector! Yet in the face of fear, I found myself wanting more specifics about God’s character. What does His protection practically look like? The Psalm’s original language, Hebrew, helps us out here. Turns out, the word Protector derives from the Hebrew word šāmar, meaning to keep. So translating it literally, Psalm 121 reads:
“He who keeps you will not slumber.” (v. 3)
“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is a shelter at your right side.” (v. 5)
“The Lord will protect you from all harm; he will keep your soul.” (v. 7)
At first glance, that may not sound groundbreaking—until fear drives you to look up the definition of a word you thought you already knew. I am so glad my fear brought me to truth:
Keep
Have or retain possession of.
Cause to continue in a specified condition or course.
Care for.
Provide for the sustenance of someone.
Honor or fulfill, as a promise.
These definitions speak volumes to our relationship with God in the hard, scary moments.
When God acts as our Protector and Keeper, He affirms our identity. We are His treasured possession, no matter what happens in our lives. As our Keeper, God wills us to continue on the exact plan He laid out for us long ago: loving God, receiving salvation from Jesus, and watching as He weaves everything together for our good. As our Keeper, God reminds us that His heart longs for us to feel safe, secure, and loved even more than we do. As our Keeper, God provides what we need to carry on. As our Keeper, God honors every promise He’s ever made to us, while simultaneously fulfilling our hearts’ greatest longings.
As BibleHub puts it, “To be kept is to rest under the vigilant care of the covenant God.”
So yes, I might feel uneasy when I close my eyes at night. You might feel uneasy about a loved one, or be freshly on the other side of a really scary moment. Maybe the thing you were always afraid of happened.
Friends, these are the very moments that we can find refuge in the Lord and rest in His infinite love for us. We can speak Psalm 121 over ourselves, trusting that He will not allow our feet to slip away from His sovereign path. He is with us as we come and we go. He keeps us in His care.
Don’t get me wrong! God doesn’t want us to live our lives riddled by anxiety and fear, worried about what’ll happen next. He loves us too much for that! But please know, friend, that when we do feel fear, it doesn’t make us wrong or irredeemable. Fear can serve as a reminder to return to the arms of our Protector. We can know that as our Keeper, God holds us secure no matter what might happen to us.
_____________________________________
Are there any recurring fears or anxieties of yours that we can cover in prayer as a community? Leave a comment below, and let’s pray for one another.
