You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
Psalm 91 is one of the most beautiful songs in the Psalms. It screams out to worship and praise God. The writer is telling us the reasons to praise God but also how to praise God. The reason is actually simplified in v. 4 of the song:
Psalms 91:4 (ESV)
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
It is not our faithfulness to God that keeps us safe. It is His faithfulness to us that is a shield and buckler. As a result of that faithfulness of God, the writer makes some bold statements. He tells us that we do not have to fear four types of dangers (we have God’s shield and buckler around us):
1. The Invisible - He states that we have no need to fear terror by night. These are the dangers that creep up in the night we can neither see nor are even aware they exist. We are fast asleep and, yet, terror may surround us. No need to fear, His shield and buckler are also around us.
2. The Inevitable - He further states that we do not need to fear the arrow that flies by day. These are attacks we see coming. These are day-to-day difficulty in broad daylight. We do not fear these known and visible attacks because His shield and buckler surround us in His faithfulness.
3. The Imaginative - We are told we have no need to fear the pestilence that walks in darkness. Again we go back to what we can’t see or know. But this time, instead of terror the writer says we have no need of pestilence. This is the catastrophic plague that might come over the earth. In those days those types of illnesses often sweep over an entire country. We might think Covid in our world, today. We have no need to fear because His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. We should note that He is not saying it won’t impact us. He is saying we are to not fear it because of His faithfulness to carry us through it.
4. The Insurmountable - We are not to fear the destruction that wastes at noonday. Again we can see it and it is utter destruction. But we need not fear because God’s is faithful to cover us with His shield and buckler of faithfulness.
We have to remember that this psalm is a poem and the literature is poetic in nature to give us a vision of why to praise God. Those who walk in faith with God do have dangers, peril, sickness and disasters. But we are not to fear them. Not because God will keep us from all of them, but because God is with us in them. We are not to fear no matter if they come a night, a day, in the dark or in the light. God’s faithfulness is a shield and buckler to keep us safe in them.
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