From the Taize Community and the Focolare Movement

Bible texts with commentary

These Bible meditations are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take a moment to read the Bible passage with the short commentary and to reflect on the questions which follow. Afterwards, a small group of 3 to 10 people can meet to share what they have discovered and perhaps for a time of prayer.

February 2013

Psalm 91: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you

from the fowler’s snare

and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes

and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”

and you make the Most High your dwelling,

no harm will overtake you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call on me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him

and show him my salvation.”

(Psalm 91)

We are all searching for a home, for a shelter. A place where we feel welcome. A place where someone is waiting for us, waiting to listen to our story. A place where we feel secure and protected. A place where we are loved.

A home gives us a fundamental trust in ourselves and in others. This trust is essential to the building of our lives. It allows us to celebrate live and face the inevitable crises that at times come to shaken the very foundations of our existence.

Perhaps one of the problems today is that many people no longer have a home. We have been uprooted. In Western society, very few people still live in the place where they were born. In the Southern hemisphere, many have had to migrate in order to find a livelihood and at times to escape life-threatening situations. Have we become wanderers? Not only because we have literally moved from one place to another but even more so because we live in a society that is constantly changing; where we no longer have clear and well defined reference points.

The writer of this psalm knows very well where “home” is found. This song was sung by pilgrims as they went up to the holy city of Jerusalem. The journey was often dangerous. Thus, it was a great joy for them to arrive at Jerusalem, to see God’s dwelling and to meet their fellow Jews. In the gospels, Jesus, following the tradition of his people, also goes up to Jerusalem, to which eventually he makes his final pilgrimage and “goes up” to God, his “home”.

The shelter is the Temple, the dwelling place of God. In the innermost part of the Temple was found the ark of the covenant, a kind of chest which originally held the stone tablets on which the ten commandments were inscribed. On top of this chest are two heavenly beings, cherubim. It is under the shadow of their wings that the pilgrims takes refuge. It is here that they have their home in the Lord and can affirm with force: my refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust (v. 1).

By praying these words, these pilgrims have made a choice. Instead of placing their trust in themselves, in political systems and alliances, they have chosen to place their trust in the God of the covenant. Thus, although they are on the move, they are also rooted. They are not just wandering on this earth. Their lives have a purpose and a direction.

For those who place their trust in God, life does not necessarily become easier. Trust is not naive. The pilgrims of this psalm are very much aware that for those who choose to follow God life is, a times, a combat, an inner struggle. The psalmist vividly describes this combat using military imagery. He says that God will free him from the snare of the hunter (v. 3) and protect him from deadly diseases (v. 6), that the arrows will not touch him (v. 5), that even if a thousand may fall at his side, he will not be harmed (v. 7).

At the beginning of the gospel, Jesus too experiences a moment of struggle and temptation. One of the temptations that he has to overcome that of using his power for his own benefit, for his own personal success. In a very tricky way, the tempter quotes Psalm 91 (see Matthew 4:6).

If Jesus had fallen into “the snare of the hunter”, he would have “deformed” his relationship with the Father. Jesus refuses to profit from God’s promise; he refuses to force God to do a miracle in his favor. He thus shows us that we are called to place our trust in God not because of what we may “get out of it”, but because we truly believe that God is present in our personal histories and in the history of the human family. To place our full trust in God is to believe that God is present in spite of appearances, leading history to its final destination.

In psalm 91 this is expressed through a promise. God will rescue the one who loves him; God will protect the one who acknowledges his name (v. 14). God will answer the one who calls, will be with and deliver the one who is in trouble (v. 15). God will satisfy them with a long life and show them salvation (v. 16).

Many people today ask themselves: how can we take shelter in a God who seems not to be able to protect us from the plagues, the terror and the evil of this world? Is God still with us? If not, then we are truly abandoned in this universe and do not have a home.

In Jesus of Nazareth, we come to understand that the “Most High” (v. 1) reveals himself in a new way. The “Most High God” is in fact the “Most Low”. By freely giving his life out of love and through his resurrection, Jesus makes God present in a different way. Seemingly absent on the cross, God is in fact fully present and revealing himself as a God whose power consists only in love. Furthermore, God becomes present and makes his home in the hearts of those who, like his Son, choose to love. We become his temple, his home.

 What does the word “home” evoke for me?

 How has God been like a rampart, a refuge in my life?

 For those who choose to place their trust in God, life, at times, is an inner struggle. In these moments of struggle, what sustains me?

 Jesus said: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23). What do these words say to me? How do they help me to rediscover God’s presence in my life?

 Rewrite the psalm using images and metaphors from your everyday life.

We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters (1 Jn. 3:14).

John is writing to the Christian communities he founded at a moment when they were having serious difficulties. Heresies and false doctrines on matters of faith and morals were starting to spread, while the pagan society where Christians lived was tough and hostile to the spirit of the Gospel.

To help them the Apostle points out a radical solution: to love the brothers and sisters, to live the law of love they have received from the beginning, which he sees as the summary of all the other commandments.

Doing this, they will know what ‘life’ is. They will be led, that is, deeper and deeper into union with God and will expe­rience God-Love. And, having this experience, they will be confirmed in faith and be capable of facing any attack, especially in times of crisis.

We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters.

‘We know…’ The Apostle is referring to a knowledge that comes from expe­rience. It’s like saying: ‘We’ve experienced it, we’ve touched it with our hands.’ It’s the experience that the Christians evangelized by John had at the beginning of their conversion. When we put God’s commandments into practice, in particular the commandment of love for others, we enter the very life of God.

But do Christians today have this experience? They certainly know that God’s commandments have a practical purpose. Jesus constantly insists that it’s not enough to listen to the Word of God; it must be lived (see Mt. 5:19; 7:21; 7:26).

Instead, what’s not clear to most, either because they don’t know about it or because their  knowledge is purely theoretical without having had the experience, is the marvellous feature of the Christian life the Apostle puts into light. When we live out the commandment of love, God takes possession of us, and an unmistakeable sign of this is that life, that peace, that joy he gives us to taste already on earth. Then everything is lit up, everything becomes harmonious. No longer is there any separa­tion between faith and life. Faith becomes the force pervading and linking all our actions.

We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters.

This word of life tells us that love for our neighbour is the royal road leading us to God. Since we are all his children, nothing is more important to him than our love for our brothers and sisters. We cannot give him any greater joy than when we love our brothers and sisters.

And since love of neighbour brings us union with God, it is an inexhaustible wellspring of inner light, it is a fountain of life, of spiritual fruit­fulness, of continual renewal. It prevents the rot, rigidity and slackness that can set in among the Christian people; in a word, it transfers us ‘from death to life’. When, in­stead, love is lacking, every­thing withers and dies. Knowing this, we can under­stand why certain attitudes are so widespread in today’s world: a lack of enthusiasm and ideals, mediocrity, boredom, longing to escape, loss of values, and so on.

We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters.

The brothers and sisters the Apostle refers to here are, above all, the members of the communities we belong to. If it is true that we must love everyone, it is equally true that our love must begin with those who normally live with us, and then reach out to all of humanity. We should think in first place of the members of our family, the people we work with, those who are part of our parish, religious community or association. Our love for our neighbour would not be real and well-ordered if it didn’t start here. Wherever we find ourselves, we are called to build the family of the children of God.

We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters.

This word of life opens up immense horizons. It urges us along the divine adventure of Christian love with its unforeseeable outcomes. Above all it reminds us that in a world like ours, where the theory is of struggle, the survival of the fittest, the shrewdest, the most unscrupulous, and where at times everything seems paralysed by materialism and egoism, the answer we should give is love of neighbour. When we live the commandment of love, in fact, not only is our life energized, but everything around is affected. It’s like a wave of divine warmth, which spreads and grows, penetrating relationships between one person and another, one group and another, and bit by bit transforming society.

So, let’s go for it! Brothers and sisters to love in the name of Jesus are something we all have, and that we always have. Let’s be faithful to this love. Let’s help many others be so. We will know in our soul what union with God means. Faith will revive, doubts disappear, no more will we know what boredom is. Life will be full, very, very full.

Chiara Lubich

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First published in May 1985.