Misty’s best friend messaged her this week and told her that
she would be praying Psalm 91 over us both every day, and so to start, I’d like
to share that with you, the text of Psalm 91, hear this, the Word of the Lord:
Living in the Most High’s shelter,
camping in the Almighty’s shade,
2
I say to the Lord, “You are my refuge,
my stronghold!
You are my God—the one I trust!”
3
God will save you from the hunter’s
trap
and from deadly sickness.
4
God will protect you with his
pinions;
you’ll find refuge under his wings.
His faithfulness is a protective shield.
5
Don’t be afraid of terrors at
night,
arrows that fly in daylight,
6
or sickness that prowls in the dark,
destruction that ravages at noontime.
7
Even if one thousand people fall
dead next to you,
ten thousand right beside you—
it won’t happen to you.
8
Just look with your eyes,
and you will see the wicked punished.
9
Because you’ve made the Lord my
refuge,
the Most High, your place of residence—
10
no evil will happen to you;
no disease will come close to your
tent.
11
Because he will order his
messengers to help you,
to protect you wherever you go.
12
They will carry you with their own
hands
so you don’t bruise your foot on a stone.
13
You’ll march on top of lions and
vipers;
you’ll trample young lions and serpents underfoot.
14
God says, “Because you are devoted
to me,
I’ll rescue you.
I’ll protect you because you know my name.
15
Whenever you cry out to me, I’ll
answer.
I’ll be with you in troubling times.
I’ll save you and glorify you.
16
I’ll fill you full with old age.
I’ll show you my salvation.”
Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking a lot about how this
feels to be home all the time, unable to get out and go to class at Duke (and
finding the difficulties of trying to take class online and work completely
from home like all of you out there), and this past Tuesday, it was getting to
me. I woke up in a bad mood, I was grumpy all day long, and Tuesday night was
cold and raining, and I had to take the garbage can out to the curb.
And of course, I thought, “Here it has been an awful day,
and now here it is raining and cold, and I’ve got to take this stupid garbage
out in this weather!” I told you I had been in a bad mood. Poor Misty and the
dogs!
So here I am out in the cold and the rain, and I just felt
all alone. No houses had lights on, it didn’t seem like anyone at all was even
around, and then all of a sudden, I felt a peace. God reminded me why I was out
there in the dark in the cold and the rain. I was taking out the garbage so it
could be picked up.
Like normal. Like usual. We were not all alone. At some
point in the morning people driving a garbage truck would stop at our house and
pick up our trash, and then leave us with an empty can, because they would be
back to collect it again the next week.
We are not alone. Even in our isolation, even in our
quarantine, we’re all still here, we’re all still fighting, and God goes before
us.
I want to tell you about a king from the Bible. He was a
king of Judah, and his name was Jehoshaphat. Now, Jehoshaphat was a good king,
he was highly respected, he feared and worshipped the Lord, and the kingdom of
Judah flourished under his rulership.
But one day, Jehoshaphat received some terrible news: three
great armies, a multitude, a horde of warriors from Ammon,
Moab, and Mount Seir were coming to attack the kingdom of Judah. The armies
were on their way to Judah, and Scripture tells us in 2 Chronicles that
Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord.
Does that ring any bells with any of us? We
received horrible news that something terrible was on its way to attack us, and
in our preparation, we prayed to God. Well, if you think that sounds like what
we’re facing today, just wait.
I want to share with you Jehoshaphat’s
prayer to God. Jehoshaphat gathers everyone together in the kingdom of Judah,
he calls every person forth from all the cities and towns, and so all the
people congregate together in Jerusalem at the assembly, and Jehoshaphat, the
king of Judah prays to God. Hear his prayer, from 2 Chronicles 20, verses 6-12:
“O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You
rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so
that none is able to withstand you. 7 Did you not, our God, drive out the
inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the
descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 And they have lived in it and have built
for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, 9 ‘If disaster comes upon us,
the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house
and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our
affliction, and you will hear and save.’ 10 And now behold, the men of Ammon
and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came
from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— 11 behold,
they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have
given us to inherit. 12 O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For
we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not
know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
We are powerless against this great horde that is coming
against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Hear our
prayer, O Lord God. Even now, even this hour.
The fear and anxiety and worry and terror of Judah and king
Jehoshaphat is the very same fear and anxiety and worry and terror we’re facing
today! Just like Judah, we fear a great enemy attacking us, and we cry out to
our Lord and our God for deliverance.
So let me tell you the rest of the story. It will help you
understand how we’re going to fight this fight and win.
The Spirit of the Lord descends upon a Levite priest there,
named Jahaziel, and Jahaziel says, “Listen, all Judah and
inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do
not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not
yours but God's. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold
your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and
Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against
them, and the Lord will be with you.”
This battle is not yours, but God’s.
You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your
position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf!
What are we being told to do right now?
Socially distance. Stay at home. Avoid travelling. Wash our hands. The way we
are fighting this battle against COVID-19 today is just what Jahaziel tells the
kingdom of Judah to do: stand firm and hold your position, because this fight
is the Lord’s!
The rest of the story, if you’d like to
read it is in 2 Chronicles 20. Jehoshaphat leads out the army the next morning,
and as these three huge armies approach, God confuses them in the mountains.
They begin to attack one another until all three armies are defeated, dead to
the very last warrior.
God delivered the victory, and all
Jehoshaphat had to do was stand firm and hold position. I’m sure he was pretty
nervous while he stood there, trying to be brave, awaiting this unknown enemy,
but God gave the victory. Jehoshaphat praised God and raised up a choir singing
praises to God and went out to survey the battlefields, and it took three whole
days for them to gather all the spoils of victory!
The fourth day, the kingdom gathered in a
valley they renamed that day, the valley of Beracah, which means ‘blessing’ because
it was there they gathered and praised God for His blessings.
We know that God loved us so much He sent
Jesus to die on the cross and be raised to life three days later on our behalf.
And we know now of a kingdom who faced a mighty enemy, and in their fear, they
turned to God, who delivered to them the victory, without them even having to
raise a finger.
This is the truth: we all must do our part
to help win this battle. Praise God, we are blessed with doctors and nurses out
there fighting in hospitals all over this country to heal the sick, we are
blessed with firefighters and police and teachers who are all working overtime
to keep things moving as normally and safely as possible, and praise God we are
blessed with people working to keep our stores stocked and helping to keep us
all fed. We pray for their safety and we give thanks to God for the technology
we have that allows us to do things like have church on Sunday morning from a
screen instead of a pew in a Sanctuary.
For the great majority of us, though, there
is some anxiety, some worry, some concern, and we know that our God goes before
us, and that our God will deliver victory over the enemy!
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