The OT verb often translated “to keep” has three distinct but related meanings: “to guard, tend,” “to watch over,” and “to preserve.” It is used to describe how God’s people understood His Covenant with them:
Deuteronomy 6:24–25. “And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.”
The people didn’t keep their side of it, but God was faithful. As Joshua 24:17 says, He guarded their way as He rescued them from bondage and took them out of Egypt . . .
“For it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.”
Job also declared God’s faithfulness in Job 10:12. “You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.” David did the same in Psalm 40:11, “As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!”
Several other psalms use this word in prayers asking God to preserve life particularly from the hands of wicked and violent enemies, knowing that God alone could keep them safe . . .
Psalm 140:1–4. “Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have planned to trip up my feet.”
Psalm 145:20. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
In the NT, preserve is also a verb that is about watching over or guarding and protecting. It is not often seen in English but the idea of being kept or preserved by God is often expressed and using many Greek words to convey that promise as Jesus prayed:
John 17:11;15. “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one . . . . I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”
This idea of being preserved by God is clear. It makes faith in Him possible, appreciated and deepened!
Philippians 4:7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:23–24. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
1 John 5:18. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
2 Thessalonians 3:3. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
Jude 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
1 Peter 1:3–5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I know that without the preserving power of God, I would step on that slippery slope of sin and slide to the bottom. He has shown me my lack of power to overcome apart from His saving grace. For that reason, I am glad to focus on the One who saves me and keeps me. Apart from Him, I can do nothing.
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