Safety In God

Read: Psalm 91

If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the LORD, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

Psalm 91:9-10

IN WORD How can any rational person accept such a claim? Didn’t good Christian people die in the World Trade Center disaster? Didn’t faith-filled soldiers die in Normandy, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and all kinds of other brutal places in this world? Haven’t floods, earthquakes, famine, and crime been rather indiscriminate, ravaging the faithful and the lost in the same places on the same days? Surely the psalmist didn’t think this one through. Surely the Spirit of God was not the inspiration behind this shallow hope.

But we know such questions do not get to the heart of the issue. The Bible is true—it has proven itself to us on many occasions. So what does this promise mean? How can God assure us of seeming immunity to the world’s brutal abuses? Because He insists on one vital truth: We are not of this world.

Yes, we were born into the world as children of flesh and heirs of sin. We have certainly not proven ourselves above reproach as we’ve walked through this life. But the Word contains glorious promises for God’s people. We are born from above. No matter what spiritual slum we sprang from, we now dwell in our Father’s house. And it is a place of ultimate safety.

IN DEED The Bible and tradition are honest about the martyrs. Stephen was stoned, Peter was crucified, Paul was likely beheaded, and John was exiled. And they all knew this verse inside and out. They believed it with all their heart. The Spirit within them had inspired it centuries before. It is truth.

But those martyrs were miraculously preserved often; none died before his time. Moreover, they knew the real meaning of disaster and harm, and that they were ultimately protected. And they knew the true geography of their tent; they dwelled in an eternal kingdom not subject to threats. So can we. For that kingdom’s citizens, there is nothing to fear—ever.

I’m standing on the promises of God.

—R. KELSO CARTER