God Will Protect You

God Will Protect You

The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The LORD keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.

Psalm 121:6-7

On March 11, 2011, Japan was rocked by the largest earthquake in its history. Like millions of others throughout the world, I spent time praying for the Japanese people in the days following the tragedy. But faith is daunting during such troubling times. How can we feel secure when the planet we live on is constantly shifting and changing? Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes—we’ve seen the devastating pictures as they scroll across the screen, feeling as though we’re watching the Apocalypse unfold.

Despite enormous technological advances, human ignorance and vulnerability are painfully obvious at such times. We are surprised by how bad things can get. Again and again we are shocked by the force of nature, surprised that the cities we have built in coastal areas and over seismic faults can sustain so much damage. It is heartbreaking—and terrifying.

Even those of us who never have to endure such disasters will inevitably face our own personal disasters. A child may die, a spouse may leave, the world as we know it may change in an instant, flooding us with sorrow. The Bible, of course, makes no promise of protection from suffering. “What it does promise,” Eugene Peterson declares, “is preservation from all the evil” in whatever difficulty we face. According to Peterson, that’s how Jews and Christians have always read Psalm 121. No injury, no wound, no disaster will ever overtake us with its evil power, separating us from God’s good purposes for our lives.^a On that we can rely.

Today, as you pray for others who are facing disasters large and small, ask God to draw them to Christ, the one who will preserve them from all evil.

Father, I grieve at all the suffering in the world, and I cling to your promise that you will protect from evil all who belong to you. Help those who are in great difficulty today to come to know the saving power of Christ.

^a Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000), 42.