Dear Lord,

Hear the cry of your people. Help us as we navigate a dark, hopeless world. Remind us of the God we serve and your goodness. Remind us that You hold everything in Your hand and that You cannot be overcome, overwhelmed, or weakened by the comings and goings of this world. Nothing surprises You or catches You off guard. Everything– even the worries and tragedies we go through and see around us– has been ordained and sovereignly ordered by You. There is nothing that happens outside of Your knowledge and you use everything according to Your will; you work it altogether to accomplish Your purposes, which cannot fail us or leave us without You and Your Spirit.

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?