Year C. 1st Sunday of Lent
March 4th, 2001
Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church
Web page http://lordofthelake.org
By The Rev. Jerry Morrissey, Esq., Pastor
E-mail pastor@southshore.com
Heavenly Father empower each of us here at Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church to know our identity as your children through our baptism. Amen.
Psalm 91
Title: God’s Protection.
This is classified as a Psalm of Confidence. If the doctrine of angels as guardians of individuals in verse eleven was not inserted later, then this was composed in the late postexilic period. However, other than the reference to angels there are no clues to date this psalm. Verses three to thirteen are a wisdom poem, but the thoughts there could be from any period in Israel’s history. There is a cascade of metaphors expressing the myriad ways God protects his faithful ones. It is impossible to nail down where it was used in Israel’s worship. It was probably used in many contexts. The Christian Church also uses this psalm for various occasions- for night prayer, exorcisms, as encouragement for the sick and thanksgiving for healing. In the beginning it seems like one person is speaking A priest? A prophet? A pious person? A king? A teacher? Even God seems to speak in verses fourteen to sixteen. Whoever is speaking, that person is bearing witness to God’s protection always and everywhere and, in wisdom fashion, exhorting others to trust in him. One is truly safe in Yahweh.
The psalm begins with verses one and two, introducing the theme of trust and commitment. Verses three to thirteen, is a didactic poem, sermon-like really, cataloguing situations in which God protects. Verses fourteen to sixteen, closes the psalm with God himself speaking, giving authority to what has been asserted.
In verse, “you who dwell”: Lit, “The one who dwells.” Though originally the setting of this psalm may have been the Temple or some other sanctuary, it has been thoroughly reinterpreted metaphorically and applied to any imaginable setting. Here “dwell” means “dwell on,” “be conscious of.”
“Shelter…shadow”: Metaphors for the divine embrace or secret intimacy with God, these terms conjure up protection images that follow the person and are not confined to a protective “space” in a physical sense. Whether ‘in place” or “on a path” one is protected.
In verses three to thirteen, the theme of protection is expressed in a series of striking metaphors, in staccato-like fashion, conveying assurance in different ways. There are snares, traps, pestilence, plagues, war, and dangerous animals, yet a protective calm coming from God’s presence surrounds the believer and shields him or her. The sheer number of examples wants to communicate that Yahweh’s protective care is not limited to certain times or places. Yet these examples also make clear that God’s care does not insulate, isolate or immunize from trouble.
In verse three, “fowler’s snare…plague”: Whether man-made or natural, God protects from all dangers. A slight change in the Hebrew vowel pointing and “plagues” becomes “destructive word,” meaning slander, false accusation or plot. Some scholars so translate it. However, the thought is the same.
Verse four, “pinions, spread wings”: The wings of the cherubim above the ark of the covenant were thought to be where God was. Hence, the image is one of being taken under God’s wing for protection, like a mother bird would do with her young.
In verse five, “terror of the night…arrow…by day”: The people then liked ghost and monster stories too. Midnight and noonday were both times of danger. The “arrow” could be metaphorical for sunstroke or lightning. One was never out of danger, especially the danger of ambush. Yet, one was never out of God’s protective care.
In verse six, “pestilence…darkness…plague…noon”: this verse makes the same point as verse five, using different metaphors, ones for natural ills.
In verse seven, “a thousand fall”: The picture changes to the battlefield. Surrounded by enemies, outnumbered in strength, one is still protected.
In verse eight, “the punishment of the wicked you will see”: “Recompense” would be a better translation than “punishment.” The psalmist is not taking delight in the misfortune of the “wicked,” but certain that God will manifest his justice. That meant to an ancient that the perpetrator suffers the harm he wished or tried to inflict on the innocent victim; an example of God’s law of cause and effect.
In verse eleven, “angels to guard you in all your ways”: Whether at home or on a journey the believer is safe. Angels, representatives of God, are presented as bodyguards, escorts, guardians, ensuring safety even outside the protective area of “divine intimacy” or consciousness of God’s presence. Even when unaware of his presence, angels are assigned to protect God’s children. This idea arose late in Israel’s history. Satan misquoted it in one of Jesus’ temptations. Here, it seems like more than one angel is assigned a person. However, there is a Talmudic teaching that two ministering angels accompany a person through life and testify about his or her life at judgment. “Ways” here means comings and goings, indeed every situation of life.
In verse twelve, “foot against a stone”: God’s care is so comprehensive that it applies to a small stone on a path not allowed to cause the traveler to so much as stumble. “Stumble” was a frequently used metaphor for trouble and misfortune.
In verse thirteen, “asp…viper…lion…dragon”: Not only is one protected from accidents like stumbling but from fierce and poisonous animals. This clearly exaggerated metaphor should not be taken too literally, as some Christians do in the case of Mark 16:18. The stress is on protection from them, not on goading them into active combat.
In verses fourteen to sixteen,: Surprisingly God himself speaks! This amounts to his “Amen” to what has been asserted by the human speaker.
In verse fourteen, “whoever clings to me”: The verb, hashek, is both important and profound. It is used of one person’s love for another, Yahweh’s love for Israel, one’s devotion to God as in this verse and marital love. The “loving of God” is synonymous with “knowing his name” It points to a close relationship with God, based on loyalty and obedience. It is the language of intimacy, not law, connoting cleaving, yearning and desiring.
In verse fifteen, “all who call upon me I will answer”: One result of communion with God is the certainty that he will answer prayer, certainly prayer for deliverance from real harm.
In verse sixteen, “length of days”: Absent belief in eternal life, the length of one’s earthly life was a sure sign of divine favor and one of the best, if not the best, graces God could bestow.
When something bad happens to us or to someone we love or know, we rush to ask “Why?” We wonder where God was or why he allowed such a bad thing-sickness, accident, attack, natural or personal disaster- to happen. Psalm 91 reminds us that there are a thousand, ten thousand things that have not happened to us or our loved one, things we do not know about precisely because they did not occur, thanks to the protection of God. In its own way, this psalm thanks God- without using the word “Thanks”- for all the hidden protection he constantly provides. It’s ironic, really. How else can we thank God for things that did not happen. The word “Thanks” is for things that did happen. This wonderful psalm simply lists as many occasions and situations as limits of space will allow to extol God’s loving care, care that is there but of which we are usually unaware- at least, in its specifics.
The misuse of this psalm points out how easy it is to misunderstand God’s protection. Satan got it wrong in the temptation scene recorded in Matthew and Luke. He quoted the psalm’s promise of angelic protection to dare Jesus to jump off a cliff. Jesus corrected him by quoting another verse of Scripture. In doing so he gave us the basic principle of scriptural exegesis and hermeneutics: The best commentary on any verse of scripture is the rest of scripture. Scripture as a whole is coherent and consistent, like the God it reveals. Any verse, line or part of Scripture that does not cohere with the rest of it is simply a misinterpretation of that verse. God’s promise of protection should not be abused by testing it. Verse thirteen, for instance, has been misread by some Christian groups who play with poisonous snakes because they claim God will protect them. Many deaths later they have yet to change their misinterpretation. Needless to say, there are not many groups like that, and those which do exist are small in number. However, in Mark 16:18 there is a hint of this psalm verse and it can easily be misunderstood. God’s protection does not extend to recklessness or unnecessary risk. To deliberately place ourselves in harm’s way in order to test God is to attempt to control him. Jesus knows that trust is not a toy or charm and God is not to be toyed with.
The psalm makes an appropriate prayer for many situations as well as for no situation at all. It is a marvelous meditation that lifts one’s consciousness and spirits into a broader awareness of the “night and day” guarding God does. Paul had this psalm in mind when in Romans 8: 31-39 he begins his paean with “If God is for us who can be against us?” and ends with the conviction that no creature- heavenly, human, or less than human- “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Psalm 91 does not promise immunization from trouble, harm or woe. It does promise that God grants his protection in such a way that each trial he escorts us through leaves us stronger and more confident of his loving care. In the midst of it all we can be at peace, sensing his presence, bringing joy and enjoying how he works so mysteriously to impel us from the chaotic waters onto dry, solid and safe ground, the ground of our being, himself.
God is everywhere whether humans realize it or not.
God is always watching over us whether we realize it or even want him to.
God does not always protect us from harm, but protects us in the midst of harm, before, during and after.
Gratitude for the times we notice God’s protection translates into confidence when we do not notice it.
More bad things have not happened to us than have, thanks to God’s care.
Protection vs. Immunization: We have to take God at his word and not put words in his mouth or give them meanings he does not intend. When God promises us protection he does not mean that we will be immunized from harm, from hurt, from pain. God’s protection is not some form of spiritual drug that anesthetizes us or so alters our consciousness that we are unaware of danger or pain. That day, of course, will come, when we leave life on this planet. Until then, we remain subject to all the rules and laws of nature and susceptible to all the injustices that humans, others and ourselves, can inflict. None of them are more powerful than God. If God can indeed protect us from harm he does. However, he will not ordinarily do that at the cost of suspending either nature’s laws or the free will of others to inflict it. In those two cases God ordinarily lets bad things happen. This is not because God actually wills them. He merely tolerates them, as we should do, because he does will that everyone keep their free will, even at the expense of others. That is not to say that God has boxed himself in and is unable to work a miracle by miracle we mean here an exception to the rule. Such exceptional occurrences are matters of fact. However, we should be careful when and what we call a “miracle” when we mean such obvious exceptions to the rule that there is no other explanation for them. For instance, after a car accident- when a car is totaled and the driver walks away unharmed- people, including the driver, will claim a miracle has happened. It’s a good word, but, strictly speaking, there may be and probably is a good earthly explanation for most, if not all, of those cases. It could be the air bags, the seat belts, the exact point of impact, the road conditions, an intervening tree, etc. It may not be a miracle in the very strictest sense of the term, but it certainly is of the quality of a miracle, miraculous. Though we might never know the explanation, even in those cases God is working in his “normal” way, granting that what is “normal” for God does appear “miraculous” to us and that would include everything God does. We may not know, but God does, that he was able to work his protective will in such instances precisely because he knows all the rules of nature and did not need to suspend any on this given occasion. Because no one’s free will was involved he could intervene personally at that instant without violating one of his highest and most sacred principles, namely, to let humans decide for themselves how they will behave. Nonetheless accidents do happen. So do earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. And they do harm to humans and the environment. Both can recover, but humans sometimes do not, because they choose not to. The truth is that a lot of bad things do not happen to us because God can intervene without violating human free will or the laws of nature as he knows them, not as we only partially know them. When it involves humans being the innocent victims of human malice, either directly or indirectly, even over a long period of time, God still protects us, but then only in the midst of harm. He remains with us, like a friend who sits at our hospital bedside whose presence alone gives us strength and keeps us from panic or loneliness or despair. So, a lot of bad things do not happen to us and we may not be able to be specifically grateful to God for what we do not actually experience, but we do become confident, knowing that God is always there and there for us, with us, making sure we are comforted. We can thank God not only for what he let or caused to happen that was good, but we can also thank him for the things that did not happen or will not happen. That’s the message of this psalm. For the things we know about, be specific, and for the things we do not, be generally grateful and grow in confidence of his presence and love. There is a lot of evil in the world, but there could be a lot more. There isn’t, thanks to God. Amen.
