“Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your glory and majesty!” (Ps 45:3).
Certainly, this verse of the Psalm, as well as the verses that follow it, are addressed primarily to our Lord Jesus Christ. But since we follow Him and are in His service, we belong to the “army of the Lamb” and share in His glory and majesty.
What is the battle that our Heavenly Father has given us to fight? What sword shall we take?
St. Paul gives us an answer. First of all, he tells us in Ephesians 6: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Eph 6:10).
This is the key point: we must strengthen ourselves in the Lord. He is the one who leads the battle, and we are at His side, acting on His behalf.
A good example in history is St. Joan of Arc, who as a young girl was called by God to lead the discouraged and powerless French army to liberate her country from the English occupation. It is obvious that this could only be done by the power of God – He was her strength and power!
But the battle goes beyond the earthly realm. The apostle exhorts us: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph 6:11).
In the strength and power of the Lord, we are to resist the temptations of the devil. For this purpose, our Father has equipped us with spiritual armor, which St. Paul compares to the armor of a Roman soldier of that time. Over the next few days, we will pause to meditate on this spiritual armor of our Father, “so that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph 6:13).