For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilience; He will cover you with His Pinions, and under His Wings you will find Refuge; His Faithfulness is a Shield and a Buckler. Psalm 91:3-4

I am going to pose a question that I don't have all the answers except one; hindsight. And this is the foundation I am starting on.
Why, if God is a Refuge, Faithful, a Deliverer, a Shield and a Buckler, does He allow bad things to happen to faithful Christian people? Why have people who have spent their lives on the mission field and given their lives as a sacrifice to God end up horribly murdered by the very people they were led to help? Why do people who love God starve to death when help is promised in the Bible? Why were 6,000,000 of God's Chosen people slaughtered by Hitler? Why did the people He sent to help them, committed Christians, share their fate? Why are children raped and abused by monsters who often get away with it? Why?
I said I don't have the answers to these questions; probably only more questions all swirling in a tornado of thoughts. When I read these verses, I wondered why it does not seem that God keeps these promises. But when I look back over my life, in hindsight, I DO see the Presence of God in my life, and in those times. I am often so caught up in my own miseries, I don't "see" Him. As I tend to walk with my head down I also tend to walk with my spiritual head down. But here I am, after a miserable childhood, and young adulthood, alive and healthy. I can also see crisis situations that were resolved; after all, I am here aren't I?
I still don't have the answers to the other questions, but they, too may be understood in hindsight; God's Hindsight. Someday, beyond this life perhaps God will give us the ability to understand what is not understandable right now. Perhaps, if we can look through His Eyes, we will understand. Perhaps, like a puzzle, the last piece will be put in. The Piece that He is holding. But until then, I can look back over my life and in spite of my questions believe that He is the Deliverer, the Cover, the Pinions and Wings, the Refuge, the Shield and the Buckler He says He is.

>>For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilience; He will cover you with His Pinions, and under His Wings you will find Refuge; His Faithfulness is a Shield and a Buckler. Psalm 91:3-4

I am going to pose a question that I don't have all the answers except one; hindsight. And this is the foundation I am starting on.
Why, if God is a Refuge, Faithful, a Deliverer, a Shield and a Buckler, does He allow bad things to happen to faithful Christian people?<<

Prov 18:10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.


Blyth, this is the question of the ages before Christianity was even a name. Job was asking the same questions sometime around the age Abraham was called by God to leave his father’s house and country. God said Job was the most blameless man that ever lived. Yet, Job was devastated by disaster three times loosing everything including the respect of his own wife, the loss of his ten children all dead in one day and his health with what reads like an incurable disease. All his finances and businesses gone and any esteem from his town.

I don’t think there is one succinct explanation. Any thinking person will be asking these questions when as Job pointed out it doesn’t seem to matter the righteous suffer along with the wicked. The wicked may prosper and die of old age as well. Job noted that it didn’t seem to matter. I find it interesting that at some Bible studies I have attended that pastors are quick to note that it was Satan that did the “dirty deed” but in the end I ask who is in charge of all of creation, is it not God? God allowed this episode for Job and the Bible makes no excuses.

Another interesting thing is the way that God finally breaks into the conversation of Job and his friends. God finally gives Job what he asked for a personal confrontation with his Maker. But it is God who does all the asking, something like 64 questions.

I find the first few questions very poignant they seem to be pointing to a very important distinction between humanity and The Divine.

Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
Job 38:2 "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
Job 38:4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
Job 38:5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
Job 38:6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone--
Job 38:7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

I see the question of eternity being pointed out as well as God’s integrity being sullied. God keeps pointing to all that He has done through creation.

When we think over those things that come with this life like Eliphaz said, man is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward, how can we get that “faith handle” on what we are to think about our Savior God and His promises? I imagine that many of those early Christians who died in the coliseum arena in Rome may have asked as well.

Let me first say that I don’t have any succinct answer either; I’m no “no it all”. What I do know though is that we all seem to be very inadequate when we are talking about the things of eternity.

Can we see that this matter truly calls for each one to make a conscious decision to trust God and His word even when the reality of our current circumstance or situation literally stinks? It’s what I see as being the crux of the whole matter.

I think it is partially what Paul meant when he wrote; “Rom 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."” I think Paul was saying from the Old Testament through the New and beyond it has always been about faith. And when the Hebrews writer tells us that faith itself is the substance of things not seen I take it to mean that our faith in God’s integrity and promises is the proof we are looking for. In short, nobody is going to believe this stuff without God’s grace and a conscious decision to trust Him and believe what He has said and especially done through His Christ on Calvary.

Not long ago as I was reading Daniel chapter 3 I was impressed with Daniel’s three friends when they has to go before the king and explain why they would not obey the king’s law. Nebuchadnezzar had built a grand statue of himself and everyone was to bow and worship him through it. There were enemies of the Jews in the court of Babylon. The three fellows had been set up for the kill knowing they would never obey this command. Verse 18 is what gets me.


Dan 3:13 Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king,
Dan 3:14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?
Dan 3:15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?"
Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
Dan 3:17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.
Dan 3:18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
Dan 3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual
Dan 3:20 and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.

How we come to understand what the Psalmist wrote in Ps. 89:14 I don’t really know.

Psa 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

The power base of God’s throne, not supremacy, not even simply divinity but integrity; righteousness and justice are the base of His Sovereignty and Supremacy and out of this come love and faithfulness.

The real answer to a happy Christian life I think is found in the next verse.
Psa 89:15 Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.

Even when we think that light is strobeing. Its not something we come to all at once, it’s a learning process and I know for one I still have so very much to learn about His person. Learning to acclaim His glory and deciding to walk in the light of His presence.


There once was a very crazy guy, John Harper he was on the Titanic. What makes a guy like that? The ship is going down and he is running around asking people if they knew they were going to heaven. In the water himself and he’s still asking. What was he thinking?
http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/DAILYF/2003/04/daily-04-15-2003.shtml
“The captain ordered the band to play to keep up the spirits of the passengers. It began playing a rag-time tune, but soon was playing hymns.
There were only twenty lifeboats on the huge ocean liner-- barely enough for 1/3 of the passengers and crew. Not all of them could be lowered. All 85 engineers continued to work to keep the ship afloat as long as possible. At the end many people knelt together in prayer until the waters covered them.
Throughout the mournful, evacuation, with loved ones being tearfully separated, the band continued to play. There is some dispute about what was played that night. Several people in the life boats heard "Nearer My God to Thee."
One of the passengers traveling on the ship was evangelist John Harper. He put his six-year old daughter into a life boat and then ran through the ship warning others of the danger and talking to them about the eternal destiny of their souls. When he was finally forced to jump into the icy water, he clung to a piece of wreckage and asked another man "Are you saved?" When the man answered no, John said to him, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."
When the Titanic sank early in the morning on this day, April 15, 1912, John Harper was among the 1,522 people who died. The band went down with the ship. The last hymn they played was "Autumn," which concludes with the prayer
Hold me up in mighty waters
Keep my eyes on things above,
Righteousness, divine Atonement,
Peace, and everlasting Love.
The hymn was a fitting testimony to the truth that true peace and love cannot be found in man's own prideful efforts or technological successes, but only in Jesus Christ.
Source:
Adapted from an earlier Christian History Institute Story by Diane Severance, Ph.D. “
In the end all I know is that whether things stink or not when I fix my thoughts upon Him (Heb. 3:1), fix my eyes upon His performance (Heb12:2), fix my hope in Him (1Pet 1:13), I press on for the mark of His high calling in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14) and there is a very fine sweet with the bitter.

O’ God, help me to get over myself already and press on!


Blyth, these devotionals are great keep it up!

Deb


John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Thank you so much for the encouragement...But in all honesty, it was the Lord's Leading that led to this set of devotionals. I hope He will use me as His Pen.