The First Sunday of Lent

Church of the Good Shepherd

The Rev. Ross M. Wright

      If you want to know what it means to trust in God’s providence, if you want to know what can make a person truly fearless in the face of danger, then I can think of few things more valuable than learning to praise God according to psalm 91. This psalm is for anyone who is anxious, anyone who is under siege and needs protection. What is the one area of your life where you feel vulnerable? What keeps you awake at night or gives you bad dreams? Can God be trusted there, precisely in that situation? Can you trust God to shelter you where you are vulnerable? That is the question which psalm 91 puts before us. 

      He who dwells in the shelter of the most High,

      abides in the shadow of the Almighty.

      He shall say to the Lord,

      “You are my refuge and my stronghold,

      my God in whom I put my trust.” 

      What does it mean that God is our shelter or refuge? A pilgrim who has walked all day in the heat comes exhausted to the end of the day and sees a shelter – welcome sight! There is water, food, and a chance to rest his weary feet. A group of hikers is suddenly caught in a fierce summer storm. Up ahead, the see a cleft in the rock – a place to get out of the rain. God brings concrete protection right where we feel vulnerable. 

      But if God is our refuge, then Christianity is a form of escape, right? The church is a safe harbor for people who can’t make it out in life’s stormy seas, right? A way station where we can rest for a while and regain our strength – right? Well, no. In fact, it is precisely the people who dwell “under the shadow of the almighty” who are truly fearless. They do not depend on the things we normally count on for protection, because they have found that God can be trusted. 

      St. Paul was such a person. So were Jim and Elizabeth Elliott, missionaries to the Quicha Indians in the early 1960s. In her book, The Shadow of the Almighty, she describes the experience of living in constant danger and yet also with the palpable sense of God’s protection. They went with full knowledge that it was a risky venture. There were reports of violent attacks. Many considered it a reckless venture and said that it was bound to end in tragedy, as it did. After initial contacts, which looked promising, Jim Elliott and several of his colleagues were brutally killed. The affair was widely publicized and was spread across the pages of Life Magazine. What was less publicized is that Elizabeth Elliott remained in South America to continue the work – with her young daughter. Over time, they arranged for translation of the New Testament into the native language and continued to bear witness to the Quicha. 

      Pope John Paul was such a person. His motto was, “Do not fear.” On his first visit to Poland in the early 1980s, he brought this message to people living under a repressive regime. Christian believers heard the message, including an electrician, Lech Walensa, and the Solidarity movement was born. And during the last years of John Paul’s life, one of the things which really got people’s attention was his willingness to grow old in full view of the public, to allow people to see him gradually loose his physical powers. He was not afraid. 

      Psalm 91 points to the mysterious presence of God. You suddenly become conscious of a shadow – somebody behind you. You feel someone’s eyes on you. These experiences suggest what it means that we live in “the shadow of the almighty.” The psalm points to the comprehensiveness of the divine presence – he protects us at each moment of the day and night. We need not fear the terror by night, arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in darkness, or the sickness at midday. 

      Most of the psalms were written to be sung. Singing praise to God is a powerful antidote to fear. As we sing, we are reminded of God’s providential care. There is Luther’s great hymn, “A mighty fortress is our God.” There is “Now thank we all our God,” often sung at Thanksgiving: “Who from our mothers’ arms, has guided us on our way.” Did you know that [DK] composed this hymn during a plague which took the lives of many of his parishioners, including members of his own family. There is the more recent setting of the canticle from Morning Prayer, “Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in him and not be afraid. For the Lord has become my sure defense, and he will be my savior.” 

      The psalms, like all of Holy Scripture, is a powerful weapon against the attacks of the devil. We are engaged in spiritual warfare. We need spiritual weapons for a spiritual battle. We can quote invoke Scripture against the devil, against “the powers and principalities of evil” (Eph. 6). 

      Of course, Satan can quote Scripture, too. I’m sure you noticed from our gospel reading that he quoted vv. 10-11 of psalm 91 in order to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.¹ This morning, we reclaim this text from Satan and offer it to God again for our edification. This psalm is also misused when it is used as an amulet, as if it were an automatic protection against danger. Parts of psalm 91 have been worn on the body by soldiers going into battle. 

      However, I suspect that this is not our temptation. Rather, we are tempted to doubt in God’s providential care. We hear this psalm and think: Life is not like that. Wicked people commit violent acts and get away with it. We pray for God’s protection, and sometimes it seems that he doesn’t come through for us. Psalm 91 is one of the texts appointed to be read in the Prayer Book service for healing and laying on of hands. I have often read this psalm by the bedside of someone who is facing surgery. Our family read this psalm right before my father went into surgery – and he died. All human life is under the law of death. The death rate is 100 per cent. We may become bitter when we are disappointed like that. For this, I have no easy solution. Like you, I have at times experienced profound disappointment with God. This is the risk of trusting him. 

      God never promises to insulate us from danger. He promises that suffering and death will never separate us “from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8). Although it may seem that God has abandoned us for a while, he will not let us be overcome by evil. 

      John Calvin is helpful here. I leave you with his witness to the providential care of Christ, our King:

Thus it is that we may patiently pas through this life with its misery, hunger, cold, contempt, reproaches, and other troubles – content with this one thing: that our King will never leave us destitute, but will provide for our needs until, our warfare ended, we are called to triumph.² 

 

¹ Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you re the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”  (Luke 4:10-11)

² Institutes, II.15, 499.