God Drops The Mic

One of my favorite pages in any bible or prayer book is the one that contains Psalm 91. I read that psalm just about every day because it is included in The Book of Common Prayer’s Compline service, which is part of my nightly bedtime prayers.
The psalm is one of those through which God’s love for us just cannot be contained, bursting like brilliantly shimmering fireworks in the night sky, drenching us like this week’s rain.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.

“He shall say to the Lord,
‘You are my refuge and my stronghold,
my God in whom I put my trust.

“He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter
and from the deadly pestilence.

“He shall cover you with his pinions,
and you shall find refuge under his wings;
his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler,” the psalm declares in its first four verses.

In those beginning verses, a third-person voice is stating what God will do for us. And this “third party” continues speaking through, and including, verse 13 which reads:

“You shall tread upon the lion and adder;
you shall trample the young lion and the serpent
under your feet.”

Then, however, it’s as if God can no longer be content listening to someone else declare how much love is there for us in God’s heart and what God is hoping to do for us if given the chance.
Suddenly, the third-person voice telling the psalm’s story vanishes and, in the 14th verse, God picks up the spiritual microphone and speaks directly to us, emphatically, holding nothing back.
And anyone doubting Jesus’ testimony that God is love should pay close attention to what God chooses to say first:

“Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him….”

Bound in love. Not fear.
There is no demand, no conditions.
Just love.
We are bound to God in love and God is bound to us in love.
God could not wait to see if the third-person voice in Psalm 91 would make that clear. So God said it directly, stepping out of the wings onto center stage.

“Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.

“He shall call upon me, and I will deliver him;
I am with him in trouble;
I will satisfy him,
and show him my salvation.”

God is not content to wait in the wings of our lives, either. God is stepping out onto our life’s center stage with us—whatever and wherever that may be.
Because we are bound to God in love.
And that is all we need to take the next step forward today and tomorrow. In Psalm 91, God drops the microphone and opens that love up wider than the widest sea.