Part of cultivating a passion for God is looking to see who He is. Psalm 84:11 gives us two pictures of our wonderful God: “…the Lord God is a sun and a shield….”
Think about what the sun does for us. It gives warmth without which life can’t exist. It is the source of light so we can see, and it makes many other things possible including food (light interacting with chlorophyll), energy (all usable energy has sun light as its ultimate source), clean water (the weather cycle providing clean rain comes from evaporation), the rhythm of the seasons (regulated by our distance from the sun), variety in weather (sunny days and cloudy days, calm and storm), direction (the sun rises in the East and sets in the West), discipline and rest (night and day), beauty (sunrise and sunsets, shadows to highlight the landscape), and consistency (it comes up every day).
Our God is like this, providing all we need and more for us. We are surrounded by His love and provision, but sadly take most of it for granted.
God is also our shield. Like the atmosphere He is filtering out what will harm us. There are many promises in Scripture of His protecting us from what is harmful (e.g., Ps. 23, 1 Pet. 1:5).
He knows what is good for us and lets the pleasant and the painful positives come through while keeping out that which will damage us spiritually. I must confess that I am tempted to complain at some of what He allows to come through the filter of His love, but must come back to His shielding us from all that is truly evil with wisdom and power, and in praise bow before His will.
It is good to remember that our God is our sun and our shield, to note what He does for us every day, and to cultivate the deep yearning of our souls for His presence and grace by spending time with Him, in worship, in the Word, in intercession.
Prayer: “Lord, help me to recognize your work in my life as my sun and shield, to be thankful, to give praise in all, to cultivate the relationship you have for me, for your glory and for the growth of all those around me. Amen.”
