Strengthen our Gates

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Tue, 12/07/2016 - 22:09

Ancient towns and cities were often walled. They kept out brigands, bandits and foreign armies. Towers were built to further improve defence and gatehouses to defend the entrances. There are few walled cities in Britain; most towns outgrew them and reused the valuable stone. A couple of exceptions are Chester and York (pictured).

Psalm 147:13 says of Jerusalem: For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you.

The people of God are perhaps under siege, but the Lord strengthens their defences. Even the children, the weakest of all, are safe and secure. The gates are of course the weakest section in any walls. They are the target of any attacker, and the passage through which they will pour. Yet it is our weakest spots that the Lord seeks to strengthen.

Pictured is one of the several surviving gatehouses around the city of York.