Psalms 91:15:  “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I [will be] with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”

 

We are getting toward the end of this Psalm which has instructed us just what type of relationship we should have with God if we expect all the rescuing and protection He is talking about in this Psalm.  Ultimately what this Psalm is saying is that God has everything covered for our protection if we have that special relationship with Him. We need not fear any man or demon when we are under the protection of God.

 

We have also seen in this Psalm what constitutes this relationship with God that will provide this protection.  This is more than just going to church on Sunday and reciting some prayers, giving a tithe and behaving ourselves.  Yet, that is exactly the way a lot of people view their relationship with God.  He is way out there with a check list keeping close watch on what we are doing.  If we score enough points then when we die and enter the Pearly Gates we will be met by Jesus who will say: “Oy, what good things you’ve done for me Bunkie, come, come choose door number one, door number two or door number three to claim your reward.”

 

However, this is not some game or competition to see how big a reward we can get at the end of the line.  It is a story about a relationship with a God who loves us and only wants us to return that love.  We find that this relationship is built on trust, betach which is welding ourselves to Him or melting ourselves into Him and He melts into us.  It is a chashaq relationship, a love relationship that has bonded us together with God and His passionate love.  It is a love that is perfect, that is it is a love that is complete with both parties loving each other, it is a love that has matured.

 

When we have reached this level of love in our relationship then we can call upon him and he will answer us.  This word for call is qara’ which has a wide range of usage.  It could be a call for help, it could be a call to make a proclamation, and it could be simply an invitation.  It could be a cry for an answer.  Only the context will tell you what type of call you are dealing with.   In this case you have God answering you when you make this type of qara’.  The word for answer is ‘anah which means to pay attention, to respond, to give a reply.  The word is used in a simple Qal form  so it is really a mild type of response.  This calling on Him and His answering is sort of conversational type calling, you know: “Hey Lord, I am not sure about this next move I am to make, got any ideas?”   When you are bonded with God in a love relationship you are able to carry on a conversation like a man would with his wife, “Hey honey, got an offer for a promotion but we would have to move out of state, what do you think?”   In a bonded relationship God is not just someone you run to when layoff notices start coming around and someone pokes their head in your cube and says; “Human resources wants to see you, an, uh, bring your brief case.”  Then you start really praying: “Oh, God, oh God.”  In a bonded relationship you will hear God speak before you have a chance to cry out and He will say; “Not to worry, I’ve got you in the palm of my hand.  It is just time for your next assignment from me.”   Remember, Psalms 91 is all about not living in fear and you don’t when you are welded to him and bonded to Him in a love relationship where you call him by that special name that flows from your heart.

 

I don’t know about you, but what really impresses me about this verse is that it is God Himself talking, I mean this came straight from Him.  You can almost feel his longing and desire to communicate with us and come to our aid.  I recall a student who was a young married student and his wife was pregnant with their first child.  This kid sacrificed heavily to care for his wife and prepare for their new baby.  I even had to help him find some used books that he needed for my class as he could not afford new books. You could tell which students were really making a sacrifice to attend school and those who were getting a free ride.  This was one student who counted every dime and would go without many things he needed to pay his school bill and take care of his family.  He was pretty handy with mechanics and I had him do a brake job on my car. He only asked for the cost of parts, but I paid him what I would have paid a professional mechanic. When I finally convinced him to accept this he said: “Oh boy, I can take Jenny to dinner.”  I could think of a number of things he could have used the money for on himself, starting with his clothes and shoes which were full of holes in the soles, but his only thought was on doing something for his wife.

 

I used to get all sorts of excuses from students who had to miss class for various reasons.  But there was one excuse that I always accepted and that is when a student said: “My wife called…”  I didn’t need to hear anymore because I knew if his wife called this student would be worthless in class, his mind and his attention would be on his wife and not on some Hebrew prefix.

 

This is what I get from these words: “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him:”  Putting it into modern English: “If he just whistles, I’ll come a runnin’” You see He is a God of love, he invented love, he created us with the ability to love like He loves.  So you see if a young student can love his little wife so much that he will neglect his own soles just to treat his sweetheart to dinner and God created that kind of love, then He wants to be a part of our daily life just as that student wanted his wife to be a part of his daily life and he would not think of making any important decision without consulting her because he loves her and when she calls upon him, forget the old professor, the Hebrew class, he is answering her and I would expect no less from him.  So too with God when we call on Him, Iran may be ready to release a nuke but God will put it all on hold to answer us.

Subscribe to our free Daily Hebrew Word Study for in-depth commentary using Biblical Hebrew!

* indicates required