“Having a protector clearly reduces stress.” – Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, Baboon Metaphysics (1)
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. (Psalms 18:30)
Just as there are costs and benefits to being a group alpha, there are likewise costs and benefits to having a group alpha. One of the benefits is protection. A strong leader will protect his group. From what? How? We’ll get to that.
Of the Bible non-supernatural alphas, King David is legendary. What did he do to deserve the pedestal? As Isaac Asimov noted in his erudite book about the Bible, David became the ‘master’ of a the combined, twelve tribes of Israel and Judah.(2) David united a great group of people and, with their necessary loyalty and assistance, secured and enlarged an expansive homeland. David protected his people from skirmish both internal and eternal. The internal harmony being crucial to waging war against external threats.
But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns. (1 Samuel 18:16)
No doubt, David was revered not because he led them on campaigns, but on successful campaigns. King David, however, did not accomplish this all on his own. He had yet another mighty agent on his side -
And [David] became more and more powerful, because the LORD God Almighty was with him.(2 Samuel 5:9-10)
A significant amount of biblical material relates the theme of human masters being supported and assisted by their heavenly master. There are those verses, however, that have a people’s god acting as an agent itself, without a human intermediary, to the benefit of all group members.
Of course, different groups at different times have had different concerns; they experienced differing threats to their well-being. In a great-father role, a god is capable of delivering his children from all manner of harm; at least he is capable of being perceived as having the ability and actually delivering thanks to rationalizing hindsight. And so many verses in the Bible hint at this “general protector” god. Psalms, in particular, speaks of this facet of god worship. Besides multiple mentions of “the Lord is my shield,” there is this:
The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life. (Psalms 121:7)
In the New Testament we see a number of verses manifesting the them of “general protector.” This one, from 2 Timothy, hints at the more primitive origin of the need for protection from threat:
And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.(4:17-18)
Of course, the “lion’s mouth” is largely metaphorical. Unless of course, you were a Christian thrown in an actual den of lions by Romans. Yet the roots of Christianity to run into deep time, a time that predators and other wild animals posed a real risk to human beings. Consider these verses:
The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth. (Genesis 9:2)
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen. (Psalms 22:21)
Yet both then and now the wildest of the wild animals — the species that poses the greatest threat to us — is our very own. We are our biggest enemies. Scratch that: “they” are our biggest enemy, those other groups of our kind, yet strangers unto us, that stand in our way. ‘They’ can want what we have; they can hurt us, even annihilate us. And so you will find much material in the Old Testament about identifying the dangerous others and achieving protection and respite from them.
Rise up, O LORD, confront them, bring them down; rescue me from the wicked by your sword. (Psalms 17:13)
How we hate those that threaten us. Religion provides an antidote to this type of psychological threat. Religion assures us that a supernatural agent that can help us. Our god may even harm them, if not obliterate them in this life or the next. Isn’t that good news?
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(1) Cheney, D. L., & Seyfarth, R. M. Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007, p.60
(2) Asimov, I., Asimov’s Guide to the Bible: The Old and New Testaments, Wing Books, New York, 1969, p. 305
