Reflection on Psalm 91

Last night I got a call from my cousin. He had bad news: his brother had passed away. My cousin's mother -- my aunt -- has now buried a husband and a son in the last two years.

Note: my now-deceased cousin was actually living on borrowed time. About a fifteen years ago he developed rheumatic fever, which damaged his heart. He ended up having a heart transplant, which at that time -- 12 or so years ago -- was not as common as it is now. He had been living with that new heart for all this time. His death was not directly due to the transplanted heart "just giving out" ... but years of anti-rejection drugs takes its toll.

Anyway, I got to re-reading Psalm 91 I posted here. And it occurred to me that it's a good example of how the Bible is not to be viewed as strictly literal in every passage and ever context. Take a look at the Psalm. It speaks of things like God having wings and feathers, being a fortress and a refuge. Clearly God is not a bird, or a stone edifice. The language is clearly metaphorical.

But here's my real point -- the Psalm sits dull and listless if one tries to read it like that. But when one allows the Psalm to speak of the beauty and majesty of God, and the comfort and solace one may find in God, the Psalm comes off the page and the Spirit of the Lord starts to work in my heart.

It saddens me that some would shackle the Word of God by treating it as a lifeless, wooden set of rules and prohibitions. It saddens me because people who do so are missing something important. Scripture is not just words on paper, but words that can lead to further insights offered by the Holy Spirit. It's like Scripture is the fertilizer that prepares the ground for the Spirit's seeds of understanding ... if I may craft a poor simile.

I love the ending:

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."

The Psalmist is quoting God ... and it touches my heart how gentle God appears in this passage.

That's the God that sits with K as she cries.