There are times in our lives when we need protection – from other people or from ourselves or from circumstances we can't control. But where do you get that sort of protection?

Now there are times in our lives when we need protection. Sometimes its from our enemies, sometimes its from situations we find ourselves that we can't control and sometimes it's from ourselves, our own short sightedness or selfishness or the consequences of our mistakes. Now kings and presidents and prime ministers, they all have body guards around them to protect them but you and I, we don't have those sorts of body guards in that way. But that doesn't mean that we still don't need them sometimes. But in those times, when we need protection, often there's not a body guard to be found.

In fact, in those difficult times, so often the people, who should be there for us, just aren't. Now let me ask you, where do you turn to? Who do you turn to? Some would say God but the problem for many is well, you can't see God. You can see your enemies, you can feel the fear, you can look at the calamities around you but, but how do you know that God is in that place and how do you know that He'll protect you? See, if God is going to protect us in those times, we need to know it, but how?

It's really hard you know when people plot against us. They talk behind our backs, they plan and they scheme. It is really hard when we're in danger, when someone is looking to do us harm either physically or emotionally or to harm our reputation, whatever it might be, it's really hard.

Over these last few days we've been looking at some promises that we can depend on, you and I. God's promises and today, today I want to look at His promise of protection and I tell you, there are so many instances of this promise throughout His word but I want to look at them today through the eyes of a man called King David. We'll see it as he experienced it, on the run for his life from his predecessor, King Saul. You know, David was anointed king while Saul was still king and Saul figured out that everyone was looking to David to be king so Saul tried to kill him and so David spent a long time on the run.

Now have a listen to what David writes about those dangerous years, you can read it actually in Psalm 18:

I love you Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge. He's my shield, He's the horn in my salvation, He's my stronghold. I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise and I am safe from my enemies. The cords of death entangle me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me, the snares of death confronted me but in my distress I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help.

From His temple He heard my voice, my cry came before Him into His ears. The earth trembled and quaked and the foundations of the mountains shook and they trembled because He was angry. Smoke rose from His nostrils, consuming fire came from His mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down, dark clouds were under His feet, He mounted the cherubim and He flew and He soared on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him, the dark rain clouds of the sky. At the brightness of His presence, clouds advanced with hail stones and bolts of lightening. The Lord thundered from heaven, the voice of the most high resounded. He shot arrows, He scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightening routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth lay bare at Your rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breathe from Your nostrils.

He reached down from on high and He took a hold of me, He drew me out of the deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.

Beautiful isn't it? Typical sort of Hebrew picture language; the Jews loved to speak in pictures. What's David saying here? See, all the time he was on the run for his life and it strikes me where he talks about his enemies who were too powerful for him. And he says, "all the time I was on the run for my life God, You protected me."

Now that's something we don't expect, Gods protection. See, He didn't wrap David in cotton wool, He didn't take David out of that situation, He didn't smite Saul and kill him on day one. God did none of those things; what He did was He kept David safe and it's the same thing with us.

What we expect is for God to instantaneously end the threat; for God, instantaneously to beam us out of that place; for God, instantaneously to save us from that situation but so often it's not what He does. David was on the run for years, living in caves, always looking over his shoulder. God was teaching David through those times to rely on Him. They were important lessons for David because when David ultimately became king of Israel and had to fight large and powerful enemies who were much larger and much stronger than Him; David knew that his God would protect him. God taught him this in his own experience, He taught him to believe in this promise.

Have a listen to the promise of God. It comes from Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 27:

The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you saying, "Destroy him!

So when people are looking to stab you and me in the back or to defame us or to get rid of us, can we trust God? Absolutely! That doesn't mean that sometimes we're don't have to live through some pain, it doesn't mean that sometimes we don't have to get the sack or to take a step backwards or to go through terrible things. What it does mean is that it will turn out just fine even if Gods definition of "just fine" isn't quite your definition or my definition. Have a listen again to this from Psalm 31, verse 20:

In the shelter of Your presence You hide us from human plots. You hold us safe under Your shelter from contentious tongues.

See there are promises like this all the way through Gods word:

In the shelter of Your presence You hide us from human plots.

People plot behind our backs sometimes; people have contentious tongues and speak about us behind our backs. All through Gods word you see God being the protector of the people who love Him and honour Him and sometimes really bad things happen, Jesus remember was nailed to a cross. Not particularly His first preference as we learn from His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so far as we know, each of the 12 disciples was martyred, the apostle Paul was martyred.

The point is that no matter what the outcome we can rely on Gods protection. Those men, those men are now with God; no if's, no but's, no maybe's. You know what I've noticed; there is no shortage of people on this planet who want to do me harm. To criticize me, to pull me down, to tell me I'm wasting my time. Sometimes I get things right and sometimes I get things wrong but my God protects me, even if it hurts sometimes because of what other people are doing and saying.

God is our protector, His heart is to hold us close and to keep us safe and you know and I know that unless Jesus returns first, we're going to die one day. We're going to breath our last breathe, through sickness or disease or accident or murder, they're all possibilities. In the mean time God is our protector, He will protect us if we put our faith in Him. The eternal God is your refuge, He is your strength, He is the place where you and I can take refuge and be safe according to His mighty plan for our lives.

This is a promise we can depend on!