I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. (Psalm 73:23)
My grandmother lived alone in the projects for decades. She saw it as her ministry, and she wouldn’t let anyone take her out of there for any reason whatsoever.
Going to visit her was always a spiritually enriching experience . . . not only because she was so spiritually alive, but also because her neighborhood was so scary that we called on the name of the Lord with greater fervor each time we drove into it.
I remember laying on the floor with my brothers and cousins in her living room during shoot outs on many occasions. And you didn’t even want to spend the night at her house on New Years Eve night! You would’ve thought you were in the middle of a warzone.
Mamma (as we affectionately called her) lived alone, but she was never alone. She walked with God, and God manifested his presence to her in tangible ways. While I was always afraid during the drive into her neighborhood, I was never afraid in her house. The presence of the Lord was always there, and we always felt safe.
One day mamma noticed that a light bulb in her living room ceiling had gone out, so she climbed up on a ladder and began to unscrew it. During the process, she slipped and fell backward . . . but before she could fall very far, she felt a hand on her back, which pushed her back up onto the ladder. Mamma was safe because of God’s right hand.
One of the most prominent confessions of the psalmist is that God is his “helper” (Psalm 10:14; 18:35; 27:9; 33:20 . . . ). The Hebrew word for “helper” is ezer, and it means “rescuer.” God is our Rescuer; he protects us from dangers near and dangers far. He surrounds us with shouts of deliverance.
As we meditate on this verse today, let us remind ourselves of the many ways that he has tangibly demonstrated his protective covering over our lives.
Share your thoughts:
Can you recall a time when God protected you in a tangible way?
