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...