When trouble of any kind is staring us in the face, it is good to know that God is on our side.
Psalm 91 is filled with magnificent promises of God’s deliverance for anyone who will look to Him. This psalm is the most concise, descriptive passage in the entire Word for helping us understand how to receive God’s protection.
God is seen here as our Refuge, our Fortress, and our Covering. His Word is our shield that protects us from the arrows and missiles of our enemy. In this psalm, God tells us that His angels are available and continually working on our behalf to keep us safe in every step we take.
Three times it is stated that God will deliver us. In each case, the way this deliverance comes is very different. It is important to know that His way of delivering us will vary. He will not always deliver us the way we think He should, but He will always be faithful to us and will never leave us on our own.
Let’s focus on the first time in Psalm 91 where God tells us that He will deliver us found in verse 3: “Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.”
The word for “deliver” in this verse means to pluck up or snatch up out of trouble. When an animal is in the wild, it will roam where it wills. It will spend its day looking for food and staying away from other predator animals. But when a skilled trapper correctly lays out his trap, his prey will be caught, never seeing the deadly snare until it is too late.
Had the animal been watching more closely, it would have seen the danger and avoided it, but once it is caught, it cannot get away. It has been stopped in its tracks. There it waits for the trapper to come and finish the job.
In the same way, many Christians are ensnared by their enemy, Satan. He lays out his traps and then waits patiently for his prey to walk into the snare and become helpless in his grip. These Christians should have been more aware of the potential problems that awaited them in their path. Yet now they are caught, and there seems to be no escape.
Had these Christians been more attentive to their walk with God, they could have missed the trap that the devil laid out for them. They should have seen it coming. Nevertheless, God is still on their side, and they still have a Deliverer! He will take hold of those who look to Him for help and snatch them right out of the snare that entraps them.
Psalm 124:7-8 says, “Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (NKJV).
Just as the bird caught in the snare must have help in order to escape, so do we need help from Heaven to set us free from Satan’s grasp. That help is ever available to us, and it is found in the name of Jesus. We can call on Him even when we are in the midst of desperate times, and He will answer us, plucking us up out of trouble and placing us under the shadow of His wings where His peace reigns.
