It’s tough out there.

You’ve probably heard that.  You’ve probably said that.  It’s true in virtually every circumstance about which it’s spoken.  Life can be hard.  There are plenty of chances to stumble and fall.  There are plenty of ways to get our hearts broken and grow cynical towards other people.  After all, people will disappoint you.  We’re not perfect; we’ll let each other down.

But there’s more than just frail people around us.  As Christians, Satan and his demons take aim at us.  They can’t take away our passageway to our eternal home in Heaven, but they sure can make the path to get there…well, hell on earth.

This isn’t new.  God’s people have been pushing back against the darkness for a long time.  Should the Lord Jesus not return soon to end it all, it’s going to keep happening for a long time.

So as we push against this darkness, we need armor for our hearts.  This “heart armor” is exactly where our study in the Psalms lands us today.  We read in Psalm 91:5-13:

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

The key to putting the armor on our tender hearts?  Making the Lord our refuge.  Finding our home with Him.  It’s far too easy to take our eyes on the eternal and put them back on the temporal but that’s a mistake.

We must press towards the goal of not just surviving life—that’s not what this Psalm is talking about at all!—but thriving in life.  This is a Psalm of victory but it is based on following a very specific battle plan.  That plan, dearly loved of the Lord Jesus, is to put on the heart armor of the Lord’s call.

Knowing you’re operating in the dead center of the will of God protects your heart from the fatal attacks of the enemy.  It’s still tough out there, but we can put on our marching boots when we put on the heart armor of living in synchronization with the Holy Spirit.