The Lord is our dwelling place
Psalm 91
1 You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
2 will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.’
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence;
4 he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
or the arrow that flies by day,
6 or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
or the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High your dwelling-place,
10 no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
14 Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honour them.
16 With long life I will satisfy them,
and show them my salvation.
A quick read of this psalm seems to say that God will make sure his people will have a wonderful life, free from problems. But a more careful reading indicates that “deadly pestilence” (vs. 3 and 6), “destruction” (vs. 6), and other threats (vs. 3, 5, 13, 15), will face the followers of God – the followers of Jesus Christ. The threats may be physical as the words used in this psalm imply – or they could be emotional, psychological, or spiritual. For threat, we should hear: stresses, anxieties, fears. The reality is that followers of Jesus will face all these things.
The hope comes from the fact that in the face of anxieties and threats – God will be with the followers of Jesus (vs. 15 – “I will be with them in trouble.”) As we trust God as our dwelling-place, our shelter, our refuge we discover that we do not need to fear (vs. 5) the threats and anxieties of that frequently come our way. We can face them with a calm certainty that God is with us and will bring us through. That even when trouble comes (as vs. 15 says it will come), we do not need to fear that it will so unsettle us, so disturb us that we are at risk emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.
Knowing that our shelter is in God, means that we can face the storms, threats, that come, knowing we are grounded in God. And abiding in that truth, that certainty, is the only way to make it through the trouble.
It is worth noting that all of the images are of God’s people simply being, not advancing, not moving forward, rather the call is to simply be in God, they are all words of stability. We don’t need to take the struggle to the adversary, we rather need to rest in God who will act against the adversary in God’s timing. We are simply called to remain secure in the faithfulness of God.
PRAYER:
O Lord, we rejoice that you are our dwelling place. We rejoice that in you we have one who will be with us in the troubles of life. We call upon you, knowing that you will come to be with us in the struggles of life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.