“I will lift up my eyes to the hills— from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night” (Psalm 121).

The Hebrew word for “keep” or ”keeper” is used six times in this beautiful psalm. “Shomer” means to guard, protect, preserve, watch over and care for.  What comfort to know that God is always on duty guarding Israel.  In the 1991 Gulf War (“Desert Storm”) God watched over Haifa and none of Saddam Hussein’s missiles killed anyone.  The first Scud missile missed the major oil storage area at Haifa port by 50 meters!  The whole port could have gone up in flames!  After the war a shopping mall was built on the very spot where the first missile exploded and it was nicknamed “Scud Mall.”  We have truly experienced the keeping power of Adonai our Keeper, Protector.

Today we see ominous dark clouds gathering across our northern border.  The Hizballah terrorist army, trained and armed by Iran, is established only a few miles from Galilee and in missile range of our city of Haifa.  Now Russian troops and warplanes have joined with Iranian elite army units in Syria.  They are attempting to build a terrorist base on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.  Also to the north, the government of Turkey has become more Islamic and threatening. 

These are all dangerous new developments.  We thank God that He who keeps Israel never slumbers nor sleeps.  Please stand with us in prayer proclaiming Psalm 121 over the situation in northern Israel.

Kept By the Power of God

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua  from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:3-5).

The apostle Peter used a military term for “kept,” meaning a sentry standing guard as protection against the enemy.  Believers are protected and watched over by the supernatural power (“dunamis” – dynamite!) of God through faith.  We are being kept for an inheritance “incorruptible, imperishable and undefiled that does not fade away” (v. 4).  We have a place “reserved in heaven” at the wedding supper of the Lamb.  In these trying days may we all “keep ourselves in the love of God, eagerly waiting for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah that leads to eternal life” (Jude 21).

- David Davis