A Prayer for Protection

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
— Psalm 91:1

The world is not safe, and pretending it is doesn't help anyone. We lock the doors and check the weather and buckle the seatbelts and still lie awake wondering if it's enough. It's not — and that's not a failure of caution. It's the simple truth that we cannot control everything that happens to the people we love or to ourselves. What we can do is put them — and us — under a shadow bigger than anything the day can throw. The psalm calls it the secret place of the most High. I just call it the safest place I know.

Lord, I am asking for your protection.
Cover the ones I love — the ones under this roof and the ones far from it.
Go with them where I cannot follow. Stand between them and the harm I cannot see coming.
I know you do not promise a life without trouble. But you promise to be our refuge in it, and tonight that is what I need you to be.
Keep us. Guard us. Hold the line.
And when the morning comes, let us all still be here, and let us be grateful.
Amen.

Protection is a hard prayer to pray honestly, because we know it doesn't always work the way we want. Good people come to harm. Careful people too. The psalm doesn't say nothing bad will ever happen. It says there is a place — a dwelling, a shadow — where we are held, no matter what happens around us. That's a different kind of protection: not a shield from all trouble, but a presence in all trouble. The shadow of the Almighty. I have needed it more times than I can count, and it has never once failed to show up.

Pray it over your household tonight. Ruby writes a short devotional every morning in the same spirit — Scripture, and a few honest words for the day. You can subscribe — it's free, or stay a while and read more of her writing.