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]Some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States are real estate developers. They make their money by buying a piece of property that is terribly run down, seemingly useless, without any value to the naked eye and reforming it completely, making it look brand new! These businessmen are not as much interested in what is on the property as they are interested in the land it’s on!
A sailor who was shipwrecked on a desert island was captured by some of the natives of that island. They carried him off on their shoulders to their village, where he was sure he would end up being the main course. But instead, they put a crown on his head and made him king. He was enjoying all the attention he was receiving but was growing a little suspicious. He started making inquiries and discovered that their custom was to crown a stranger king for a year and at the end of that year the crowned king would be sent to a deserted island where he was allowed to starve to death.
With war drums beating even more intensely in Iran and Syria, we’ve received numerous phone calls and emails expressing their concerns — and understandably so! Nevertheless, even in this climate of anxiety, we are preparing to enter into Shabbat (the Hebrew word for Sabbath) this afternoon. And as we do, we are remembering again, the deep lesson of God’s entering into His rest following the six creation days.
This is one of my favorite promises in the Bible — that God turns mourning into dancing! He takes away the anguish of being clothed in sadness and replaces it with gladness. However, notice what God doesn’t do — simply stop your mourning and make it disappear. No, He transforms it…into joy!
As we discussed last week, the word for “sign” in ancient Hebrew is “oht”. It was used in Genesis to designate God’s covenant sign with Noah, (the rainbow). And we see now the same word again, in Exodus, identified with the deliverance of the Jewish people from the tenth plague, when the angel of death passed through all Egypt to strike the firstborn. Anyone under the “sign” of the blood was spared.
Yesterday we wrote about one of the greatest moves of God … the Moravian Revival. When the community was in complete disarray, Count Zinzendorf focused on how they could live together in love despite their differences. He called all the men together for an intense study of the Scriptures to focus on how Christian life in community was portrayed. These studies combined with intense prayer convinced many of the believers that they were called to live together in love and that their disunity and conflict were contrary to the clear calling of Scripture.
In the late 1800s, an awakening in South Africa led by Andrew Murray was a powerful move of God. Studying that revival yields essential insights concerning the events occurring now throughout the United States. As the spirit of God began to move in Cape Town, Murray compared the SA revival with past experiences of revivals in Europe. He decided that the intense “emotionalism” was a false experience of God and charged in to break up the meeting. Stepping out of the church, he encountered his father standing and weeping. His father rebuked Andrew, “How dare you stop something that I have prayed to happen for 30 years!”