January 16, 2018

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO KEEP THE CITY (part 1)

Psalm 127:1 “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Let me start off by saying that God does not need us, but we sure do need God. It is clearly explained in this verse that we need God to build us, and we need God to protect us. The Hebrew word for “keep” here means to hedge about, to guard, and to attend to. That means that God is able to completely surround, constantly survey, and compassionately shepherd His flock. That can only be done by Him.

It is also interesting that God tells us the importance of letting Him build the “house”, but then tells us the importance of Him keeping the “city”. Why the difference? First, it reminds me that my house is not the only one that matters. It is not the only house that He has built. A city consist of numerous houses and individuals. That tells me that all of us need God to do the protecting. That means as you and I serve the same God, Satan is seeking to devour each of us twenty four hours a day. We have an entire city to be concerned about.

Second, this verse reminds me that if we do not keep Satan out of the city walls, it is only a matter of time until he overtakes our house. We cannot wait till Satan is banging on our door before we start trying to protect. We cannot let him get that far. With God’s help, we need to create as many layers of protection as possible.

Let me illustrate. Our vice president of the United States is Mike Pence. I do not know him personally, but I do know some pastors and preachers that do. I have been told that he is a Christian man. As to how firm a Christian that he is or is not, I would not know for sure. There is one thing that I do greatly admire about him. When being interviewed by a few of our media outlets, he did make the statement that he has a policy in his marriage that he will not have lunch with a woman by themselves. He has made that promise to his wife. Of course the media had a good laugh about that. How ridiculous that sounded to them, and it might sound ridiculous to portions of America. It is amazing to me with all the perversion that goes on in politics behind closed doors, The media does not seem to criticize that. The media criticizes a good man for protecting his marriage. My point is that if he will not be with a woman by himself in any situation, I would dare say that he probably will not commit adultery on his wife. He created the protection so strong, Satan probably will never make it to his house.

Protect the city, and you will protect the house.