I Keep Him So He Can Keep Me"
He is ever present with me;
at all times He goes before me.
I will not live in fear or abandon my calling
because He stands at my right hand. The Voice Bible
Psalms 16:8
How many of you know that life is full of ups and downs, one day theres, joy and the next day theres grief, we all live with the choice of life and death when it comes to speaking over our lives. The ideal life for all of us would be a life lived without sickness and disease a life filled with only good times. But that’s just not reality.
It’s a fact that the bad times and even bad situations can make us want to be moved, sometimes it shakes us to our core but if you know like I know ......to give up or to give in is really not an option. I know that at times it can seem easier just to give in or to give up but it’s not.
My question this morning is? How do we keep holding on when we feel like giving up? How do we find the strength to persevere, to go on? All of us have dealt with these questions.
A lot of people are dealing with hopelessness right now but no matter how hopeless, painful, unpleasant, or discouraging your circumstances are, you need to know that God has a purpose for them. He has a purpose for you in the midst of them. And that purpose does not involve giving up. It does not involve abandoning your faith. The struggle you are going through has meaning and purpose, because God is sovereign and He does everything for a reason. He doesn’t make mistakes. As a matter of fact God isn’t surprised by what is happening to you right now. Let me put this another way. You are where you are right now because that’s where God wants you right now. Your circumstances are part of His plan for your life. This is not an accident. It’s not an unhappy coincidence. It’s not bad luck. It’s not bad karma. It’s the result of God working in your life to accomplish His good purposes.
When the times get hard (and they do get hard), I know it’s just temporary. It’s like when the rain comes, it can rain a lot or it can rain for days, but sooner or later the rain will stop and the sun will shine again. When the storm comes and winds get strong, it’s just a matter of time before the winds blow out and all is calm and fine again.
When something comes along that threatens to move me or shake me, I enact my Bulldog Faith bite and hold firmly to the Word of God, knowing that He will take care of everything.
If you just let God lead, and follow His lead, in all that you do, then you can be rest assured that you won’t be shaken and you won’t be moved. The things of this world won’t affect you.
This is what David is telling us here in this text. He says, I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Let me tell you this: GOD WILL NOT BE IN ANY TRUE SENSE BEFORE OUR FACE UNLESS WE SET HIM THERE
This is why its important that God’s people should above all else pursue and cherish a more intimate relationship with the Lord.
His continual presence in our lives will strengthen us, guide us, protect us, bring us joy, and most of all resurrect us.
There is a spiritual inertia i.e. the state of not moving or acting, or an unwillingness to do so, to not be overcome, and a tendency to perverse. I was reading this quote the other day that was talking about a compass it said , "The bar of steel does not point naturally to the pole, but anywhere." It must be acted on from without, must have magnetic virtue imparted to it.
Persistency is needed if you want to reach your destination.
Like a compass, when David said I have set the Lord "always" before me. It was not enough that once or twice God was in his line of vision or visually in his sight, no David said, I kept Him there. A compass needle would be to a sailor of no more account than a knitting needle, if only by some shock it were made to point northwards. It is the fact of it always pointing there that gives it its value. And it is this fact of persistence which gives value to David's saying. When a man has shut himself up to one thing as the source and strength of his happiness he will find out a great deal about that one thing.
Listen there are many things on this journey with God which still need to be discovered. I thank God for the word expansion because the more I experience God in my life the more "expansion" takes place in my life things get larger and more extensive.
We all need growth, enlargement, increase, expansion, progression, magnification, multiplication, progress, upgrade and my favorite to blow up!
The Bible says to "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." The only way to become strong is by "looking unto Jesus."
By saying that he “shall not be moved,” David was talking about the unique sense of security felt by believers. While we know that God does not exempt believers from the day-to-day circumstances of life.
We all experience pain, trouble, and failure at times. But the advantage of the Saint is that God will not suffer our foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Psalms 121:3 i.e. God is not sleeping on you.
How many of you remember the story of Elijah? He challenged the priests of Baal and they all gathered together to see which god would answer by sending fire to consume the offerings. And when the priests of Baal called out nothing happened. And so Elijah taunted them saying of Baal – “Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” – 1 Kings 18:27.
But how many know that God aint sleep?
God is always active and busy for our well being; God is awake and working, even while we sleep. When we sleep we are weak and vulnerable. So in Old Testament times you needed a watchman who stayed up during the night to look out for enemies and attack. Even if you lived in a walled city, there needed to be watchmen on the wall.
The night is also a time of evil. We know that “darkness” is used as an image of evil in Scripture. And we know that we are more susceptible to fear of the demonic at night.
The point of Psalm 121 in saying that God will not slumber is that God is watching over us to protects us. God is our watchman. Six times Psalm 121 says, in one way or another, that God will “keep us.” This means that: God will oversee us as we sleep and are vulnerable, God will protect us from any evil of the darkness..... because of this we do not need to fear, but can have peace:
Psalm 91:5 says, “You will not fear the terror of the night . . ..” Why? Because God is our refuge and fortress; our shelter, the Psalm tells us. It is like we are sleeping in God’s house.
This is why David said in Psalms 121 “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
While unbelievers have a sense of hopelessness about life and confusion over their true purpose on earth. Believers have Help!
Help implies the action given to provide assistance I don't know about you but I need the hand of the Lord on my life, I need Him to grace me with the ability to maintain and keep me, to show me comfort and be kind to me, to show me goodness and mercy and to be the lifter of my head cause I don't want to be moved.
Those who keep God before them,can move ahead, Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Phil 1:6
This means to be fully and firmly persuaded or convinced. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Up to this point David had emphasized the good work of God in his life, the LORD’s work of
preserving David—guiding, keeping, guarding—him. Now, in bringing this psalm toward a close, David cites the one thing that prompted God to release His preserving power upon him: David kept the LORD before him continually.
When David walked throughout the day and set the LORD before Him—in the place of
authority—God honored him by providing the benefits mentioned above. He supported David by protecting, defending, and guiding him.
With the LORD walking before him, David was confident that he would not be moved from the
path he had chosen to walk, the path of integrity. David was determined not to risk losing all the blessings the LORD had given him. He would follow the LORD’s instructions and guidance.
As a result, the LORD would prepare the way for his servant and deal with any threats before they reached him. Nothing could approach David, unless it first went through God. God was next to him—at his right side, surrounding him with His presence, power, protection, and
preservation. How could David be more secure?
When you set the LORD before you, you are both proclaiming and claiming the LORD as your God. It means He should have first place in your life and be preeminent in all you do. Nothing and no one else should come ahead of Him He says I am a Jealous God(Ex. 20:5).
Listen: You and God make two but when there's a third party involved that can turn into something else. Can you imagine God sitting in heaven and saying, Hmmmm they haven't kept me before them today so He's looking at you all suspect and even though His anger and wrath can be stirred He chooses at times to show you grace and mercy.
God said, Some of yawl are tripping! Some of yawl are ACTING CRAZY! And you need to CALM Down! or chill out!
Get back to God who should be your first love, get back to praying, fasting and reading your Word. Get back to setting the Lord before you!
No area of your life should be excluded from God and His involvement in your life.
You should be striving to honor Him in all that you do. That is how you set God before you.
Secondly, look to God as your guide. If you call on Him and genuinely seek His will and guidance, He will lead you in every decision you face. He will not only prepare you but also prepare the way for you.
Thirdly, when you set God before you, He becomes your guard.
He will surround you with His protection. He will not allow anything—no trial, temptation, or
danger—to threaten you beyond what you are able to bear. He will either give you the grace to
handle it or provide a way to escape it (1 Co. 10:13).
Acts 2:25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. The right hand was regarded as the posItion of honor and dignity, but it is also mentioned as a position of defense or protection. To have one at our right hand is to have one near us who can defend us. The idea is, that as we use the right hand in our "own" defense, we seem to have an additional and a needed helper when one is at our right hand. The sense here is, that the psalmist felt that God, as his Protector, was always near him; always ready to interpose for his defense. We have a somewhat similar expression when we say that the Lord is "at hand;" or that He is near us.
Story has it that there was a man who made a ring for his bride-to-be, but she loved the ring more than him. Certainly she should have loved the gift. But what would he think if she said, “The ring is enough. I do not want to see your face again”? My point is this that since God, has given you all these things blessings and things you love dearly you should love God more because He is the one who made them!
Foot Prints In The Sand:
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
Thats why we can say, I shall not be moved like a tree planted by the water, I shall not be moved!
He walks with me and he talks with me
And he tells me I am his own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known
He speaks and the sound of his voice
Is so sweet, the birds hush their singing
And the melody that he gave to me
Within my heart is ringing
