“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.” – Psalm 91:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 23, 2018): Psalm 91

Maya Angelou in “All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes” remarks that “The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” The ache for home never leaves us, but sometimes in our increasingly mobile world, home is hard to find. Maybe rather than a place, we should see home simply as Angelou seems to see it; home is nothing more than a safe place where we can show up in our pajamas or comfortable clothes and not be judged. No matter where it is that we find that place, it is home.

Psalm 91 is a psalm that we love, and yet it evokes many important questions. The psalm is one of the most comforting of the all of the psalms that we find in the Bible. The psalmist assures us that we can move into the unknown of the future knowing that he is with us and that God is willing to rescue and protect. But when it comes to authorship, we are less positive. The traditional understanding, and the interpretation that we are using here, is that Moses wrote Psalm 91 near the end of the wilderness wanderings. But that understanding is less than universal. Some of the imagery seems to match that of David, leading some to wonder if the psalm might not have been written by Israel’s poet-king.

But if Moses wrote it near the end of Israel’s time in the desert, then there is another reality that we need to understand. Moses knew that he was not going to enter into the Promised Land. But as he writes the psalm, he hears God’s voice of protection being spoken over him anyway.

Psalm 91 does not end with Psalmist speaking to God, but rather with the assurance of God being spoken both to the psalmist and those who would read and treasure the psalm. And here God promises that he will rescue and protect. Often we interpret that to mean that he would be present in our times of trouble. And there is no doubt that there is truth in that belief. God is present with us. But sometimes his way of protecting us does not match up with our desires.

And in the case of Moses, God’s protection did not mean that Moses would enter into Canaan with the rest of Israel. Israel would move into the Promised Land, but Moses would be excluded. His fate would be to die alone on a mountain on the wrong side of the Jordan River. Yet, Moses had heard the voice of God and had faith that God would be with him, honoring him in the final moments of his life. Ultimately, it didn’t matter where he was; Moses was going home to the safe place where he would be accepted. Moses knew that he had been accepted by the God that he had followed through the wilderness.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 1