Thoughts on Psalm 91

During the quarantine, our church has been doing a study of Psalm 91 and I decided to do a calligraphic meditation on it.  So for a couple of weeks, I would take one verse and write it out to try to create a cohesive block of work on the theme of that passage.  Writing it this way, slowly and carefully, made me ponder it in ways I haven’t before.  I tend to read quickly and when doing this particular writing style, I had to slow down and really meditate on what I was writing.

While I was doing that, two women from our church have been writing thoughtful, daily devotionals about their meditations of each verse.  If you're interested in it, you can find it at this link:  http://lakeeffect.church/91-for-91/. 

I have known people who claim this psalm for themselves as a good luck charm…that if they recite it enough and believe hard enough that nothing bad will happen to them.  That is not what the scriptures promise.

Rebecca Sytsema, author and co-pastor of Lake Effect Church in Grand Rapids, is one of the devotional writers for this Psalm.  In today’s meditation, she wrote:

          Because Psalm 91 is not a guarantee that we will not face difficult times, nor that we will be                    spared from death.  If that were the case, we would have millennia-old relatives running around!              But, Psalm 91 is written about a God who has a jealous, fervent, militant love for His
          children.  It is written about a God who is not impotent, weak, or unwilling to move on our behalf.

She would know.  Her eldest son is low functioning autistic.  He’s non-verbal, functions at a toddler level and is built like a linebacker.  He also had COVID-19 last week and had to be hospitalized which is a situation he does not understand and fights.  Was it easy?  No.  Was there a miracle of God’s rescue.  Yes.  Did it involve medical attention from a fabulous staff?  You betcha.  This miracle of Nick’s quick turn around (he was out of the hospital in 48 hours) involved a good amount of struggle, effort and incredible determination on Becky’s part (who, by the way, is half of Nick’s size).  And prayer.  Lots and lots of prayer from hundreds of people worldwide.

Psalm 91 isn’t a good luck charm.  It’s not about getting the results we want.  I encourage you to do a deeper reading of it.  One of the themes is God’s aid in helping us overcome and about His presence in our times of trouble.  It's about His love.

I leave you with the last passage I illumined.  Blessings on you in this time of quarantine.