His Encouragement #94

Welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He and He alone is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

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Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

Psalm 91 (ESV)

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place — the Most High, who is my refuge — no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. “Because [she] holds fast to me in love, I will deliver [her]; I will protect [her], because [she] knows My Name. When [she] calls to me, I will answer [her]; I will be with [her] in trouble; I will rescue [her] and honor [her]. With long life I will satisfy [her] and show [her] my salvation.”

Did you know that Psalm 91 is called the “Soldier’s Psalm”?

In this world, we Christians fight a daily battle but it’s not against that annoying driver who cut you off on your drive to work or that really frustrating coworker who drives you a little crazy. In reality, our enemies are the devil and his fellow demons. In Ephesians 6, Paul exhorts us to put on the full armor of God in order to protect ourselves from the devil’s schemes. He goes on to say, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavely places.”

If you are like me, the idea of doing battle against demons is a little unnerving and scary.

But God is our “shield and buckler.” In Hebrew, Psalm 91:4 actually says, “His truth is an encompassing shield,” and Rashi interprets this to mean a shield that encompasses a man closely on all four sides. So, according to Psalm 91, God is our shield and He covers us on all of our sides. Unlike Achilles and his vulnerable heel, if we believe in God as our Lord and Savior, He covers all parts of us through His protection. There is no way for the schemes of the devil to penetrate. In this, we are invincible.

Here’s another cool fact about Psalm 91. The English word “pestilence” in lines 3 and 6 refers to demons in Hebrew. Specifically, these are the demons that destroy during the night and the ones that destroy during the day. If we trust in God, if we truly believe His armor is wrapped around us, demons that fly towards us like arrows will be nullified. Their attack will come to nothing.

Our enemy is the devil and his brood. Some days, it really feels like the devil is winning, but that is a lie. Jesus defeated Satan and death. Yes, the devil will attack any chance he gets, but if we make the Lord our refuge, our dwelling place, NOTHING can get us. The devil can put a thousand demons by our side, ten thousand at our right hand, but with God we are invincible and unstoppable!

Psalm 91 is the “Soldier’s Psalm” because God is our soldier working steadily, day by day, to protect us from the schemes and snares of the devil. I can honestly say there is no better soldier to have fighting for us than Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for being our strong soldier!

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NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

Gina @ Stories by Gina

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes

Andi @ Radiant Light