Rest We Desperately Need

Psalms 91:1

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

Does God not seek our spiritual healing and rest above all physical things?

It hit me a few days ago as I was reading this verse, after enduring a string of very stressful days at work, that the psalmist was speaking about our spiritual nature rather than our physical.  As I heard a pastor once say, the Word is God written down on pages.  This side of heaven, we can't be in the physical presence of God where we walk and talk with Him as man once did in the garden.  Thus the purpose of the Word, our opportunity to get to know both ourselves and God by feeding on it daily. 

So why then does the psalmist talk about dwelling in the shelter of the Most High which is impossible for the reader to do (this side of heaven)?  Because perhaps the focus of this verse is our spirit and not our physical body.  The psalmist seems to be communicating to us, the reader, that there is rest for our spirit in the here and now, on this earth, for those who dwell in His shelter.  The beauty of this verse is that our spiritual nature is independent of what might be going on in our flesh, in the physical world.  It has the ability to rises above all the circumstances we might face in our family, with our career, with our health, with our... fill in the blank.   Much like an astronaut in a space suit.  The environment all around might be void of oxygen but the man inside is unaffected by that circumstance.  

Why again is the psalmist or even more to the point, God Himself, writing to "whoever" and asking us to "dwell" in His shelter?   Because in our free will, He has given us an opportunity to choose, we have a choice.  A decision will not be made for us.  In His loving nature, God will not force us to live in, dwell upon or reside in His shelter.  We are free to make that choice on our own.   

The particular day that I read this verse, I was in the midst of a lot of stress from my job - the kind that affects you physically.  This simple Psalm was the very food my soul needed.  I recited it over and over again - "to dwell with Him is to rest", "to dwell with Him is to rest."  I recalled what it meant to physically dwell in my own home.  It's a place of:

1. Shelter from storms
2. Comfort from the heat & cold
3. Food & water, the sustenance of life
4. Relationship w/ loved ones
5. Protection & security
6. Complete separation from the things going on outside

When I began to see the spiritual equivalent of dwelling in His shelter, I was overcome with spiritual rest, a rest that manifested in me physically.   In the span of just a few minutes resting and believing upon this truth, the crushing and circular worries that invaded my mind began to fade as the important and eternal pushed out the transient and temporal.  Oh the powerful truth the Word has to move us spiritually, to free us physically.  

I encourage you the next time you find yourself in the grips of life's problems to reflect on the spiritual truth of this verse.  Recognize that no matter what you might be going through in the REAL events of life, that there IS spiritual rest to be found in the CHOOSING to dwell in His shelter.  You have a choice!  Exercise that choice in Christ.  To do otherwise is to simply abdicate all that we have been given in Him, peace that transcends all understanding...

The Heart of Pride Lifted Up

Have you ever thought about your creation and entry into this world and how we had absolutely no control over any of it?   The fact that we didn't pick our parents, their temperament, personality, their affluence/poverty, the point in history it would happen, the country, our nationality, our sex, our health, our abilities, our disabilities, our looks, our strength, our intelligence, etc., etc.  Nope, we had nothing to do with it. 

It's sort of like going racing at one of those go carts tracks you usually see at the beach. You know, the carts that are all beat up and smell like ether from having been jump started so many times.  You eagerly wait in line and as soon as it's your group's turn, everyone races through the gate and runs toward the cart that they think is the fastest.  This happened during vacation last year and inevitably, the cart I chose was the slowest.  I nearly pushed the gas pedal through the floorboard but the engine would just sputter and jerk.  I think I got lapped twice during the 10 minute ride.   Others, including my wife, had carts that ran really well.  When the race was over, we were all lined up in our finishing order, winners in the front and losers in the back. Boy did I have the best view of the field - dead last.  What's interesting is the winners were happy and excited about their performance and the losers felt like, well losers!    

As it turns out, our life is much the same, except we don't get the chance to choose the cart - one gets supplied for us.  We come into this world with strengths and weaknesses already assigned.   Yet, we look past this fact and claim for ourselves, from our "own making", the great attributes of our personality, good looks, intelligence and the like.  

In the 31st chapter of Ezekiel, this problem of our heart is displayed in grand view. God, using the prophet Ezekiel, sent a prophetic word to Pharaoh in the story of a nation's mighty rise to power and her thunderous fall through the metaphor of a great tree.  Similar to Jesus telling parables to make them more relatable to us (so that we wouldn't get fixated on actual characters), perhaps a tree was chosen for the same reason, that we might, more easily, see the same attributes within our own heart.  In verses 1 through 9, He describes the magnificent tree:

Ezekiel 31:5

“Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field; its boughs were multiplied...

Ezekiel 31:3

Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,

With fine branches that shaded the forest, And of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

Ezekiel 31:7

Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches...

Ezekiel 31:8

The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it;

The fir trees were not like its boughs,

And the chestnut trees were not like its branches;

No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.

And because of all this: 

Ezekiel 31:6

All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs;

Under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young;

And in its shadow all great nations made their home.

What an amazing tree!  It certainly seems as though this tree was a blessing from God and that it in turn, it was a blessing to the rest of creation.  To leave no doubt, the scripture makes it clear that God was the source of its stature and beauty as described in verse 9, "I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches".  This magnificent tree was the beneficiary of being located at the most abundant source of water in the garden as can be seen in:

Ezekiel 31:4

The waters made it grow;

Underground waters gave it height,

With their rivers running around the place where it was planted,

And sent out rivulets to all the trees of the field.

Ezekiel 31:5

...And its branches became long because of the abundance of water, as it sent them out.

Ezekiel 31:7

...Because its roots reached to abundant waters.  

All appears good right?  God created the tree, located it in the midst of the most abundant life giving waters and as such it grew large in stature and high and mighty.  It ultimately becomes the center of humanity and creation alike!  So where have things gone wrong we might ask?  In verse 10 we see the heart of the problem:

Ezekiel 31:10

Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart was lifted up in its height...

PRIDE

The tree became prideful in its beauty and tremendous stature.  With its heart lifted up, it exalted itself above all the rest of creation.  This is the ultimate betrayal of our creator, unbelief and pride.  Unbelief - the turning away from God, the very source of all that was good in the tree.  Pride - believing in its own righteousness, believing all that could be found good within the tree was based on what the tree itself had done. We go on to read in the rest of the chapter, that God cuts him down and casts him aside to be made an example to the rest of the people's and nations

Though the story is about a tree and is a metaphor for Assyria and Egypt, it too is a picture into the heart of man.  Are we all not guilty of the same?  Probably much more than we know or are willing to admit, we've taken credit for our own gifts, our own abilities.  We too have turned our backs on our creator and claimed for ourselves these things, that we might exalt them over others for our own righteousness sake.  

Acknowledge that every good thing comes from the Lord.  Our part is to simply "abide" in him (John 15:4-5).  Let His goodness flow forth in the very same way that a vine produces the fruit that flows through the branch.  In this, the fruit of His spirit will be manifest in us - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:2-23)

The next time you end up at a go-cart track, remember, you have no control over its condition or speed.  Win or lose, be thankful that you are in the race.   Let the joy of the moment and the time spent with others be what consumes you, not your position on the track!