You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, 6 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. . . . —Psalm 91:5-10
We now find that the message of Psalm 91 moves from spiritual purity to personal protection (which, obviously, can be spiritual in nature, too). It’s not hard to agree with the scholars that Moses is the likely author of this psalm, because the background could be understood as the death of the firstborn in Egypt for all who didn’t apply the blood of an unblemished lamb to the doorposts at the Passover. The people would also be reminded of the thousands of Egyptian soldiers lying dead on the shores of the Red Sea during the Exodus. In both instances, Israel saw the awful reward of the wicked, unlike that of those who had obeyed the Lord and were covered by the blood, making God their refuge and dwelling place.
Our Lord’s protection is still active today, although many who don’t “follow closely” to Him may doubt this when they look around. Charles Spurgeon tells of a time when London was experiencing a great cholera outbreak. He described his experiences of walking from one funeral to another of friends and loved ones, and in between, his time was spent visiting the sick and the dying. Fear for his own health and that of his family was becoming an overwhelming burden to him. One day, between two funerals, as he walked down a road in Dover, he saw a sign in a cobbler’s shop that read, “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” (our verses 9-10 above). From that moment on, Spurgeon said that he ministered without fear, knowing that his life was in the Lord’s hands. How could he do so? Because he had made the Lord Most High his own dwelling place! And just like the tenth plague in Egypt, the evil did not come near him.
In days such as the ones in which we live, the plagues of ISIS and immorality are all around us. This should only serve as further cause to draw nearer to God, for the truth is that: The closer we get to Him, the more obvious He becomes to others. Think about it. When the death angel passed over the house of all who had applied the blood to the doorposts, what happened? Pharaoh let the people go. Why? Was it the Israelites whom he feared? No, it was the Lord God Almighty! When the army of the Egyptians lay dead on the banks of the Red Sea, who was exalted? The Lord of heaven and earth! When Spurgeon ministered fearlessly in the midst of the cholera plague, was he the reason for being spared? Of course not! God gets the glory when He does what He does, and shame on us if we try to steal any of it for ourselves.
We need to draw ever nearer to Him and ask Him to help us to truly shine His light into this decaying, dark world. And one glorious day, we will be so close to Him that we will no longer “see in mirror, dimly, but then face to face . . . then [we] shall know [Him] just as [we] are also known.” Let us reflect His light in this old world.
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