Pandemic 2020 – Day 124.
On average, I read Psalm 91 twice a day, during my own morning devotional time and when I share a devotional period with my son during our afternoon virtual visit. I consider it my “Daily Psalm,” and can’t imagine stepping into any day without it. I confess though that I’ve read it so often sometimes it’s more rote recitation than it ought be. Today, the words refused to be read in that way. They rose off the page, got in my face, and demanded that I draw from them what God is offering through them. I decided their assertiveness is tied to the times in which we currently live. In an era of pandemic, what better encouragement can we receive than that offered in what I term “The Promise Psalm.”
Biblical scholars give Moses credit for penning this great psalm. The first verse identifies to whom and for whom it is written – “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” And verse two declares Moses’ relationship with this God whose promises are all-encompassing. “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.‘” Verses three through eight give testimony to our belief that God’s word is timeless; Moses’ affirmations speaking not just to his contemporaries, but to a people as yet unborn. We of the modern age are those people, facing our own time of pestilence, terror and plague not known since the Pandemic of 1918. One hundred and two years later we get the patriarch’s message. As he did in 13th century BCE, when he expressed in those verses what he believed God would do for His people, we 21st century AD followers concur with him.
What I want to point out today is that this Psalm of promises carries within it a stipulation that can easily escape notice. Verses ten through sixteen overflow with promises. They encourage and give hope that our God has our back. His protection in the most horrific times is assured; and that is true. But we have to go back to the verse that comes before those seven. Verse nine declares, “If you make the Most High your dwelling place – even the Lord, who is my refuge – then… “Gentle reader, there is the precursor. The word, If, signifies there is a condition that must be met first. We can’t claim the promises of the psalm without doing something. And what is that? We must make the Lord our dwelling place. It’s not that difficult. We do it in pretty much the same way we make our physical structure our dwelling place. We fill those structures with the things that meet our needs: beds, tables, chairs, towels, dishes, food, etc. In similar fashion, if we are to make the Lord our dwelling place, we must fill that dwelling with the things that meet our spiritual needs: His holy word and its wisdom, His Spirit that gives guidance and informs our words, thoughts and deeds. When we manage to do those things, He becomes our shelter and a place to rest. And surrounded by that sense of His Presence, we can look in the eye of a pandemic or any other disaster or trial or tribulation with courage and strength. We have activated His promises.
Love. Joy. Peace.