Daily Devotional – May 14, 2020

Well, good afternoon on day 54. I hope your spirits aren't as gloomy as the day outside here in the Sauk Valley of Northern Illinois. My goodness, if you live in this area, did the storms wake you up this morning?

I think it was maybe, probably about five o 'clock or so and a thunderclap stirred me from my sleep. And then I kept hearing the rumbling and the rain pelting against the side of the house, even some hail along the way.

And guess who came to mind? Snoopy. Yeah, Snoopy. You remember his enthusiastic foray into writing the world-famous novel that would win him a prize? He's sitting on the top of his doghouse and he's got this typewriter in front of him and he's pecking away on the typewriter and he begins his classic novel.

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, it doesn't look like we're going to get much vitamin D from the sky today, at least not in our area. So what are you doing to boost your spirits on this gloomy day, this gloomy time in our world history?

What are you doing? One of my friends trying to boost his happy level gave a status report. He said this, he said, I'm not sure how many Oreos it takes to be happy, but so far it isn't 27. Well, he finally decided to give up that approach though, because he stepped on his scale the other day.

And it's one of those really fancy kind, you know, you step on the scale and it tells you what your weight is. 175 pounds. Whatever. So it's one of those kind. And so he got on the scale and his voice came on and he could swear it sounded just like Governor Pritzker.

And it said, please use social distancing one person at a time. That's when he decided to give up the Oreos. And from here on out, it was just going to be oatmeal raisin for him. Well, yesterday we considered what Psalm 91 verses 9 and 10 have to say to us as New Testament Christians living in this era of COVID -19.

And remind you of Psalm 91 verses 9 and 10 say this, it says, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague come near your tent.

Why Psalm 91 Does Not Guarantee Protection from COVID-19

So this raises a question. It sounds like a pretty good absolute promise for those who, you know, make God their refuge and make him their fortress. But is it? And can the Christian, based on this passage, can the Christian claim that God will protect him from COVID -19?

Is God promising that this virus is not going to hit our households as followers of Jesus? Well, I suggested yesterday several reasons why we can't interpret the passage that way. One of them is that if we're going to apply it to COVID -19, we'd have to apply it to every kind of disease, wouldn't we?

Any kind of evil, you know, be it leukemia or cancer or whatever. And secondly, I said that interpretation just doesn't square with the experience of godly people in the Bible. We talked about Job and Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus and Trophimus and so forth.

And then thirdly, I suggested that it hasn't been the experience of Christians throughout church history. And we know that, we understand that, that there are good godly Christians throughout the history of the church who have suffered all kinds of calamities and maladies and physical afflictions.

And then it hasn't even been our own personal experience. We all know godly, Christ-loving people who've suffered through cancer, through heart disease, through Alzheimer's, through Parkinson's and other diseases that have even ultimately claimed their lives.

So, you know, I think instinctively we know that this passage doesn't really give us the right to claim absolute divine protection against COVID -19. I think we get that. But what does it mean? I mean, it's helpful to understand how not to apply a passage, but then how should we apply this passage?

How does it impact us as New Testament followers of Jesus? Well, let me suggest a couple things. First of all, I think we need to understand the larger context of this psalm. Now, we're not sure who wrote the psalm.

Some seem to think it sounds a lot like what Moses wrote in Psalm 90. In fact, there's a reason why the two psalms are put together. Moses wrote Psalm 90 and it almost seems like it just naturally flows into Psalm 91.

It's possible. Other scholars seem to think there's a lot in it that sounds very Davidic, like David wrote it. Well, we don't really know who wrote it and it doesn't necessarily matter. But what we do know is that the writer of Psalm 91 wrote it in the era of the Old Covenant under the Mosaic Law.

Now, one of the features of that Old Covenant of the Mosaic Law was a focus on the physical, on physical well-being, on physical prosperity and longevity and safety and protection. I mean, even the initial covenant promise, the Abrahamic Covenant had to do with land and a nation.

And that was all reiterated in the Mosaic Covenant, the Mosaic Law. So this covenant held out promises of a physical, tangible nature, promises to the obedient and curses in the same areas to the disobedient.

So just as an example, there were promises of prosperity and physical blessing if you obeyed, but promises of impoverishment and famine, curses of famine and impoverishment, and even removal from the land if the people did not obey.

So that covenant held out promises in the areas of obedience and curses in the areas of disobedience. And they all focused on the physical, on physical well-being, on physical prosperity and so forth.

Now, the New Testament Christian is under a different covenant, under the New Covenant. And the writer of Hebrews tells us that this New Covenant is a better and superior covenant. And the focus on the New Covenant is on spiritual and eternal blessings, not physical and temporal blessings.

And I think that's a very important distinction to keep in mind and to realize where we are, where we live in redemptive history, if you will, in relationship to the Old Covenant promises. So as New Testament, New Covenant believers, followers of Jesus, Romans 8, 28 says this for us.

It says,. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. And yet, reading further in this same passage in Romans 8, we read the New Testament version of Psalm 91, 10.

Listen to what it says. Remember, Psalm 91, 10 says,. No evil shall befall you, no plague shall come near your tent. All right, that's what Psalm 91, 10 says. Later in Romans 8, we have the New Testament version of Psalm 91, 10.

Paul writes this,. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, or COVID -19?

All of these things, Paul testified that he himself had experienced distress, tribulation, persecution, etc. He's experienced all those things. But listen to what he says next. No, he proclaimed, In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure, he writes, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor, now listen, nor anything else in all creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So here's the conclusion of the matter. As a follower of Jesus, you have no biblical warrant for saying that COVID -19, or any other malady or tragedy for that matter, can touch you and your household.

You have no warrant for saying that biblically. But you can say that if God in his wisdom providentially brings or allows something of this nature to afflict you, then it cannot separate you from his love.

It will not destroy your soul, and it will somehow accomplish God's good purposes for your life. So as Derek Kidner, a commentator on the Psalms, writes, he says this. He says what Psalm 9110 does assure us is that nothing can touch God's servant, but by God's leave, or by God's permission.

And furthermore, George Lawson summarizes it this way. He says Psalm 91 does not promise us that we will never experience dangers and disease, disasters, or even death. But Psalm 91 does remind us that there is only one shelter and refuge we can trust in the midst of dangers, disease, disasters, and death.

And I hope that your trust is in that one shelter and that one refuge. Your trust is in him. Then nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Well, listen, do you know the Lord's Prayer?

I'd like to pray that today. I think the more I thought about this prayer this morning and even prayed it earlier, I thought this is a prayer for our time. If you know it, pray it with me. So our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And please lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you with a good rest of your Thursday. And Lord willing, I look forward to seeing you back here again tomorrow right at the same time.

God bless you.