The Newscasts That Mark Our Days

Meaning in Psalm 91

by Alfred D. Byrd

SHELTER is needed in times of storm.
The world is filled with conflict by day;
By night, the restless will toss and turn.
The four who ride on horses appear
Throughout the newscasts that mark our days.
Around the clock, misfortunes run wild.
A plague, a famine — comrades of war
Announce a rider coming behind.
When we watch the news, we see no hope.
"The sky is falling!" pundits tell us.
"Footage at six will prove us correct."
No wonder we think, "The end is near."
Eleven's broadcast offers replay.

A singer of psalms who lived in times
More like our own than we want to think
Directed our gaze above the world
To One Who shapes the paths of humans.
Matchless in might, abounding in love,
Our Maker is like a bird that tends
A nest of fledglings until they fly.
If we fall in traps along the way,
Our God is ready to part the jaws
That keep our feet from moving onward.
No one need live in fear who believes,
"My God is with me in life, in death."

Let all who tremble call out to God,
"My rock, my shelter, my home — it's You!"
The one who trusts in our God heads on
Although a thousand may fall beside.
The root of trust? "My Maker loves me!"
Any may find in our God the strength
To come through trials with hope intact.
The singer of psalms has said from God,
"You have a promise: helpers unseen
Will guard your journey within the world
And let you triumph in times of stress."
The ones who put their trust in their God
Will live untroubled by what they feared.

If this poem spoke to you, you may enjoy my Biblical epic poems

A Song of the One, the age-old account of Creatlon, Fall, Redemption, and Glory retold in verse for a new millennium, and

The Stars Bow Down: An Epic of Joseph, the timeless tale of a favorite son whose brothers sold him into slavery, but whom God raised from a prison to save the known world from famine.