I was spending some time this morning reflecting on a familiar passage - Psalm 121. "I lift my eyes to the mountains from where does my help come from?" And what specifically came to light today was my understanding of God as Protector. Often when I would read this Psalm I would find myself confused by the question "How in the world can the moon do any harm to us?" I get how the sun can harm or smite us but when we're out enjoying the light of the full moon, we're not dousing ourselves with SPF 30. The moon cannot do any harm to us unless...unless we're in hiding.
Darkness has the ability to protect us from being seen or discovered. Hiding keeps us in the darkness from an enemy pursuing us. Or hiding keeps our sin from the exposing light of God's truth and holiness. In the garden the first response to the enemy and to the sin was to cover up not only skin but our location as well. God asks the question "where are you?" knowing we are taking flight from Him seeing us in our true condition. The moon has just as much the ability as the sun to expose us to our enemies and reveal our sin. Day or night, our sin and our state as enemies of God has the potential to be exposed. Enter God as protector. We were his enemies. He protected us from himself through the covering of His Son Jesus' blood, from the judgment which was ours to deserve for ignoring Him and walking rebelliously away from Him.
Therefore we can say with confidence "The LORD will protect our comings and our goings both now and forevermore" because we are saved from God's wrath by God's covering for God's glory. No longer afraid of exposure, because we are shaded by His Son.
