ON THE VANGUARD

YOU WILL NOT FEAR
“You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.”
Psalm 91:5-6

The dictionary defines ‘fear’ as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined.” I think it is safe to say we have all encountered some form of fear. When I was a child, I remember vividly waking from a dream where a clown at a circus turned around to reveal a monster’s face. As a preteen I recall a bad decision to crawl through the sewer pipe on a dare. In my college days I can think back to a time when I was scared to be in the ‘projects’ of Tulsa doing community service. In all these cases fear was present, whether the fear of a monster, the fear of the unknown in the drain, or the fear of being a victim in a rough neighbor. Yet in reading Psalm 91:5-6, we read that because of God we do not need to fear.
Looking further in Psalm 91, we read of four specific, and perhaps common, fears listed in these verses, which are as follows:
- The terror of night
- The arrows that fly by day
- The pestilence that stalks in the darkness, and
- The plague that destroys at midday
I think it is wise to point out two points of significance here. First, these fears are based on four different attacks that come at us. But secondly, these fears all have a specific time related to them. Let’s take a look at these four in more depth.
The term terror in the Hebrew is PACHAD. The translation is correct in terror, but also includes dread or objects related to dread. The term night is the word LAYIL, meaning both a physical night and a protective shadow. When the dread of darkness comes to swallow us, we have God’s truth as our weapon and our shield, as we learned yesterday.
The arrow that flies by day is our next fear, and is again translated correctly as an archer’s arrow which is shot towards the target during the daytime. We know from John 10:10 that we are the enemy’s target, as he aims to steal, kill, and destroy. But again we see that these arrows have no affect on the one protected by God. However, we need to also recall the words of Paul in Ephesians 6:16, which remind us that with the shield of faith we are able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. Our shield of faith is our faith in God’s truth of protection and rescue.
The term pestilence we also looked at yesterday and it is translated as DEBER, meaning plague or disease. This plague moves around in the darkness, ‘OPHEL, defined correctly as in the gloom. This makes me think of the Scooby-doo spooky fog that is thick enough to hide in. Without warning this pestilence attacks us in order to devour us….unless! Unless we are protected by God, that is.
Lastly in this section we read of the plague that attacks midday. The term plague is literally destruction, QETEB. This destruction doesn’t wait to ruin us in the dark, but in pride attacks and devastates in full daylight. This almost works to show us the desperation of the enemy, as well as the cockiness of the enemy. But again, with God’s truth as our shield and rampart, we have no worries.
No matter how the enemy advances, and in no matter what time of the day, God’s truth of protection for those who dwell and rest in Him remains. The enemy cannot touch us if we are under God’s protection. But the reciprocal is also true. If we come out from under God’s protection, choosing not to dwell or rest in Him, we leave ourselves as bait for the enemy. I encourage you first to remain in God’s protection, closing the door to even the thought of coming out from under Him. And secondly I encourage you to fear not what the enemy thinks he can do, for as Psalm 118:6 reminds us, “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”