God’s Covenant of Protection

People who have learned to trust the promises that God makes in the 91st Psalm have received many miracles and dramatic healings.  If you really put your trust in God’s promises, He will keep you safe no matter what happens.

Peggy Joyce Ruth is cheerful, warmhearted and motherly, but she wasn’t always such a happy camper. For eight long years she was miserable. She was tormented by fears and depression until God showed her how to find safety in the 91st Psalm.  She says, “I believe that God gave me this answer because I needed to tell others how to be protected from all the horrible things coming on the earth.” Here is Peggy Joyce’s story in her own words.

A VIVID DREAM CHANGED MY LIFE!

“I used to be a fearful person, and I had reached a point where fear literally controlled my life. One day, when my fears were at a peak, I lay down on my bed, and I asked God, ‘Is there any way to be protected from all this danger, or do we just have to take what comes?’

“Although my heart posed this question, I didn’t actually expect an answer. I was just emotionally exhausted. I fell asleep and then I had a vivid dream. In my dream, I was standing alone in a huge open field. I again asked God, ‘Is there any way to be protected from the evil coming on this earth, or do we just have to take what comes?’  After a few moments, I heard a powerful, authoritative voice say,

‘In your day of trouble call on Me, and I will answer.’ 

“In my dream, I felt so excited that I started leaping for joy.  The next thing I knew, many, many other people had appeared and they were all celebrating and laughing and rejoicing with me over this answer to the question that I had asked. I felt so overjoyed by those words, and long after I awoke, I continued to ponder what it meant.

“The next day I overheard someone mention the 91st Psalm. I felt strongly compelled to look it up.  My heart leaped when I read in verse 15 the same words that I had heard in my dream. ‘In your day of trouble call on Me, and I will answer.’ Then I realized that my dream had been sent by God. I knew that the 91st Psalm was exactly the answer for which I had been looking.”

IT SEEMED TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! 

“I spent the next six months intensively studying the 91st Psalm. I found that it makes some astonishing promises. It offers a covenant of protection from every kind of harm that can befall a person sickness, accidents, war, natural disasters there is nothing that is not covered. If I could believe the words of the Psalm, there was nothing on earth that could harm my family or me. 

“It seemed almost too good to be true. My rational mind rejected it. I thought, ‘This was written more than 2600 years ago.  It does not apply to me.  I can’t believe this.’  However, something inside kept telling me that this was the answer. Then, one day God led me to the Scripture in Romans 3:3-4 that says, ‘For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.’  That settled it.”

I CHOSE TO BELIEVE AND I TALKED ABOUT IT WITH OTHERS

“I had to make up my mind that either the Word of God was trustworthy or it was not. I had to choose. I chose to believe it, but it was a belief I had to work for. It did not come easily.

“Then I started talking about it with my friends and family members.  The more I talked about it, the more I understood and believed it.  It is true that faith comes by hearing, even if you are hearing your own voice speak God’s Word.  As I told others about it, I found many who began to put it into practice in their lives.  One of these was my brother, Dr. James Crow, who later relied on the 91st Psalm to save his daughter’s life.”

MY NIECE IS HEALED OF TRAUMATIC BRAIN DAMAGE!

“One morning, my brother’s eleven-year-old daughter, Julie, was thrown from a horse.  As she fell, the horse kicked her in the back of the head, cracking her skull like an eggshell.  It was bad.  They sent her immediately from our local hospital to a larger hospital, and when we got there the swelling of her face was so severe that we could not even recognize her.  All of her vital signs had stopped, and the doctors could not revive her at first.  They told us that her injuries were so serious that she might die at any minute, and that she could not possibly live through the night.

“My brother put his full trust in the 91st Psalm. He told the doctors, ‘I will not accept your prognosis.  We have a covenant of protection with God. I believe God will heal her.’  I think the medical staff thought we were religious nuts. However, as a family we were all in agreement, praying the 91st Psalm for Julie, and miraculously, her vital signs came back, but she was still unconscious.

“Her doctor did not seem impressed.  He said, ‘Even if she does live through the night, she will be brain damaged and suffer severe hearing and sight loss due to the location of the injuries.’  He tried to present the facts to us and explained that her optic nerve had been damaged, that the bones in her ears were shattered, and that her brain had severe trauma.  It was true that she had been injured beyond recognition.

“However, my brother knew the 91st Psalm, and he refused to let go of his covenant of protection.  We all kept confessing that Psalm over Julie, and repeatedly told the medical staff, ‘We have a covenant, and she will be OK.’  To make a long story short, nine days later she walked out of that hospital with no hearing loss, no loss of eyesight and no brain damage—totally healed.

“Throughout her recovery, nurses and doctors kept coming to her room saying, ‘Here is the miracle girl.’  I know my niece would not be normal today, and probably not alive, if my brother had not stood firm on his covenant with God.  Today she is a dental assistant for one of the leading dentists in San Antonio, Texas.”

PSALM 91:  GOD’S COVENANT OF PROTECTION

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord,
“My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper,
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with His pinions,
and under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;
Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
A thousand may fall at your side,
and ten thousand at your right hand;
but it will not approach you.
You will only look on with your eyes,
and see the recompense of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
even the Most High, your dwelling place.
No evil will befall you,
nor will any plague come near your tent.
For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
to guard you in all your ways.
They will bear you up in their hands,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
the young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With a long life I will satisfy him,
And let him behold My salvation. (NAS)

HOW TO CLAIM GOD’S COVENANT OF PROTECTION

“There are promises of protection all through the Bible, but the 91st Psalm is unique in that it is the only place where all of the protection promises are gathered together in one place, creating a covenant or a contract for divine protection. God revealed it to me because I asked Him to show me how to be safe in this world. I believe that He gave me this answer because I needed to tell others how to be protected from all the horrible things coming on the earth.”

GOD’S PROTECTION IS NOT AUTOMATIC!

Peggy Joyce explains that this covenant of protection is not automatic. “There are things we must do ourselves to obtain protection. As we read the first two verses, we see that we must dwell in the secret place of God, that place of confidence and restful trust.  In addition, we must continually say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress—My God in whom I will trust.’ We must do both of these things to have all the covenant protections.

“We are told in Psalm 91:4 that we may seek refuge under His (God’s) Wings.  The Lord gave me a very vivid picture of what it means to seek refuge under His Wings. We live in the country and one spring our old mother hen hatched a brood of baby chicks.  One afternoon when the little chicks were scattered all over the yard, I suddenly saw the shadow of a hawk overhead.  Then I noticed something that taught me a lesson I will never forget.  That mother hen did not run to those little chicks and jump on top of them to try to cover them with her wings.

“Instead, she squatted down, spread out her wings, and began to cluck.  And those little chicks, from every direction, came running to her to get under those outstretched wings.  Then she pulled her wings down tight, tucking every little chick safely under her. To get to those babies, the hawk would have to go through the mother.

“In the same way it is under His wings that we may seek refuge—but we have to run to Him. He does not run here and there, trying to cover us. He has made protection available. And when we run to Him in faith, the enemy will have to go through God to get to us. It is important to understand this.”

A  MOTHER SAVES THE LIFE OF HER CHILD 

Peggy Joyce has taught many about our covenant of protection. One young mother was particularly glad she had learned it. “Her four-year-old son, Skylar, went over the side of a cliff after his bicycle got out of control.  When his mother found him he was tangled in the wheel of the bicycle and lying on his stomach with his chin turned around over his shoulder.  The situation was so urgent, that they could not wait for the ambulance, so the mother and her sister drove him to the nearest hospital. As they drove, they prayed aloud the promises of Psalm 91.

“The local hospital found an obvious break in the C-1 vertebra, so he was immediately airlifted to Cook’s Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.  The situation seemed grim. However, the two sisters never stopped claiming their protection covenant of Psalm 91 as doctors attended the little boy.  Finally, the doctor at Cook’s Hospital came out of the room with a strange look on his face.  He had the X-rays from the first hospital in one hand and the new X-rays that had just been taken in the other hand, and his words were, ‘We don’t know how to explain this, but we find no head trauma and no C-1 fracture.’

“These two sisters had trusted God completely and believed what He said in Psalm 91: ‘No evil will befall you, nor will plague or calamity come near your household.’   Since the day they left the hospital, Skylar has been a perfectly normal, healthy little boy with no side effects, whatsoever, from the accident.”

A YOUNG WOMAN ESCAPES FROM SEXUAL ASSAULT

“A young friend of ours, Julee, was getting ready for church when someone knocked on her door.  As she opened the door, a strange man shoved his way in and attacked her.  Remembering that God said in Psalm 91: 5-7, ‘You will not be afraid of the terror [what another person can do to harm you]…it will not approach you,’  Julee started quoting the Word of God to him as her defense.

“It took forty-five minutes of spiritual battle as the man came at her time after time, but her persistence in quoting these words brought confusion and immobility on him—thwarting every attempted attack.  During one of those times when he had temporarily lost his focus, she was able to get out the door and escape unharmed.

“Later, after he was apprehended, she found that he had sexually assaulted numerous young women, and she was the only one of his victims who had been able to escape without harm.”

GOD’S PROTECTION COVERS EVEN TORNADOES AND FIRES

“Once a tornado was headed for our house.  A teen club was meeting at our house, and their vehicles were parked below the house while the members watched the tornado which had touched down and was headed in our direction.  The sky was dark and had a peculiar, greenish glow. We could see a large funnel cloud headed straight for our house, way off in the distance.

“I’m sure a lot of people were rushing for their storm cellars at that moment, but my husband got us outside, speaking the promises of Psalm 91 directly to the storm as we marched around our house.  When we went back inside, the radio announcer was just making the statement, ‘It is a miracle!  The tornado which was headed south of the country club has suddenly disappeared.’  God gave us our miracle.  Psalm 91 is our covenant we speak in the face of destruction (the category of evil over which man has no control).

“On another occasion the Lord saved our property from fire after relying on the promise in this 91st Psalm.  My husband and our son, Bill, were burning brush in the back pasture of our ranch when an old underground gas well exploded.  Fire raced across the field toward other houses.  They fought the fire, but it was hopelessly out of control.  There was little expectation that a fire truck could get there in time to do any good, but my husband raced off to the house to call them anyway.  When he returned from calling the fire truck, to his surprise, the fire was out.  One minute it was out of control; the next minute it was out!  Jack said, ‘Bill, how did you do it?’  Remembering our covenant, Bill had called on God, and God had miraculously put the fire out.”

GOD’S PLAN OF PROTECTION COVERS EVERY KIND OF HARM

“In Psalm 91, God lists all the things from which we are protected, and we can easily see that it covers all of the evils of humankind. It includes all the evils that come through another person, such as robbery, murder, terrorism or rape. It also includes epidemics and deadly diseases, and all natural disasters such as tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and other things that man has no control over. Verse seven plainly says, ‘A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, BUT  IT SHALL NOT COME NEAR YOU.’  He even has angels standing by us to help us. This is God’s Covenant of Protection.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Peggy Joyce emphasizes that all contracts have two sides, so we must be careful to do our part.  Here is what she teaches people to do:

1. Verse one tells us part of our responsibility:  We are to dwell in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty. We are to be like those baby chicks and learn to live under the wings of our Lord. We must root out our doubts and make up our minds to believe that these are not just words for emotional comfort, but a real promise to turn things around. You can examine yourself and ask God to help you accept this as the Truth.

2. We must continually tell ourselves and others of this promise of protection as it says in verse 2, “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.”

3. We must seek God’s protection. We can do this by meditating on each verse and thinking about what it means.  For example, as you meditate on verse two, begin to say from your heart, HHe is the Lord, the one to whom I will run first.  Lord, You are my God in whom I trust.  I know you want to be the Source of all my protection, therefore, I will refuse to look at all forms of Plan B.”

4. In addition to meditating on Psalm 91—read it out loud.  Put your own or someone else’s name in it. Thank God for it; thank Him that He loved you enough to make this protection possible.  Depend on Him to lead you through.

5. Finally, if there is any point of obedience that He expects out of you, ask Him to show you.  The Psalm promises that if we meet the conditions, God will satisfy us with long life.

Peggy Joyce says, “When you pray this Psalm, tell God that you want to know Him intimately, and that you recognize Jesus as the only provision for your life that matters.  I promise that if you read it over and over, and if you believe it and say it out loud, then fear will run away from you and you will begin to see real protection.”

She sums up: “It is awesome to think that we can be intimate with the Creator and that He will give us a purpose and a destiny.  He provides angelic protection and gives us authority over the enemy.  Greater power is in the Word of God than any fear or circumstance or situation in your life.  Thirty-five years ago, my life changed from despair to victory, not because of anything special about me, but because of the power in God’s Word. You can do it too! Go for the Gold!  It’s your time!”

Peggy Joyce has taught hundreds in her classes on living in God’s blanket of protection. Her husband is the senior pastor of the Living Word Church in Brownwood, Texas. She has written instructive books for adults and for youth that go into more depth about the 91st Psalm. Visit her web site at https://www.peggyjoyceruth.org/.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright ©1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.