Rest in the Shadow of the Almighty

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." (Psalm 91:1-2)   Pastor Michael talked yesterday about finding a home in God.  A place to dwell.  It's the theme of Psalm 90: God is our home.  But it is also the theme of Psalm 91, a reflection and promise of what home with God really means.  God guards, protects, and saves those who make their home in him.  God gives shelter in the storm, shade in the heat and ultimately, a place to rest.  This is what it means to have a home with God: a safe place to rest.  A place where you are known, loved, saved from the distresses and sufferings and evils of life.  A place of peace.  A home. So whoever seeks to dwell in the shelter of the Most High finds this rest.  This place of home, of peace, of belonging.  These are the gifts of making one's home with God. Here's the thing though: we learn in the New Testament that God also desires to make his home with us.  And that is a very good thing indeed, because having a ready home with God does not always mean that we seek that home or even dwell very often in that home.  There are a million ways that we attempt to make our own home. We build homes of belonging with our workplace or career.  We make homes of protection and security out of our accumulation of wealth, pursuit of good health, or our relational connections.  We pursue our own means to rest through increasingly elaborate leisure activities that leave us, our relationships, and our bank accounts wiped.  And of course, there are other shelters of escape that we might pursue too: like secret or addictive ones.  Houses that our own desires and temptations lead us back to more than we care to admit. But God knows this of us.  Since the Garden of Eden we have been slow to accept a home with God "as is" and have reached for something more or different, winning nothing but exile for ourselves from the only home that could ever give us rest, joy, and peace.  Indeed: the devil tempted Jesus with the words of this very Psalm to try to get him to make a home somewhere other than in a trusting relationship with God the Father.  But Jesus didn't fall for that.  No: the Word had became flesh in Jesus Christ in order to "move into the neighbourhood" as Eugene Peterson puts it in his Message translation.  And in so doing, God made his home with us.  And now, through Christ, our own bodies and hearts become homes where the Holy Spirit himself dwells, taking up residence within us.  Having run away from home—our good home in the shelter of the Most High—that home has come to find us, to save us, to guard us, to protect us from ourselves and all the other evils of this world so that we might find just the rest that we have been searching and longing for all along.  May you find this rest in the shelter of the Almighty today.