Psalm 91:1-2 - September 12, 2009

Ps 91:1-2 "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." NIV

Are you at rest in God today!? Psalm 91:1-2 is rich with the promise of inner rest. The writer of this psalm invites us to ponder the man who dwells in the shelter of God Most High. To dwell with God is to enter a place of rest. To find shelter in Him is to know the shadow of His presence. There is a place of rest where the soul finds true peace and where our heart’s cry is satisfied by the experience of God’s presence. Psalm 91:1-2 calls us to center our lives in the midst of God’s presence, living with a constancy before Him in much the same way that Jesus called us in the book of John abide in Him and to let His word abide in us.
When we have first learned to abide our hearts are lifted up into a place of confident trust in God. To encounter God in His intimate presence is to establish the heart in a place of security. For many people daily life is filled with anxieties and cares that tear at the very fabric of our souls. For many people the thought of living with a heart that feels consistent peace and safety is a very foreign concept, no more familiar than the food to be eaten in a different country where we have never traveled. Psalm 91:1-2 contrasts this condition with an offer of refuge. Every passage of scripture, every description of the life that is available to those who will follow after the living God must be considered an invitation to more! If a principle or promise is present in the scriptures then it is available to us and we must seek to pursue the experience of it in our lives.
Psalm 91:1-2 is a powerful confession of faith that invites the heart to find its hiding place in God. The apostle Paul speaks of such a place as he confesses, “My life is hidden with Christ, in God!” When our hearts know this place of abiding, this place of refuge, when we have tasted of the peace that comes from the presence of God our confession is changed. To experience God is to receive a precious gift; the gift called hope. If we have tasted of God’s presence even one time, the heart is awakened to the possibility of renewed encounter. Psalm 34:8 invites us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” The psalmist can confidently make this offer because he knows that one taste will awaken a longing for more. From that moment on the focus of our lives begins to change. The goals that we are reaching for are forever shaped by the knowledge of the experience of God’s presence. When a heart has been awakened by this reality the cares of this life begin to diminish in our hearts and eternal longings are awakened and when a life is spent in pursuit of the eternal the worries and cares of this life lose their power over us. When we have learned to abide in God our hearts find the surest form of rest!