“The LORD watches over you. … The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”
Psalm 121:5a, 8
“Through many dangers” we have sung in the hymn “Amazing Grace.” John Newton expanded on this thought:
“Considered as individuals, [believers] are fitly described by the name of sheep. A sheep is a defenseless … creature; prone to wander, and if once astray, is seldom known to return on its own…. Such is our character and our situation: unable to take care of ourselves, prone to wander …, exposed to enemies which we can neither withstand nor avoid, without resource in ourselves, and taught, by daily experience, the insufficiency of everything around us. Yet if [the Lord] is our Shepherd, … we may be of good courage. If we can say with David, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd,’ we may make the same inferences which he did: ‘Therefore I shall not want; therefore I need not fear.’
“[Believers] are a flock. … They are scattered, … and only a very small part of the flock are known to one another. But they are all equally known to Him. … They have an inheritance … in heaven, and they shall be safely kept while they are sojourners upon earth.”
“Considered as individuals, [believers] are fitly described by the name of sheep. A sheep is a defenseless … creature; prone to wander, and if once astray, is seldom known to return on its own…. Such is our character and our situation: unable to take care of ourselves, prone to wander …, exposed to enemies which we can neither withstand nor avoid, without resource in ourselves, and taught, by daily experience, the insufficiency of everything around us. Yet if [the Lord] is our Shepherd, … we may be of good courage. If we can say with David, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd,’ we may make the same inferences which he did: ‘Therefore I shall not want; therefore I need not fear.’
“[Believers] are a flock. … They are scattered, … and only a very small part of the flock are known to one another. But they are all equally known to Him. … They have an inheritance … in heaven, and they shall be safely kept while they are sojourners upon earth.”
Scripture Focus
Psalm 23
Insight
“Though I am weak and Satan strong,/ And often to assault me tries;/ When Jesus is my shield and song,/ Abashed the wolf before me flies.” (John Newton, 1779)
Bible In A Year
- Isaiah 6-8
- Psalm 75
- John 16
