- Help and Shield
Psalm 115:11
Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord:
He is their help and their shield.
The Lord is a help and shield for those who fear and trust Him. A faithful believer wants to fear, love, and trust in God above all things; he fails to keep this First Commandment, but he repents daily and returns to the Lord in faith. The natural result of this kind of faithfulness is that He is a help and shield. The believer trusts the Lord to be a present help in trouble and a shield against the attacks of the enemy.
As weak and helpless human sinners we are weak and helpless all the time. We have no power against what Sin, Death, and Devil want to do to us regularly. Sometimes we are aware of helplessness and sometimes we are not; at times we are led to believe that we are strong enough and smart enough to take care of ourselves and solve our own problems. Now it is true that God has given us a measure of brains and brawn to apply to the solutions we seek and in that way He helps; but we must acknowledge that we still need help. Since He is our Help we go to Him and ask for help; then He gives it as we have need. And often He has helped us many times when we did not even know it; God works behind the scenes and He answers before we even ask.
As powerless, weaponless, and armorless soldiers thrust into battle we take up His armor, sword and shield, and we stand. But more than giving us a shield He Himself is our shield, standing in front of us and surrounding us to preserve our life. We don’t see the shield because we don’t even see the battle, but God sees the enemy and the threats and He stands up for us to take action. This promise of help and shield is comforting and assuring for us.