He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2)
According to Jewish tradition, Moses composed this psalm on the day the Sanctuary was completed and erected. It is a plausible notion considering that the concluding verses of the previous psalm said, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands” — the work of our hands being the Sanctuary. Taking into consideration that this tradition might be accurate, it is noteworthy that Moses begins this psalm with words acknowledging the purpose of the Sanctuary — a place where man could commune with the Most High.
In fact, even with all of the different components and valuable furnishings, the Sanctuary was not considered complete until the Divine Presence rested between the cherubim in the Holy of Holies. The Scripture says that, on the day Moses set up the Tabernacle, “The cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). The Hebrew word translated “filled” means much more than something that takes up space; in reality it is more on the lines of “fulfilled” or “complete.” In other words, only when the Presence of God inhabited the Holy of Holies was the Sanctuary considered complete. Without God’s Presence, the Sanctuary was nothing more than a tent with very expensive furnishings.
Now let us consider this: seeing that God’s intent for the Sanctuary was communion and fellowship with men and women who loved Him, we could argue — and I believe convincingly — that the most sacred of all sanctuaries is the human heart. As Paul acknowledged, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and in concert with this notion is the commandment that we are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Taking all of this into account, should we not conclude that no one is truly complete as a person until and unless the Presence of God dwells within them? People might be able to exist without Him, but we can’t truly live without Him. That is the message I receive when I consider what it means to abide under the shadow of the Almighty — He is my life.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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