The psalmist promises that God is not far off, but a present help when things descend into chaos.  Though a sinkhole opens up and sucks us under the earth, though a landslide drops whole mountains into the sea, though that sea comes crashing into land – in these terrible natural disasters, the poet says, God is our refuge and our strength.

In times of crisis, God’s people have always turned to the Psalter, the biblical collection of laments and hymns, wisdom and worship.  As we are temporarily “online only” as a church (out of appropriate deference to civil authorities but even more out of a desire to love our neighbors well), we have been teaching an online adult education class on the Psalms.  The power of their poetry moves our hearts, not just our minds, and we find space to appreciate the holy as their images of God’s care wash over us.  Nonetheless, as we read the Psalms during a rapidly escalating pandemic, this niggling thought starts to appear: do they promise too much?  Do their words of comfort turn out to be hollow?

Words of Comfort

The psalms give us comfort precisely because of the sweeping nature of their promises.  They paint a vision of a God intimately involved in our world and near to defend his people.  Psalm 46 begins:

¹    God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
²    Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
³    though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

Psalm 46:1–3 (ESV)

The psalmist promises that God is not far off, but a present help when things descend into chaos.  Though a sinkhole opens up and sucks us under the earth, though a landslide drops whole mountains into the sea, though that sea comes crashing into land – in these terrible natural disasters, the poet says, God is our refuge and our strength.

Psalm 91 develops these images even further.  Returning to the common image of God as a fortress, it begins:

¹     He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
²    I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91:1–2 (ESV)

The image is that of an ancient citadel, a strong, defensible tower.  The people of the town would mostly live outside the walls, but close by.  They would work their farms and live their lives often in its shadow, always aware of its looming presence.  And that presence was their security.  It was a place of shelter in natural disasters, a place to run for protection when enemies attacked.  Even its mere presence would deter many an attack or raid.  Therefore, the psalmist says “my refuge and my fortress” as an epithet for “my God, in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91 adds another image that has comforted the people of God for millennia – the powerful wings of an eagle or hawk.  An eagle’s wings are no comfort if you are a squirrel, of course, but they are a powerful protection if you are the eagle’s chick.  God is like a mother bird, vigilant to protect its young and powerful to fight off any who would try to scale to its nest.  And so the psalmist begins to list the protections God will give, from war and terror, from sickness and even the demonic [1]:

³    For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴    He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵    You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶    nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

Psalm 91:3–6 (ESV)

If God protects his people in both night and day, then the psalm indicates he protects his people always.

Common to both psalms, of course, is the idea that trouble does come.  Neither promises a life without difficulty, a straight-line sail into eternity.  There would be no need for psalms of comfort if there were no troubles, no fears, no diseases, wars, and calamities.  We can dispense with the idea that life will be easy for the people of God.  The psalmists do, however, say that God will protect his people during those troubles and calamities, and they make their case in very strong terms:

⁷    A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
⁸    You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.
⁹    Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
¹⁰    no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
¹¹    For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
¹²    On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³    You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

Psalm 91:7–13 (ESV)

Whether in battle (v.7-8), in domestic life (v.9-10), or on a journey (v.11-13), God will protect.  He will be like parents holding a one-year old child’s arms as the child begins to walk. Every stumble, every trip will be met with a pull upward on the arms, and he or she will simply float over the potential tumble.  The point is unmistakable, that God is intimately involved in the care of his people.

The psalmists know, of course, that being protected and feeling protected are two separate things.  God’s protection may be there, yet it may feel as if he is absent.  Considering the evil of our world, Psalm 10 begins, “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?  Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

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