June 7 - Psalm 91:9-10

June 7
Psalm 91:9-10

Psalm 91:9-10 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, 10 No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.

Verse 9 begins with the assumption that the Lord is your dwelling place, as Moses, the writer of this Psalm, has been talking about the importance of living under the secret place in God. He now says "because you have made the Lord your refuge, no evil will befall you.

I would like to think that if you have been reading these Daily Devotions on the 91st Psalm, you have come to the place where you have chosen to live in your secret place in God all the time. As such, Moses tells us, as a promise from God, no evil will come upon you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. After all, your dwelling is in the secret place of God, and the devil cannot and will not come near God's dwelling place.

What then is evil and what is a plague?  Evil, first of all is anything those goes contrary to the will of God. Most Christians think that evil are things that are totally bad, corrupt, vile and horrible. God's definition of evil, however, is anything that goes contrary to His will, and that can incorporate a myriad of things that even look good. How then do we discover what is contrary to the will of God? First of all, we must look at what is the will of God. 

• God gave us His will in the Ten Commandments, as He laid out before the children of Israel.
• God gave us His will through Jesus' message from Matthew 22:37-40 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it; You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  

Anything thing outside of this is not God's will.

• Your first love must be the Lord - loving Him above all else - spirit, soul, and spirit.
• You purpose to obey all the laws of God.  Because of our sin nature, we must seek forgiveness through confession to Jesus as soon as we recognize we have sinned. It's important to get rid of that sin in our life.
• You love your neighbor as you love yourself - not doing anything to anyone else that you wouldn't want done back to you.
• You care for the widows and orphans - for they are defenseless, and you are able to help them.

Because you love God, you then choose to follow His commands, for you have learned that is the best and safest place to be.

What then is a plague? According to the Strong Concordance, the Hebrew meaning of the word plague (H5061) is: an infliction; a spot (concretely a leprous person or dress); plague, sore, stricken, stripe, stroke, wound.

While sickness and disease are not a plague, they do fall within the range of evil because sickness and disease is outside of the will of God.

Remember, nothing outside of the will of God can enter into God's dwelling place. Our place then is to stay in our secret place in God because it is a place where no evil or plague will come near us.