Psalm 91

Like me you probably memorized Psalm 91 soon after you memorized Psalm 23, the shepherd’s psalm. Psalm 91 is called the brooding psalm or  the hen-and-chick psalm by those of us who saw live chickens in our childhood. If you have never seen this let me explain it by inviting you to go to the web-search and typing in “clucking hen.” Here you will see pictures of hens with fluffed out feathers and small chicks hiding under the safety of the mother hen's wings.

Although Psalm 91 does not have a title to tell us who wrote it or where or when it was written we would like to know these things.  So may we imagine that it was composed in the time of Moses and Joshua and that they are the human characters in the text? Using that assumption we can go on to imagine we are watching a drama of four acts with Joshua and Moses as the characters, each having a single monologue part. God has the opening and closing parts where He is heard but not seen.

Here then is the plot of Psalm 91
Act 1.  The Precept, verse 1
Act 2. Joshua’s Declaration, verse 2
Act 3. Moses  Reply of Blessing, verses 3 - 13
Act 4. God’s Amen verses 14 - 16

Act 1
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

Act 2
I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!"

Act 3
For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.  A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, {But} it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the LORD, my refuge, {Even} the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.  For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

Act
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.

The curtain comes down after each act and the audience, meaning every reader of this Psalm and particularly us, is given a period of time to ponder what it might mean to us, not reaching for more popcorn or gum or gab, but thinking and considering what we have seen and heard.

For Considerations

Act 1.
The word dwell is much more than a visit or short stay, it infers a permanent home. The word shelter or secret means a place separate from all distractions of things or people. My secret place with God is not a display thing. Jesus said, “And when you pray enter into your closet and pray to your Father.” Here we (you and I)  must live every day to be safe.

Act 2.
Just like Joshua did I need to make a personal choice and decide to stay close to Jesus, listening to Him speak to me through reading His Word and speaking to Him in prayer.

Act 3.
Because I love God He will deliver me from snares and pestilence and destruction. Also He will cover me and be a refuge for me from all the weapons of the enemy. I need not be afraid either by day or by night from of terror or sickness  nor enemies much bigger than I am, for He will even send His angels to help me and  keep me safe. 

Act 4.
 When I stand up for God He promises to stand up for me and satisfy me. And since He is God He will keep His promise. And since I have the opportunity I can choose to live in His presence each day with all His blessings.

Matthew 6:6-13
"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees {what is done} in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.']

The Christ

THE DOCTRINE OF JESUS CHRIST
Who He is
He Is Human
He Is Divine
Two Natures   --  One Person
The God-Man

What He has done is the Good News
What He is Doing
What He will Do

He was not merely a man doing his best before God, but God doing His best for man, through the Love revealed in the sacrifice of Himself.

 . . . When Our Blessed Lord was a Babe held by Simeon, the old man had pronounced over Him these words:

This is the Light which shall give revelation To the Gentiles, This is the glory of thy people Israel. Luke 2:32

Now as a grown man walking in the full glare of these lights, He proclaimed:

 I am the Light of the World, He who follows Me can never walk in darkness; He will possess the Light which is Life. John 8:12

Here He made a universal claim such as had been prophesied by Isaias that He would be the Light of all peoples and all nations. Not everyone would follow the Light; some would prefer to walk in darkness and would therefore hate the light. He Who was standing in the temple in which the lights were gradually dimming proclaimed Himself the Light of the World. Previously, He had called Himself the Temple; now He affirmed that He is the Glory and the Light of that Temple. He was declaring Himself more necessary for the life of souls than the light of the sun is for the life of our body. It was not His doctrine, nor His law, nor His commandments, nor His teaching, that constituted this light; it was His Person.

In the midst of Our Lord's affirmation that He was the Messias, there began some of the judicial and civil measures which were later to culminate in the Crucifixion. The Pharisees sent police officers to arrest Our Lord. Before they arrived, Our Lord made another reference to His death:

For a little while I am still with you, And then I am to go back to Him Who sent Me. You will look for Me, But you will not be able to find Me; You cannot reach the place where I am. John 7:33-34

He foresaw all that would happen. Six months remained until the Passover; there was only a little time left before He would fulfill the reason of His coming. They were already planning His death, but their plans would be unsuccessful until He delivered Himself voluntarily into their hands. Then the door would be shut and the time of their visitation would have passed. The separation between them and Him would not be distance but unlikeness in mind and heart, which is the greatest of all distance.
The police who were ordered to arrest Him returned to the chief priests and Pharisees empty-handed.

The officials asked them: "Why have you not brought Him here?" The officers answered, "Nobody has ever spoken as this Man speaks." And the Pharisees answered, "Have you, too, let yourselves be deceived? Have any of the rulers come to believe in Him yet, Or of the Pharisees? As for these common folk who have no knowledge of the law,  A curse is on them." John 7:46-49

The temple officials had contempt for the people; their assumption was that no vulgar person is pious. The very fact that the policemen had an overwhelming impression made upon them and yielded themselves to His fountains of benediction was an indication of the power He had over men of good will. The vocation of a policeman was sanctified that day when these officers refused to arrest the Savior.
There would be another moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when officers would be so impressed with Our Blessed Lord that they would cast themselves prone on the ground, when He said that He was Jesus of Nazareth. On that night, they would have their way because His Hour had come. But for the present they were powerless.
The story of the Feast of Tabernacles ends with the words, "His Hour has not yet come." A particular hour existed for everything He had to do; even His birth is described as the "fullness of time." So His Cross had its appointed hour. Every orb that rolls through the immensity of space is bound to reach a certain point at its own hour. Alan's decrees and proposals often fail, but it is otherwise with the designs of the Almighty. The unity of His life was not in His scattered deeds and parables and utterances, but in Its consummation.
Bethlehem was the foundation of Calvary and His glory. The stairs mount upward from the stable, for even then "there was no room" for Him; the "contradiction" prophesied by Simeon was another step; the Feast of the Tabernacles, another. He knew every step of the way, for He was not merely a man doing his best before God, but God doing His best for man, through the Love revealed in the sacrifice of Himself.

*The Life of Christ  ISBN: 9780385132206, Author: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen