LESSON 2:
The Passage is written to those who "put
their trust in God."
It is filled with encouraging news too!
Here it is:
"But let all those that
put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy,
because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be
joyful in thee. For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with
favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield."
Psalm 5:11-12
Read that again!
Isn't it
exciting?
First let's
determine what it means to "put one's trust in the Lord."
That Hebrew verb,
"chasah," literally means "to seek refuge!" Better yet, "to
flee for protection!"
David here
describes himself as being surrounded by the wicked.
Yet he is
determined NOT to dwell with them!
He is resolved to
"set no wicked thing before his eyes!"
He will
"hate the work of them that turn aside"
from God!
He will
"not know a wicked person!" (To
"know" in a close, intimate sense!)
He will not allow
himself close contact with those who possess
"a high look and a proud heart!"
He will not
tolerate any
"who privately slander their neighbor!"
He will not
associate with those who "work deceit"
or "tell lies" either!
He plans to
remove "all wicked doers from the city of
the Lord!" They will not be placed in positions of honor
and leadership!
(By the way, all
these "quotes" are coming from David's own mouth ... as recorded
in Psalm 101. If you are not familiar with it ... read it
today!)
But Preacher
Bagwell, if David were to avoid all these kinds of wicked
people, where would he go?
Where would he
live?
Where would be
his dwelling place?
Ah!
Psalm 5:11
answers that one!
He will flee to
God for refuge!
He will dwell in
God's Presence!
He will
"put his trust in the Lord!"
He here is
picturing our great God as a giant Tower of safety to Whom one
can flee from the danger of sin! "The
name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth
into it, and is safe." Proverbs 18:10
He views the Lord
as a Rock or a large Fortress, a Place of Safety from evil!
"I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
my God, my strength, in whom I will trust ...." Psalm
18:1-2
Or, maybe more
accurately, He was thinking of the Ark of the Covenant and the
Mercy Seat ... the very Place where God dwelt on earth ... and
the security that would be found if one could snuggle "under the
wings" of the Cherubim there, those pure and holy angels that
overshadowed God's Throne! Sitting in the very Presence of our
Holy God!
What a place to
flee!
What a God in
Whom to trust!
And listen,
that's exactly where Paul says we New Testament Christian can
live today. In Heavenly Places ... there seated with Christ our
resurrected and ascended Lord!
Ephesians 2:6
tells us that when He saved us, God also
"Hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus!"
That's an amazing Truth!
Friends, we do
not have to slosh around in the muck and mire of sin!
We can live above
all that filth!
We, as David did
long ago ... but with much more victory than he had ... we live
on the historical side of Calvary ... the Holy Spirit has come
to indwell and fill us ... can "trust"
in God!
We can
"flee to Him" for safety from sin
and danger and fear!
Now ... the rest
of Psalm 5:11-12 simply tells us the "benefits" of living in
such a Place!
"But
let all those that put their trust in thee ... rejoice:
let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let
them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, LORD,
wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as
with a shield." Psalm 5:11-12
The "blessings"
of this great Passage all "flow" from that first clause ...
"putting one's trust in God!"
Flee to Him in
every situation of life!
Yes!
Living There is
bliss!
Why, indeed
living There is ... joy and peace and victory and righteousness
and love and ... security from sin!
Christian, where
are YOU dwelling today?
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 3:
The true Christian has every reason to be
joyful!
In fact, joy is not only a consequence of
being saved ... it is also a requirement of being so!
I say it's a consequence, a result of being
saved for one big reason. The Holy Spirit, Who comes to dwell
within the new Believer in Christ, is a Spirit of Joy!
Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that
"The Fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY,
peace ..." and six other qualities too."
If one is saved,
joy will be a by-product of the Spirit's Presence!
But joy is also a
REQUIREMENT in the life of a godly man or lady!
How do I know?
From Psalm 5:11
... among other places!
"But
let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let
them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them
also that love thy name be joyful in thee."
I've capitalized
the words of emphasis today.
If we have
trusted Jesus ... we are then told to REJOICE!
The little Hebrew
word used here is "samach" and means "to brighten up!"
It is framed in
the Qal stem as an imperfect third person masculine plural verb.
That in part means that the "voice" here is active ... WE
are to do the rejoicing! In this sense it will not be done for
us!
The "imperfect"
timing of the verb indicates that the action described is not
yet complete! We are to start rejoicing the moment we get saved
... and continue until we get to Heaven ... or better yet, I
should say, for all eternity! We will never finish rejoicing in
Christ Jesus!
And the "number"
of the verb ... plural ... reveals the fact that the Text is
being written to ALL those (a multitude) who have put their
trust in the Lord!
Rejoice!
To find the first
of the 22 times the word is used in the Old Testament in
this very same form we must go back
to 1 Chronicles 16:10. "Glory ye in his
holy name: let
the heart of them
rejoice that seek the LORD." (See! If one truly
seeks the Lord ... he must also rejoice! It's a requirement!
The verb "glory" here is an imperative, thus giving us a "sense"
of the intent of the accompanying verb "rejoice" also! Required
action!)
And now to the
last of those 22 occurrences of the word ... Isaiah 66:13-14.
"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD,
Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold,
my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my
servants shall rejoice,
but ye shall be ashamed: Behold, my servants shall sing for joy
of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl
for vexation of spirit." (And yet see again ... if one
serves the Lord ... he will automatically rejoice! It is
decreed of God!)
Amen!
Now these two
facts are not contradictory!
But, Preacher
Bagwell, you said being joyful was required of a Christian!
It is!
Philippians 4:4
--- "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and
again I say, Rejoice." Twice in the same short verse we
are commanded to rejoice! Paul clearly uses two imperatives to
emphasize that fact!
BUT also ... being joyful is a
consequence of being saved! You can't keep it from happening
when the Holy Spirit moves "in!" Let's listen to Peter this
time. "Whom (Jesus) having not seen, ye
love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory!" 1
Peter 1:8
If we believe
... we will rejoice!
Sequentially ...
there comes faith, then joy!
In closing, we
review:
Christian,
REJOICE ... because it is commanded to you!
Also Christian,
REJOICE ... because you are filled with delight and blessedness
and felicity! You just can't help it!
But now I remember!
An old British
Preacher said it years ago.
"God's
Commandments are also God's enablements!"
In other words,
what God requires of us, He also empowers us to do!
Do Exodus 20 and
Deuteronomy list the TEN COMMANDMENTS ... or the TEN
EMPOWERMENTS?
Both!
See if you agree:
When you got
saved ... you didn't even want to put another god above your
Real God!
You would have
never taken His Name in vain!
You longed to
keep His Day holy!
You now would
never kill or steal!
You want nothing
that's not given you by your Lord! (Not coveting!)
What He has
required of you ... He has enabled you to do ... via the Power
of the precious Holy Spirit!
There you have
it!
Rejoice!
You just MUST!
Yet again, you
can't help it either! Joy is IN you and it
will come out!
Hallelujah!
Remember this ...
at Church today!
Christian,
brighten up!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 4:
Driving home recently from a Revival Meeting,
I passed an old Campground. One where years ago the Word of God
was preached mightily. It had an unusual name: Loudsville
Campground! That's right, Loudsville.
Now while I know absolutely nothing about the
background of that name, I do know this. The old godly Camp
Meetings used to be places of shouting and singing and preaching
and worshiping ... all directed to the Lord God Almighty!
And those old
Meetings used to get quite LOUD!
This reminds me
of a part of Psalm 11. "But let all those
that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for
joy ...." Psalm 11:5
Now, I am going
to capitalize part of that clause: "But
let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them
ever shout for joy
...."
See that?
"Shout for joy!"
That sure sounds
LOUD to me!
The verb used
here is (in Hebrew) "ranan" and means to sing aloud or to cry
out or simply to shout! Some teachers say that it comes from an
older verb meaning "to creak" or "to emit a stridulous sound!"
(Striduous means a "shrill" sound! "Stridere" in Latin = to
make harsh sounds! This sounds like Psalm 100's "joyful noise"
to me!)
Furthermore the
verb "ranan" is framed here as a Piel imperfect 3rd person
plural. The Piel stem in Hebrew intensifies any action word!
This is REAL singing! LOUD singing! Hearty singing! The
"imperfect" sense of timing tells us the action being described
is "incomplete." This is habitual on-going constant singing and
praising God! And then the 3rd person plural means God is
addressing a whole crowd of Believers! ALL OF YOU ... shout for
joy!
But maybe the
most significant fact about this verb today is that it (in both
its first and last Bible occurrences) speaks of the action
Christians take when the Lord comes to be with them!
When He comes
down to live in their presence!
Look! I again
have capitalized and underlined the "ranan" verbs.
First use ...
Leviticus 9:24 --- "And there came a fire
out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt
offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they
shouted, and fell on their faces." Aaaron had
just been dedicated as High Priest and the Lord God made Himself
known! He was there! Then ... the people shouted for joy!
Last use ...
Zechariah 2:10 --- "Sing
and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD." This one
speaks for itself!
When the Lord is
in our midst ... shout for joy!
But, wait a
minute!
In the New
Testament age, the one in which we all live, our great God is
ALWAYS present with us!
"For He (the Lord) hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5
"And, lo, I (the Lord) am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world. Amen." Matthew
28:20
So ... if He is
with us all the time, if He literally "indwells" us, this joyful
attitude (this "shouting for joy") must prevail in our lives!
We should be
happy and singing and thrilled perpetually, all the time!
Lets go back to
our first verse: "But let all those that
put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever
shout for joy
...." Psalm 11:5
If you're "saved"
... having placed your trust in Jesus ... from now on
"shout for joy!"
After all, you
have every reason to be glad!
Your sins are
gone!
Your guilt is a
thing of the past!
Victory is
promised you!
Heaven awaits
you!
The Spirit of God
directs you!
And Jesus is
coming again some day to get you!
Now that IS
shouting ground!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 5:
Christian friend, what if I told you that the
Lord God in Heaven defends you?
That He is your Protector!
In Psalm 5:11, David says to God:
"But let all those that put their trust
in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy,
because thou defendest
them ...."
God defends those who put their trust in Him!
No wonder the Believer in Christ can rejoice
and shout so!
And what does
this word "defend" mean?
In Hebrew it is
spelled "sakak" and means "to shut in" or "to hedge about" or
even "to cover!" It can even mean "to overshadow!"
Praise the Lord!
In the King James
Version "sakak" is translated cover (or covering) 17 times. It
is defendest or defence 2 times. But it is "joined together"
once! (And it only occurs in the whole Bible 23 times.)
We are being told
that God overshadows us!
That He hedges
us from harm!
Here's the first
time this verb is used in the Bible: "And
the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high,
covering ("sakak") the mercy seat with their wings, and their
faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat
shall the faces of the cherubims be."
Talk about being
"under His wings!"
Here it is
again: "O GOD the Lord, the strength of
my salvation, thou hast covered ("sakak") my head in the day of
battle." Psalm 140:7
What armor for
the war!
And one more
thing ... this verb "defendest" is given in the "imperfect"
sense of timing. That means that the action it depicts is
incomplete. God is not through defending us yet! It is an
on-going activity!
If you today are
putting your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ ... He is RIGHT NOW
defending you as well!
Glory to God!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
Now ... I usually
do not add extra paragraphs to these Bible studies, but today is
an exception. The "root" word behind our "defendest" verb ("sakak")
means "to weave" or "to entwine" (as a screen). In that sense
it has come to mean "to cover." God weaves us into a "cocoon"
of protection from evil or harm!
Now, get this.
The word TEXT (a Passage of Scripture) also means "to weave!"
And while I realize that I am mixing languages (Hebrew and
Latin) ... isn't it interesting that God's "defense" of us ("sakak")
and the "texts" of the Bible ("texere") both have the same idea
... weaving and protecting! And surely you will agree, both
God's Power and God's Word do protect us effectually!
These thoughts
are illustrated Biblically by verses like Psalm 91:4 where we
are told: "He shall
cover ("sakak")
thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust:
his truth (The Word of
God)
shall be thy shield and buckler." Do you see the
combination of God's Protection and His Word? It's there!
LESSON 6:
I'm quite sure you have heard the expression
"jump for joy!"
Guess what?
It's in the Bible!
At least it is one of the Bible's lovely
"word pictures!"
Let me explain what I mean.
We shall begin in Psalm 5.
The verse we must
study is number 5. "But let all those
that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for
joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy
name be joyful in
thee."
I want you to
notice with me that last verb in the verse ...
"be joyful."
That's it!
In Hebrew this is
spelled "alatzs."
It literally
means "to jump for joy." That's according to the word
dictionary in the massive Strong's Concordance.
It also carries
the idea of "triumph" or "exultation!"
If we are
trusting in the Lord, realizing that He is defending us day by
day ... we can truly "be joyful!"
The term is only
used 8 times in the whole Bible! (By the way, that's the number
of "new beginnings" in Scripture!)
It ("alatzs") is
used of Hannah after she gave birth to little Samuel! Think how
very thrilled she must have been! 1 Samuel 2:1 ---
"And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart
REJOICETH in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord: my
mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy
salvation."
David the King
could see the very fields rejoicing in the Lord God Almighty!
In 1st Chronicles 16:32 he prayed: "Let
the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields
rejoice, and all
that is therein."
David also vows
to personally rejoice in His God! Listen to him in Psalm 9:2.
"I will be glad and
rejoice in thee:
I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High."
Next our verb is
rendered "triumph." Psalm 25:2 --- "O my
God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine
enemies triumph
over me."
I hope you don't
think this occurrence is too extreme! Read it carefully! Psalm
68:3 --- "But let the righteous be glad;
let them rejoice
before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice."
There are two
other Bible references that use our verb also, but you get the
picture by now.
"Jump for joy!"
"In the Lord!"
"If you're
saved!"
Now I realize
that the Jewish people are emotional in nature! They do love
jumping and rejoicing and shouting God's praises! At least the
saved ones I know do!
But we Gentiles
need not be left behind!
We, if saved, can
also "be joyful" in the Lord!
But now, here's
fair warning. If you do any literal "jumping" in the Lord ...
better do so alone or in the back yard or when everybody's gone
from the house!
And ... be
absolutely sure ... that you don't do any of that
down at that little Baptist Church you attend!
You would get
labeled a "nut" certainly!
And where did
this "jumping" idea come from?
The Bible!
"But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let
them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them
also that love thy name
be joyful in thee."
Psalm 5:11
Bless the dear
Name of our Lord!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 7:
Blessed!
That's THE word to describe any man or woman
who is saved by the Grace of God!
Psalm 5:12 says so!
"For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou
compass him as with a shield."
The verb here used for "bless" is (in Hebrew)
"barak." It actually means "to kneel!" The idea behind such a
meaning is that God, high and lofty and eternal and perfect, has
condescended ... has "come down" to where we are ... to the
level of created humanity ... to save us from our sins!
That's exactly
what Jesus has done!
He IS God!
He "thought it
not robbery to be equal with God!"
Yet He was
willing to assume a human body (via the Virgin Birth) and come
from heaven to earth ... kneeling down even to the level of
death ... death on a Cross ... that we might be redeemed!
Let me also
mention that the verb "bless" in our verse today is in the Piel
stem, which in Hebrew indicates strong aggressive action! We
are not just blessed of God (in Christ Jesus) ... we are
BLESSED of God in Christ
Jesus! The blessing is done powerfully and dramatically and
successfully!
Really blessed!
Then each Old
Testament verb also has ... not exactly "tense" as we know it in
English ... but a sense of action nonetheless. And this use of
"bless" ("barak") here is such that it indicates "incomplete"
action!
God is not
through blessing the righteous yet!
He is still doing
so!
In our dear old
King James Bibles ... it is beautifully worded:
"For Thou, Lord, will bless the
righteous!" That clearly gives the sense that He has not
yet finished His blessing of the godly!
According to
Psalm 31:19 the Lord has blessings still "laid up" for those who
fear His Name! They are yet future! "Oh
how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up
for them that fear thee." ("Laid up" means treasured or
hidden or stored away!) Amen!
Yes, the Lord has
blessed the righteous!
We don't even
have to know the many ways in which He has done so either!
Just take His
Word for it!
If you are
righteous (just, lawful, judicially) before God ... through the
shed Blood of Jesus ... you are blessed in so many ways that it
takes 1189 chapters of Scripture (the whole Bible) to explain
them!
Yes, those who
are "in Christ Jesus" are blessed!
Yet ... how
should we respond to such Grace?
With a lifetime
(followed by an eternity) of loving and worshipping and praising
Almighty God the Father and His dear Son Jesus Christ!
Bless Him who has
so blessed you!
"Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that
is within me, bless his holy name." Psalm 103:1
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 8:
Paul the New Testament Apostle once said that
we who are saved have been "blessed with
ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
Ephesians 1:3
How many would that be?
ALL?
Innumerable blessings!
Yet, to be an Old Testament Text, Psalm 5
gloriously lists a number of them!
Let me show you
two of its precious verses: "But let all
those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout
for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love
thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, LORD, wilt bless the
righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a
shield." Psalm 5:11-12
Look at them!
The Lord allows
us to put our trust ("to flee for protection") in Him!
He gives us cause
to rejoice (to "shine," to "brighten up")!
He places a
"shout" in our hearts!
He "defends" us!
He gives us a
love for His Name!
He makes us
joyful (a joy that by definition expands from spirit to soul ...
even to body)!
He "blesses" us!
He encircles us
with "favour!"
And ... He is a
Shield to us as we travel through enemy infested lands!
Ten (10) of them!
Ten "blessings!"
Just quickly
taken from Psalm 5:11-12!
Today let's focus
on just one of them ... the "favour"
with which He compasses us ... and study it some.
The Hebrew noun
rendered "favour" here only occurs 56 times in the whole Bible.
It is spelled "ratzson."
It, like most
nouns, has some latitude of meaning.
In the King James
Bible it is translated as follows: "favour" (15 times), "will"
(as in "desire," 14 times), "acceptable" (8 times), "delight" (5
times), "pleasure" (5 times), "accepted" (4 times), "desire" (3
times), "acceptance" (1 time) and "selfwill" (1 time).
Our word, though
a noun, comes initially from a verbal root which means "to be
pleased with!" Especially in the area of finance, "to satisfy"
a debt!
Because of the
atoning Blood of Christ Jesus, our Heavenly Father is
"satisfied" with us ... in our standing in the Lord!
The sin-debt has
been paid!
He has blanketed
us with His acceptance and pleasure and approval!
He has made us
desirable, even delightful ... to His Holy Nature!
Isn't this
amazing?
The word's first
Bible use is in Exodus 28:36-38 where Aaron, the High Priest of
Israel, is commanded to wear a headpiece upon which is placed a
plate of pure gold engraved with these words "Holiness to the
Lord!" Then we are told: "And it shall be
upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the
holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all
their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that
they may be
accepted before
the LORD."
Such divine
"acceptance" only comes through Jesus' work of Calvary!
The last use of
the word is found in Malachi 2:13 where God can no longer look
on Israel with "good will" due to
her sins!
And in Psalm
19:14 David prays that his thoughts will be "acceptable"
to the Lord! "Let the words of my mouth,
and the meditation of my heart,
be acceptable in
Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength, and my Redeemer."
The New Testament
expresses it more succinctly. "To the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:6) Of course, the
"Beloved" is Jesus!
Friend, if you
have been redeemed by the Grace of God ... you are not just
"saved" ... you have also been transformed into a trophy of this
manifold Grace ... made delightful and pleasing and favorable to
the Almighty God!
Praise His Name!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 9:
We are all aware of the Lord's great promise
concerning His Presence. It's recorded in Hebrews 13:5.
"For He hath said, I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee."
The "He" in that verse is Jesus! And the
ones who are never forsaken are Believers in Christ Jesus!
That alone is a great comforting truth to us
all!
But in Psalm 5:12 we are told even more!
"For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou
compass him as
with a shield."
Do you see that?
The Lord just
said He would COMPASS the righteous
... as with a shield!
His never leaving
us is amazing!
His "compassing"
us is even more so!
The Hebrew verb
used here is "atar" and means "to surround!"
The Lord
literally surrounds us!
He surrounds us
with His Presence ... which automatically includes His
Protection!
And since He
surrounds us ...
He is not only
with us!
He is before
us ... ahead of us! (The word "Author" in "Author and
Finisher of our faith" means literally the "Line Leader!") Let
me say it again. Jesus is ahead of us!
He is then
behind us too! The soldiers (bodyguards really) who
protected the rear of an advancing body of people were called
the "rereward." (Pronounced "rear" + "ward.")
"For ye shall not go out with haste, nor
go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of
Israel will be your rereward." Isaiah 52:12
He (if
surrounding us) is also on our right hand ... and
on our left! "The LORD is
thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand."
Psalm 121:5
I even have the
feeling that if our Lord is "compassing" us (surrounding us) ...
He then is above us and under us as well! Above
us? "The eyes of the LORD are in
every place, beholding the evil and the good." (Proverbs
15:3) Below us? "The eternal God is
thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:
and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee."
Deuteronomy 33:27
How very secure
this should make the Christian!
But WHY has the
Lord so compassed His Own Children?
Psalm 5:12 again
answers the question!
"Thou wilt compass him as with a shield."
He surrounds us
... to protect us!
The noun "shield"
("tzsinnah" in Hebrew) means a large protective device known as
a "buckler!" It's really a great big deflective (and defensive)
piece of armour! A good thing to have when you're in a battle!
The flying arrows
of Satan just can't hurt the Christian with such a shield!
How does all this
make you feel?
What assurance
and comfort we are given here!
In fact, it ought
to make you live like a king (or a queen)!
Like a prince or
a princess!
I said that ...
then learned one other meaning for our verb "compass" ("atar").
In the King James Bible the word is translated 5 times either
"crowned" or "crowning!"
The Lord has
crowned us with His Presence!
Just as He crowns
the year with His goodness ... He crowns individual Believers
with His Presence! "Thou crownest the
year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness."
Psalm 65:11
Go ahead, saved
friend ... live like a king! You are one! You've already been
"crowned" with God's good Presence!
Now, again, read
it with me carefully ... "But let all
those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout
for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love
thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, LORD, wilt bless the
righteous; with favour wilt thou
compass him as
with a shield." Psalm 5:11-12
Amen!
Thank you, Lord!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 10:
The Word of God, the Bible, is called by the
Apostle Paul ... "the sword of the
Spirit!" He did so in Ephesians 6:17.
Yet I read in Psalm 91:4 that the "Truth" of
God, another term for His Word, is also a shield and buckler!
"He shall cover thee with His feathers,
and under His wings shalt thou trust: His Truth shall be thy
shield and buckler."
Now, look at that!
For years I've
told us Christians that the central offensive weapon we
have with which to fight the devil and sin is the Sword of the
Spirit, the Word of God!
That is true, but
now I have learned that the Bible (God's Truth) is also one of
our great defensive weapons too!
It is our shield
and buckler. "Buckler" is simply another way of saying shield.
Practically the only difference between them is the size of
each. One is larger ... the other smaller. Each is to be used
at the appropriate moment of battle!
God's word will
defend us from attacks far away (the larger shield needed)... or
nearby (the smaller buckler)!
Talk about a
multi-purpose piece of armor!
The Word of God!
Yet there is
another interesting little feature about the Hebrew word here
used for "shield," spelled "tzsinnah."
The noun's
occurrences in the King James Bible are: "shield" (10 times),
"buckler" (5 times), "target" (5 times), "hook" (1 time) and
"cold" 1 time! I believe I've alluded to all 22 times the word
appears in Scripture.
For example:
"For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous;
with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield."
Psalm 5:12
That can mean
that God surrounds ("compasses") us with His dear Word (as a
"shield")!
Protected by the
very Word of God!
That's an
exciting thought all by itself!
... But those
other uses of "tzsinnah" interest me too.
In its first
Bible appearance, 1st Samuel 17:7, Goliath the Philistine giant
has a man walking ahead of him, bearing a shield!
"And the staff of his spear was like a
weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels
of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him." Hey,
Goliath, so do I!
Also I wonder ...
how can the word "shield" also be rendered as "hook?"
It ("tzsinnah")
comes from a root word meaning "to be sharp, prickly or thorny!"
From that "base" it eventually means a shield! As a "hook" is
pointed ... and as severe "cold" is cutting and sharp ... so is
"tzsinnah!"
I imagine our
"shield" is rather sharp in the devil's eyes too! Like maybe
... a two-edged sword!
Then lastly you
noticed that our word for "shield" is also translated "target"
five times! This implies that a shield also becomes a target
... when the battle is raging! The enemy will shoot at your
shield! (That's WHY the Word of God is under such attack!)
So ... carry your
shield ... but expect fiery darts to be hurled against it!
Yet be assured of
this ... It will NOT fail you!
Let us today
(Sunday) be sure to have our Bibles (our Swords ... AND our
Shields) with us as we go to Church!
After all, if
we're in the right kind of Church, we will surely need them!
Amen!
(And if your
Church places little or no emphasis on the Word of God ... start
placing your emphasis on finding a Church that does!)
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
