Mensa Otabil - Run Through a Troop (10/04/2025)
Welcome to day number 19 of our 40 days of power. I trust that you are following the program, praying with us, trusting in the Lord, and seeking His face. You are engaging with a prayer point, and God is giving you the victory. This week, we are looking at breaking barriers, and today’s topic is «Running Through a Troop.» Psalm 18, verses 28 and 29: «For You light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by You, I can run against a troop; by my God, I can leap over a wall.»
The introduction of Psalm 18, if you read the top line, indicates that David wrote this psalm when the Lord had delivered him from all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. This is probably a psalm that was written after David had been made king. David recounts the many adversities he faced and how God came through for him. Thus, Psalm 18 is a testimony psalm of David.
The three highlights that I will bring to your attention from the verses we read include: First, David says, «The Lord enlightens my darkness.» David recognized the Lord as the one who brings light to him when he is surrounded by darkness all around him. The Lord will come and dispel the darkness of his life. We see that when we are also surrounded by darkness, the Lord will enlighten our darkness. He will dispel the darkness. I don’t know what dark force has come against you; God will dispel it and send it away.
The second thing David says is that he ran against a troop. A troop refers to a band of warriors. In ancient warfare, armies stood on different sides; one army arranged itself on one side, and the other army was on the opposite end arranged. The strategy is that you should be able to go through your enemy’s arrangement and break through it. That is how you get victory. David said that when he came into battles where people were arrayed against him, through the help of the Lord, he was able to run through a troop-go through the troop and scatter them.
Now, you and I may not be fighting enemies the way David did; they don’t come to us in that way, but we have enemies of our own. We face all kinds of enemies that may come in the form of problems, challenges, and threats that arrange themselves against us, threatening our survival, threatening our peace. Like David, we will also run through the troop. I don’t know what troop of problems stands in your way, but you are going to run through it because by the same God we worship, just as David did, we run through troops.
The third thing David says is, «I leap over a wall.» In David’s day, cities were usually surrounded by walls, and if you were going to fight an opponent, you had to find a way to scale over the walls. David says that through the help of God, when he came to places with walls, God gave him the ability to go over the enemy’s wall and defeat them. We may not engage in a similar battle like David’s, but there are also walls that prevent us from reaching where God wants us to go. A wall is a form of resistance; sometimes it’s a valley, sometimes it’s a mountain, sometimes it’s a river.
In our lives, it could be mountain debts, or it could be some group that has come against you-something that tells you that you can never do something. It’s a wall: a wall of racial discrimination, a wall of social discrimination that says you come from the wrong tribe or gender. But by our God, whatever wall has been erected against us, we are going to leap over it. Today, I pray that you will leap over walls. Whatever wall says you can’t do it, you can’t make it, you can’t get there-you will rise above those walls, and you will win that battle.
The Lord is our light; He enlightens our darkness and dispels every darkness. The Lord helps us to run through troops; everything that has arranged itself against you, you are coming through it. The Lord helps us to go over the walls; every enemy wall will be scaled, and we will overcome it. In the battle against Jericho, the walls came down, but in the battles David describes, the walls do not come down; instead, we go over them. God is going to give you the power to go over walls.
Let’s pray together. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, You are my light. By Your power, I will run through enemy barriers, and I will leap over every obstacle. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» You will run through troops; you will leap over walls. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom-peace and life to you.