He Trains my Hands for War

Psalms 18:31-34 ESV

 

“For who is God, but the Lord?

    And who is a rock, except our God?—

the God who equipped me with strength

    and made my way blameless.

He made my feet like the feet of a deer

    and set me secure on the heights.

He trains my hands for war,

    so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”

 

We who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, who have died with him to sin and who are living to him and to his righteousness, we are at war with an enemy, and that enemy is Satan. He is after us to try to get us to forsake the Lord and to turn back to him or else to destroy us in some way in order to silence us so we will stop talking about Jesus.

 

But when we turn to the Lord for our strength, and we do not cave to the enemy’s evil schemes against us, the Lord helps us to walk blamelessly before him in walks of faithful obedience to our Lord. He gives us the wisdom and the courage that we need to fight off the enemy and to keep walking in holiness and righteousness, and to keep talking about Jesus.

 

Satan will use all kinds of tactics against us to attempt to trip us up in some way in hopes to defeat us, because he not only does not want us talking about Jesus and his gospel, and he does not want us confronting and refuting his lies, but he wants us on his side serving him, doing his bidding, and wrecking our lives so he can dance a victory dance over us.

 

But our Lord trains our hands for war so that we can defeat our enemy in God’s strength and power. And he does this through the instructions written down for us in the Scriptures, and through the witness of the Holy Spirit living within us, and through the strength, wisdom, and determination that the Lord gives us to persevere and to not give up. But we have to armor up.

 

Psalms 18:35-38 ESV

 

“You have given me the shield of your salvation,

    and your right hand supported me,

    and your gentleness made me great.

You gave a wide place for my steps under me,

    and my feet did not slip.

I pursued my enemies and overtook them,

    and did not turn back till they were consumed.

I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise;

    they fell under my feet.”

 

This passage of Scripture parallels well over to Ephesians 6:10-20 where it talks about our enemy, and how we need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, and how we need to put on the whole armor of God (daily) so that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. And that armor consists of truth, righteousness, the gospel, our faith, our salvation, the Word of God, and prayer.

 

We are not going to be able to fight off the enemy if we are not armored up daily. So every day we need to reject Satan’s lies and put on the truth, and reject wickedness (sin) and put on righteousness and holiness, and put the gospel message into practice in our lives as well as be sharing it with others. And then we need to reject doubts and fears and put on faith, and reject temptations to sin and put on our salvation from slavery to sin.

 

And every day we need to be bathing our minds with the Word of God and not with the things of this sinful world which will bring us down and defeat us. And we need to read the Scriptures in context so that we get the right understanding of what they are teaching us, too. And then we need to be doers of the word and not hearers only. We need to be those who are putting the word of God into practice in our daily lives.

 

And then we must be praying to our Lord continually, as the Scriptures teach. And what this means is that we need to be in a continual state of prayer to where we can talk with the Lord as naturally as we would talk to someone standing right next to us, but throughout the day, and not just at select times set aside for prayer. And this open communication allows for us to hear the Lord speaking to our hearts, too, so we can obey him.

 

Psalms 18:39-42 ESV

 

“For you equipped me with strength for the battle;

    you made those who rise against me sink under me.

You made my enemies turn their backs to me,

    and those who hated me I destroyed.

They cried for help, but there was none to save;

    they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.

I beat them fine as dust before the wind;

    I cast them out like the mire of the streets.”

 

The Lord has already given us all the equipment we need, the armor of God, in order to fight off our enemy and in order for us to overcome the enemy. The reason many people professing faith in Jesus Christ lose this battle on a consistent basis is either because they are not genuine believers in Jesus Christ or else they are just not armored up, but they are busy taking on the world and the things of this world, instead.

 

I hear many professers of faith in Jesus talk about the struggle they are having against sin and how they are regularly losing that battle and how they are consistently yielding to the flesh. Many of them are making many excuses, too, for why they are still giving in to the enemy. But the bottom line is really that their hearts are not surrendered to Jesus Christ but their flesh is still reigning supreme.

 

We are not going to win this battle against Satan, folks, if we are armoring ourselves with the flesh and with the things of this world and not with the things of God and of his Spirit. This is a spiritual battle which can only be won with spiritual weapons of warfare, but we are self-defeating if we keep leaving doors open for the enemy and if we keep giving him opportunity to enter in through those doors and to lead us back into sin.

 

But, if we are resisting Satan, and if we are fleeing temptation, and if are armored up daily with the armor God has given us to fight off the enemy’s evil attacks against us, and if we are practicing righteousness in the power of God’s Spirit, and if sin is not our practice, but obedience is our practice, by God’s grace and in his strength, then we will have victory over Satan. And he will not win, but he will be defeated. Amen!

 

The Prayer

 

Written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager,

Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

 

I pray you'll be our eyes

And watch us where we go

And help us to be wise

In times when we don't know

 

Let this be our prayer

When we lose our way

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

To a place where we'll be safe.

 

I pray we'll find your light

And hold it in our hearts

When the stars go out each night

Remind us where you are.

 

Let this be our prayer

When shadows fill our day

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

To a place where we'll be safe.

 

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P.S. This is not an endorsement of the singers other than as musicians