In the Lord's Shadow

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!’ . . . Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation.”

Psalm 91.1-2, 14-16

Sometimes, we try to make Scripture say something not intended by the text, and at other times, we miss what the text is saying altogether. Seemingly, this passage out of Psalm 91 indicates God’s care is so complete, nothing bad will ever happen to the believer. Is that, in fact, what the psalmist declared?

The psalm begins with the psalmist’s affirmation of trust, and closes with the Lord’s promise to deliver. First, let’s look at what the psalmist said. He spoke of dwelling “in the shelter of the Most High,” and abiding “in the shadow of the Almighty. Now, both of these words, dwell and abide, mean to take up residence. As long as we consciously live with the protective care of the Lord, we will be living within his shadow.

Living in God’s shadow can mean two things, both equally true. First, to live within the Lord’s shadow means we are protected from the heat of the heat of the sun. The psalmist meant that in a symbolical way. Heat quite clearly is the oppressive things of life capable of draining away all our energy and strength. To live within God’s shadow, then, is to have one’s strength renewed daily.

The second implication of dwelling within God’s shadow is closeness or intimacy. How can one be distant from God and be in his shadow. So, if we are within the Lord’s shadow, we are close to him and sharing an intimate relationship with him. To be intimate with God requires us to be faithful and holy. We cannot go our own reckless way or trust in ourselves or some other source of comfort while at the same time being close to God.

Now, for followers of Jesus, we understand we are never outside of God’s protective care. A problem develops when we consciously choose to ignore God. We doubt the Lord, or ignore his leadership and, as a result, suffer the consequences of our foolish choices. Even then, he does not desert us; he is always faithful.

The psalmist also declared he would say to the Lord, “my refuge and my fortress, My god, in whom I trust.” Here again, the writer of the psalm underscores the choice each of us can make: we can choose to trust in the Lord. God does not force us to trust him, but, by His Gentle Spirit, he woos us and draws us to himself. He allows us to fail so we might see how limited our own knowledge is. Failure is sometimes the best classroom for learning trust.

Dwelling in the shelter and shadow of the Lord is the context for understanding the Lord’s care. All of the triumphs and victories and the strength and confidence one gains through the Lord is predicated upon dwelling and abiding. Apart from dwelling and abiding in the shelter and shadow of the Lord, no triumphs and victories are experienced, and strength and confidence are replace with fear and weakness.

Now, what happens when we fail? How are we to understand our experience of unexpected events so filled with pain and hurt we think we will never recover? Let’s put things into perspective. First, our failures. We fail because we choose to go our own way. When we disobey God, we will suffer the consequences. Even then, the Lord does not desert us. Remember the words of Paul: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” All things include our mistakes as well as our successes. So, even when we fail to trust in the Lord, he still delivers us.

Second, what about all those things in life we would rather not have to go through. These things are known as tests and trials. Paul helps us again: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” Whatever we experience is what others have gone through as well.

How do we go through these commonly shared situations? We remember the faithfulness of God. First of all, as difficult and as distasteful as an experience might be, God never allows us to face something too great for us to bear or beyond our strength. Since our strength comes from the Lord through his Holy Spirit, nothing is too much for us to bear. We must also remember God provides the way through the test. Escape is not a good translation of the word Paul used; “way through” is much closer to the meaning of the Greek word. How can we endure something if we escape? Endure means to steadfastly endure. We have the strength we need by the Spirit so we will be able to endure anything life throws at us.

Let’s go back to Psalm 91. In verse 14, the psalmist declared, “"Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.” Because of our love for the Lord, and because we know his name, the will deliver us and set us securely on high. When does the Lord deliver us? When we need to be delivered. The psalmist was saying God delivers us in our time of distress and need; Paul said the Lord rescues us by giving us the strength to go through our trial and endure.

What we fail to remember sometimes is God is never taken by surprise by what happens to us. He is never so busy elsewhere he is unable to be with us in our time of greatest need. He is with us in our present, with us throughout our journey, and already at the end of any difficult circumstance we might face. He will, as the psalmist declared, always ready to rescue and honor us. He is able to do so because he is always with us.

Will bad things happen in our lives? Yes they will. Can these terrible events overcome us? No they cannot. God has a plan for each of us and will see the plan through to its conclusion. He will sustain us in or battles and give us the victory; he will rescue us in times of danger and honor us with his love; he will give us life, and give it abundantly. He will never fail us.

Happiness Is

I was watching Fox News one morning and listened to the reporter tell of Aarhus, Denmark, the happiest city in the world. Denmark is considered the happiest country in the world. When I googled happiest city in the world, other places showed up as #1, including Rio de Janerio (rated #1 by Forbes magazine).

From what I can find, Aarhus’ rating of #1 was made by National Geographic. NG based its rating on the studies of Dan Buettner, a contributor to National Geographic and author of Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way. In his book, Buettner presents the findings of his examination into one of the crucial factors in human longevity, happiness, and what makes people happy.

Here are some quotes from the NG online article “Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth,” by Ford Cochran, an interview with Buettner. “Worldwide, happiness equates very strongly with equality–mostly status equality, but the countries that have a very short ladder between the richest and the poorest people are a lot happier than those where a few people make a lot of money and a few people don't make much money. . . We know that trust is hugely correlated with happiness, places where people are trustworthy and you can trust the government, low corruption. Also tolerance. . . We know worldwide that religious people are happier than non-religious people.”

Blogger Nicholas Kontis noted the following on the website Tripatini. “The Danes indeed have richness in life. You don't have to lock your doors. Free health care, good schools, diverse places of worship, bars, cafes, social clubs, forests, and never far from the sea. Transportation mostly by bike. And very few lawyers. as business is settled with a handshake. And your word holds valid in this city of 300,000 people.”

Several things come to mind in considering the “happiest place on earth.” First of all, places are not happy and cannot make a person truly happy. No one, by moving to Aarhus or Rio, will be transformed magically from a sad, frustrated person to a happy, fulfilled individual. Happiness doesn’t work that way.

I read once about a pastor who asked all prospective brides and grooms if they could be happy if they were unable to marry their prospective mate. Those who said they could not be were advised to think seriously about getting married. You see, we cannot expect someone else (or somewhere else, for that matter) to be responsible for our personal happiness. We first must find happiness within ourselves. Only then will we be able to add to someone else’s well-being.

In Hebrew and Greek, two of the words typically translated blessed in the OT and the NT actually mean “to be happy or content.” Almost always, these words are found in contexts in which the contentment one experiences is a result of obeying God in some manner. I will paraphrase Psalm 1.1: “Content is the man who refuses to make his decisions and live his life according to the beliefs of cynical, unbelieving secularists. He instead finds his greatest pleasure in meditating on the Law of the Lord.” People are happy only by being in a proper relationship with God.

Further, I wonder how many people in places like Aarhus, Denmark, would be as happy if they suddenly lost all their creature comforts. Things can no more make one happy than a place can. We might find physical and emotional comfort in things, but we cannot find true contentment. Why? Consider what Paul told the Corinthians. “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our physical body is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the tings which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not see are eternal.”

Even physical health and well-being are not the source of true contentment. Our physical body and our physical creature comforts are all temporary. They will wear out, sooner or later. What God gives, though, cannot be taken away. The salvation we enjoy is ours through grace and is rooted in the timelessness of God himself. We cannot and should not ask God for anything more. Being his child is enough. Whatever he chooses for us is sufficient.

Actually, the happiest place on earth should be the church. The congregation of believers should be overflowing with gladness and joy. We should described today as the disciples were described in Acts 15.32: “And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

How happy are you?