The church I grew up in had several worship teams throughout the decades I spend there. One worship leader’s name was Dolores. She only lead very occasionally, when there was a rare gap in worship leaders’ schedules, but when she did, she was always on an acoustic guitar. 

Dolores is a genuine flower child, saved after her wild days in the 60s, but her style of worship was still very “Stevie Nicks found the joy of the Lord.” She always sang songs that no one else did. One of them was this exact scripture, and there weren’t too many other words than that. But I cannot hear that scripture without hearing her singing it with that strummy guitar behind her.

So what does it mean? It’s obviously metaphorical about the strength and protection of the Lord towards His people, but how is it practically applied?

Many people in the modern church want to see miracles the way the early church saw them. They want to see awesome healings, amazing displays of supernatural power, and unexplainable wonders that make you think, “This has to be God.” 

That’s how many people make their entire ministry– by claiming to perform or portraying some mysterious, mystical miracle.

This weekend, I ran across a video from Jackie Hill Perry, an author, poet, and awesome teacher of the Word. She posted a live video in her car talking about the dangers of how we, as Christians, crave the power of God. Now it’s important to preface this whole devotion with this: asking God for His power is not bad in the slightest– something Jackie made overly clear as she was speaking. There is nothing wrong in asking God for the power to confront something, to overcome something, or so that He can receive the glory and honor from it. I guarantee, that’s something we’ve all done.