Finally, the first blessing refers to God as “the King who helps and saves and shields.” The Kabbalah teaches that there is no such thing as a king without a nation. For God to be manifest as king, He must have a kingdom that accepts Him as king. Of course, we know that God does not need anyone. However, if God wants to be manifest as a king, then He “needs” a nation that acknowledges Him as such. This is His gift to us. The fact that we establish God as our king indicates that we, in fact, are Divinely significant. Therefore, He helps us, rescues us and protects us because He needs us. Not only does God help us when we don’t deserve it, God also protects us. But this statement begs a question: If God protects us, then why would we ever need to be helped or rescued? From what does God protect us? God protects us from the negative side effects of His own help. When we become aware that He helps us and rescues us all the time, we tend to lose some of our confidence and sense of personal power. With all that He does for us daily, we could even lose our self-respect and feeling of adequacy. Therefore, God protects us from Himself. When God helps, He does so in a way that preserves us. He “shields” us from His overwhelming kindness, so that we can maintain our self-esteem and continue to enjoy a meaningful relationship with Him.