"But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head."

Verse three talks about God being our shield and how He lifts up our head, and then the next verse tells us that we cry out to him and He hears us form His Holy Hill. When I read that God is our shield, I thought of the verses in Ephesians 6 where we are instructed by Paul to put on the armor of God and bear it with pride to fight the fight ahead of us. These are very well known verses and most of us know them or have at least heard of them. The thing that got me is that God Himself wore the armor first. In Isaiah 59, we see God put on the armor Himself and fought for His beloved people.

"v. 16 He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. v. 17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak."

He waited to see if anyone would lead them back to Him and when no one did, God Himself lead them back to Him. He bore the armor and fought for them and punished their enemies. This also correlates to God also allowing us to not fear the tens of thousands that surround us, for He is there and He is our shield. In the armor of God, the shield is that of faith. By putting our faith in Him, we are in turn asking God to protect us and bear that same armor we use to defend Him and the faith we believe in. He will protect us, which is so evident in the Scripture; the thing is we must turn to Him and even if we do not, he will lead us back to Him like He did with the people in Isaiah's age.

[Submitted by Kyle Kotrch]