Psalm 34:19 The godly 34 face many dangers, 35
but the Lord saves 36 them 37 from each one of them.
34:20 He protects 38 all his bones; 39
not one of them is broken. 40 -net.bible.org
What a promise. What am I to make of this?
It is obvious from the Bible, from stories of the martyrs, from church history, and from personal experience that the Lord does NOT save us from "many dangers." Even the second verse alludes to Jesus brutal crucificion in which not one bone was broken, but He definitely experienced danger and violence. The Bible is full of such promises to the godly, side-by-side with examples of the godly sold into slavery, beaten, and killed.
As I dig further into the actual word translated "save," I see that it means "rescue or deliver" You can't be rescued until you are well and truly in trouble. I think that this must be it. The Psalm is very much true. But it is not a promise that the godly won't experience trouble. It's a promise that they will be rescued.
Again, it comes back to eternity. The child of God is not at home in this world. He is a citizen of another eternal realm with "no more sorrows, no more tears." Rescue is only a heart beat away. The killing blow is, for the child of God, the longed for entrance into our Father's saving arms.
