“Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High your dwelling place,
no evil shall befall you,
no scourge come near your tent.” (Ps. 91:9-10)
Really? If we look around us, God doesn’t seem to take very good care of the faithful. I used to be angry at God because of this — and fearful as well. After all, devout Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists: any of us may be in a terrible accident or lose loved ones or get cancer and die. Why does God even bother to promise protection?
Then just a few months ago, when I was helping a family member who had been ill, and was consequently plunged into the mystery of human diminishment, something was illuminated for me. Driving along, exhausted and discouraged, I heard on the car radio the old hymn, “It is well, it is well with my soul.” And I realized that, yes, God’s promise to protect us is trustworthy. Because I am enveloped in mercy, it is indeed well with what is most truly me, well with my loved ones in what is most truly each of them. What is most truly each of us is safeguarded no matter what happens to us in life. (Of course I might persistently and ultimately choose destruction — but I suspect this is hard to do, since God is there to forgive and pick up the pieces and to protect the real me from myself if I am the least bit open to the divine.)
“You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,” says the psalm, for God will command angels “to guard you in all your ways.” Terrible things may happen, I may be wounded grievously, I may bear the scars of emotional hurts — but the most precious core of my being is safe under God’s wings.
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence;
he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge. (Psalm 91:3-4a)