Thy Shield NoG6

The name that we are going to look at tonight is a little different. All of the names we have looked at in the past were proper noun names for God, and this name is strictly about character. This is a name that was used multiple times in our Bible. This name is “the Lord is my Shield.”

 The first step we need to look at is what is a shield? In the traditional visual sense a shield is a piece of armor that is carried in a hand to protect a person from attacks. It has seemed to me the more I study about the different names of God and thus his different character traits that God is a God of war. And so as his followers we are not to be weak but to be strong and bold and willing to face the enemy head on because that is what God wants from us just like we learn in 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power…  Let us take a look at the first use of this name which occurs in Genesis 15.

Gen 15:1  After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

The background of this story is that a war had raged between two different groups of people in the previous chapter. Lot who was Abram’s nephew was captured by one side, so Abram later Abraham marched out with the other group’s armies to get his nephew back. Abram’s forces prevailed in the battle and the kings he helped came to him and told him to take the spoil and return their people to them, but Abram refused to take the spoils which is treasure, because he didn’t want men getting the glory and credit for him being wealthy because God is the one who gave Abram everything.

So God is promising in this passage to shield Abram from his enemies and also to reward him for his faith, but let us focus on the shield. Not only was God shielding Abram from the physical attacks but God is shielding or protecting Abram from the infighting and grumbling that would occur if Abram had taken the spoil. God is as concerned for the character of Abram and by extension us as he is with physical protection.  We can look at God as protecting us from things that would negatively affect our testimony, all we need to do is rely on him. I know for me this was something I used to struggle with, I use to think that nobody was watching me, that it didn’t matter what I did or said because nobody cared, I had no influence on anyone. But if we are trying to represent God on earth to other people (which is being a Christian) then there are people watching us. So God leads us away from things that will hurt our testimony, all we need to do is listen.

So did God only function to shield Abram? Let us take a look at Gods character in another verse. 2 Samuel 22:31  As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

See our God not only was promising Abram that he would shield him from his enemies but he is a buckler to all who trust him.  A buckler is a type of shield.  Our promise from God is that if we trust him he will be our shield, but what is God shielding us from? God is shielding us from the enemies that we can’t see; he is shielding us from things that are not of this world, and things that mean us harm. This verse also tells us that God is tried and tested and he is always faithful and always does what he says he will do. If we trust in God and what he says then we will be protected from the attacks that Satan and world throw at us. God is our perfect defense, our shield has no holes for the weapons to come through, and also our shield is made of the best material.

What I mean is, if we go back and look at our example of a physical shield, if the shield has a hole in it and someone shoots an arrow at the shield it can get through or if we have a shield made of bronze and the weapons attacking us are steel then they can penetrate the shield and do us harm.  But using this illustration, if Satan uses bronze weapons and our shield that is God is made out of titanium, which is a much stronger material and wont fail under the attack our God is able to protect us from any attack of Satan.

I always think it is interesting to look at the Psalms because that is the big praise section of our Bible so what does our praise book say.? Looking into Psalms 3 we can take a look at what David said on the subject of shields, for we know that David was such a man of war that God would not let him build the temple so he must know something about shields.

Psalms 3:1-8  A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.  Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.  But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

Let us think about this, David is being surrounded by enemies, and it wasn’t like his enemies were going to win and then let him go home, they were going to kill him. But David had so much faith that God was going to protect him, that God was his shield that he laid down and slept.

Looking at verse 6 he was so sure that God would protect him that even when he had ten thousand people against him he simply slept. David is saying in verse 7 that God has already fought many of his enemies and prevailed, thus God can overcome this enemy as well because our salvation comes from the Lord, in this case he is talking about salvation from his enemies, so God can save us from our enemies.

If David being a man of war and understanding all of the strategies and equipment needed to wage and win wars, and he was so certain that God would protect him from all of his enemies shouldn’t we be certain that God is protecting us as well. God was David’s physical shield in the battle was but also protecting David from himself, because God knew David would be a great king. In order for David to remember the Lord and everything God can do for his people, and so David wouldn’t get to full of himself, God showed David early in his life that God is the one in control. God works to shield us from attacks and external things that hurt us but he also functions to protect us from ourselves.

Moving a little deeper into the book of Psalms, something else we can learn about God as our shield is in Psalms 28 verse 7.

Psalms 28:7  The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise him.

See the Lord is not only our shield but our strength as well. These two traits of God are linked to a degree that they can’t be separated. Let us think of the imagery: a shield is what a warrior carries into battle. It is a large piece of metal so it is heavy and the warrior carrying it has to be able to pick it up and move around with it so they need a good deal of strength. When we look at warriors from ancient times, they would get into a line of men holding their shields in their left hands and using it to cover or protect the right arm of the man next to them. The single most important thing for an army to do was to make sure they held the line because the strength of army was not in each warrior but in the strength of the combination of their shields, each protecting the man next to them. In the same way when we enter the spiritual battlefield that is our everyday life then we want to protect ourselves and other believers by having a hold of our shield with as much strength as we can.

Now since we are not holding a metal shield then it doesn’t matter how much physical strength we have; what matters is how well we can tap into Gods strength and how well we are able to get behind him as our shield. How do we become stronger and better able to defend ourselves with our spiritual shield? It comes from daily practice, we must be in God’s word, we must be studying what he tells us. Just like the ancient warriors who had to have complete trust that their shield would hold against the enemy so we have to have complete faith that our shield will not break or become ineffective against the enemy attacks. We have to get to know our shield, we need to examine it and study through reading Gods word. How do we learn to do anything? We receive instruction either from someone who knows how to do the thing or we pick up a book on the subject, then we must put into practice what we have learned because if we don’t use it we lose it.

We have been looking at our reference manual for God as our shield so how do we put it into practice. Using the ancient battle illustration the way men prepared for war was doing military drills like sparing. In sparing they would have 2 or more men take wooden weapons and practice techniques. So they would practice things such as using the shield to defend against a sword or against a spear. They would do these drills individually and then in groups. What does this mean for us, it means that before we go into battle against our enemy Satan, we must practice using our shield. We must get comfortable deflecting attacks from Satan. The best way to deflect attacks from Satan is the same way Jesus did it when he was tempted in the desert. I’m sure we all have  heard the account of Jesus being tempted, so how did Jesus counter the arguments of Satan?  He countered them using scripture. In the same way we need to become familiar with our manual and techniques. Now we can’t learn everything in our Bibles in a day, a week, or even a year; it takes a lifetime and we still won’t be perfect. Does this mean we should get discouraged? By no means, what we need to do is take a good hard look at our lives and discover what has been happening to us, how has Satan been attacking us, what from our past is he preying on and then we do a Bible study on verses and promises from God’s word that we can use to counter Satan.

Then after we have built up our defenses against one of Satan’s attacks he will try other methods to test our defenses so we must keep going to our Bibles and seeing what God has to say. I know this sounds like a lot of work but once again looking back at the ancients shields that were carried into battle, if a soldier just brought his shield with him and had never learned to use it then it wouldn’t do him any good in the battle, he wouldn’t know how to defend against the attacks. It is the same way for us, God is our shield but if we don’t study up on how to use the power then it will not do us any good. We must trust that God will protect us.

 Looking into the second part of the verse, since we are helped by God, since we are shielded from the attacks of our enemies then we need to rejoice greatly that our God is there and he protects us.

Once again, looking into the book of Psalms, this time at chapter 144 starting in verse 1:

 A Psalm of David. Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

Doing this study I came to realize something interesting, our God is a God of war and fighting. I had always thought that our God was loving and caring and while this is very true he is also a God of battle and of action.  Looking at these verses, how many times is God called a shield, how many times a deliverer? These are all terms of war, God is engaged in battle, he is engaged in battle against Satan and we are the soldiers. We are the ones on the front line. God provides many tools and weapons for us to fight his battles, all we have to do is take them.

This is a little off topic but it’s in the verse so it’s related. Why is God called my fortress in this verse? A fortress, much like a shield, is designed to protect people but unlike the shield it is meant to protect a whole city not just a single person. I think the best visual is a castle from the middles ages in Europe, these fortresses were built so that they were the largest structure around. They commanded and overlooked all of the surrendering lands and people. They provided protection for the people in the event that someone attacked them. Back then, these castles or fortresses had towers, just like in the verse we just looked at. These were to provide an observation platform so that defenders would know what is happening on the battlefield as well as to provide a place to defend the castle. So looking here God protects his people as a whole and he is able to see everything and know what is going to happen before it reaches us, thus he is our strong tower.

Coming back to God as our shield he protects us from the things that would harm us on an individual basis just like during battle all the men who were in the fighting would have a shield to protect themselves and the man next to them. God is able to protect us from the attacks of Satan on an individual basis as well in a group. This is why he is our strong tower and shield.

We have been looking at God as our shield from Psalms but how about the book of Proverbs because is the book of wisdom, looking at chapter 30 starting at verse 5.

Proverbs_30:5  Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

Every word we recipe from God is pure, this means that we can trust it. This means that when God says he is our shield and will protect us from our enemies then we know it is true. We know that God does not leave us defenseless for he is always with us. I know there are times in life that it doesn’t feel like God is with us but he is. Our God does not forsake us, he does not leave us, he is there. We can choose to run away from him and not come to him but God does not change he is the same always. He is our shield he will protect us. Just like earlier when we looked at how much David was trusting God to protect him, we need to have that same faith in God, the faith that God will protect us from the attacks of the enemies.

We have looked at God as our shield and as him protecting us but shields are not wielded alone but are paired with another weapon, so the question becomes does God function as our offensive weapon as well, let us look at Deuteronomy 33 verse 29. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places. 

See once again God is the shield and offers help but this verse also tells us God is our excellent sword. Our God is a God of war; He protects us from the attacks of the enemy but he doesn’t want us to just stand there and continually get hit without fighting back. God provides us a sword which is the very word of God. See how powerful Gods word is? We already talked about how it is the way we access our shield but we also use it as our sword, that is we can go on the offensive, we can attack Satan. We must attack Satan and counter his attacks by using God as our shield to defend us, but also using the word of God to go on the offensive because the word of God is our sword, we can’t have one without the other. 

This same verse talks about how all of God enemies will be found liars, this is a powerful promise because the world tells us we are wrong all of the time but God says as our sword and shield that in the end the world is a liar and we are right and not only that but we will tread upon the high places of our enemy. This means that in the end we will overcome anything that is put in our path. 

The overall message tonight is simple, our God is a God of war, he prepares us to fight by providing what we need. All we have to do is access the tool that is needed for the job at hand. We access the tool by believing in and having faith of Gods promises. One of God characteristic is that he wants to protect us; all we need to do is to study his word and stand on his promises for the situation at hand. God is our shield and he protects is from the attacks of the enemy. The question to think about is, have you pulled your shield and sword out and started practicing with them?