Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Depending on how you count them, in Psalm 91 there are nineteen firm promises to save you from terrorism. With people angry all over the world, the threat of terrorism looms over our present and future. But the final terror, says Revelation, will come from apostate Christianity in the invention and enforcement of the "mark of the beast" (13:11-17). This chapter has been "unrolling" before our very eyes.
Psalm 91 becomes very precious, but is it fair that just anyone can claim these anti-terrorism promises? One of them reads, "Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked" (vs. 8). This might not be so bad, but what we really don't want to "look and see" is the innocent also suffering the horrors that Psalm 91 describes. Surely there must be some reasonable conditions laid down in this Psalm:
(1) It's "he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High" (vs. 1) who can claim these promises. The idea of "dwell" is similar to Jesus' idea of, "if you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7).
(2) "Because you have made the Lord ... your habitation" (Psalm 91:9). Same idea; you habitually abide in the Lord, not just 10 minutes a day. As with Paul, "For to me, to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21).
(3) "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him" (Psalm 91:14). Makes sense; you have given your heart to Him--not motivated by fear in an emergency, but constant, steady abiding in Him. Yes, you have learned to love prayer and reading the Word.
(4) "He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him" (vs. 15). You're in the habit of doing just that--praying continually.
Thank God, it's not too late to start "dwelling" and "abiding."
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 21, 2003.
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