Psalms 91:1, God's emergency number

I guess the first thing that came to my mind when I read the article are the verses in Matthew and Luke Ch. 4 when Jesus says to satan "You shall not tempt the LORD your God" Oddly enough satan quotes from Psalm 91 the same Psalm the Chaplin used (from the article). Satan is trying to get Jesus to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus basically tells satan, forget it. I don't need to do something foolish like that to prove My authority in God.

In other words, you don't do something stupid under the guise that God will protect you. I don't know this guys motivation, nor do I know the whole story but it seems to me he is tempting the LORD God by taking unnecessary risks and putting others in harms way. With that being said I love Psalms 91 and quote/pray/claim it all the time. It is one of my favorite Psalms and is the only passage in the Bible where every protection from the harms of this world are listed. When I say I claim it, what I mean is, I believe there is protection for God's people when we believe and claim His promises. He will take care of His own but there are conditions to that protection.

Psalm 91:1 (911 just happens to be our distress call) starts with "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.'" You must dwell with Him, meaning abide, live in Him (relationship) and proclaim your trust in Him.

Later in the Psalm there is another condition vs. 9 "Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you."
and then in vs. 14 "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him". This protection is for those who love God, really love God.

I can't tell you how God works as far as why one person dies and not another. There is not a formula to figuring Him out; He's not a vending machine---say you believe, go to church, maybe read a few verses a week and your covered. How hockey would that be. I can tell you there are patterns to follow from the Bible, and in our world, of people who have learned to dwell in Him. I would love to share with the atheist soldier the many stories of Godly generals and soldiers who saw God's hand at work through their prayers and trust in HIM. I cringe to think of where this country would be without all the Godly praying people who have gone before us. We are slowly getting a taste of this as this country as a whole relies less and less on God and more on the wisdom of man.

Paul and others in the Bible said many times--following Christ would not be easy. If I signed up because I thought I would somehow avoid hardship, I didn't read the manual very well. Christ Himself asked if He could be spared from torture and death. In Matthew 26:39 Jesus prayed "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." He is our ultimate example. You come to a place in your walk with Him that you know He knows best and you trust Him with your very life. A favorite verse of mine is Philippians 1:21 where Paul says "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." We win either way. Pretty much all the disciples lost their lives as martyrs but look at the many times and ways God miraculously spared them, performed miracles through them, saved souls through their witnessing. I can only hope my life will count as much.