1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I 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,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor 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 recompense of the wicked.
Comment: Could a martyr as they are burning at the stake claim that this promise is true for them? As they writhe in agony could they call out to God that Psalm 91 is all a lie? I suspect that they would be tempted to do so. Do Christian soldiers never get killed in battle? The deluded may say so, but it simply isn’t true but they frequently die. There are great stories of fantastic testimonies of being snatched from hopeless situations! But the kidnapped pilot of whom I’m thinking at the moment has not been found after many months. Is he dead – God knows. His bones may later be found or he may years later be released. How does that affect the truth of this passage? PS between the writing and now, he was recently released! Praise God!
But the person who sees life as only a 70+ year trip into a box (the end) will be lying to themselves if they don’t think of it as false! A glorious hope, cushy but untrue, for it doesn’t always work out to be true this side of death!
The Bible is all about context. We’ll come back to this Psalm but for a moment remember what Jesus said about to what following Him could lead. Matt 5 10-12 – ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you’.
This Psalm very heavily suggests that the person on God’s side, those who say, “I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust,” will be physically protected. I believe that this is true but life goes on for the believer, who is special to God but still a human. Who knows how often God’s hand on a drunkard’s steering wheel saves a believer’s life. But not always. The last line of today’s reading puts things into perspective – ‘You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.‘ Judgement comes to the wicked which God’s people will see but not experience. Thank God the promises above, in this Psalm, are not limited to time and become fully experienced in Eternity. If seen as being limited to time before death they seem false, or at the best not always true!
Proverbs 14: 5 – “A faithful witness does not lie, But a false witness will utter lies”
Prayer: Help me look hard at where the Bible seems difficult and to understand that ‘verse picking’ needs to be in the context of all that You say!