Defensive Strategies

Psalms 140:5 (KJV) The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.

(Proverbs 26 also read)

How does God protect us from those who mean us evil?  Think of the words of the 23rd Psalm, “but deliver us from evil”.  There it could be interpreted as the evil one.  Either way, we are surrounded by forces that would drag us down.  Some are just the natural results of a creation that has been polluted by sin, and others are simply demonic.

Here we have a couple of suggestions.  It doesn’t come through very well in the KJV, but there are a couple of thoughts here.  First of all the idea that maybe God can guide us down paths where they won’t be waiting for us.  Very possible.  The weak spot in this is our reluctance to listen and pay attention.  Just think of all the problems we could miss with a little bit more wisdom in our decisions.

Another idea here is that God would somehow shield us from their traps.  That is the word “gins” in the KJV.  In the old English “gins” meant engines or elaborate schemes.  Maybe you could think of it as God transforming us into greased pigs.  I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that activity where a bunch of kids will chase a greased pig.  Greasy pigs are very hard to get a hold of.  So are people that are covered by the blanket of the Holy Spirit.

So?  David’s prayer should be yours, that God would shelter you and shield you from all of the evil gins of Satan and his minions.