Causing Your Enemies To Retreat
“You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; You have made me the head of the nations; A people I have not known shall serve me. 44 As soon as they hear of me they obey me; The foreigners submit to me. 45 The foreigners fade away, And come frightened from their hideouts.” Psalm 18:43-45 NKJV
I thrill at the imagery David shares in these verses. This whole Psalm is praising God for His history of delivering David from the hands of all of his enemies, from Saul right on through to anyone that rose up against David. If we look back at our lives we will also see a history of Jesus’ faithfulness to us, His protection and intervention for our deliverance time and again through life. David praises God for this history of deliverance and so should we, as our own lives are chronicles recalling all that He has done for us, in faithful love and support.
David knew that whenever anyone spoke against Him or stirred up trouble, God was there to deliver him. If any man or demonic force should rise to take away what has been entrusted to you, they would be dealt with in the same fashion as those who rose up to bring strife into the kingdom of David. Remember you have been delivered and are the head with Jesus. We have been entrusted as stewards over things in our life and as we trust Him for everything, He will not only safeguard those things but bring more things into our care and stewardship.
David spoke of the enemies that rose up against Him in battle. They heard of David’s name and they submitted to Him just because of the power that was given by God to David. Even his name carried that authority and fear in the Lord. The name of Jesus, the name above all names is in us. Know and believe this and those who would rise against you shall submit to His name.
In fact, David said that when his name was mentioned those foreigners would just fade away. They would be bold until the name of David was uttered or they realized David was approaching or preparing to come out against them. When his name was spoken against them, they would disappear in fear and hide from David. When anyone speaks against or rises against anything that has been entrusted to our stewardship, at the mere presence of us standing in the authority of Jesus, they will slink away in fear of the Lord that is for us and with us.
David just had to show up in battle and the enemy would retreat and hide. As stewards, all we have to do is stand in the name of Jesus. We don’t back down, we do not get intimidated. We stand and present ourselves for battle. Then the name of Jesus will cause our enemies to retreat and hide from the presence of the Jesus in us and through us.
J Todd Hostetler