He and Me

03.01.15

Psalm 91.14 14 “Because he holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My name. – Anonymous (ESV)

Recently in a Bible study for some of the youth of our church we studied the Bible as a whole. We looked at the fact that the Bible was written by 40 different authors over a period of about 1500 years. (Actually, I think it is better to say the Bible was authored by One Author with forty different writers over a period of about 1500 years.) That would explain the continuity of the Bible which is not a book, but a collection of Books.

In one of the studies we looked at the Poetic books of the Bible and found that not all of the Psalms were written by King David. To be sure, many of them were, but not all. Psalm 91 is the second Psalm of the fourth book of the Psalms. Moses wrote Psalm 90 (or at least it is attributed to him). Psalm 91, the second psalm of Book 4 is anonymous. And Psalm 91 begins with the word, He.

Psalm 91, is not written in the third person; it is a first-person possessive: the first stanza being:

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

I describes ‘He’ and says of he, that if he dwells in the shelter of the Most High (God), then he will dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. I then says, I will say to (or of) the Lord, “My refuge and fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” I knows a lot about he. And I knows that he (anonymously) does the best thing he could ever do by dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. And I sums it up perfectly by telling us what he does: I tells us what he thinks about God.

Farther down in the psalm I becomes a different I and he remains the same. I, in verse 14, becomes God, and God says of he: “Because he holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My name.” The ESV doesn’t capitalize the pronouns of Deity like the NASB does, so I did to make the important distinction in this part of the psalm of who I and he and My and Me. And that is the basis of what happens to he when he knows and trusts God: God will deliver him and God will protect him because he knows His name.

It’s not just calling God, God; it’s calling God by Name, and by relationship: my God, the God whom I know and trust and expect to take care of me as I live out my life. Me knows that He will care for him all the days of his life because He knows that he knows His name. He knows that he knows where to turn for all of the days of his meager life in the strength and presence of Him.

I’m having fun today playing with words because I identify with he and me and I know where I stand with Him. I dwell in the shelter of the Most High because the Most High has allowed me to know He exists and I am safe with Him whenever, wherever, forever.

Father, thank You for the shelter in which to dwell and the shadow in which to stand. You have my back and will deliver me because he is me, and he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. Amen!