“If you make the Most High your dwelling—then no harm will befall you—for He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all ways; they will lift you up in their hands” (Psalm 91:9).
Funerals for the beloved departed begin with the words of this psalm of confidence and trust. Nothing is to trouble us, not even death itself. Why should we be afraid if we have trust in the One who promised to send angels to catch us as we drift through the unknown regions beyond this life, taking us in hand and transporting us to Him who created us? A profound promise indeed, and at the same time a test of our faith in the Lord.
It happens at times that we are tempted with the thought that all our faith is for nothing, the Bible merely poetry for the gullible disguising the raw truth of nothingness, once this brief life is over, a sugar coating over a cyanide capsule. This is why we pray with our spiritual family members when they are aware that their death is not far off, and for them, so that they will rise to the occasion. We ask the unseen aid of the Holy Spirit to encourage them from within their hearts not to surrender to the negative spirits of darkness and confusion who constantly prompt them with visions of despair.
It ought to provide confidence just to know that Jesus also was tested by Satan at the time when He challenged Himself to overcome the powers holding humanity in the grip of fear and death. The devil used these wonderful words of comfort in knowing of God’s gracious love for us, twisting them into a provocation: Why not see for yourself how much God loves you? Of course you have faith; yet how much more comforting just to know that angels really are standing by waiting to be invited to save you. Wouldn’t you like to know, to be sure?
Jesus was too shrewd to fall into that trap of deceit. He chose not to argue with the prince of liars, recognizing that the holy words of scripture were pointedly distorted by the same source of the perverted invitation once offered to Adam and Eve.
What lesson lies here for us as we contemplate the end of our life on earth? First, that like Jesus we too ought not to argue with the satanic whispers advising us to test God by demanding what is not being offered. To Jesus it was a foolhardy risk of life for dramatic effect. For us it may be the wishful demand for a complete restoration of health at a time when the Lord had determined that our time of life is completed.
Next, if indeed we “make the Most High our dwelling,” it’s spiritually illogical that we should be adverse to responding to His call to rise and go to that High Place when we are called. Is it for Him to prolong our life here on earth out of love for us, when we fear being with Him where He is, or is it for us, the ignorant ones, the limited ones, the creatures who age, weaken, grow ill and die, to welcome the Divine Invitation to dine in the Kingdom of the Father?