Times of Trial and Testing: A Meditation on Psalm 91 for the 1st Sunday in Lent

He that dwelleth 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 will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,

And from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt

thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night;

nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness;

nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand;

but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge,

Even the most High, thy habitation;

There shall no evil befall thee,

neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee,

to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands,

 lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder:

the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him:

I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him:

I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Psalm 91, appointed for this first Sunday in Lent, is a good meditation for those preparing to enter a time of trial and temptation.  While the circumstances of people’s lives don’t always synchronize with the Church’s historic calendar (i.e., some people are mourning during Christmas over various struggles or losses, while some are rejoicing during Lent for particular blessings or providence,) the pattern of the Church’s year disciplines the faithful to remember all of what God’s Word reveals to His people—whether we’re ready to hear it, or not.

I have always found warnings of impending trial and tribulation unsettling, as I suspect many people do.  They usually come to me when life seems pleasant and predictable, when I’ve become comfortable in enjoying the leisure of hearth and home.  When my stomach is full, my health is sturdy, my mind is clear, and all feels right in the world, I cannot help but hesitate when I hear words of judgment, pain, suffering, and sacrifice.  The sinfulness in me which is attached to all the passing wonders of this good but fallen creation, struggles to place God above all things in my heart and mind.  Those pleasantries I enjoy, which are not evil in themselves, become evil to me when I turn them into idols I am unwilling to let go of.  Good food, good whiskey, and good motorcycles only become unclean when my own uncleanness perverts them.

This is why testing, trials, and tribulations are a blessing to us, even though we wince and recoil at the prospect of entering into them.  Like a drug addict who doesn’t want to let go of the chemical which is killing him, every sinner shudders at the prospect of losing their grip on the sins which are poisoning them into death, hell, and the power of the devil.  And like various addicts, it is easy for a person addicted to one drug to be condescending or pharisaical toward the addicts of drugs they think inferior.  The sinner who is bound to pride may look derisively upon the sinner bound to lust, or the sinner bound to greed may disdain the sinner bound to hatred, but every sinner bound to every sin is imbibing the same poison and moves either more or less slowly toward the same inexorable end.  While some sins may have greater or lesser visible consequences in this world, and some may have greater or lesser condemnations in the world to come, the reality of hell is universal and inescapable for all who will not repent and believe the Gospel.  Only the insane irrationality of sin-sick minds can love the poison which is killing them, and turn judgmentally upon those who are dying by different variations of the same poison.

This is why we need Lent before Easter, just as we needed Advent before Christmas.  We sinners, who all too quickly and easily become comfortable in our sins, condemning our neighbors while rationalizing our own faults, need to be reminded that there are greater and higher realities than the passing fancies of a temporal life.  Like every addict we must remember that our sickness is always prone to resurgence, and we are in constant need of the Medicine of Immortality which our Lord Jesus Christ delivers to us through His Word and Sacraments.  Daily we are called to drown that old addicted nature of ours, and rise up in the new life which Jesus Himself pours into us through His Blood shed upon His Cross.  Daily we are called to the humility of faith which receives the pure gift of the Gospel, and repentance which turns with contrition from our sins toward the holiness of our God.  There in His grace by faith, we will see the terrifying yet just judgment of God falling all around us, but we will only behold it with our eyes—for the Blood of Christ will cover His People like the blood of the Paschal Lamb once covered the Hebrews in Egypt, even as the Angel of Death descended.

In Lent, we are called to remember that we are sin addicts, unable to save ourselves from the poison which courses through our veins, nor the judgment which rightly comes upon the whole world—and that we are no greater or lesser than the other addicts whom God calls through His Gospel to receive His saving, healing Means of Grace.  Together we come from east and west, north and south, and from every walk of life to mortify the lusts of our addiction in the waters of Holy Baptism, and receive the saving balm of grace through Absolution and the Eucharist.  May we join our fellow addicts at Christ’s Altar to receive in humility, faith, and repentance the medicine which He gives to save us all, and pray in fervent intercession for the people of the whole world to escape the judgment which is quickly coming.  Amen.