Devotionals

When Life Is Hard

by Rick Gregory 
08/15/25
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When Life is Hard

Psalm 91 is the classic Psalm for “declaring God’s goodness and promises, right?

He’ll rescue us from every trap and protect us from deadly disease (vs 3). 

We’re not to be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day (vs 5). 

We shouldn’t  dread the disease that stalks in the darkness or the daytime disasters (vs 6).

Though 10,000 are dying around you (presumably in battle), these evils will not touch you. (Vs 7)

“If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home.” (Vss 9-10 NLT).

But what do we do if this isn’t our experience? How do we navigate life when His word — His promises? — seem to claim one thing, but life doesn’t look like this? We do get sick, sometimes ravaged by debilitating disease. We do fall prey to night terrors and disasters and we do get exploited. So, is God’s Word a lie? A mythical, imaginary placebo?

Here’s where context matters. Where genre matters. Where we recognize poetry in its most beautiful form, and the joy of the author (was it Moses? Or David?) in declaring the magnificence of the God he served by writing a song about Him! Both Moses and David did see the things this Psalm is declaring. 

When life gets hard, we can’t presume to claim Psalm 91’s “promises” explicitly for ourselves, when they’re simply the outpouring of joy from one who HAS experienced them. So, the story we tell is that of the God who does make these things reality. Of a God who does protect and answer and rescue and deliver! Of the God who is able to bring things like this into our own lives.

Lord Jesus, please show me Your glory, just like the writer of this Psalm, and I will declare it, too!

Rick is the well-loved husband of Sherry for over 53 years, dad to 3 remarkable children and their spouses, and Poppy to 8 beautiful grandchildren.