As a police chaplain, I’m always looking for good sources that link spiritual principles with police work. So at a chaplain training conference I grabbed up a book on Psalm 91, Your Shield and Buckler. The title is taken from Psalm 91:4 (KJV) –
“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
The key thought of the book is, “…even though we have discovered that God has made divine protection available to us, we still have to choose to partake of His provision. We have to activate God’s Word to experience His power in our life” (page 58).
So the Bible is like a credit card. The card is just numbers on plastic—no power to you unless you ACTIVATE it. The Bible is just words on a page (or scroll, if you please)—its promises have no power for your life unless you ACTIVATE them by faith (sometimes called a “positive confession”). This is a version of the false “name it and claim it” Health and Wealth Gospel.
So officers, activate Psalm 91 and then if the bullets fly, if dangers surround you, if the plague (today: COVID-19) rages around you—God will protect all who have activated the Psalm. It’s guaranteed!
But, I thought, wait a minute! Wasn’t the Bible’s Job (Jōb) a godly, prayerful man and didn’t tragedy (death of his children and terrible financial loss and painful disease) come on him? Didn’t he say, “The Lord has given; the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)?
Yes and yes. And the author knows that. “Rather than place his faith in God’s ability to keep his family and him secure, Job chose to confess his fears until they ‘came upon him.’ Throughout his ordeal, Job continued speaking in fear. Job’s best-known negative confession [Job 1:21] is still misconstrued by some Christians to this day.” “Job was only half right: the Lord does give, but it is Satan who takes. He comes to steal, kill and destroy if we permit him to do so either by our words or by our actions” (page 73, bold italics mine).
This attempt to diminish Job’s heart for God won’t pass biblical examination. “Shall we accept good from the Lord and not accept adversity?” Job asked.
“In all this, Job did not sin in what he said” (Job 1:22; 2:10). Job spoke rightly!
This author is just another one of “Job’s Counselors” – the men who came to Job to tell him his suffering was his own fault. If he had just made a “positive confession” none of this would have happened to him. This kind of thinking is horribly wounding to faithful people who experience harm.
By this teaching, if a law enforcement officer is harmed or killed in the line of duty, it is because he failed to activate (claim) Divine Protection. He’s as much to blame as the officer who forgets to put a cartridge in his TASER. But what does this say to the family and fellow officers of a person known to love God with all his heart and to live faithfully before him?
I confess I’m puzzled on how best to understand Psalm 91. But Asaph, one of the Bible’s psalm-writers, would be puzzled too. He struggled with why good people suffer and the bad guys win (why bad things happen to good people). “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure… All day long I have been plagued…” (Psalm 73:13—read the whole psalm).
For an answer, Psalm 73 tells us to go to church (so to speak) and try to understand life by looking down from the perspective of Heaven (see verses 16-26). Psalm 73:23-26 –
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.