If, as Psalm 91:8 says, calamities are the recompense of the wicked, how can we be confident God will protect us, since we all sin?
Psalm 91:7–8 (ESV)
“[7] A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. [8] You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.”
Verse 8 is puzzling. It suggests the death or disease that befalls the thousand at your side and the ten thousand at your right hand (v. 7) happens because they are wicked. And it does not strike you because you stay near God.
This is the same, neat and clean, binary, black-and-white reasoning that Job’s friends used to explain his suffering. Good things happen to good people; bad things happen to bad people. If you walk with God, nothing bad will ever happen to you. If you are wicked, sooner or later calamity will catch up to you. You get what you deserve.
How do we interpret this verse?
Psalm 91:8 and calamity
As always, the most important rule of interpretation is to consider the context. What does the rest of Psalm 91 tell us? What does the remainder of the Bible tell us? In other words, we should not interpret this verse in a way that contradicts the meaning of Psalm 91 or the remainder of the Bible. Rather, all of Psalm 91 and the Bible tell us how to interpret verse 8 (because God wrote the entire Bible, and he does not contradict himself).
With that in mind, what meaning should we rule out for verse 8?
What Psalm 91:8 cannot mean
First, verse 8 cannot mean that everyone to whom something bad happens is wicked. The book of Job explicitly forbids that interpretation. The Bible tells the stories of other righteous people who suffered violence or disease: King Josiah (2 Kings 23), John the Baptist (Matthew 14:1–12), Stephen (Acts 7:54–60), the apostle James (Acts 12:1–2), the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7–10; Galatians 4:13–15), and of course Jesus.
James 5:14–16 says, “[14] Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. [15] And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [16] Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
Notice that verses 15 and 16 imply that there can be a connection between sickness and sin, but sin is not necessarily the cause of someone’s sickness. Verse 15 says, “if he has committed sins.” “If” means sin might or might not be the cause of the sickness.
Each of us sins daily. We need to confess our sins daily. If we fall sick, we need to search our hearts prayerfully with special attention if there is some sin on which the Lord is putting his finger.
But the “if” of verse 15 implies we are not to conclude that one’s sickness is necessarily the result of sin.
What Psalm 91 certainly does mean
On the other hand, the undeniable overall message of Psalm 91 is that there is indeed a connection between experiencing God’s protection and walking in close communion with him. If you dwell in God’s shelter, if you abide in his shadow, if you trust him to be your refuge (verses 1–2), if you hold fast to him in love, if you know his name, if you call on him (verses 14–15), he will protect you.
The message of Psalm 91 is we should trust God for that. That is our default expectation. Protection is the normal experience of those who walk with the Lord. We should quote the promises of Psalm 91 and trust that they will be fulfilled in us. We have a physical, natural immune system and a spiritual immune system. A close relationship with God strengthens both systems.
We must not fear that the exception to the rule will happen to us. We should not live dreading the anomaly, but rather believing the promise. Scripture confirms the message of protection in Psalm 91 in innumerable other stories and promises throughout the Bible (Psalm 23; Psalm 121; 2 Corinthians 1:8–10; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; and 2 Timothy 4:18, for starters).
If the anomaly comes, we trust him and be sure our heart is clean through daily repentance and prayerful self-examination. But when we have done that, we should not live with the crushing assumption that a calamity that has befallen us signals an ongoing failure in our relationship with God, that he is punishing us for something we cannot identify. The comforting promise of 1 John 1:7–9 removes that possibility:
“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Summary
Calamity is not necessarily a recompense for wickedness. Although wickedness always brings the recompense of calamity, calamity is not always the recompense of wickedness. (In the language of formal logic, if all A is B, that does not imply that all B is A.)
Although calamity may befall even a person walking close to God, we should believe we will experience his perfect protection.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)