In Life and in Death we belong to God

A Meditation on Psalm 91

R. Charles Grant

Bon Air Presbyterian Church

Our Presbyterian Brief Statement of Faith begins with the words, “In life and in death we belong to God.”  Such a caption would be appropriate for Psalm 91.

            In Psalm 91 the Psalmist declares that by God’s mercy and goodness the faithful live within the protective shelter of God, in shadow of the Almighty.  “God is my refuge and my fortress,” the Psalmist says.  In life and in death we belong to God.

            While affirming the ultimate and benevolent protection of God, the Psalmist also acknowledges that in human life we are subject to all manner of dangers and pestilence, terrors of night and destructions of the day.  Using the imagery of battle, the Psalmist writes that God is with us on our left and on our right.  Evil may prevail for a time.  But the course of the battle is never in doubt.  Ultimately God and God alone will prevail.

               And it is because of his conviction that God IS our protector and that God WILL

prevail that the Psalmist declares that he has nothing to fear.  “Because you have made the

LORD your refuge,” he writes, “[and] the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall

you, no scourge come near your tent.”

               The Psalmist’s conviction of God’s future deliverance and protection shapes his life

in the present. Confident of God’s loving care, the faithful live each day as a witness that

their lives and future belong not to them, but to God:  In life and in death, we belong to God.

               For the Christian, the faith convictions of the psalmist are expressed through our belief

in the resurrection. Our faith is that God’s power’s extends even over death, and that God will raise up his people to new and everlasting life.  This is a future hope that shapes our lives in the present. In gratitude for what God has done in Jesus Christ and is doing in our lives and will do for us in the future, we lead our lives NOW as a witness to the goodness and greatness of God.

            Even as the Psalmist was convinced that God was with him on the battlefield, so also we have the assurance that God is with us on the battlefields of our lives.  When we are discouraged, God is with us.  When we despair, God is with us.  When we mourn the loss of a loved one and friend, God is with us.  When we die, God is with us, powerfully with us.  For we have the assurance that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.  In life and in death, we belong to God.

     Friends:  through the Psalmist God delivers to us an everlasting promise:

Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name.

¹⁵  When they call to me, I will answer them;

       I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.

¹⁶  With long life I will satisfy them,          and show them my salvation.

            Now, let us find hope and take comfort in these words.  AMEN.