Psalm 91: 1-10 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
As the war continues in Israel, much has been made of the success of the Iron Dome defense system which shoots down incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip. While we are very thankful for the protection this system affords, it does present a certain public relations challenge for Israel. Somehow, regardless of the differences in both size and intention between Israel and the Arab world, the global media frequently emphasizes what they call, “moral equivalency”. The perception of Israel’s military strength and technical superiority somehow makes her the aggressor with an unfair advantage.
Yet, an important “moral” difference often goes unrecognized. Israel, as a fixed policy, goes to extraordinary lengths to reduce the number of civilian casualties resulting from defensive attacks on Palestinian rocket installations. But these installations are often purposely placed in vulnerable civilian locations by Palestinian militants, intentionally placing their own citizens in mortal danger from Israeli strikes on missile targets. The media fails to report Israel’s regular policy of alerting Palestinian citizens to evacuate when an attack is imminent by dropping leaflets, making cell phone calls, and sending text messages. Why is that?
As Israeli President Shimon Peres said, “Those who preach to us morality should offer an alternative way to stop the rocket fire from Hamas.” The Palestinian religious/military culture, which celebrates death and murder in the service of God, is seen as “morally equivalent” to Israel’s self-defensive posture which does everything possible to protect life. Might it be that Israel’s persistent efforts to protect the lives of both its own citizens and those of its enemy at least in part, underlies the differences in the number of casualties on both sides? An enemy which promotes itself as a victim and capitalizes on the death of its people is certain to draw the sympathy of those who are just looking at the numbers of dead and wounded. But is this “moral equivalency”?
Psalm 91 powerfully expresses YHWH’s protection of His people who choose to dwell in His shelter. People who love and protect life as part of their faith tradition have certain promises in these words. We are not saying that Israel is a totally righteous nation which never does anything wrong toward the Palestinians. Yet we do believe that part of our divine protection derives from the commitment to value and protect human life. This psalm describes the extent of that protection.
It is a protection promised all the more to those who truly walk by faith in the righteousness of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). “A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked.”
Abide in the secret place of the Most High – rest there. He is your refuge and your fortress, and walking in His righteousness will be your own “Iron Dome”, but better. Now, at this season for thankfulness we can all express our gratitude to Him for both—the temporal, and the eternal safety He has provided us.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]We tend to focus on the part of that scripture where God does the blessing — but why did He bless Him? The answer lies in the passage! The Lord told Abraham: “I will bless you — and you shall be a blessing.” Abraham was blessed so that he could be a blessing!
In the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Yeshua prophesied that “… nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” The word “nation” in Greek is the word “ethnos”, from which we get the English word “ethnic”. All of this polarization and ethnic warfare which the media feed upon and incite is the work of the enemy as he stirs up the sinful nature of men.
Several hundred years before Jesus was born, a plague broke out in Athens, Greece. In an effort to stop the plague and appease the ‘gods’, the Athenians sought counsel from a wise man named Epimenides from the island of Crete.
A new driver for an interstate trucking company was having a difficult time. He found the long cross-country trips extremely tiring. The older driver who traveled with him, however, seemed to thrive on those long trips. He always seemed to look as fresh at the end of the ride as he did at the beginning.
There’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love, however if we want to experience His blessings we need to observe the qualifications that He’s given us in His Word. Psalm 112 details a whole list of blessings, but the key to receiving them is verse 1.
Looking at the relationship between “love and affection” (“chiba” in Hebrew) and “obligation” (“chova” in Hebrew), we find another closely related word, “chaver”, one of the Hebrew words for “friend”. Friends are people with whom we share love and affection and also a sense of obligation. Our God and Father wants us to be His friends, to share love and affection with Him and to carry the sense of responsibility and obligation which friendship requires.
We are called to be servants, are we not? Well, what does a servant do? He (or she) carries out the will of his master. A servant doesn’t tell his master what to do — he performs whatever tasks the master requests of him. A servant doesn’t choose what days or times it’s most convenient to serve his master. A servant’s function is simply to follow and obey his master’s instructions. A servant does not develop a vision for the master either. The master is the one with the vision — and he wants his servants to be ready and available to carry out that vision and bring it to fruition.