Ps 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
David gives us some pretty solid advice in this verse. He put his trust in the strength of the Lord and let Him be his shield. Time and time again, David saw the Lord help him, and he expressed his thanks by singing a song of praise. When David was being chased by Saul through the countryside, David saw the Lord shield him. When he was weak and full of fear, he got through it by the strength of the Lord. As he reflects on everything he has been through, his heart is full of exaltation, and his mouth is full of praise.
When we are in need of strength and protection, do we look to the Lord? Proverbs 3:5 says to Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. That means we lean on the Lord with everything we’ve got. The idea is to cling to the Lord with every ounce of your being. At the same time, we need to look to the Lord for our protection. When the enemy is pressing in, and we have nowhere to turn, let the Lord be your shield. He knows what you’re going through and will be your shield.
Putting your faith in the Lord can be scary. He works in ways we don’t understand, and He doesn’t do it when we’d like. Still, we need to trust Him. That means we need to wait on Him to work and steady our hearts when things don’t look good. The danger we run into is that we try to make things happen on our own. Proverbs 3:6 says, “In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” Herein lies a principle that we need to live by. We don’t just stop and wait. What we do is ask the Lord as we go and be willing to walk through the doors He opens for us.
A good way to instill this in our lives is to remember. That is what David is doing here. He is remembering all that the Lord has done and it is filling him full of praise. When we look back and remember what God has done, it fills our hearts, too. We can get so busy, or so filled with fear, that we forget how God has been there for us every time. This is why praising Him is important. It helps us verbalize our faith.
