by Marilyn Ehle
“They (the psalmist’s enemies)…swarmed around me like bees, but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns…I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.” From Psalm 118
A friend* living in another country sent me this fascinating account of a recent experience:
Psalm 118 came to life Monday night after I had an unexpected encounter with a swarm of bees. I was at my computer and looked up to see bees flying in the window. I jumped up and waved the first non-breakable object I could find at them and got all but two bees to go back the way they came before slamming the window shut. Then my offensive weapon, a stuffed dog, became a bee smusher.
The sight on the other side of the glass was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Hundreds, possibly thousands of bees swarming about for hours. This morning, when I went outside, hundreds of dead bees lay by the elevator where they’d come in through a nearby window. Many of those bees would have been in my apartment if I hadn’t been close at hand when the cloud appeared.
The psalmist wrote that the enemy nations surrounded him like bees. Now that I’ve come a bit closer than I’d like to being surrounded by bees, I have yet another picture of God’s protection.
As I reflected on what happened, I realized that the enemy had been attacking me with a lot of little things, none in themselves that big, but together were probably a bigger swarm than I’d realized. In Christ’s name I can slam the window shut on what the enemy is trying to do.
What are the “bees” in our lives? Perhaps the potential sting looks like worry, or depression, or the biting words of one we had thought to be a friend. Taken singly we are apt to think that we can simply ignore the bees’ presence or combat them with positive thoughts, but our ultimate weapon is always reliance upon the Lord who promises to be our strength, defense and salvation.
*My friend has given me permission to write about this incident.
You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2012/10/01/me_a-bee-attack/