Vulnerable or Safe? Both {Psalm 91:5-6}

Being exposed to a global pandemic is uncomfortable. We are indeed vulnerable.

Yet we are also totally safe.

We Are Vulnerable

Is anybody else waking up more in the middle of the night?

And when you do, where do your thoughts go? Honestly, my first thoughts are: we’re still in a pandemic.

We feel vulnerable in this season because…we ARE vulnerable. Many things are out of our control. We feel exposed. To viruses. To relationship troubles. To economic collapse.

The psalmist makes this list of threats in Psalm 91:5-6:

terrors of the night
arrows that fly by day
pestilence that stalks in darkness
destruction that wastes at noonday

Those aren’t the words we’d use today, but we recognize the categories of fear nonetheless. By day and by night, we understand our fragility, regardless of how many times we wash our hands or keep our distance or eye our checking account.

That is the bad news.

Yet We Are Safe

But God is Lord of the good news.

And the good news is that even though we are vulnerable—yes, we are susceptible to arrows and viruses alike—we are protected from their ultimate destruction.

For us, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).

We can trust God’s protection in the moment, and we also can trust God’s protection for the future. Not protection from hard things hitting us, but protection from ultimate defeat by them.

Fear sets in when we think we have to provide our own protection. And we know we can’t.

Peace returns when we remember that God is the true protector. It’s His faithfulness that is our shield (Psalm 91:4).

Even when we don’t see God at work or don’t feel Him moving or even don’t fully believe His protection, God is at work on our behalf. Nothing has caught Him off guard.

It is God’s grace that will save us, not our own tactics or safeguards.

As you go through your week and if you wake up in the middle of the night, pray the words of Psalm 91 again and again.