Part 4 of a message by Brad Selley, Pastor of Northwest Bible Church, speaking at Parkers Lake Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 28, 2008.

It is amazing to think [end of track 6, 4:59] that His individual care towards us is unwearying.

Number two. Not only is it an unwearying characteristic towards individuals, but towards all His people, which demonstrates His capability. And by all His people, I mean simultaneously. You ever thought that as a kid: "But what if I pray and what if they pray and what if somebody over in Bangkok is praying and what if like a thousand people over there are praying and a million people down there are praying? How could God possibly hear all those prayers? I'll be in line forever. You ever think that in a simplistic, child-like mind? How could God know my individual needs? All at the same time? And able to respond and meet them as a vigilant watchman, who never sleeps or slumbers? How could He care for me like that?"

That's a good question. And the answer is, because of the nature of who He is. Because of the nature of who He is, He's never wearied at how He's going to answer us, at how He's going to care for us.

Not only does He care for us in an individualistic manner, but He cares for us in a collective manner, all of His people, simultaneously, which shows incredible capability, that you and I come far, far short of even thinking of. All of Israel could pray at the same time and it won't overflood the switchboard. All of us could pray at the same time and the circuits will not be too busy. As a matter of fact, I suggest to you, it's almost a mocking thing to even think of it, God is so massive and huge. When we think about His unwearying nature, longingly look.... "Where will my help come from? Oh, yes. From the one who has created me ex nihilo. And from the one who has given me steady ground. And from the one who never sleeps or slumbers and is unwearied."

And not only that, but number four, the one who is the Keeper. The Keeper. The one who keeps in a sense that He watches us closely and He holds us in.

He describes this keeping nature a couple ways. Number one. In an inseparable, like that of our shadow. Maybe you've played those kinds of games when you were younger where you tried to outrun your shadow. I did that a few times on my bike when I was a kid. Try to get going so fast that your shadow couldn't keep up. Think about that kind of thing? When you're a kid and your mind is racing and you think, "Wow! I'm really going fast." Or maybe for you when you were a kid it was when you got the brand new tennis shoes. Man! Those new sneaks, that made you run quick. And you knew at that point, no way my shadow could keep up now.

Now we don't think in such simplistic, child-like ways, but we do practice those kinds of things when we think that there is some way that we could be too bad for God or that our circumstance could be too huge for Him or that our problems could be insurmountable for Him, when we think that our situation is such that no one could possibly understand. That as we pray to God: "I know He's God and all, but He hasn't gone through this." I suggest to you that is such a ridiculous statement it's unbelievable. The concept is full of really arrogance that we would think that we are alone in our situation. Never is that the case. Never have we been left alone in our situation. Never. There has not been one thing, even one thought that has been thunk. There has not even been one thought that has gone without His notice in all of time. That's pretty amazing, is it not?

He has kept us. Where will my help come from? From the one who is able to keep me, regardless of what is happening. Regardless of what my circumstance is. He is able to keep me and keep me so close that I am inseparable from Him, just like a shadow.

Let me read the passage here. Verse 5:

5 The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul.

The concept here is that He is like shade unto us. The word is umbra, by which we get of course our word umbrella, to cover us or to shade us.

He not only protects us, but He also refreshes us in the midst of it. Not only does His covering over us provide [for] us protection from all that happens, but a refreshing from all that happens.

What is this concept of the shade on the right hand? That makes no sense. I don't want to offend anyone today, but the Hebrews really believed. And again, some of you, this is going to be a slap in the face. I don't intend it that way at all. But the Hebrews, back in the day, way back in the ancient culture, felt like if you were left-handed [end of track 7, 5:02] something was a little goofy with you. Den, no problem there, you know, we're still tight and all that stuff. But that's what the assumption was in the old Hebrew culture. Left-handed? Somebody worked with their left hand. Well that would just be crazy. Why would you work with your left hand? Everyone's right-handed. So it was assumed that your right side, your right hand, would be dominant. That your right hand would be the hand that you needed protected. Much like today. Maybe you're getting all caught up—I am a little bit—in what's going on with the Minnesota Twins. And you know that it's coming down to crunch town. Today is the day of reckoning, hopefully, for Chicago. But, if not, you know, God's still God. He knows it's in control. Just... please, Lord. Anyway. Nonetheless. Nonetheless, you see the pitcher come out of the game. What's the first thing he does? He grabs a jacket. It could be ninety-five degrees out. He grabs a jacket and pulls it over his pitching arm. Why? You've got to keep that thing hot. You've got to keep that thing warm. Why? So that at the end of the time when the other guys are batting, he pulls it out, he's still got an arm, ready to roll. He doesn't want that thing getting cold. He doesn't want his muscles to tighten up. He wants that thing ready to throw.

Much like those of you who golf. At least, you're supposed to. Maybe you don't do this. After you hit the ball, you're supposed to put the cover back on the club so that it keeps it hot and warm and flexible and protects it from all kinds of things, particularly cold weather. You're not supposed to let it get stiff in cold weather. You're supposed to keep it hot. That's why you put the sleeve back on the club.

That's exactly what God is doing. He is shading the right hand of us so that we are constantly ready to work. What's the implication of the passage? The implication is clearly this. We can still keep going, even in the midst of hard, hard times. He has provided for us shade and refreshment so that even when we think the only thing we can do is stay in bed, no, no, no. We can get out of bed and keep going. We can continue to move on because He has provided for us even the protection for our hands to continue to work. He has shaded us and provided for us and kept us is literally the word. He has kept us in such a way that He has provided that we can keep going, not only in our lives, but especially in His service. He can keep us going.

I can tell you firsthand, that happened to me last week. As I walked out of the small room and walked into the sanctuary where the funeral was going to be for my brother and walked in and there were a thousand people waiting. A thousand people attended his funeral and as I walked out I realized they're all going to listen to me. First thing I thought was, "Why?" Next thing I thought was, "I'll give them the word." Stood up and gave them the word. Had no strength of my own. I could tell you first hand, the Lord kept me. The Lord kept me so that I could speak what His word teaches on the issue. And I can just tell you. Maybe you're not going through what I went through. But maybe you're the person who is staring down the barrel of that foreclosure. Maybe you just got the cancer diagnosis. Maybe you're in the middle of the treatment for all I know. Maybe you have family situations that are insurmountable. Maybe you have a prodigal child that you are just agonizing over, that will not come back to the Lord. I don't know what your situation is, but I do know this. God has provided that we keep going. Amen? He has provided that He would even be a shade on our right hand. Refreshing us even to continue the journey that He has had.

Not only is He inseparable, but He is also protecting us. He's protecting us from many things. From that which is seen of the daylight and that which is unseen of the night with the moon. Of course, the daylight reveals all that we can see. You can find things when they're lost in the daylight. We can see what's coming upon us in the daylight.

Several years ago, when I was still here at the church as the youth pastor, I was going through a transition period in my life physically where I was beginning to become quite frustrated with other people because they couldn't quite understand the way that I was viewing things. Let me give you an example.

There's a sign out here. I've told this story to some of you at least. I remember when the old sign was out there that was really low to the ground and we had a work day and, Merlin, I think you took your chainsaw and cut it in half if I remember right. And we took the old sign down because we were getting a new sign. And we spent all this money, the trustees did all this work and we went to the different sign places and we got quotes and we got stuff and we wanted movable letters and we did a study whether it should be the blue background or a red background and on and on and on—all this stuff. And we got this sign. [end of track 8, 5:01] And the sign went up. And I remember telling Holly as we drove by the very first time, "Oh, no! Those guys spent all that money and the sign is blurry."

Two weeks later, I got glasses for the first time in my life. And can I just tell you, man? That sign is crystal clear. I was so upset about the idea, because when you can see things.... And I would be driving at night and I would be squinting. Have you ever done one of these where you do the power squint for just a second and then open up really fast and you can see for just a split second? I was finding myself driving at night doing that and realizing, "This probably isn't safe."

"Okay, it's turn here." You know?

"Is that red or green? Okay. Go, go, go." Realizing that wasn't good.

I'd go to a place to order off the menu. I think, Jeff, you and I even went somewhere one time and I had to ask you what the menu was. And I realized at that point, "This isn't right, man. I've got to get glasses."

The concept is this. In the middle of the day, you can see just fine. And at the night, it gets blurry. You can't see. Everything's off. There are things coming at us that we can see, ladies and gentleman. Can I just let you know up front? The wily, fiery darts of the Devil are coming. You don't have to be somebody who has x-ray vision to see it. God has told us that they are coming. We are going to be under spiritual attack. There are going to be major things coming. And we are going to know that they're coming and we're going to see them coming and when they hit us it's going to rock our boat in a serious way. But we know they're coming. We can prepare for them.

There are also things that come into our lives that we have no idea about, during the middle of the night. The word for moon, of course many of you guys know, is the word by which we get lunar. And the concept is, of course, is extracted out to mean—the Hebrews taught this as not so much that it was at night but so that you were kind of crazy. Luna, by which we get our word lunatic. [Track 9, 1:58]