by Carol Dixon
In recent days and weeks, I have been drawn to this beautiful Psalm and usually read it over each morning when I wake.
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the King of kings, will rest in the shelter of the mighty powerful God
I will say of this Lord of my life, my heavenly Father, my refuge and my fortress,
You are my Creator, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91 v 1-2)
The translation above is the beginning of the Psalm which gives the different names for God (Elyon, Shaddai, Yahweh, Elohim) describing all the different aspects of God’s character. No one knows who wrote this Psalm but as Psalm 90 is attributed to Moses, it was often believed that he was the author of this beautiful psalm too. It is a great psalm of consolation in times of adversity as this abridged version shows:
Psalm 91
He who lives in the protection of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, whom I trust. “
He will surely save you.He covers you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield.
You do not fear the terror of the night,
not the pestilence that steals in the dark;
nor the plague that destroys at noon.
If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and dwell in the presence of the Most High,
no harm will pass you,
no disaster will come near you.For he will command his angels about you
to protect you in all your ways;
They will lift you in their hands,
so you don’t hurt your foot against a rock;
“For he loves who me, says the LORD,” I will strengthen him;
I will protect him, because he recognizes my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him, says the Lord;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honour him.
With long life, I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation. “
In these difficult times it is good to remember the all- encompassing love of God who strengthens us in our fear and suffers with each one of us in our pain as a parent does for each of their children.
As you read through it slowly, line by line, you may like to think about which part of the poem resonates with you today. Which phrase do you want to treasure in your heart just now? Are there any lines that challenge you? Then rest in the embracing arms of God who loves you as you listen to this uplifting song based on the timeless words:
In the Passion Translation the final verses read:
15 I will answer your cry for help every time you pray,
and you will find and feel my presence
even in your time of pressure and trouble.
I will honour you and give you a feast.
16 You will be satisfied with a full life and with all that I do for you.
For you will enjoy the fullness of my salvation!”
In our times of uncertainty and fear, let us savour this Psalm of protection and faith, safe in the knowledge that God’s eternal presence is with us. Remember God loves you and no matter what happens you are God’s precious child.
Postscript: In the UK, during the coronavirus outbreak, we have been encouraged to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice as we wash our hands. I hope you enjoy singing my version:
God protect us each day,
As we walk in your way,
In the footsteps of Jesus,
Our strength and our stay.
Peggy Angel by Carol Dixon
by Lisa DeRosa
David and Pam Pott
We are excited to join David Pott on Easter Sunday with Sing Resurrection! This is an international initiative to have Christians gather “together” on Easter at 10am to sing Jesus Christ is Risen Today and Thine Be The Glory. Through the many connections that David has, he will be in 14 radio interviews during this process in church communities throughout Britain and Ireland. Help spread the word about this creative and joyful initiative that connects all of us during this time of social distancing and isolation. Share on your social media networks! We need this unity this Easter!
“Easter Sunday 2020 will be an Easter Sunday like no other before it. We cannot sing the great Easter hymns inside our churches, but we can sing them in this way…
At 10am on Easter Sunday 12 April 2020, we call on all who want to celebrate the resurrection to go outside and sing Jesus Christ is Risen Today and Thine be the Glory at the top of their voices! You could sing them…
- in your garden
- in your street
- like an Italian from your balcony!
- on your permitted daily walk in your local park
- by the sea or by a lake
…all of course keeping safe spatial distance.
If you are planning a live streaming service, why not also include these hymns at 10am, so that your viewers can step outside and sing at the same time.”
We hope you will join this “counter-infection of hope and joy” initiative and feel connected to the Church as the body of Christ this Easter!
For more information including a flier to share and the hymn lyrics, please visit Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
by Christine Sine
Over the last few days, I have been meditating on Psalm 91 and thought that you would enjoy some of my reflections which resulted in the writing of the prayer above.
I also thought that it was easier to share this as a video but below have included some of the close up photos of my contemplation garden which also came out of these reflections, as these details are not obvious in the video. And please let me know what you think. Would you like to see more videos?
Owl wing (c) Christine Sine
Under God’s wings
Psalm 91 Meditation Garden
God is good
Spread God’s light
St Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle has once more provided us with a wonderfully enriching Taize experience with Cherry Hairston
“Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710756.””
Ironically one of the positive impacts of COVID-19 is a reduction of pollution and an improvement of air quality. Seed companies are overwhelmed because people are once more turning to the earth and to gardening as a release for stress and as a fun thing to do. As we approach the 50th celebration of Earth Day it is good for us to remember this. (And don’t forget tonight is Earth Hour – so turn off your lights for an hour and have some fun while you do so. )
I love this version of the Lord’s Prayer that reflects this
Our mother,
which art the earth,
Nurturing are thy ways.
Thy web of life be woven
Thy way be found within,
As it is all around.
Thank you this day for our daily bread and sweat
and forgive us our misuse of you,
as we forgive others their misuse of us.
And lead us not into exploitation,
But deliver us
From lording it over you,
And over each other,
And over all our other fellow creatures.
For thine are the waters of life,
The hills, valleys and plains of home,
The breeding, seeding, feeding ground,
For now, and for as close to forever
As we will ever come.
Ah, woman!
Our Father, Mother,
who are in the world and surpass the world,
Blessed be your presence,
in us, in animals and flowers,
in still air and wind.
May justice and peace dwell among us,
as you come to us.
Your will be our will;
Your will that we be sisters and brothers,
as bread is bread, water is itself,
For our hunger, for quenching of thirst.
Forgive us.
We walk crookedly in the world,
are perverse, and fail of our promise.
But we would be human,
if only you consent to stir up our hearts.
Amen.
EARTH DANCE based on the Lord’s Prayer published in Minnesota Women’s Press, December 1999 Author thought to be Karen Loveland, as member of Unity Church, Santa Rosa, CA Passed on in 2000 by Nancy Carroll
By Taflin Fisher –
In this moment take stock of the treasure of creation.
In pink blossoms lie the promise of sweet juicy peaches.
In ground cover, rain, fungi and earthworms is the promise of living soil for spring planting.
In seeds carefully saved from last year’s produce is the spark of new life.
Treasure the sunshine! Reach and grow and stretch up to the sun!
Treasure the rain! Feel the tickle as it runs down your face. Lift your eyes to cloud and rainbow and feel God’s promise to be with us always.
Treasure the moon! Benevolent ruler of tides and cycles of birth. Gentle light of the night.
Treasure the stars! They guide our way by night and lend an element of magic to the skies.
Treasure the wind! It blows to spread seeds far and wide. To clean out last year’s leaves from trees waiting to bud and to make the Earth fresh.
Treasure the waters! Mineral rich, they tumble and splash through watershed, river and creek. All life exists because of the gift of water.
Treasure our bodies! Able to tend the soil, plant the seeds, harvest and preserve the gifts of the garden. We bow our heads in thanks for this gift, whether our ability allows us a small windowsill garden or acres.
Treasure creatures who share this Earth with us! Our beloved companions, those who give us milk and eggs, and those who are wild and free.
Treasure our Earth! Tiny blue and green sphere spinning in the galaxy. Our home sweet home. Mountains, valleys, plains and oceans teeming with all life. Able to sustain and nourish us. Home!
Treasure all peoples and cultures!
Learn from each other. From new scientific breakthroughs to the wisdom of the ancients. Grow together. Respect, delight in and care for one another.
Most of all, treasure our Creator! With us always. Love in purest form. Coaxing us to be co-creators, caregivers and healers of the earth we are so blessed to share.
In this moment be awed by all this creation! Let your heart store up these treasures and be glad.
By Keren Dibbens Wyatt —
“If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” Romans 14:8 NIV
The world seems fearful right now. Things feel out of our control (because they are). We don’t have any training except in media-hyped panic and we are falling foul of the invitations to hoard and make sure we are marked safe in the war on contagion. Death is fine if we can keep it “over there” somehow, at a distance, like an old woman who lives at the end of the road. We nod at her sometimes, we see her out of the corner of our eye as we run to the next errand, the next appointment, the next job, but we don’t really look, just in case she has something to say. The last thing we want is to be neighbourly with the one whom St Francis called Sister Death.
We Christians have, in the west, been guilty for many years of thinking Jesus is like a kind of spiritual Domestos, that he will kill all the germs and keep us safe and that it is only the poor people abroad in those other, far-flung, not-remotely-like-ours places who will die, hopefully quietly and off camera.
But those of us who have been living in various states of isolation for a long time, those of us who are chronically sick and who have asked Jesus for help and have found him, rarely healing us, but more often climbing down into the plague pit with us, those of us who are well-used to looking death in the face, and finding only a sweet smile, we have some things to say to our fellow disciples who are scared.
Don’t be.
You know all those poems you have heard at funerals that tell you your beloved dead are only in the next room? Thought they are steeped in metaphor, they are not wrong. You know all those hymns that sing of heaven as a real and glorious place full of praise and light? They are not selling you a lie.
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Luke 20:38 NIV
Death is a part of life just as Winter is one of the seasons. And Resurrection, just like Spring, is a real and certain living hope.
We all want to carry on living our earthly lives. Though if you are comfortable, you might be surprised at how many of the sick and poor are quite keen on passing through into something better. Death might sometimes be called a doorway or a rebirth, and so it is. But we spend so long avoiding the very thought of it, that such sentiments seem silly and twee, even to some brought up as Christians. We don’t really believe all that hokum, do we, about heaven and that? Somehow, it’s become a bit like believing in Father Christmas, a nice idea but we all know that’s not how things are.
Well, maybe now is a good time to sit with the idea that it’s all true. That this is part of the Good News. Maybe now we might quieten ourselves down and decide whether we really believe what Jesus told us, that we might, if we die, be that very day in Paradise with him. Maybe now is a time to sit and ponder how we might want to live now, if we really believe that we are going home to God when our earthly time is done.
Perhaps then we might be less afraid of dying and more concerned about not having lived for Christ. We all have an opportunity to make this pandemic a turning point in our faith and in our relationship with the Lord at the same time as taking necessary precautions. Maybe we have a little extra time that could be turned to prayer, or to loving our fellow humans and any creatures in need. Maybe we could be a witness to the love of God and the eternal nature of his kingdom by standing firm and sure in our hope of “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” that we profess to believe in each time we recite the Apostles’ Creed.
We may have less to lose, and more to gain, than we think.
Image from Pixabay
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