God has said that He would place a hedge around us to protect us from all evil. He has even said He would protect our coming in and going out. Day and night God is our guard; He will not sleep or slumber as He surrounds us with His care.
Never forget: We may feel like we are being surrounded by the forces of our enemy, but in reality we are surrounded by Almighty God.
When the old prophet Elisha and his assistant Gehazi were surrounded by the armies of the king of Syria, Gehazi was filled with fear when he saw the hosts of the Syrian army. He cried out to Elisha, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” (2 Kings 6:15 NKJV).
But God had been informing Elisha for some time of the battle plans that the Syrian king had been plotting against Israel. Elisha knew that these soldiers were coming, so with calm confidence, he answered his fearful assistant, Gehazi.
“So he [Elisha] answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.’ And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha” (vv. 16-18).
We don’t know if Elisha actually saw the powerful army of Heaven’s warriors that surrounded the city, but he knew they were there. After God opened Gehazi eyes to see the angelic forces He had sent to protect and deliver them, he knew they were there as well.
So in perilous times, when we feel surrounded and there seems to be no way out, here’s what we must do: Lift up our heads, raise our hands in praise, and look to the Source of our deliverance. We can be confident in the promise God has made to us: He has us surrounded!
In Psalm 32:7, we find a description of the same truth with a slightly different emphasis: “You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance” (NKJV).
The “song of deliverance” this verse talks about is actually a shout. God has surrounded us with His own words and shouted them out for all to hear: “You are delivered from every enemy and every attack!”
Now it’s up to us to put this same shout in our mouth. We can declare in the face of the devil and everything he has used against us: “Devil, I am delivered from the power of your kingdom and from every attack you could ever throw at me!”
The hedge that keeps and preserves us is built with the words of God’s promises. We can reinforce the strength of that divine hedge with our own shout of deliverance. So we must guard our thoughts and our mouth to make sure that our words and God’s Word agree; then we can rest assured that we are safe and secure. The evil one cannot lay a hand on us, for we are surrounded by God’s own hedge of protection!
