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About this post: We want to stay connected! This blog post is part of a series of daily devotionals for this season. Read them, share them, and pray that they bring God's peace and love to our communities. To sign up to receive text notification of these posts, text zpc to 39970. We welcome your comments and questions each day. 

About the author: Andrew and his wife Abby joined ZPC in 2015. They have two school aged children Sam and Leah.

Today's Scripture: PSALM 34

The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.                      Psalm 34:7

No scripture has been more meaningful or sustaining to me over my life than this verse. I memorized it as a young boy, and I have found myself drawn back to it over and over again as a source of hope and comfort. My grandfather was a Presbyterian pastor, and prior to that, he was a B-26 bomber pilot in the skies over Europe during WWII. As he would tell me stories from the war, he would always accompany them with this verse.  He flew 60 missions, ranging from routine to the truly death-defying. When he told those stories, I always pictured an angel flying right beside his plane. As my grandfather looked over his life, God’s faithfulness was so compelling and evident that he rested in the assurance that God would deliver him, no matter the circumstance. He made it his mission as a grandfather to ensure that my siblings, cousins, and I understood that God was the source of that assurance.

In times of uncertainty, we can have full confidence that the Lord is with us and that he will deliver us through whatever may come. In times of panic, I’ve prayed through this Psalm, hoping that something I feared wouldn’t come true. Other times, I’ve prayed as that thing I feared became reality.  But just like my grandfather, I’ve come to see that God has always delivered me and those I love through difficult times. 

As Jerry reminded us when preaching on John’s story of Jesus in the storm, this Psalm doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be bad times or outcomes we don’t want. It doesn’t promise that God will banish the storm. My grandfather reminded me of this truth as well. His best friend, crew mate, and fellow Christ follower, Ole Olsen, was killed by a flak burst on one of my grandfather’s final missions. Psalm 34 was no less true in that mission than in all the preceding ones where their lives were spared.  Through life and death, through good times and bad, the Angel of the Lord is with us and delivers us.

As the anxiety of our current situation begins to overwhelm me, I find comfort and truth in Psalm 34:7. I pray this verse with my kids as I tuck them in when their own anxiety keeps them up at night. And now I pray the truth from this Psalm provides you hope and comfort as you face these difficult days.

Today I invite you to pray the scripted prayer my grandfather and Ole prayed before takeoff on each of their missions:

Lord take my life today,
I make it yours.
If you have something for me to do in this world,
In your perfect plan,
Then nothing I encounter can stand in its way.
If you have something for me to do in glory, at headquarters,
Then I give my lift to you.
My life, Lord, is yours.
Do with it what you will.
Amen.

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