Living understanding, Pt 46: God provides

Psalm 91:9-16                        9If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.  11For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.  13You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.  14“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.  15He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.  16With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

When Jesus was about to begin his ministry, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.  There, Satan tested Jesus:

9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.  10For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” (Luke 4:9-11)

Satan was quoting verse 11 in Psalm 91, but Jesus said to him, “Do not put the LORD thy God to the test” (Luke 4:12).

While looking previously into the earlier verses of Psalm 91, we found that good and bad things happen to the wicked and righteous alike and that often those things are the result of the stupid things we have done and that neither Satan nor God had anything to do with it.  But nonetheless it is tempting to try to blame someone for the challenges that face us because, after all, we don’t want to take responsibility for our own actions.  Most of the time those challenging things are allowed by God (not caused by God) to help us learn the benefits of righteous and holy living.  But to live wantonly, or frivolously, is a dangerous thing, and we should not test God by expecting him to rescue us from our own stupidity.

No harm...no disaster

These verses promise that no harm or disaster will come to us.  This is the negative side of the meaning.  The positive side is that God will send his angels to lift us out of danger; that we will not even stub our toe on a rock.  All of this is predicated upon our trust of him and our willingness to let God guide and shape our lives.  This is the meaning of ‘make the Most High your dwelling’.

Because he loves me

After his resurrection when Jesus appeared to the doubter, Thomas, he offered Thomas his wounds to prove that had indeed risen from the dead.

26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.  Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.” 28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:26-29)

These words, “My Lord and my God”, show a complete and utter transformation and faith in Jesus.  The realization that Jesus was who he said he was completely revolutionary in Thomas’ life.  Now, God was Thomas’ Lord and God, and now Thomas was fully devoted to him.  God is a compassionate God who loves unconditionally.   This is a place we all should seek; if we love, actually love, our Lord and God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength then we present to God something he can use.

And if God truly is our fortress and our refuge, if we truly love him, then things will change in our lives.

I will show him my salvation

God is occasionally referred to as our Redeemer-King.  He sent his Son the first time to bring us salvation and freedom from sin, and he will send him the second time to finally cleanse the world of evil.  This freedom from sin is a marvelous thing which only God can do but the two events can be seen as the ‘bookends’ of life.  On the one side is our salvation experience, and on the other is the return of Yeshua, the cleansing of the world, and our victorious entry into eternity.  In the meantime, there is another kind of salvation where God wants us to experience the fullness of his blessings and protection.

Again and again, God promises to vindicate his people and avenge them against their enemy.  Many a Psalm writer calls upon Godly people to reaffirm their love of God and devotion to him.  But we must understand that experiencing the fullness of God’s blessing and protection is conditioned upon our love of him.  This is not the bland, frivolous 21st Century sort of love (I loved that movie), but a fully devoted, submitted, committed, and trusting kind of love of a believer for his or her Deliverer.   When we have that sort of deep longing for our God, we want to live our lives in a way that pleases him.  Turning our backs to our old way of living, mostly at the time of our salvation, but continuing even to the moment of our death, is nothing less than the expression of our deep devotional love of our God. 

What about me?

Believer, these things are easy to say, but not so easy to put into practice.  I have no idea what kind of a person you are, but since you are reading these words, I can assume that God has some kind of connection with you, and that you do have some devotion to him.  I doubt things are easy in your life since very few of us can say that, so it is safe to say that you are facing struggle of some kind.  How do you approach those struggles?

Do you gripe and complain, and say, “God, why are you doing this to me?”  I certainly have been guilty of both those things, but I have learned over the years that full submission to him does make a difference.  I made many changes.  First, I took certain language out of my vocabulary.  Then I stopped going to certain venues for entertainment.  I began avoiding certain kinds of people, even to the point of blocking phone numbers.  Then more time in prayer, then more time in direct communion with God.  I noticed changes happening.  The people who wanted to do illegal things, or at least immoral things, stopped coming around.  This was OK because those things only led to trouble.  I began to spend more time in church and developed new friendships.  I noticed people began to care for me as a person, not just what they could get from me.  People had a brightness in their eye that was never there in those other eyes.

All of this is part of God ‘showing us his salvation’.  I really hope you can find it within you to begin these kinds of changes in your life.  God will help you make these steps, as he helped me:  He will send certain people around, certain temptations will begin to diminish, and certain struggles will end.