Finding Shelter

These days, it seems like we could all use a little bit of shelter from the world. A place to rest and find some peace in the midst of the chaos. We are living in a world riddled with strife, unrest and division. Everything is up for debate and everyone doesn’t just want to be heard, they want to be right. It’s difficult. But, of course, God gives us hope.

In Psalm 91, we see a chapter full of promises. Promises of rest, protection, honor and deliverance, just to name a few. They begin strongly in verse four and pretty much hold steady through the rest of the chapter. But, the chapter begins in verse 1, with, “Whoever, dwells in the shelter of the Most High.” A shelter, by definition, is a place giving protection, or shield from something harmful. If you take a moment and envision a shelter, I’m betting it’s four sturdy, cement walls, with one door and that’s about it. It’s like a bunker, strictly used to protect its inhabitants from the dangers outside of it, working as your shield.

It sounds nice to be promised a place like that. In that opening verse, it says that if we dwell in the shelter, then “you will find rest.” Go with me for a minute, you see, people who are in a tornado shelter aren’t as worried about the tornado that’s coming. Sure, there’s a level of concern about their homes and their possessions and their friends, but they are significantly less scared because they are in a shelter. In the shelter, they find a certain amount of rest despite the calamity going on around them.

Then, in verse 9, we see a premise: “If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling,” then, “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.” When this chapter talks about dwelling, both in verse 1 and 9, it’s talking about a place of residence. First, we must dwell in the shelter of the Lord and then we must make the Most High our dwelling. I’m not sure that we process this whole chapter correctly. We see that we have to be in the shelter, but then we ignore the fact that we must make that our place of dwelling. We must take up residence in the shelter in order to find rest. It’s the place we must continually return to, to be protected, refreshed and restored. We have to do this because what’s outside our shelter (the Most High) is dangerous. If it weren’t, then we wouldn’t need the shelter at all. The satisfaction we find outside of God is dangerous to us, it’s potentially harmful to our health, our well-being, and most importantly, to our calling. But, most of us don’t take the steps of making the shelter our place of dwelling. Instead, we want our relationship with the Most High to be more like a house.

A house has windows and doors, you can look out and experience the world, you can see what it has to offer, you can let it in, if you want. A shelter, however, has no windows and generally only has one door to gain access through. A shelter is built for protection and security. A house is built to experience the world at whatever level the owner desires to experience it. When we make God our shelter, then we make the choice to let anything that comes into our lives filter through Him, and the door that He easily defends and guards (John 10:9). The Lord becomes our shelter from the world, but a lot of us would rather treat our relationship with God like we’re playing house. We don’t choose to reside in the shelter of who He is, because that means giving up the experiences of the world.

Many people, good Christians even, read this scripture and we proclaim its promises over our lives, but then wonder why we are so overwhelmed. The truth is, we are treating our relationship with God like a house, getting what we want and can from the world and then returning to God when we need a little extra encouragement, love, forgiveness or grace. In a shelter, what’s inside is our source of sustenance. When we live in the shelter, we are allowing God to be what sustains us. There, we’re protected from the outside. If we go back to the tornado shelter example, we are able to see what’s going on in the world, but are given a prospective of rested assurance that despite the chaos, it is well. In the shelter, we are even guarded against certain temptations, especially ones that make us question God or His goodness. That one door to the shelter acts like a bottle neck for temptation. We will experience some, simply because we are human, but it will be severely diminished, as opposed to if we were residing in a place with multiple points of entry. The shelter is your safeguard, so you can have rest in this stormy thing we call life (or just 2020).

The problem with residing in a shelter lies in the fact that it takes a certain amount of sacrifice. We have to sacrifice some wants and desires, we have to trust that God is going to provide everything that we need, and hold tightly to His promises. What we receive on our end of the exchange, of course, far outweighs any sacrifices we make. Listed below are the promises that Psalm 91 holds, let alone the rest of the Bible…

The Promises: You will rest (v. 1), He will save you (v. 2), He will cover you, shield and protect you (v. 4), You will not fear: terror, pestilence, or plague (v. 5 & 6), Thousands will fall, but it will not come near you (v. 7), You will see the punishment of the wicked (v. 8), No harm or disaster will overtake you (v. 10), He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in ALL your ways (v. 11), You will tread on the great lion and the serpent (v. 13), He will rescue you (v. 14), He will protect you (v. 14), He will answer you (v. 15), He will be with you in trouble (v. 15), He will deliver you (v. 15), He will honor you (v. 15), He will satisfy you with a long life (v. 16) and He will show you His salvation (v. 16).

When we make the choice to reside in the shelter, we gain those promises. We allow God to be our rescuer and provide us with that long life, when His shelter becomes our dwelling. We must give up relying on ourselves, or doing things our own way or even others’ ways, so that we are able to be the one the Lord talks about when he says, “’Because he loves me,’ says the Lord” (v. 14). We show God we love Him when we choose to reside in Him. We need His place of shelter if we are going to preach the gospel. The act of allowing God to be our shelter is a continual choice. We choose to reside in the shelter when we choose faith over fear, when we choose peace over strife, when we choose His voice over others. Through this, we begin to live differently and look differently. Through this, we can begin to be who we are meant to be in Christ. Through this, we walk with a little more confidence, despite our circumstances, because we know the peace of residing in the one who holds the victory. Through this, we know love, acceptance and certainty of resting in God. Through this, we become who we were created to be.