He Keeps Watch

He Keeps Watch

A soldier deployed in a difficult region described his practice: before going to sleep in the field, he read Psalm 91 aloud. 'You will not fear the terror of night.' He said: 'I didn't know if it was true that nothing would happen to me. I knew it was true that God was keeping watch while I slept. Those are different promises. The psalm doesn't say nothing bad will happen. It says you won't fear what happens because Someone is watching.' He carried a copy of Psalm 91 in his breast pocket. 'Most of the other guys carried good luck charms. I carried the psalm. I liked my odds.'

Psalm 91 is the great psalm of divine protection, and its promises are comprehensive: night terrors and daytime arrows, pestilence in darkness and destruction at noon, thousands falling around the protected one. The scope can seem to promise physical immunity, which creates difficulties when believers suffer. But the psalm's deepest promise is not the absence of danger but the presence of God in danger: 'He will cover you with his feathers' (verse 4), 'I will be with him in trouble' (verse 15). The protection of Psalm 91 is the protection of Presence, not of exemption. The one who dwells 'in the shelter of the Most High' is protected by the One they are dwelling with. Whatever the night holds — He is awake.