Psalms 84:11, commentary and pictures

The Lord God is a source of light and a defense to those who trust and serve Him, guarding and caring for them with special favor. In Christ He is their everlasting light, guide and protector, supplying what they need for spiritual life and growth and keeping their hearts in the love of God. To those who walk uprightly He gives grace and honor and withholds nothing that is truly good for them. Walking uprightly means turning from evil and learning to do good, living in faithful obedience, humility and purity of heart, and growing in faith, love and newness of life. Because He is too wise to err and too good to withhold what is best, a sincere prayer may be delayed or answered differently when the request would bring harm, and He instead gives the blessing most needed for the petitioner’s good and His glory.

Sun and Shield

The Lord God is a sun and shield, which means He is light and protection and defense to those who trust Him. He is light and defense to those who love and serve Him, showing His special favor toward them. He gives grace and glory, also rendered honor, and withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly. Trust in Him is better than earthly honor and treasure, for He is the source of what is truly good, as seen in Moses' choice to reject Egypt's honor and suffer with God's people. The verse belongs to a prayer praising life in God's presence and blessing the person who trusts in Him, assuring the upright that God will help and keep them by His power and guide them from above.

Christ is the sun and shield of believers, their everlasting light and protection, guide and protector. He gives light, protection, and wisdom, and His might enables believers to conquer. He is the source of light and protection, and also the believer's wisdom, sanctification, and righteousness. Only through His power can the heart be kept daily in the love of God.

As the sun, He supplies what is needed for spiritual life and growth, as sunlight sustains a plant. Being a sun and shield means His hand guards and cares for those who trust Him, so that their lives are precious in His sight. Those who have Him as their sun and shield may have Him as their exceeding great reward. This assurance belongs with being transformed to reflect His image and becoming a spiritual people who shine as lights in the world.

Grace Glory and Good

The Lord gives grace and glory, also rendered honor, to the upright, and withholds no good thing from them that walk uprightly. He is both light and protection to those who trust Him, and His promise may be personally trusted as ground for gladness and praise, for He hears simple, contrite prayers, helps and keeps the upright by His power, and guides them from above. The promise belongs to a prayer praising life in God's presence and blessing the one who trusts in Him, and it is joined to turning from evil and learning to do good. In Moses' rejection of Egypt's honor, riches and treasure to suffer with God's people, God is shown as the source of what is truly good, and trust in Him as better than earthly honor.

No good thing means nothing truly good, only what is for their best good and highest good, for He is too wise to err and too good to withhold it. A sincere prayer may therefore be withheld, delayed, or answered differently when God knows the request would harm the petitioner or fail to serve His glory and honor Him. Instead He gives the blessing most needed and best for the petitioner and for His glory, even if it is not the particular thing asked for. Because human judgment is limited, His answer may not come when requested or in the specific form desired, so a delayed or different answer does not mean the prayer is lost, but gives reason to trust His goodness even when prayer is not answered immediately or as asked.

Good includes what is needed and helpful for the life of faith, not only comfort or material prosperity, so that poverty or wealth, sickness or health, simplicity or wisdom are all provided within the promise. His bounty is inexhaustible, and He has a storehouse filled with every good thing for those who walk uprightly. This is illustrated by Jesus' assurance that the heavenly Father gives good gifts to those who ask Him, so that children of obedience and faith may ask for abundant blessings without fear and trust Him with unfaltering faith. He cares for them with more than a human parent's love even when they cannot see how events will turn out, for His purposes unfold in His own time and way.

The promise of glory includes the crown of glory given at Jesus' appearing to those who endure trial well and hold fast to truth. He is sun and shield to sustain and protect the afflicted and suffering through trial, standing by them in deep affliction and bereavement. Enduring faithfully leads to that crown with loved ones when Jesus appears.

Walking Uprightly Defined

The promise is conditioned on walking uprightly, which means turning from evil and learning to do good. Walking uprightly is living in faithful obedience to God, and when His people meet the conditions of His promises He gives them His favor and power and does not withhold the fullness of the gospel's blessing. It is walking in the light by making earnest, deliberate effort to represent Christ in character and to advance in spiritual life. It is also walking humbly with God.

Conscientiously doing what is right and following His ways belongs to this walk, with selfishness and pride put away. There is help with no lack for those who walk and work with purity of heart. Sin and gloom are put away and growth in spiritual character continues. This walk includes faith, life in the Spirit, truth, love, and newness of life. Keeping communication open between God and the soul and having an individual experience in Jesus Christ belongs to walking with Him. Confidence in Jesus' love gives grace for this progress and for serving others.

Moses exemplified this walk when he rejected Egypt's honor and treasure to suffer with God's people, counting trust in Him as better than earthly honor because God is the source of what is truly good, giving light and protection and grace and glory. He trusted God rather than accepting Egypt's honor and riches, enduring hardship because he looked to the reward and relied on the Lord as his protection and strength, from whom no good thing is withheld.

Safe in Final Fire

To the wicked God is a consuming fire, and His vengeance consumes them, but to His people He is a sun and a shield. The same presence that destroys the wicked as light and defense preserves the righteous. While the earth is consumed and destroyed by fire, the righteous are kept and remain safe inside the holy city.

The verse stands in a prayer that praises life in God's presence and pronounces blessing on the person who trusts in Him. To those who trust Him the Lord is both sun and shield, giving light and protection. He grants grace and glory, even honor, and withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly.

Prayer and Daily Providence

Those who make God's service supreme can trust Him rather than be consumed by worry, for He sees the outcome of their difficulties and has ways to provide relief that they do not know. Worry cannot see how the future will unfold, but He sees the end from the beginning and knows a way to bring relief in every difficulty. Making His service supreme leads to a clearer path and freedom from perplexity.

A sincere request may be withheld, delayed, or answered differently when God knows it would harm the petitioner or fail to serve His glory. He is too wise to err and too good to withhold what is for their best good, so He does not deny what is truly good but gives instead the blessing most needed and best for the petitioner and for His glory. A delayed or different answer therefore does not mean that sincere prayer has been lost. Because human judgment is limited, His answer may not come when requested or in the specific form desired, and the promise that He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly gives reason to trust His goodness even when prayer is not answered immediately or as asked.

The promise applies to prayer as a call to perfect faith in Jesus Christ and trust in God's word and promises. Believers can trust their heavenly Father with childlike confidence, knowing He has promised to provide what is good. Such childlike faith brings rest and peace even amid pain, toil, discouragement, and adversity, for He is a present help in every trial. He gives grace to bear each trial and strength to endure temptation, and as believers trust Him He prepares them to meet each temptation. He sustains and protects the afflicted and suffering through trial, stands by them in deep affliction and bereavement, and brings comfort and peace with an everlasting reward, so that enduring the trial and holding fast to truth leads to a crown of glory when Jesus appears.

He makes up for what the world neglects to give by providing His best favors, so that those who bear life's heaviest burdens can accept their lot cheerfully trusting His tender care. He leaves no lack for those who walk uprightly and walk and work with purity of heart, and His provision is sufficient for every emergency. The promise calls for trusting God's word and seeking wisdom from Him rather than from worldly wise people. He hears simple, contrite prayers, and His promises may be personally trusted as grounds for gladness and praise, for He will help and keep the upright by His power and guide them from above.

Protected Life and Service

The Lord is a sun and shield to those who stay their minds upon Him while they go to people where they are, surrounded with darkness, sunken in vice and stained with corruption. Keeping the mind fixed and stayed upon Him as sun and shield keeps the surrounding evil from bringing any stain upon character. Making God the trust keeps workers who seek to save souls that are ready to perish from being put to shame.

Safety is Christ in the heart and Christ in the life. His presence fills the soul with abhorrence of all that is evil and so identifies the spirit with His that thought and aim become one with Him. Trusting Christ as companion, believers walk with Him in white with unsullied garments, and they pray, believe, and work to save those in danger. Keeping the mind on Him amid worldly temptations and deceptive influences keeps surrounding darkness from staining the garments and character. Trusting God with a humble and meek heart and keeping His way brings victory over Satan's temptations and deceptions.

When God's people unite to support His work and cause on earth, He will not withhold any good thing He has promised them but will provide what is good.