Yesterday I did some prayer journaling and Bible Study for the first time in a long time. I read Psalm 91 and it was interesting. It was convicting and refreshing and thought provoking all in one.
In my life these days, like many of us, I've been going through a kind of rough time. Mental health is a fragile thing and things like pandemic, external stresses and parenting doesn't make it easier. To put it simply, a new stage of life always comes with new struggles. And if we're honest, can someone really be expected to react perfectly to something new and different?
So what did this have to do with Psalm 91? Give it a read:
Psalm 91
The Protection of the Most High
1 The one who lives under the protection of the Most High
dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.(A)
2 I will say[a] to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”(B)
3 He Himself will deliver you from the hunter’s net,(C)
from the destructive plague.
4 He will cover you with His feathers;
you will take refuge under His wings.(D)
His faithfulness will be a protective shield.(E)
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,(F)
6 the plague that stalks in darkness,
or the pestilence that ravages at noon.(G)
7 Though a thousand fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand,
the pestilence will not reach you.(H)
8 You will only see it with your eyes
and witness the punishment of the wicked.(I)
9 Because you have made the Lord—my refuge,(J)
the Most High—your dwelling place,(K)
10 no harm will come to you;
no plague will come near your tent.(L)
11 For He will give His angels orders concerning you,
to protect you in all your ways.(M)
12 They will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.(N)
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the young lion and the serpent.(O)
14 Because he is lovingly devoted to Me,
I will deliver him;
I will protect him because he knows My name.(P)
15 When he calls out to Me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and give him honor.(Q)
16 I will satisfy him with a long life(R)
and show him My salvation.(S)
At first read through, I was frustrated because bad stuff happens. This Psalm seems to suggest that bad stuff doesn't happen if you are looking to God for support. The last few years prove otherwise. How many Christians and God fearing people have been negatively affected by the pandemic? Either directly by illness or death, or indirectly based on the financial hardships of lost work, nearly everyone has felt some impact.
For me much of the pandemic has not been actual hardship. My family has grown. We were fortunate enough to use stimulus checks to renovate our kitchen, and put a new roof and new siding on our house. We've even invested in solar panels and have a fenced in back yard vegetable garden. But even though it isn't personal, I found it unjust that scripture could suggest fearing God means no harm will come from a plague or pestilence.
Then I remembered the sermon by the new interim pastor at my church this past Sunday. In his sermon her referenced Philppians 4:4-7:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Remembering that context, it struck me that the subject matter of this Psalm isn't really trials and tribulation but fear. Worry and anxiety are really just different power levels of the intellectual concept of fear. Then couple that with the idea Paul writes to the church in Phillipi: the sentence doesn't end with "don't worry about anything". It goes on to say that "but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God."
At times when I've read that, that it seems so demanding. Paul just keeps tacking on clauses. But it's really all inclusive. It's saying that in everything we can be remain thankful, and pray and ask God for what we need. In financial struggle, in sickness, in plague, in pestilence, in pandemic isolation induced social anxiety, in everything we can relate to God in this way. When I read the Psalm again with the context of these words from Paul equating to what is meant by "the one who lives under the protection of the most high."
Then I took into context the perspective that this Psalm is ascribed to Moses. It changed my whole view point on some of the verbiage. First of all, to a 21st century American, the idea of a shadow seems ominous. But to an ancient inhabitant of the deserts of northeastern Africa and the Middle East shadows are quite literally a godsend. I also latched on to the word plague, in the context of Moses. It's easy in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic to think of a plague as a transmittable illness, but the plagues of Egypt were more than just sickness. They were acts of God of all kinds, hail storms, torrents of insects, destruction of crops. Considering a Psalm is a type of poetry there it's reasonable to read imagery as more than precisely literal. So what does a shadow represent? Coolness, relief from the burning desert sun. Cooler sand on the feet. What do plagues and pestilence represent? Turmoil, illness, sickness, community crisis, economic or financial crisis. What could arrows represent? Literal violence, sure but it could also be a barrage of insults or excess work or stress. Terror of the night could be just that but what about the nagging worries that keep us up at night? Couldn't it represent that too?
Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
That's a pretty good news right?
Ish will happen. It's part of life. But we don't have to be afraid because of the promises given to us in Christ. We might get sick, we might feel bad, we might get belittled, persecuted attacked or we might just get hella annoyed. In all of that, in anything, in everything we can seek God in prayer. We can take refuge in the cool shade of his presence. Ish is going to happen, but we can come to God and make our honest requests to him. This is how we can stay connected to the vine to be a fruitful branch,
