Reflections
Psalm 91: 1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15 (Read)
This Sunday's Psalm is about God’s
protection of the faithful. It applies to us
who place ourselves under His protection
along the path of life. The psalmist
addresses us, “You who dwell in the shelter
of the Most High, say to the Lord, 'My refuge
and fortress.'”
As mentioned in Sunday’s first reading, the
Israelites were in great distress under the
oppression of the Egyptians. What the Lord
did for them, He is prepared to do for us,
“The Lord heard our cry and saw our
affliction.” (Deuteronomy 26:7)
In today's Gospel even the devil respects
the power of God and His commitment to our
security, when he quotes this verse of the Psalm,
“For God commands the angels to guard you in
all your ways.” (Luke 4:10)
And how do we obtain this level of protection
amidst the snares along the way and the terror
of the night? We call upon the Lord, and we trust
in Him to deliver us, “Whoever clings to me I will
deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high.”
St Paul proclaims a similar message in Sunday's
second reading, “Everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
The psalmist agrees and quotes the Lord,
“All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with
him in distress; I will deliver and give him honor.”
What could be more reassuring than that?
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our psalmist speaks about God's angels guarding us in all our ways.
Give an example of how you have been borne up upon the wings of angels
and given power physically or spiritually to trample down the devil and his minions.
2. In the Psalm God says that if we cling to Him, He will deliver us and set us on high. Tell of what it means to you to 'cling' to the Lord, and having done so, how have you been made free from evil that threatens you.
Psalm 91 has given me strength, in times of fearing for my safety and that of my family. And I do mean this in the physical and spiritual sense. I first encountered these empowering words just after 9/11, when my husband was still an active-duty member of the US Army Medical Corps. We were stationed in Hawaii and in the weeks that followed the horrific attack, under-the-radar deployments to Afghanistan were swiftly underway, even for medical doctors. I prayed the words of Psalm 91 daily... "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress; my God in whom I trust.' For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence." I remember feeling the peace of the Spirit wash over me and providing me with the courage to face each day in faith.
ReplyDeleteIn more recent years, I have called upon these same words when praying for a friend with advanced cancer. Or, I have referred others to this passage, when they were in search of Biblical assurances of protection from the Lord.
Today, I rely on the Psalm for protection against temptations and vices that appear and reappear too frequently in the lives of my dearest family members. Whether it's the allure of gambling, drug use or tendencies toward self-hatred and depression, I cast them out in the Name of Jesus. I claim for my own, the verse that reads, "...no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways..." (excerpted from v.10-11).
Every word of this Psalm is powerful and useful in spiritual warfare, in order to trample down the enemy. The angel imagery is also helpful in rescuing my mind from a place of fear and delivering me to a place of trust in the Lord.
This week's Blogpost on Psalm 91 was so comforting, reading about God's protection for the faithful.
ReplyDelete"Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high"... We look to our heavenly Father for protection and spiritual nourishment, just as a child depends on his parents
for nourishment and protection. "You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, say to the Lord, 'My refuge and fortress'.." These words are so comforting and I had an experience when I was 28 yrs
old when God protected me and took me under His loving protection: My car was hit from behind by an intoxicated driver in a truck, I was pushed over the center line into a car head-on! The impact
threw my body from the driver's seat over to the passenger side, and I hit so very hard that the right side of my head broke out the passenger window and the glass shattered all over. Our brain as we know
floats in fluid and head injuries are an immediate cause of death, my car was totaled, yet God protected me from death, I was in His watchful and loving care and survived this awful ordeal. I had
120 stitches in the right side of my face and neck. As the Lord would have it, a plastic surgeon was called and available immediately...Praise God! (Since that fateful day, the Lord reminds me to
always wear a seatbelt!) 🙂🙏
We hear of people dying in a car accident where there's no damage to the car and they hit their head a certain way, our brain floats in fluid after all....
I just had to share my faithfulness in God for sparing my life that evening when I was 28 years old... praise God!!
In God we trust..