Almost every person I know on the front lines of ministry has stories about how God has supernaturally protected them. Their experiences sound like the fulfillment of Psalm 91:11-13: “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot” (ESV).
One of those stories is from a man very important to The Summit Church, Sam James, who founded our church in 1962 and then left to be a missionary in Vietnam for 40 years.
While there, Sam tried as much as possible to stay in Saigon, because most of the roads going out of the city were not secure. But on one occasion, a young lady from the city of My Tho asked him to come and speak to the students of the secondary school there. It would be a dangerous trip, because the communists were terrorizing that area. But as he prayed over the matter, he felt God wanted him to go.
On Christmas Day of 1965, Sam called the Vietnamese security office, which said they had not had any reports of communist activity for several weeks. Their only advice was to travel during daylight hours. Before starting out for his trip, however, Sam got up and did what he always did in the morning: read his Bible. The text for the day was Psalm 91.
He set out for his trip, leaving early in the morning, and at first all went well. He got pretty far into the countryside, going past rice patty after rice patty, and he felt no danger.
He got to within two miles of the village when, rounding a curve, he was horrified to see a roadblock less than 300 yards away. Dirt was piled as high as his Volkswagen van and extended across the road. This was the Viet Cong’s method to stop all traffic. They would then force everyone out of their cars at gunpoint, preach communism to them, and then rob everyone of their valuables. Often the soldiers shot anyone they didn’t like—especially Americans.
A wave of fear swept over Sam, and his body began trembling almost uncontrollably. When he stopped about five feet behind the lone car in front of him, he was nearly in a panic. He had never felt as much fear as he faced at that moment. He thought of his wife and his children and imagined news of his death reaching them in Saigon. He began to berate himself for taking such a foolish risk.
Sam could see a large number of camouflaged, communist troops scattered in the brush. Looking in his rearview mirror, he saw that about a dozen cars had stopped behind him, and he knew the soldiers would make their move at any moment.
Suddenly Psalm 91 came to his mind:
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 he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler …. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day …
Miraculously, Sam stopped shaking. He realized that his terrible panic was the result of not trusting God’s perfect will. He knew that God guides us down to the details of our lives and that absolute surrender and absolute faith bring absolute peace. And that marvelous peace settled over him.
It was then that Sam looked to his left and saw a little dirt path the farmers used to drive their water buffalo to and from work in the fields. It wasn’t designed for a car. From his quick glance, he wasn’t even sure it was large enough for his car. But he gunned it anyway. The path was so bumpy that his head pounded the roof of his car (leaving scars he still has today). He expected any moment to hear the sound of gunfire, but it never came. No other cars moved.
After veering through a thick banana grove, well past the roadblock, Sam turned back onto the road. He stopped the car and felt so weak he could only rest his face on the steering wheel and thank God for his deliverance.
He made his way to where the believers were gathered, and at that moment a series of heavy explosions shook the ground, followed by gunfire and grenades. Heavy clouds of thick, black smoke towered into the sky. He didn’t expect the school officials to go on with the program. But all the students there were ready to listen, as if oblivious to the violence. He preached, and numbers of students expressed an interest in following Christ.
When the service was over, the clouds of smoke had cleared, the gunfire had stopped, and the communists were gone. Some of the older students offered to escort Sam past the roadblock. Arriving at the roadblock, they learned that a contingent of South Vietnamese soldiers had arrived, opening fire on the Viet Cong. The two sides had engaged in a battle, and the cars and people were caught in the crossfire. The first three cars had been burned and destroyed, their occupants killed.
Sam later testified that Psalm 91 had given him the calmness to settle his nerves, to think about what he should do, and to have the courage to do it.
Sam was prepared to die that day. In God’s providence, he was spared. The promise of Psalm 91 gave him the courage to risk death and the assurance that—come what may—God was in control.
There will always remain mysteries as we probe into the depths of God’s sovereign protection. Sometimes God protects men like Sam James—though not without scars. Other times God’s servants give their lives in service to him in martyrdom. But as one missionary martyr, Jim Elliot, said, God’s promise in Psalm 91 means that we are indestructible until our work on earth is done.
What Sam James experienced was a sign of God’s great protection. But the reality of that protection extends to all who call on God’s name. And even when the signs are absent, the reality is there: We can live in the assurance that God is going to work all things out perfectly—whether in this life or the next—for his good plan.
