Wednesday 22 July 2015

Camping

"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him." Psalm 34.7

Over the past few years I have come to value massively the discipline of memorising passages of the Bible. I'm just working through Psalm 34 and have got to v.7 - test me when you next see me! - there's an incentive for me to keep learning. Memorisation is a lost skill in our culture - what's the point when you have the world at your thumb-tips. But as I saw somewhere recently - whilst Google helps you find what you are looking for, it can't help you know what you need to find. Bible memorisation gives me Scriptures that will spring to mind when I am in the middle of a crisis or temptation, or overcome with joy. It is also a way of helping God's word work deeply into my life - not just going in one ear and out the other, but taking root along the way. Why not have a look at this blog on 10 reasons why it is worth doing. Another big aid to me has been Scripture Typer - it is available on Google Play - according to it I am at present no. 1773 at Bible memorisation in the world!

One key help I have found is to set out to learn off by heart bits of the Bible which have meant a lot to me, or hit me hard when I hear them in a sermon or in my Quiet Time. Psalm 34 is one such text. It speaks of God's protection for his people, who it describes as those who fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is a massive theme of the Bible and amongst other things means tha act of placing ourselves wholly in the hands of God, looking to him alone for our security, hope and peace.

v.7 has a particular power for me. It is a great image of the mighty angel of the Lord, encircling God's people who have placed their trust in him. It is a protection which is mostly unseen (except briefly in 2 Kings 6.17), but is powerful beyond human conception. After all, one angel destroyed Sennacherib's army (2 Kings 19.35). What a comfort when faced with enemies of any type, whether human, or medical, or economic. When I have been afraid, repeating these words have been the life jacket to which I have clung - "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him"

Is there significance in the fact that the angel of the Lord camps around us rather than building walls around us. One of the difficulties of Psalm 34 is that it can, on first glance, appear as if the one who fears God will be spared all suffering, but there is a stunning verse hidden at the end - "he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken". This was a prophecy fulfilled in Jesus at his crucifixion (John 19.36). What a strange choice of Bible reference for John to use. At the moment when Jesus is being brutally executed, John quotes from a Psalm talking of the Lord's protection of his people. The point is this: God's protection is not from trouble, but through trouble. His protection is not that of the city wall that repels all trouble, but that of the convoy which sees his people through trouble - "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death". So whatever trouble we are walking through today, why not spend a moment looking up and imagining God's mighty angel encamped around you. No one can see him, but God's word promises that he is there, encamped around those who fear him.

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