Sermon
Psalms 91:1-16
On Eagles’ Wings
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Psalms 91:1-16
On Eagles’ Wings
Our Lenten journey began on Ash Wednesday, just ten days ago. It’ll continue all the way up to Easter Sunday, which, this year, is April 4. The Lenten journey gives us a chance to walk in the footsteps of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem and experience for ourselves the power of his presence and the peace and reconciliation of his Spirit.
To strengthen us our journey, I’ve chosen the psalm reading from the lectionary, rather than the gospel. The psalms are often called the songs of Israel because they speak so poignantly of God’s providence; and so, my hope is that, just as God watched over the people of Israel so long ago, we’ll be reminded of how God is watching over us today, providing all we need for a full and abundant life of faith.
A few years ago, Michael Joncas paraphrased Psalm 91 and set it to music, and, if you will, I’d like to use his paraphrase as the outline of the sermon this morning. It begins like this:
“You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord,
Who abide in His shadow for life,
Say to the Lord, ‘My Refuge,
My Rock in Whom I trust.”
It’s a solemn promise: God will watch over us and protect us. In a word, that’s both good news and bad news. The good news is,
“You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord …
will say to the Lord …
‘My rock, in whom I trust.'”
The bad news is,
“You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord …
will say to the Lord …
‘My rock, in whom I trust.'”
Do you hear what I’m saying? The psalm is addressed to the faithful, not the ungodly. Though God’s providence and protection is available to all, only those who choose to dwell in the shelter of the Lord will experience the fullness of God’s grace and love.
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I ran across a minister friend one day on his way home from a funeral. The woman who had died was one of his oldest and most beloved members. He said, “She was a saint and a pillar of the church.” Turns out she was a woman of modest wealth who had supported the church faithfully over the years. He said when he visited the woman’s daughter – her only heir – she was curt. She told him in no uncertain terms, “My mother was a generous and giving person; you needn’t expect the same from me.”
There are a lot of people like this in the world today, people who are egotistical and self-serving. They’re not necessarily bad people, they just live for themselves.
Ed White of the Alban Institute calls them, functional atheists. While they don’t deny the existence of God, they live as if God didn’t exist. They live by the mores of society. They participate in the life of the community. They vote and pay taxes. For all intents and purposes, they’re good citizens. They just don’t rely on God. For them, God is a concept, rather than a reality. I like to call them the happy heathens.
And I’m not here to put them down, only to say that this psalm is not for them. God’s love is Good News only as you trust God and rely on God as your strength. As long as you’re determined to call the shots and live life on your terms, you’ll never fully appreciate the abundance of God’s grace and love. The song continues:
The snare of the fowler will never capture you,
And famine will bring you no fear;
Under His Wings your refuge,
His faithfulness your shield.
Do you know what a fowler is? A fowler is one who hunts birds and, before we had shotguns, the way to hunt birds was to trap them in a net. One translation of this passage reads, “He will take you out of the bird net.” (Basic Bible in English)
Well, in case you haven’t noticed, the world we live in is full of traps. Just read some of the junk mail you get every day or listen to the promotions on television: “Consolidate your credit into one small monthly payment … buy all the furniture you want with no money down … shed those extra pounds with this new miracle pill … hair loss restored overnight. ”
Before I got an effective spam blocker, I used to get email periodically from people in India or Bangladesh or some distant part of the world saying I’d won a big lottery or that I’m about to inherit millions of dollars. Have you ever gotten one of these? Here’s one I saved from a few years ago:
“My Name is Mr. Abdul Raham. I am 53 years old. I was born an orphan in 1952.
I have no father or mother or any other relatives. I am a dealer in gold, diamonds and tantalite. Two years ago, my wife died of breast cancer. Now I am seriously sick and have one about a year to live.”
The letter goes on to say Mr. Raham has twenty-two million dollars in the bank he’d like me to take care … in a benevolent sort of way, of course. All I have to do is send him my personal information, and the money will be forthcoming. Yeah, right.
The world we live in is full of traps. Most are a lot more subtle than this, but no less lethal. Whether it’s your money, your health, or your good name, somebody is always lurking in the shadows looking for an opportunity to take advantage of you. What are you going to do?
The psalmist answers this question in two simple words: Trust God. Look for the Spirit of God to lead you and guide you and give you the wisdom to discern the truth and expose the lies and lures and temptations of the world around you.
There are plenty of honest people in the world, and when your faith is anchored in a close, personal relationship with God, it’s easier to recognize those people and distinguish them from those who would do you in. God promises not to let the snare of the fowler capture you. The song goes on to say,
You need not fear the terror of the night,
Nor the arrow that flies by day,
Though thousands fall about you,
Near you it shall not come.
One of the great themes of the Bible is, “Fear not … do not be afraid.”
• This is what God told Abraham when he went down into the land of Canaan. (Genesis 15:1)
• It’s what Moses told the people of Israel who lived in fear of the mighty Pharaoh. (Exodus 14:13)
• It’s what God told the prophets who were scorned for their willingness to proclaim God’s Word. (Isaiah 41:10)
• It’s what the angel Gabriel said to Mary when he told her she would bear God’s son into the world. (Luke 1:30)
• It’s what Jesus told his disciples when they were caught in a storm out on the Sea of Galilee (John 6:20); and again, what he said in the Upper Room just before he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. (John 14:1)
• It’s what the Spirit told the Apostle Paul as he faced persecution. (Acts 27:24)
• And it’s what the risen Christ revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos, when he said,
“Don’t be afraid.
I am the first and the last, and the Living one.
I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.”
(Revelation 1:17-18)
One of my favorite hymns goes like this:
“Be not dismayed, whate’er betide,
God will take care of you;
beneath his wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.”
Trusting in God’s watchful care over our lives, we need not be afraid of anything. Yet we are. We’re afraid terrorists might strike again, like they did on 9/11. We’re afraid the stock market might collapse, as it did back in 1929. We’re afraid a tornado or some other violent storm will blow us away, as it did in 2005 with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We’re afraid that a medical exam will reveal some dreadful disease. We’re afraid a loved one might be taken from us or that our money will simply run out before we die.
Life is tenuous and uncertain, and there are lots of reasons to be afraid. Yet, in the face of all our uncertainty, God says, “Fear not.” As Moses told the people of Israel,
“Yahweh, he it is who does go before you;
he will be with you,
he will not fail you, neither forsake you:
don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.”
(Deuteronomy 31:8)
The song concludes by saying,
For to His angels He’s given a command,
To guard you in all of your ways,
Upon their hands they will bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Do you believe in guardian angels? Have you ever felt like someone was standing beside you watching over you?
I used to have a picture of two children – a little girl and her younger brother – crossing an old bridge on the verge of falling down. It’s a dark and stormy night. There’s lightning in the distance, and they’re by themselves trying to get home. Unbeknownst to them, an angel hovers over them making sure they don’t fall into the chasm below.
Do any of you know the children’s lullaby called, “Angels Watching Over Me?” Here are the words:
“All night, all day,
Angels watching over me, my Lord.
All night, all day,
Angels watching over me.
Sun is a-setting in the West;
Angels watching over me, my Lord.
Sleep my child, take your rest;
Angels watching over me.”
I’m one of those who believes that there are two dimensions of life – one seen, one not seen, yet one is just as real as the other. The unseen dimension of life is the spiritual realm, where those who’ve gone before us are able to interact with us to help guide us and protect us on our way. The extent to which we’re aware of this spiritual dimension and are willing to allow it to work for us depends on how much we’re willing to trust in a reality we can’t see or prove in any way.
So, what do you think? Am I crazy, or is this something you’ve experienced yourself? The writer of theLetter to the Hebrews says,
“Now faith is assurance of things hoped for,
proof of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
The more I’ve grown in faith, the more I’ve come to believe that this unseen spiritual dimension of life is ultimately what’s real and lasting. The temporal world we see around us, that demands so much of our time and attention and money and energy, is just that, temporal. It’s a paradox: What’s real is what the world would say doesn’t even exist!
Well, let’s wrap it up. Michael Joncas ends the song without including the final paragraph of the Psalm, and that’s too bad, because it’s a promise we need to hear. So, let’s end the song for him by listening once more to the psalmist himself, who says,
“The Lord will say, ‘Because he loves me 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.'”
And, in response to that word of Good News, let’s sing the chorus to Michael’s song together:
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Copyright 2010, Philip McLarty. Used by permission.
SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public domain (no copyright) modern English translation of the Holy Bible.