Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For You are my hope, O Lord GOD; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; you are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You.

We live in a world full of sin and evil. We live in a world full of wicked people. There are threats and dangers everywhere and all the time. Even when things seem safe and secure, the possibility of an attack is ever present. Whether we like it or not, we must live and walk amidst the wicked of the world, and so we need protection only the Lord God can give. We need the Lord God to deliver us from the hand of the wicked and to walk with us and our loved ones, keeping us from falling in to the snares of the wicked. Indeed, “Let the wicked fall into their own nets,” while we “escape safely,” (Psalm 141:10).

It is wonderful to have such a faithful God whom we can trust to continually protect us. Like the psalmist, who writes from the perspective of old age, some of us have trusted the Lord God from youth. However long it’s been, the Lord God has provided us with protection thus far, and there’s no good reason to believe that He will stop now. We can count on Him.

The Lord God even saw to our safety from birth. Even before we were able to trust Him, He was taking care of us. Although we may have gone through some difficult times, although there may have been some enemy attacks, the Lord God has upheld us and delivered us. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all,” (Psalm 34:19).

When we think of all the threats and dangers in life that could have destroyed us or our loved ones, when we think of all the times disaster could have taken us out but didn’t, we turn to the Lord God with gratitude and praise continually.

By John Huisman, friend of Bible League International