Psalms 91:10: “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”
This is the first mention of evil in this Psalm. We have pestilence, arrows, and terrors by day and night, destruction and thousands falling but the Psalmist has yet to mention anything about evil until now. Praytell, are not all these thing mentioned beforehand evil? Do we really need this verse to remind us that no evil will befall us. I mean that seems to be the theme of this Psalm.
Let’s take a look at this word for evil that is used here in the Hebrew. Why lookie here, it is the word ra’ah, the very same word used in the twenty third Psalm for shepherd. So no shepherd will befall us. Another use of the word is friend. Perhaps this means that no friend will befall us, we will be friendless, like let’s praise the Lord. I recently had to fill out an application and I was supposed to list six friends that are not relatives nor people I work with. I could not even think of two. I thought “Oh my gosh, I am friendless.” I am afraid that thought did not encourage me to praise the Lord, nor did I consider it one of the great advantages to trusting God. I mean there is no comfort in reading that no friend will befall or meet up with me.
The word ra’ah also means to delight in and take pleasure in. So is this verse saying that if we put our trust in God we will have no delight or pleasure? Another use of the word is a lover. If we trust in God we will have no delights or pleasures?
I know what you are thinking and you are absolutely right, none of these English words that the lexicon gives us for ra’ah fits the context. We are looking for a word which is negative in nature, not positive. Well, ra’ah, as with many Hebrew words, can have both a negative and positive meaning and you must refer to the context to determine which it will be.
On a negative side we learn that this word ra’ah has in its Semitic roots the idea of feeding and consuming. The idea of friends, companions, shepherd or lover speaks of a passion for something or someone. In its purest form ra’ah has the idea of a consuming passion. If sheep have a consuming passion for their shepherd or the shepherd for his sheep, that is not too evil. Neither do we consider a friend or lover having a consuming passion as evil. Under most circumstances that is something good. But if you have a consuming passion for drugs, alcohol or gambling, that can be evil.
So we are introduced to a new danger out there that will not befall us, that is the danger of a consuming passion. David said it best in Psalms 23:1: “The Lord is my shepherd (ra’ah consuming passion) I don’t want anything else.” When our consuming passion is for the Lord the things of this world do not hold that much importance.
Christians are living in constant fear that the economy will collapse, they will have no job and no money, they will lose their homes, their cars, all their property will vanish and they are scared and frightened. Yet this Psalm is telling us that if our consuming passion is God then no other consuming passion will befall us.
The word befall is the word ‘anah in Hebrew which means to meet up or encounter. In the Aramaic it means to come to the right time, reach maturity, to have an opportunity. Thus, no consuming passion will meet up with us. There may be people out there who are consumed with the idea of hurting us but the promise is that they will never have an opportunity to reach us. But I think it is more than this. We can have a passion for our house or our car but if it is not consuming passion, we will not live in fear of losing the house or car. If it is a consuming passion we will worry about every little pipe or roof leak on the house or dent in the car. This unreasonable passion for temporal things will not reach us or meet up with us if we are sheltered in the shadow of His wings.
I drove a forty eight year old woman to the retina specialist yesterday in my disability bus. She was losing her eye sight but was hopeful that the doctor would have good news. Her appointment took longer than expected so she was my only passenger as I had to wait after hours for her. I waited for her in the waiting room and when she came out I knew instantly the news was not good. As we got on the bus she said: “It was not the news I wanted to hear, the doctor said I would go blind and there was nothing they could do.” I decided to play the pastor role and sat with her for a while as she wept and talk out her fears. Then all of a sudden she said: “You know what, I know Jesus, and I love Him. As long as I have Him it will be ok. Her countenance instantly changed and she even appeared to be somewhat joyful.”
When her passions focused on her life, her future, her finances and her son she was in despair. She may have had a passion for her life, her future, her finances and of course for her son but when she allowed God to be her consuming passion she was not in despair.
The promise is that if we find out shelter in the shadow of His wings, we will not become consumed with temporal things. We may have a passion for some things, but they will not consume us.
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