Psalm
18:30 says, “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He
is a shield to all who trust in Him” (NKJV).
There’s a lot in this verse, but for today I want to focus on that last
phrase: “He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” I love the idea that God shields us. The fact of the matter is protection is from
God. The Lord protects us from so
much. We really don’t even know all the
ways that we are protected. In fact,
many of us are completely unaware of the numerous ways that God protects us.
H.
Michael Brewer, in his book, “Who Needs a Superhero? Finding Virtue, Vice, and
What’s Holy in the Comics” tells this story: “One day while sitting at my
kitchen table I noticed a praying mantis inside on the windowsill, apparently
carried in with some garden vegetables.
The attention of the mantis was fixed on an ant on the other side of the
window glass. The ant crept innocently
along the glass on the outside while the mantis stalked it on the inside. Again and again the mantis lunged for the
ant, only to bounce off the glass.
Eventually the ant disappeared from view and the forlorn mantis stared
after it in perplexity. I wonder how
many times I have been that oblivious ant while God shielded me from danger I
never suspected.”
I’m
sure someone has formulated this response to what I’ve said so far: “God is a
shield? That’s a laugh. Maybe that’s true for some people, but not
for me. God didn’t shield me from the
most intense pain and suffering of my life.
Why didn’t God protect me from this?”
If these past few months have taught me anything, they have taught me
that the storms of life can unexpectedly rock your world in ways you never
thought it could be rocked. Trust me I know
pain and suffering in a way that I never did before.
Therefore,
let me state this clearly: the verses that speak of God being a shield does not
mean that God will magically protect humanity from all pain, tribulation, or
hardship. The Bible is very clear that
living on this planet actually means just the opposite; it means facing
difficulty, adversity, and heartache.
For just one example of this, read John 16:33; Jesus said, “In this
world, you will have trouble.”
H.
Michael Brewer, in the same book that I quoted from before also wrote: “Surely
we cannot claim that God always protects the faithful from pain and death. A skeptic may claim that God’s protection is
like a cheap insurance policy that only covers us when we don’t need it. But even if God doesn’t exempt us from every
calamity, this doesn’t disprove the reality of God’s shielding presence in life.” Later on in the same chapter, he writes, “God
may not always stand between us and the storm, but at the very least God will
always stand beside us through the storm.”
That’s
what I hold on to. I don’t naively think
that something is wrong because I’m experiencing distressing circumstances
(that’s just a byproduct of living on Earth).
I’m holding on to the truth that God is always with me. In Isaiah 43:2, God says, “When you pass
through the waters, I will be with you.”
Jesus declared, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Psalm 23:4 asserts, “Though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me.”
Kevin
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