Before expecting God to deliver according to His promise we should...

Reading and re-reading the Word of God something new opens to me each time.  I heard plenty of sermons regarding psalm 91. At that time I noticed how much God cared for his children, and how carefully He promises to protect them, and be by their side at all times. This time when I was reading it focus fell on one verse, the 1^st verse—

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

If I live in the shelter of God and abide by Him then the rest of the verses will also be true concerning me.
Reading this psalm I often dismissed the first verse and just focused on how God will protect me and not let anything hurt me, and sometimes when there were some hard times in my life I read this psalm and waited for the LORD to deliver on His promise; forgetting to check and see if I am dwelling in his shelter and if I am abiding in His shadow.

What does it mean to dwell in His shelter anyways?

The more I thought and prayed about it, it became clear to me that this is very similar to today’s kids living under their parent’s roof, they are to abide by the rules set by their parents  if they want to be under their roof and be protected. Similar to this psalm living in God’s shelter means living by His commandments and His Word.

As sad as it is, sometimes we leave the God’s shelter and walk away from Him. But when we hit a bump in our path, and life gets hard we cry out to the LORD confused asking Him why did He let this happen to us? Sometimes thinking that God doesn’t even hear us and turned away from us; not noticing that we ourselves are walking farther and farther away from God.

Before we burry ourselves in worry and go to the LORD to ask Him to deliver on His promises that He made in 91^st psalm, let’s think first, am I abiding in the shadow of the Almighty? Am I dwelling in His shelter?

¹   He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
²  I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3  For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴  He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵  You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶  Nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

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 look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

9  Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—

¹⁰  No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

11  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

¹²  On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³  You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

14  “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.

¹⁵  When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶  With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”  Psalm 91