Oh, Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. Oh, house of Aaron. Trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord. Trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
– Psalm 115:9–11
I love these places in the Psalms where the Holy Spirit makes super clear the message that we need to take away by repeating phrases over and over and over again.
Psalm 115:9–11 Is a Psalm of Reliance on God as Help and Shield
Psalm 115:9 says: Trust in the Lord. Verse 10: Trust in the Lord. Verse 11: Trust in the Lord. This is clearly a call for trust in God. And you’re not seeing it right now, but there’s an exclamation point at the end of every single one of those commands, calls, exhortations, to trust in the Lord. So even just that, I would encourage you today, I don’t know what’s going on in your life, what you’re facing, what fears you might have, what worries or anxieties you might have, what burdens you might be carrying.
Trust in the Lord God by His spirit right now in His word is speaking to your heart, telling you you can trust in him. And then the other phrase that repeats over and over and over again is why we can trust in Him. He is their help and their shield. Three times it says it. He’s their help and their shield. He is their help and their shield. He is their help and their shield.
Psalm 115:9–11 Is a Psalm of Divine Assurance
Hear that God speaking to you right now. He is saying to you, I am your help. Amidst whatever you’re walking through, amidst all those fears, worries, anxieties, concerns, or burdens, God says, I am here to help you. This is God, the sovereign Lord of creation, saying, I’m here to help you and to be your shield. What a picture. God is your shield today in the face of fear, worry, anxiety, attacks, challenges, and trials. God is a shield for you.
The sovereign Lord of creation is your shield. Oh God, we praise you for your word. We praise you for speaking to us now through it, God, for how these words that were written inspired by your Holy Spirit centuries ago, thousands of years ago, you are using right now to speak to each of our hearts. And God, I pray for every single person listening right now that they would have ears to hear you say to them right now, personally, trust in me. I’m your help and your shield for you shouting that right now. God, we praise you as the Lord in whom we can trust. We praise you as the Lord, the God who is our helper. We praise you as the Lord, the one true God who is our shield today.
Praying for the Jad People
God, we pray for people who don’t know you in this way. God, for the Jad people of India, this Buddhist people group in, in India, God we pray, be their help and their shield. Bring them to trust in you. Jesus, we pray for the spread your grace and your glory among the Jad people of India, even as we celebrate and live in the reality of Psalm 115:9–11. God, we pray over the Jad people and we pray over our own lives that we would trust in you, for you are the help and the shield for all who trust in you. We pray this in Jesus’ name according to your word in Psalm 115:9–11. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
