Under His Wings Shalt Thou Trust

Current events are rarely addressed in the writings that I post on this weblog but in light of the Katrina catastrophe and the fact that most Americans are at the present time being bombarded with horrifying images of destruction and death, I thought it might be comforting for any Christian visiting this site to consider John Calvin’s thoughts on the “inestimable felicity of a pious mind” when consideration is made of all the dangers that daily confront men in the world:

“Innumerable are the ills which beset human life, and present death in as
many different forms. Not to go beyond ourselves, since the body is a
receptacle, nay the nurse, of a thousand diseases, a man cannot move without
carrying along with him many forms of destruction. His life is in a manner
interwoven with death. For what else can be said where heat and cold bring equal
danger? Then, in what direction soever you turn, all surrounding objects not
only may do harm, but almost openly threaten and seem to present immediate
death. Go on board a ship, you are but a plank’s breadth from death. Mount a
horse, the stumbling of a foot endangers your life. Walk along the streets,
every tile upon the roofs is a source of danger. If a sharp instrument is in
your own hand, or that of a friend, the possible harm is manifest. All the
savage beasts you see are so many beings armed for your destruction. Even within
a high walled garden, where everything ministers to delight, a serpent will
sometimes lurk. Your house, constantly exposed to fire, threatens you with
poverty by day, with destruction by night. Your fields, subject to hail, mildew,
drought, and other injuries, denounce barrenness, and thereby famine. I say
nothing of poison, treachery, robbery, some of which beset us at home, others
follow us abroad. Amid these perils, must not man be very miserable, as one who,
more dead than alive, with difficulty draws an anxious and feeble breath, just
as if a drawn sword were constantly suspended over his neck? It may be said that
these things happen seldom, at least not always, or to all, certainly never all
at once. I admit it; but since we are reminded by the example of others, that
they may also happen to us, and that our life is not an exception any more than
theirs, it is impossible not to fear and dread as if they were to befall us.
What can you imagine more grievous than such trepidation? Add that there is
something like an insult to God when it is said, that man, the noblest of the
creatures, stands exposed to every blind and random stroke of fortune. Here,
however, we were only referring to the misery which man should feel, were he
placed under the dominion of chance.

But when once the light of Divine Providence has illumined the believer’s
soul, he is relieved and set free, not only from the extreme fear and anxiety
which formerly oppressed him, but from all care. For as he justly shudders at
the idea of chance, so he can confidently commit himself to God. This, I say, is
his comfort, that his heavenly Father so embraces all things under his power—so
governs them at will by his nod—so regulates them by his wisdom, that nothing
takes place save according to his appointment; that received into his favour,
and entrusted to the care of his angels neither fire, nor water, nor sword, can
do him harm, except in so far as God their master is pleased to permit. For thus
sings the Psalm, “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and
from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under
his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou
shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by
day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday” (Psalm 91:2-6). Hence the exulting confidence of the
saints, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? The
Lord taketh my part with them that help me.” “Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear.” “Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” (Psalm 118:6; 27:3; 23:4).”