Disaster?

 October 27, 2021

Psalm 91 has long been a staple at funerals, giving comfort and hope to the grieving, but it is even more, a Messianic psalm pointing to Jesus, as Satan himself pointed out during Jesus’ 40 days and nights of temptation in the wilderness. It speaks of God’s protection and provision in times of challenge and difficulty, but presents no small difficulty itself. Hear what it says:

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High 

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

He shall cover you with His feathers, 

And under His wings you shall take refuge; 

His truth shall be your shield and buckler. 

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, 

Nor of the arrow that flies by day, 

Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, 

Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.”

—Psalm 91:1, 4-6 

So far, so good. Read the last two lines: We need not fear pestilence, ie disease that threatens life itself. Good words for these COVID times!

But the psalm goes on to say in verses 9 and 10, 

“Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, 

Even the Most High, your dwelling place, 

No evil shall befall you, 

Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;”

 

We know this last line isn’t true. I know more than one God-follower and Christ-lover who has had this plague invade his house and even kill. What do we do with such statements? Skeptics who watch us would say we are exercising cognitive dissonance—holding together two conflicting concepts and not seeing the irony of it.

I’m no Hebrew scholar, but I suspect the problem is in translation rather than intent. The NIV renders this last line as follows:

“no harm will overtake you, 

no disaster will come near your tent.”

The question then turns on how we define “disaster.” As a Christian, a lot of bad things can happen to me that I cannot call disasters. St. Paul put it as starkly as possible when while in a Roman prison he said of the possibility of his execution by the Roman authorities, “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Christ has redeemed all things for the believer; nothing can come our way except through the permission of our Heavenly Father who loves us so much he gave his Son to die for our sins. Harm cannot overtake us, disaster no longer exists for us; only the will of God.

I don’t have to like everything that comes my way, but whatever it may be, it cannot be disastrous; the worse that can happen to me will usher me into the presence of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Disaster, indeed!