Tuesday Reflection July 20, 2021

God Delivers Those Who Love Him.

I have always loved Psalm 91. It was one of my grandmother’s favorite Psalms. The first verse was her response to many of the disturbing situations she faced in life. It was her assurance that everything would be ok. The rest of the Psalm, including today’s Watchword, flows from that assuring first verse. It gives us the stability we need when the road becomes rocky. It gives us staying power and strong faith when we are challenged by the many choices and voices on our life’s journey. The Lord says, “Those who love me, I will deliver.” Psalm 91: 14

This is not a statement that sits by itself, but is stated about a specific group engaged in a pointed activity. The Psalmist, traditionally believed to be Moses, begins the Psalm with the premise: He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. This is the group to which the watchword applies. When we take God as our keeper, we will be specially blessed, specially favored, by God. Nothing that comes at us will be able to destroy us physically or spiritually as long as God is our keeper. David would later reflect this Psalm in Psalm 27 as he made affirming statements and asked the questions: The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? When God is our dwelling place, our rock in the weary land, our shelter in stormy times, what do we ever need to fear? God delivers those who love Him.

There’s a chorus that says ‘Jesus is my deliverer. I know, he delivers me.’ It is saying two things about the singer. Firstly that there was a moment when he or she was in trouble, was in need of deliverance and secondly, that he or she was delivered by Jesus. All of us as Christians can attest to that, we were, at some point in our lives, in need of deliverance. In faith we called out to God and we were rescued. It is noteworthy that in the watchword, it is not the voice of the Psalmist that declares God’s intent to deliver, it is a declaration by God. God promises to deliver those who love Him. This deliverance is also twofold. God delivers the living from the troubles we meet in life and God delivers the dying from this troublous life. For Matthew Henry, we find strong support for this promise in the experiences of David and Paul. In Psalm 34: 19 David declared: Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. In sharing his experiences with Timothy in 2 Tim 3: 11, Paul told him that he faced many persecutions and sufferings at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. ‘Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them’, he concludes. Such experience gave Paul the certainty of his statement to the young Bishop in 2 Tim 4: 18. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. What a joy to know that the God we serve will deliver us from the troubles of this life and establish us in His eternal kingdom. All that is required of us is that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and that we reflect this love in the way we love those around us. Whatever you are facing or will face, always remember, God will deliver those who love Him. Amen