Sept. 26, 2004 (Jimmie Johnson)


Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.

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Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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Psalm 91 was one of the Devil’s favorite passages in scripture. Yes, indeed, old Scratch or Beelzebub or Satan, whatever name you prefer, had committed these verses from Psalm 91 to memory. He used them against Jesus, specifically verses 11-12. He tried to get Jesus to be a literalist, a fundamentalist. He tried to get Jesus to practice this Psalm literally, tried to use its promises to get Jesus to climb up on the pinnacle of the Temple and jump off. He was trying to use the old guardian angel strategy. Jesus refused. Jesus practiced faith in God, not superstition.

Do you remember the story? We hear it every year the first Sunday in the worship season of Lent, the temptation of Christ story. Satan says, “Jesus, you remember Psalm 91, don’t you? Why don’t you practice it literally? Jesus, jump off the top of the church bell tower, and everyone will believe you are the real deal. Guardian angels will be assigned to take care of you. Jesus, you believe this, don’t you?”

Jesus refused to practice Psalm 91 literally and its promise of maximum protection. Instead, he trusted in God’s relationship with him. To me the idea of literal maximum protection doesn’t simply border on superstition but is a corrupted form of religious faith. What is the Psalm promising us: maximum protection or minimum protection but maximum support?

Where I have come to in life is the belief that providence, which is what this Psalm is talking about—our belief in God’s care, is about minimum protection but maximum support. This Psalm claims that in the face of all that would deny God’s presence with us--danger, disease, surprise attack, violence, war, evil powers—in the face of every danger, threat or difficulty, God promises deliverance. God promises a deliverance that comes through God’s relationship with us, God’s presence with us. It is not deliverance from but deliverance through.

There is a New Testament expression of this confidence in God’s concern for us and God’s presence with us. It is in Roman’s, chapter 8:39. Paul says, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” That’s the Christian expression of Psalm 91. St. Paul looks at Christ and understands that God is really joining us in Christ and believes nothing can separate us from the love of this kind of God. Is it enough for you just to have the promise that nothing can separate you from the love of God, or do you need more?

The Risen Jesus speaks what we call the great commission in Matthew. It is what we Presbyterians call the warrant for baptism. The authority to baptize comes from Jesus’ words. Jesus promises “Remember I am with you always.” Baptism is Christian commentary on Psalm 91. It is the faith that Jesus is God with us always. I believe this is what Psalm 91 is promising us: maximum support because in Jesus God is living up to God’s name. God is with us always.

Do you know where Jesus was when he quoted the promises of the Psalm? He was on the cross! In the midst of the very experience which would deny God’s presence and love, Jesus found God’s promises to take the form of refuge and shelter. Minimum protection, maximum support--that’s a great way to define our belief in providence: not deliverance from but deliverance through.

Look, Christianity is the only world religion that professes faith in a God who suffers. Actually the idea isn’t that popular with some Christians. We prefer a God, don’t we, who prevents suffering. Only I don’t believe that is the God we have got. When Jesus prays the Psalms on the cross, we are being taught that God’s power is not the power to force human choices and end human pain. God’s power, instead, is the power to pick up the shattered pieces and make something holy and beautiful out of them. And God does this work, not from a distance but right up close.

God becomes for us Christians the God of Psalm 91, our refuge and shelter, by entering into the experience of the cross, by taking the manmade mess of the world inside God’s self and laboring with it. Think about the stunning fact of there being three days of silence before Easter! God labored with evil and never let go of it until God could return it to us as life.* This is the power of the God I believe in. This is not a power to prevent pain but the power to redeem it by going through it with us. God is our deliverer through the pain, not from the pain. Minimum protection, maximum support.** God is a refuge and a shelter because God is there with us absorbing it into God’s own suffering so that from God and our pain there is promised life.

Is God with you enough? Is the fact nothing can separate you from God’s love enough of a miracle for you? Some forms of Christianity promise you more. We don’t. To us at First Presbyterian, providence means that when the bottom has fallen out from under you, when you have crashed through all your safety nets, and when you can hear the bottom rushing up to meet you, belief in God means you cannot fall farther than God can reach.*

“He descended into Hell” says the Creed. To believe in the beliefs of Psalm 91, as long as you are not a literalist, means there is no point so low and void of hope that Christ’s love hasn’t touched. That’s the only promise we make: deliverance through, not deliverance from. Minimum protection, maximum support.

*Idea suggested from Barbara Brown Taylor
**Idea suggested from William Sloan Coffin, Jr.

 

 


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