Psalms 91:16 “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”

We have reached the end of Psalms 91 and here at the very end God says that He will show us His salvation. The question is, what is this salvation?  Are we speaking of the salvation of our eternal souls through the work of Jesus Christ?  Is this really a prophecy of the Messiah who is to come and bring us our salvation or deliverance from the penalty of our sins?  The word salvation in Hebrew is yashua which is the Hebrew name for Jesus.  Yet it also means deliverance, help security, prosperity and victory.  Within the context we find that it would most likely refer to the troubles and difficulties mentioned in this Psalm and then this Psalm concludes that we will see our deliverance from all of these dangers.

I see absolutely no reason why it could not be referring to both.  Our salvation through Jesus Christ as well as our salvation from the dangers to our soul. The very nature of poetry invites the idea of double meanings so why not a double meaning here?  Are we so embedded with our modern Western technological and mathematical society that we cannot for a moment enter into a world of poetry, a world filled with abstract metaphors where 2+2 may not always equal 4.  Poetry is art, art can be filled with a multiple of meanings and ambiguity.  So I say let’s spread the table cloth to cover both sides of the table.

This then brings up the question as to why does the Psalmist say that He will show us His salvation.  Why does it not say that He will give us our salvation,  Perhaps that also fits the double meaning. Our salvation in Jesus Christ is yet future when this Psalm was written but how about our present danger.  I think I would like to have that salvation right now, some it will do me now to just be shown my deliverance, how about getting it right now.

There is a possible conclusion I would like to explore.  The word for show is ra’ah which means to see, to perceive, to glimpse.   This could be both spiritual and physical.  So we will see our deliverance from our present trouble with our physical eyes and our spiritual salvation with our spiritual eyes.

Now the conclusion I would like to explore is this.  Why does the writer say see?  How can you see salvation.  You can feel salvation, you can experience salvation or you can receive salvation, but how do you see it.  There is another use of this word ra’ah and that is a vision.  This is not your standard word for vision which is chazah. This is a vision which involves both a physical and spiritual seeing.

Physicist are playing around with things that fifty years ago would have been considered fantasy.  Yet they are actually discussing things like alternative universes and other dimensions.  In fact there are some physicist working on the Hadron Collider in Switzerland who actually theorizes that they may open a portal or doorway to another dimension.  Sure it is just a theory, but the fact that learned PhD’s, some of the most brilliant people in the world are actually even suggesting such a theory lends some creditability to some of our teachings in Christianity.

My study partner is doing a study on this for her dreams and vision classes and if we treat her nicely maybe she will put up a podcast on her Dream and Vision Interpretation class which follows the idea that all dream and vision interpretation must be Scriptural based.   So I will not steal her thunder and will only share what is relevant to this passage.  My study partner suggested that a vision could really be a glimpse into true reality.  In a sense we are living in a sort of matrix in the physical world.  I believe God created our spirits at the time of our birth into this physical world.  He placed us in this temporal world to prepare us for the ultimate reality which is the supernatural world where we will spend eternity.  Our spirit is what is eternal not infinite. Infinite means no beginning or end which is what God is.  Our spirits have a beginning at the time of our physical birth.  Eternal means a beginning but no end. Our spirits have no end only a beginning.  When we were born God put our spirit into a human body which was neither eternal nor infinite and stuck us in this world to prepare us for eternity with Him.

To us in this natural world this is our present reality because that is all we know.  Yet the true reality is the world of the supernatural.  I believe a vision is allowing us to see the true reality, it is a glimpse into the supernatural world.

Ezekiel was translated into the temple and he could see creatures that the priest in the temple could not see.  He could see what they were really worshipping.  He was having a vision which gave him a glimpse into the real world, the reality and that was that these priest were worshipping demons.

Sounds crazy, no?   Like I said just a thought but you know I find that what I experience as I continue my journey to the heart of God is that the closer I get to God’s heart, the more unreal this world becomes and the more real the supernatural world becomes. I believe I can actually see my Salvation.  Oh, there are areas I need to be rescued such as financial areas, health areas, relationship areas, areas similar to most if not all of us.  I could some use salvation in these areas, but when I look to my ultimate Salvation, I find that is the only salvation I really need.

So I will end this study of Psalms 91 by stating my understanding of this whole Psalm can be summed up in the last part of Psalms 91:16:  I will not live in fear because I know one day I will see my Salvation face to face for  Jesus Christ is my Salvation, my true realty.  Every problem I faced in this world is just a shadow as C.S. Lewis called it. The problems I have today are not my reality.  In a few years they will mean nothing, they are not eternal.  For me the only thing that is real is what is eternal and I have that in Jesus Christ my Salvation.

NOTE:  TOMORROW I WILL BEGIN MY HEBRAIC STUDY ON PSALMS 103