Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will spare and rescue it.
– Isaiah 31:5
Is that not a great image? Like birds hovering. You just picture birds hovering over something, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem.
Isaiah 31:5 teaches us that God is our Savior and Protector.
The Lord of hosts hovers over his people to protect them, to deliver them. He will protect and deliver it. He will spare and rescue it. The Lord hovers over to protect, deliver, spare, and rescue. And obviously, this is God speaking this word to his people at a particular time in history. But we know from all of Scripture that God is the Protector of all who trust in him, that God is the Rescuer of all who look to him ultimately through Jesus. So picture this: your life today, the Lord of hosts hovering over you, as your Protector.
As you face temptations today to sin, you have a Protector. You have a way out of every temptation you’ll face today. And as you walk through trial, as the adversary in this world tries to use trials to destroy your joy, take away your hope, tempt you to fear and worry, to pull you away from God, you have a Protector. He is your Protector. And greater is he who is in you, who is hovering over you, than he who is in the world.
So picture God all day long today hovering over you as your Protector, your Rescuer, your Savior, your Provider, your Defender. Like birds hovering, the Lord of hosts hovers over you as you trust in him. God, we praise you for this reality, and we pray that you’d help us to live in it today. God, I pray for every single person who’s listening to this right now who knows you, who’s put their faith, their trust in you as Savior, to the work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.
Isaiah 31:5 teaches us that God is committed to our well-being.
I pray that they would know right now that you are the Lord of hosts, the Lord of heavenly armies, and you are hovering over them today and all day long. No matter what they face, You are their Protector. You are their Defender. God, you are their Provider. You are their Savior who rescues them. You are committed to their well-being, to their good, to their flourishing, and to helping them in every way they need.
God, I pray this in my own life and I pray this for every single one of your children listening to this right now, that we would trust in you today as our Protector hovering over us, and live in the security and the confidence and the hope and the joy and the strength that are found in knowing You, the Lord of hosts. Hover over us as our Protector, and God, we pray for those who don’t know this protection and don’t know this eternal security that’s found in you.
Prayer for the Fedicca-Mohas Nubian People
God, we pray that you help us to lead others to you today. Point others to you, encourage other brothers and sisters in Christ with this reality, and God to share the gospel with friends and family members so that they might know this reality in our schools, in our workplaces, and in our neighborhoods. God, we pray that the good news of your protection and your rescue in Jesus would spread through us today, and would spread around the world. God, we pray today for the Fedicca-Mohas Nubian people of Egypt, North Africa.
We pray for this people group of 1.1 million people… Muslims who don’t know your protection and rescue in Jesus as Lord and God and Savior and King. God, we pray that your protection and rescue would spread to the Fedicca-Mohas Nubian people of Egypt and across North Africa for your glory as their Protector. We pray all this according to your Word, which we love. In Isaiah 31:5, to you, our Protector, the Lord of hosts. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all 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, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
