“For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways” Psalms 91:11
In April 2001 I discovered Psalms 91 and right away I claimed its promises for my life. I’ve read it nearly every day since then.
In the book of Job in the Good Book, the hedge–of-God is mentioned, and it is my humble opinion that Psalms 91 is a very good description of that literal spiritual and natural hedge about Christians who attempt to live for Christ.
It was snowing heavily in the north-central area of Pennsylvania as I left around 6PM to drive to southwest New York State to hunt deer; I was alone.
By the time I crossed the NY state line and entered into the south-central portion of the state, I was encountering a full-blown Great Lakes blizzard! Visibility was down to about twenty yards as I drove slowly onward, my new four-wheel-drive Ford pickup already in high-range 4WD.
It was midnight by the time I found the right dirt road ( I had driven past it one or two times in the snow!) and the remote two-track would eventually take me to the top of a high plateau where I planned to hunt in the soon-to-be-hours of daylight, or so I thought!
After several miles, I reached the bottom of the steep grade that would take me to the top, and once there, I planned to get some sleep for a coupla hours.
It was maybe a quarter-mile of grade but it had a steep incline, and there was ten inches of fresh white; it was still snowing, but snowfall had pretty much lessened as I let the clutch out and started upward, and even though I was new to driving 4WD vehicles of any sort, I had confidence in my truck; after all, hadn’t I made it this far!
No one in the entire world knew where I was at that moment (I hadn’t yet learned to leave destinations with my wife) and I was out in the middle of no-where far, far from any living being.
Steadily I climbed the hillside until I was about two hundred yards along and almost halfway up; little did I know that under the new snow was a thick layer of slick-ice! Suddenly my wheels broke loose and started spinning furiously; my momentum coming to a stop.
“No problem” I thought as I pushed in the clutch to shift to low-range 4WD. That’s where my inexperience did me in as in a split-instant the wheels stopped spinning and the truck started quickly to go backwards with my leg frozen in panic with the clutch pedal still in!
In a matter of seconds I was sliding backwards and downwards completely out of control and there was a very deep ditch on either side of the road. A hundred yards passed abruptly and in my panic, all I could do was utter the three little words, “JESUS HELP ME!”
The truck with me in it slid ferociously backwards, all of those two hundred yards and miracle of miracles, it stayed smack-dab in the middle of the road! But what a helpless feeling.
By the time I got my wits about me to finally let out the clutch, I was already at the bottom again and the rear of the truck was now in a tall, soft snowdrift and stopped completely. It stalled right then and there.
I was shell-shocked, and weary and didn’t wanna try the hill again; I didn’t even want to get out of the pickup, so I just slid the rear window open and crawled through to the back and under the camper shell and nestled into the depth of my sleeping bag and blankets, offering up a grateful thanks to the Lord for His answering my desperate plea.
What had happened that night? I’ve had many years to digest it over and over, and it is my firm belief that the Lord sent an angel to keep me on the road in that awful minute of no control.
Oh yeah, I awoke to sub-zero weather the next morning but the Lord blessed me with a memorable buck by the afternoon! PTL!!!!
Another time, a year or so later, I again had the truck in a remote patch of woods and was cutting trees down for firewood, and as usual, I was alone, and no, Jeri (my wife) didn’t know where I was again!
But I was an experienced woodcutter and tree-feller, having probably cut in excess of fifty cords in the past. On this particular day, for some reason I can’t remember, I was sawing a 12-inch wide trunk at head-height as I stood next to Ol’ White. This was unusual in itself because I normally hinge a tree trunk down about 6 inches off of the ground and I keep the truck well away from the spot.
Anyway, I had made my back cut and hinge cut and now I was sawing forward to those two, expecting the thirty-foot tall tree to fall away from me. In the next instant, fear gripped me as the tree started coming back on me and pinching the saw blade in the process.
I was once again frozen to the spot, my hands firmly glued to the running saw! I glance upward and the tree was falling on me! Once more those three little words exploded from my brain, “JESUS HELP ME!”
In another instant, that tree was 12 inches from smashing my head and me to the ground, when all of a sudden it was smacked at an impossible right angle to my left, and crashed to the ground not a foot in front of my truck! Me and Ol’ White were both spared!
To this day some 22 years later, I can still see that tree upon me, and it being smacked aside.
I again believe that an angel from the Lord smacked it at just the right instant when my unplanned prayer ended.
Do I believe in the hedge-of-God? You bet I do! But I believe we, as Christians, need to appropriate that hedge, by prayer (which I did, even though I didn’t know a then about PS 91).
Today I pray the hedge every morning and night without fail; I pray it about me and the wife, my property, my animals, my children and my Pop; I pray it about us before a trip, or if I’m just driving around town. And ya know what? It has never, ever failed me; not once!
And so, my challenge this month to you is this; do you ask for God’s hedge about you, yours and your household, each and every day? If not, why not?
Try reading Psalm 91, then believe it with all your brain and heart power. The Good Book says, “You have not because you ask not”.
As always, keep the sun forever at your back, the wind forever in your face, and may the Forever God bless you in all your ways!
My Testamonies
February 2009 Installment
By: Larry Lightner
For: Calvary Chapel – Silver City
