Today’s reading is Psalm 91.
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.’”
Psalm 91:1
These past weeks have brought some challenging times and even what I will call tragedy to some who I am acquainted with. As I read on through Psalm 91 about how God will protect those who make God their fortress and their shelter, I will be transparent in that I’m challenged as to why God didn’t seem to “protect” these families impacted by some of these tragedies. I will also say that most of those affected I don’t know well enough to have any idea where they were in their faith walk and whether they were trusting God with their life and their protection, nor am I to judge even if I knew them well enough to have the slightest idea. I think we can all say though that we’ve seen tragedies affect even very strong believers who we would say are close to God.
Many of us may be familiar with legendary college basketball Jim Valvano’s iconic speech at ESPN’s Espy Awards before he passed from cancer. One of his most famous statements from the speech was this, “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.” That last part is what resonates with me, no matter what Satan does in physical harm to myself or my family on this side of Heaven…he “cannot touch my soul.”
Scripture is best interpreted when it’s cross reference with other Scripture. In fact, Jesus often did this. As I reflected on Psalm 91, my mind kept pulling me to Romans 8 which is a chapter in the Bible that can be referenced in many of life’s circumstances and challenges.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
God may not stop Satan from physically harming our earthly bodies, as we saw with Job or even Jesus. But, Satan can never separate us from Christ’s love and keep our soul from living with God for eternity in Heaven when we trust in God and have given our life to Him.
