Many of David’s prayers were encompassed in two words: Keep me!
The role of Protector is one of God’s most glorious attributes. He promised Zechariah two forms of protection. First, He promised to be “a wall of fire around Jerusalem” (Zechariah 2:5). Even wild animals fear fire, and God said that He would erect around us a wall of flaming fire that no enemy could penetrate.
God also promised Zechariah that “he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of [my] eye” (v. 8 KJV). The apple may be interpreted as the “pupil” of the eye. It is the gate, the very center of the eyeball, through which all light must pass. The eyeball is fiercely protected by the eyelid, which instinctively closes the moment anything threatening comes near the eye. In effect, the Lord is saying, “I am not only watching over you, but you are in my eye!”
If you walk closely to the Lord, you will never stray outside His “wall of fire,” and you will always be protected as the “pupil of His eye.” Fear not, citizen of Zion. Your God has awesome keeping power!
Zechariah 2-3
A Man With a Measuring Line
2 Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand.2I asked, “Where are you going?”
He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”
3While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him4and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it.5And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will be its glory within.’
6“Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD.
7“Come, Zion! Escape, you who live in Daughter Babylon!”8For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—9I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me.
10“Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD.11“Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.12The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.13Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”
Clean Garments for the High Priest
3 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.2The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.4The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
5Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by.
6The angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua:7“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
8“‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.9See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.
10“‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
Revelation 13
The Beast out of the Sea
13 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.2The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.3One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.4People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
5The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.6It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.7It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.8All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
9Whoever has ears, let them hear.
10“If anyone is to go into captivity,
into captivity they will go.
If anyone is to be killed with the sword,
with the sword they will be killed.”
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
The Beast out of the Earth
11Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.12It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.13And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.14Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.15The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.16It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,17so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Psalm 141
Psalm 141
141 I call to you, LORD, come quickly to me;
hear me when I call to you.
2May my prayer be set before you like incense;
may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.
3Set a guard over my mouth, LORD;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
4Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil
so that I take part in wicked deeds
along with those who are evildoers;
do not let me eat their delicacies.
5Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness;
let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head.
My head will not refuse it,
for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.
6Their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs,
and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.
7They will say, “As one plows and breaks up the earth,
so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.”
8But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign LORD;
in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.
9Keep me safe from the traps set by evildoers,
from the snares they have laid for me.
10Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.
Proverbs 30:18-20
18“There are three things that are too amazing for me,
four that I do not understand:
19the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man with a young woman.
20“This is the way of an adulterous woman:
She eats and wipes her mouth
and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’
