Meditation for May Belle McIntyre's Memorial Service

Psalm 91 NIV

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

John 11:21–27 NIV

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Revelation 21:1–6 NIV

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

May Belle’s family asked me to select some Scripture readings for our service this afternoon and also to select a particular passage to base my meditation on. The passage which I’d like to reflect on with you this afternoon is Psalm 91 in particular and I hope as I go though it you will see why.

Perhaps you noticed when we read Psalm 91, this psalm begins and ends with verses that are like two bookends. (Change GENDER)

"He who 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.”" (Ps 91:1-2)

““Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”” (Psalm 91:14–16, NIV)

Throughout the years that I’ve known May Belle, from the time in 2009 when she was walking on her own with the help of some canes, to later with a walker, then in a wheelchair, then completely bedridden, throughout the years I’ve known May Belle to have a strong but quiet confidence that her life rested in the shadow of the Almighty. She knew the Lord to be with her in trouble, and knew the Lord to be her refuge and fortress.

The bookends of Psalm 91 express for me the faith of May Belle’s heart.

As you think of many memorable people in the Bible; names like Moses, David, Samuel, Jeremiah, Abraham, Jacob…. the theme of refuge and protection in God is a theme that lies at the very heart of Scripture’s message. At the very beginning of the story, God subdues the forces of chaos, and darkness and creates a sanctuary of beauty and shalom to be the place of refuge and rest for the first human pair, Adam and Eve. In spite of their disobedience and rebellion, God would not destroy humanity completely, but spared Noah and his family in the fortress of an ark to carry them through the waves of judgement and destruction. He guarded the people of Israel with force-field like protection as they passed through the Red Sea on dry land to escape the enslavement of the Egyptians.

Story after story in the Bible, whether it’s protection given to one person like David when he was fleeing from the armies of Saul, or its protection given to an entire nation as when they fought their enemies in the wilderness under the protective praying arms of Moses .... story after story, we read of God giving refuge and protection to his people.

Our dear May Belle knew deep in her spirit of the refuge and protection of God. When I visited her she always had a smile on her face. She rarely complained. She was always grateful for various members of our congregation and for the assistance she received at times from her church family. I remember with her the significance of her move from her apartment in New West, where she still lived independently, to her move to Harmony Court, into a room that was considerably smaller. This was a considerable change. She was a very independent woman who did her very best to care for herself. That was a hard move. Yet she submitted herself to the Lord and trusted in Him for grace.

The Psalmist writes “Because she loves me, I will rescue her.” I know May Belle believed that with all her heart.

But this Psalm does raise questions though, doesn’t it? As May Belle could testify to in her own life, and many of us who are here today with her, there are many situations in life in which God’s people do experience harm.... and yet this Psalm suggests that “no harm will befall you” “no disaster will come near your tent” “you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

There are certainly moments in our life when we wish that God would absolutely ensure that no harm would befall us in any way.

But is that really the kind of God we need? Think about that for a moment. If belief in God was like a divine insurance policy, or an unbreakable safety net, or an impenetrable security blanket... is that really the kind of god we need? If God were the kind of God that we loved mainly because of the benefits it afforded us... is that really the kind of relationship we would want?

Would we want that of our own children? Children who loved us because of what we could do for them, rather than children who loved us simply for love’s sake?

No the protection of God for us goes much deeper than simply a prevention of harm and hardship.... that was something May Belle knew deeply. God’s protection is a protection that comes in the midst of harm and hardship... it is felt most deeply perhaps when we feel most helpless. It’s a protection that doesn’t merely remove hardship... it disarms hardship.

Think about that phrase, “Disarms hardship” for a moment.

I like the way Neil Plantinga, one of my Seminary professors captures this picture of refuge in a sermon that he wrote, and perhaps some of you will have heard me share this before. The picture comes from Psalm 91:4 (NIV)

4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge;

And he draws on the picture of a barnyard fire… what does a mother hen do in the presence of such a grave threat? She draws all her chicks close underneath her protective wings..... with that picture in mind, listen to what Plantinga writes,

“We are like fledglings who scuttle under the wings of their parent. The forces of evil beat on those wings with everything they have. The pitchforks of the evil one, falling tree limbs in the storm, rain and hail—everything beats on those wings. When it is finished, when evil has done its worst, those wings are all bloodied and busted and hanging at wrong angles. And, to tell you the truth, in all the commotion we get roughed up quite a lot.

But no final evil can get to us because those wings have never folded. [now Plantinga is inviting us to imagine the outstretched arms of Jesus Christ on the cross…] The wings that never folded are spread out to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised by our iniquities. And when the feathers quit flying, we peep out and discover that we have been in the only place that was not leveled. Yes, we have been bumped and bruised and hurt. Sometimes badly hurt. But the other choice was to be dead. I mean that the other choice was to break out of the embrace of God. The truth is that, …Plantinga goes on to say…. that, if we had not stayed under those wings we could never have felt the body shudders and heard the groans of the one who loved us so much that those wings stayed out there no matter what came whistling in. This is the One who protects us from final evil, now and in the life to come—the life in which, at last, it is safe for God to fold his wings.”[1]

The psalm invites us to continually place our confidence and trust in God, and certainly the whole Bible calls us to do that. All of Scripture invites us to continually call upon God for protection, for deliverance, for rescue.. . but notice this.... the last word of the psalm is not our word to God, it's God’s Word to us. The last word is not spoken BY us, but TO us.

The last words of God to the psalmist and that means to all of us who are willing to put our trust in him, are words of caring protection. When we can no longer speak, when all our striving and journeying comes to an end, we need to hear God's final word to us. "Because she loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue her." I find that aspect of this psalm to be very powerful…especially when I think of how in the last season of May Belle’s life she could really no longer use words to communicate..... God said to her, “Because she loves me, I will rescue her.”

The psalmist says that those who “dwell in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

This afternoon all of us are invited to ask: Where will we turn, when the arrows fly, when the terror comes, when plague and pestilence lurks, when enemies surround. To whom will we turn when the enemies of life encroach and leave us feeling helpless and alone? "They who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty!" God's Word urges us to turn to Jesus Christ, the son of the Most High God.

There was a time in Jesus' ministry when those very dear to him questioned his judgement and doubted his decision. After Jesus’ dear friend Lazarus had died, his disciples urged him not to return to Judea, “Rabbi,” they said to him, “the Jews there tried to stone you and yet you are going back?” And even Martha said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

“Your brother will rise again.” Jesus said to Martha. Our sister, May Belle will rise again…..he says to us here today. “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whomever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

This my friends are Jesus’ words to us on this day. “Whomever lives by believing in me will never die.”

"Because she loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue her; I will protect her, for she acknowledges my name. She will call upon me, and I will answer her; I will be with her in trouble, I will deliver her and honor her. With long life [and through the work of Jesus Christ that should read, with eternal life] I satisfy her and show her my salvation."

To us gathered here, we are urged to receive these words ourselves once again, or perhaps for some here for the first time. The psalmist says, "Trust in God." Jesus says, "Trust in me, in my Father's house there are many mansions, and I am going there to prepare a place for you." If you call on me, I will answer you.. . . I will rescue, I will deliver, I will protect, I will be with him, I will honor, I will satisfy, I will show.. . .. Friends, these are the words of eternal life.. . . believe them with all your heart and you will be saved.

AMEN.

[1] http://www.calvin.edu/worship/services/series/lent_journey/03_26_06.php