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Know Your...

             For the music director. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said,

“I love You, Lord, my strength.” The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my savior, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1-2)

 

The classic first law of battle is to know your enemy. We don’t hear two other pieces of battle advice as often: know your friends/allies and know your battlefield. At one point, the idea was to take and hold the high ground. What today’s passage tells us is that God can be our Ally and our “high ground” – the One with whom we march out to battle and the position of strength and defense from which we march out.

Here's the problem. He is only as much use as we allow Him to be. Oh, He’s likely to step in to help us in spite of ourselves, but if we are so foolish as to ignore Him, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, giving the enemy opportunities it shouldn’t have, and insulting the one we claim is our Ally.

He is our Provider, our Healer, our Defender, our Strong Tower, our Rock, our Refuge, our Shield, the Horn of our salvation, our Stronghold, our Guild and Teacher… and when we are facing battle, we need to be reminded of that. Even if your Battle Bible doesn’t have this particular passage, a list of the names of God (and some references) would be a good idea.

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