Psalm 91

I

The most astonishing thing about Psalm 91 is that it is living, contemporary, present and effectual. It works. It is true today. Yet according to ancient Jewish Biblical scholarship it was composed more than 3000 years ago by Moses (possibly 1391 – 1271 BC). The Midrash (the collections of Judaic exegesis, commentary and explanation) states that Psalm 91 was composed by Moses on the day he completed the building of the Tabernacle in the desert. The verses describe Moses' own experience entering the Tabernacle and being enveloped by the Divine cloud. This must have been in the early 13th century BC, in the later years of Moses’ life.

Moses had a one-to-one personal relationship with God. He was specifically called and named by the One who identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3 : 1 - 6) to lead the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt (17). This was an intense, problematic, spiritual and supernatural encounter for Moses as it would be for any human being. Moses pushed back (as they say these days) with his doubts and objections. God answered his questions.

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
I will be with you.

Suppose the Israelites say ‘What is His name’?
Say, ‘I am who I am’.

What if they do not believe me or listen to me?
God gives signs.

I am not eloquent. I am slow of speech and tongue.
I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.

Lord, please send someone else.
God loses patience with Moses.
Your brother Aaron will help you.

Everyone knows the story of Moses’ heroic leadership of the Israelites and the events which constituted the foundation of the People of God. It was a difficult and challenging calling with many more problems to overcome than encouragements along the way. However, it embedded in the consciousness of those present and those who followed that this was a divine and supernaturally centred occurrence as evidenced by the crossing of the Red Sea and the provision of food during the long journey from Elim east of the Red Sea through the Sin desert to the Sinai peninsula and thence north towards the Promised Land. It is remembered by Jews today in the annual Passover Feast. For all that, Moses Himself never reached the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 34 : 4 – 5 reads, ‘Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said’. This was not the end of Moses however. He appears to Jesus in the account of the Transfiguration in Mark 9 : 4. ‘And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus’. So Moses left this earth but inherited eternal life as did later saints of the Old Testament time.

II

Verses 1&2 – 'Whoever'- this might not mean universality. The context is the election and calling of the People of God, the Israelites. It may be an early indication of nominal adherence to God among the people. We know that some of the Israelites complained throughout the Exodus and during the 40 year journey through the wilderness. 'Whoever' is an open invitation to personal faith in and experience of God among those called to be his special witnesses. 'Dwells' – has a sense of permanence. The text does not say ‘Whoever visits the shelter of the Most High’. 'Dwells' means stability and commitment in relationship to God. 'Rest in the shadow' – this rest denotes peace and providence. It means relief from the searing heat of the middle east sun literally and metaphorically referring to hostility and opposition. 'He is my refuge and my fortress' – speech about God throughout the millennia has often included the idea of refuge from the world, from its stresses and troubles, challenges and even from its blessings and joys. As the African-American spiritual song says ‘This world is not my home I'm just passing through’. This is a dimension almost wholly missing from life today. Through the Coronavirus pandemic there was little expression of an available refuge. There was no resounding affirmation from church leaders of this spiritual, mental, emotional and eternal bolt hole. But Jesus did say, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11 : 28 - 30). Martin Luther gives us example and explanation of the word 'fortress'. After the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther was rescued from possible murder and ensconced in the formidable Wartburg Castle until the following year. In 1527 he wrote the hymn 'A mighty fortress is our God'. ‘A Bulwark never failing...Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing…Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His Kingdom is forever’. Luther understood the strength of God’s presence and protection in his life. Psalm 91 verse 1 ends, ‘my God in whom I trust’ and for us as Norman Macleod’s hymn affirms ‘Trust in God and do the right’. This is direct and immediate trust. It is for eternal life, it is for salvation, it can be for certain life necessities. It can be for very specific answers to prayer. Faithful Christians are able to look back and see that their trust in God was not misplaced.

III

Verses 3&4 – 'the fowler’s snare' was a trap deliberately set to capture birds for food or sale. On television we often see such traps on Scottish hunting estates. They are used to reduce populations of raptors. We also see snares set in countries abroad for large animals such as tigers. The traps are not meant to kill but they inflict wounds as the animals strive for freedom. Fowlers’ snares are small and inconspicuous. The snare is an image, a metaphor used to describe unexpected and unwanted trouble. This could be physical or mental harm, misfortune or enmity. You may fall and break your leg. You may suddenly become unemployed. Your husband or wife may leave you. Some think that Satan is the fowler. Spiritual attack is subtle and invisible and springs upon us from time to time. 'Surely he will save you' – this is the testimony of many throughout the ages that God has actively intervened and saved human lives. ‘Still trust in God; for him to praise good cause I yet shall have: he of my countenance is the health, my God that doth me save’ (Psalm 43 : 5). A Scottish divinity professor was accosted at a train station by an evangelical Christian who asked him ‘Sir, are you saved?’. He replied ‘I am being saved every day’. That was his testimony reflecting these verses of Psalm 91. I wonder though, if it suggests a less than full assurance of eternal salvation? Maybe it was humble reticence to second guess God’s judgement. Maybe it just illustrates that there is a difference between being born again and the lack of that certain experience. Tongue tied testimony is prevalent in the Church of Scotland. Many may not be far from the Kingdom of God but if they were in it they would know it and say so. 'the deadly pestilence' might mean many things. It could be airborne or choleric disease, a plague of locusts, drought, fear and imagination. It is deadly though, a mortal danger to physical life itself. Unexpectedly through the Coronavirus we have experienced this pestilence ourselves for the last year. We had not thought we ever would again. Ebola might be in Africa but we thought ourselves immune from such trouble. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) proliferated in Asia, not in Europe. Science and medicine would solve all health issues through genetic engineering we thought because we were told so. But pestilence is still with us and it has caused many deaths and illnesses and much retrograde fortune throughout entire populations. Have Christian people died from this pestilence? Did God not save them? Jewish people have died in proportionately higher numbers. BAME (Black, Asian, Ethnic, Minority) people have died in proportionately higher numbers. White residually Christianised people in the UK have had greater resistance. These are Office for National Statistics statistics. If Christians claim that God has saved them from pestilence, how does that reflect on Christians whom God has not saved from pestilence? It is very hard to speak for God in these circumstances. During the Great Bubonic Plague of London (1665- 66), most people were Christians nominally or otherwise. 15% of the city’s population died. So far 0.188 of the UK population has died of Covid-19. In Jesus Christ we have our Saviour from whatever strikes us on our earthly pilgrimage and in whatever awaits us after physical death. That is a very wonderful assurance and comfort. 'Under his wings you will find refuge' – Picture a hen covering her chicks, a penguin protecting its new born, an eagle saving the eaglet from wind and rain. So is our mighty Maker able to protect us out of parental love. You will remember the words of Jesus 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing’ (Matthew 23:37). This is the same image. But Jesus’ contemporaries largely rejected Him. So in our day many reject Jesus Christ, they have abandoned God, they have done so with Christianity. They follow their own image as a self-made god. They worship many idols. Calamity has been visited upon us but few lessons have been learned. Even the wretched Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby foolishly encouraged people to look forward to holding a huge celebration party when the Coronavirus pandemic would be defeated. No questions about our individual and collective lifestyles. No Christian judgement on or times and morals. No warnings about eternal life. No proclamation of the Gospel of salvation. 'His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart' – not your own strength, resources or strategies. Not solidarity and collectivity. God’s faithfulness is our shield. Much infidelity occurs in our daily life and living. Not just marital infidelity though it proliferates. Meghan Markle and Harry Windsor’s infidelity to their family is a case in point. It was treacherous to broadcast family troubles to the world in such a self-interested and partial way, destructive in its motive, malevolent in its hypocrisy. I am no monarchist but this was simple betrayal of blood relations. God will not betray you. He will not lead you on through life pretending that he loves you and that you can die in peace. It is not God who is untrustworthy and unfaithful. ‘But 'tis strange and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray's in deepest consequence’ (Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene 3, lines 124-28). This is Banquo’s reaction to the occult prediction that Macbeth would become King of Scotland. There is a kingdom, a realm of false promises. Princess Diana went by helicopter to visit a spiritualistic clairvoyant in Derbyshire to seek her predictions. A few days later on 31st August 1997 she died in a horrific car accident in Paris. God does not offer us false promises. God does not tell us lies about our futures. God’s faithfulness is a shield of defence against the bad faith and infidelities that are prevalent in life. Much commercial advertising is unfaithful and deceitful. Many people have found out to their cost that guarantees of recovery of funds spent on holidays which were cancelled have not proved worth the paper they were written on. Governments are often unfaithful to their promises. Winston Churchill said ‘A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen’. Many, of course, do not even take the trouble to explain disappointments and failures. You will not find God saying to you ‘Sorry Pal, sorry Hen, it’s all fake, it’s all false, it’s all fairy story’. God’s faithfulness is your shield and rampart. This is individual and collective. You are not on your own. Your shield protects you. A rampart protects many.

IV

Verses 5&6 – 'You will not fear the terror of night' - Little children suffer night-time terrors. Our own little great grand-daughter used to have nightmares about spiders especially. Little children do not want to feel that they are alone and vulnerable and their imaginations play on them. One of the first big words I taught her was ‘arachnophobia’ and I suggested that she talk about it in her classroom. Experts also talk about night terrors in children. ‘These are more upsetting for parents or carers, as the person seems to be wide awake and terrified of something, but is asleep, and usually doesn’t remember them. They may reflect worries about something stressful going on at the moment, or they may not. Night terrors are a phase that often passes quite quickly’. Adult night terror has a number of characteristics. Sitting up in bed and crying out is often the first sign of a night terror. It may involve sitting up in bed, screaming or crying, staring blankly, flailing or thrashing in bed, rapid breathing, increased heart rate, being flushed and sweaty, confusion, jumping up or even running around the room and aggression towards anyone seeking to help. Night terrors usually happen earlier in the night, during the first half of your sleeping period. Typically, night terrors only last for several seconds to a minute, but they can continue for 10 minutes or more. After a night terror, people usually lie back down and sleep, not remembering the episode when they wake up in the morning. They may be experienced on a regular basis or just a few times each year. The ancient Israelites would have fairly normal night time terrors about being attacked by wild animals. Tribal warfare often occurred and some attacks took place at night. There was always existential and elemental fear in those times. And we must remember that the People of God were on a journey and they were not sure when and where it would end. They did not have the securities of a modern democratic state. People in many African countries today have both night and day terror due to Al Shabbab and Boko Haram Islamic terrorism. The necessity of sleep with its vulnerability and loss of consciousness brings survival mechanisms to the fore as life and body compete in troubled sleep, nightmares and night terrors. But you will not fear. You will not suffer from this condition, says the writer. That must be a testimony based on experience. Whoever wrote the Psalm, be it Moses or someone else, slept well due to the presence of God in his life. In Mark 4 we read that Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee when a storm brew up. ‘Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him”’ (verses 41 – 45). The disciples were first terrified for their lives, terrified by Jesus’ rebuke and then terrified of Jesus Himself who had performed this nature miracle. I remember a friend saying to me ‘I slept the sleep of the just’. Good conscience aids good sleep. Horatio Spafford wrote the hymn ‘It is well with my soul’. The context was the loss of his four children in the sinking of the ship Ville du Havre which was taking them with their mother from America to England in 1873. ‘When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul”’. Above all the verse ‘You will not fear the terror of night’ tells us to put our trust in God our Father who will protect us and eliminate our night time terrors. The resurrection of Jesus puts paid to elemental and existential fear because we know that there is indeed an eternal life to follow this one so that death when it comes is nothing to fear.

V

Verses 7&8 'A thousand may fall at your side' - This continues the theme of pestilence and its devastating effects on the population. We have seen this for ourselves throughout the pandemic. The United Kingdom has the highest death rate per million of population in the world. But the Psalm says that anyone who trusts in God will not be affected. The wicked will fall in their thousands however. Jews were not protected from Covid-19. Neither did God save Jews from The Holocaust which was a man made genocidal atrocity. Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892) was a nationally famous Baptist Minister and acclaimed preacher in the Victorian era. In 1854 he was called to Newpark Baptist Chapel in Southwark, London. In the summer of that year a cholera epidemic broke out in London. 616 people died. Spurgeon recorded, ‘In the year 1854, when I had scarcely been in London twelve months, the neighbourhood in which I laboured was visited by Asiatic cholera, and my congregation suffered from its inroads. Family after family summoned me to the bedside of the smitten, and almost every day I was called to visit the grave’. Spurgeon visited and prayed with the sick and grieving, and pointed them to the hope of the gospel. But more than just bringing gospel content, his presence communicated something of God’s comfort to his people. Though these visits were often fearful and full of grief, there were also glorious occasions of faith and joy. He wrote, ‘All day, and sometimes all night long, I went about from house to house, and saw men and women dying, and, oh, how glad they were to see my face! When many were afraid to enter their houses lest they should catch the deadly disease, we who had no fear about such things found ourselves most gladly listened to when we spoke of Christ and of things Divine’. Spurgeon had no fear of dying or death in the midst of cholera. 'You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked'. What does this mean? What is it saying? Was this a reference to the judgment of God on the Egyptians, the Ten Plagues? There is a censorious nature to this, an ‘us and them’ dimension, strong in the time of Moses and the Exodus and it did happen that way. God did make a choice. Jesus brought a different perspective and Christians at best tend to say ‘We are saved by Grace’. Members of Spurgeon’s congregation died of cholera, some comforted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was not just the wicked that perished. Christians have died during the Coronavirus pandemic, though proportionately fewer that Jews and Muslims. Illness was connected with sin in the Old Testament. In Mark 2 : 9 we read that Jesus connected sin and illness and healed both conditions. ‘Which is easier: to say to this paralysed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’ In John 9 : 1- 3 we read, ‘As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus. ‘Why me?’ is the lament of many, ‘I am a good person’. Some tough Christians answer ‘Why not?’. But Psalm 91 is a testimony to God’s actual intervention and help. This may not happen to everyone but it has most certainly happened to some.

VI

Verses 9-13 'no disaster will come near your tent' - This is a great claim. Is it borne out by the history of the People of God? Good and bad alike suffered in the torturous centuries after the apogee of the reigns of David and Solomon. Lamentations 1 : 12 reads ‘Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the LORD brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?’ The probabilities are that these words were written by the prophet Jeremiah. The words ‘Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?’ are used in reference to Jesus hanging on his cross at Calvary. Many Christians have suffered deprivation and persecution for their Faith and many still do in the world today. There have been more Christian martyrs in the last 100 years than in the previous 1900 years. It can be held that suffering for Jesus Christ is no disaster but a calling and a privilege. That is true but does not lessen the extent of persecution in places like North Korea and China. 'For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways' - Moses had a mind and soul open to the spiritual mystical world of God. He had the awesome experience of watching the burning bush not being consumed. Angels appear as early as Abraham in Genesis 18 : 2 and Jacob in Genesis 32 : 22 - 32. When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem he defended himself by appealing to the Pharisees’ belief in angels. ‘We find nothing wrong with this man,’ they said. ‘What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?’ (Acts 23 : 9). This was enough to save Paul’s life at that moment. This Psalm 91: 11 - 12 assurance was proved true for Peter when he was imprisoned for speaking about Jesus Christ. ‘Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists’ (Acts 12 : 7). I myself can testify to the ministry of angels in my own life. 'to guard you in all your ways' - Many people claim to have or have had a guardian angel. This is common to folk religion and to many who are not Christians. The Abba song has it ‘I believe in angels Something good in everything I see I believe in angels When I know the time is right for me I'll cross the stream, I Have a Dream’. People who lose children to illness or misfortune describe them as angels in heaven. There is some authority for this. Matthew 18 : 10 records Jesus saying ‘See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven’. We cannot separate Christians and non-Christians for this. Anyone who has lost a child may be comforted by Jesus’ words. 'You will tread on the lion and the cobra' - Numbers 21 : 4 – 9 tells of the Israelites’ problems with venomous snakes in the wilderness; ‘they bit the people and many Israelites died’. They interpreted this as God’s punishment for their sins of doubt and complaint. God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. ‘Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived’. The British Medical Association’s logo is a staff intertwined with a serpent, remnants of Greek mythology. Asclepius was the Greek demigod of medicine. He was thought to be able to restore the health of the sick and bring the dead back to life. The Greeks regarded snakes as sacred and used them in healing rituals to honour Asclepius as snake venom was thought to be remedial and their skin-shedding was viewed as a symbol of rebirth and renewal. The pole and bronze serpent of Moses pre-dates Greek mythology. It is an interesting ancient world connection. In Mark 16 : 17 – 18 the post resurrection Jesus is recorded as saying ‘And these signs will accompany those who believe...they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well’. Acts 28 : 3 – 6 records Paul’s fulfilment of this prophecy after his landing on Malta from his shipwreck. ‘Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god’. In some isolated communities in America there are so-called ‘snake handling churches’ whose members test the truth of their faith and the promise of Mark 16 : 18. In February 17, 2014 ‘Jamie Coots, the "snake handling" pastor of a small Pentecostal church in Kentucky died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a weekend church service’. As they say ‘Do not try this at home’.

VII

Verses 14 – 16 'Because he loves me' - The love of people for God is a theme throughout the Bible. ‘Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 7 : 9). ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’ said Jesus (John 14 : 15). How much do you love God? Can you say so? Do you have that consciousness that you do? Those who have spent a lot of time in prayer become close to God and experience two way love, God’s for them and theirs for God. The mystic Julian of Norwich (1343 – 1416) wrote ‘Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God who is love’. One modern worship song has it this way. ‘I love God because He loved me long before the world began. I love God because He knew my destiny. I love God because He made me part of His eternal plan. I love God because He first loved me’. At every baptism we say ‘We love because God first loved us’. Most of our speech and worship is about God’s love for us and not so much is about our love for God. We need to be liberated in spirit to declare that love. Our human nature on its own cannot say the words ‘I love God’. We can only do so by the power of the Holy Spirit within us. 'for he acknowledges my name' - Christians in this land have become cowed through political correctness and hate crime legislation. Britain’s church leaders have been posted missing during the pandemic. Decent church folk don’t want to confess Jesus Christ’s name in case they offend Muslim neighbours or colleagues. We are now in the age of ‘microaggressions’. Culture warriors are out looking for racial, colour, sexual and other language offences. People are becoming afraid to say anything. What does the Christian preacher do in these circumstances? Accentuate the positive and while not eliminating the negative. Just put it in perspective. Christianity is universally applicable. Jesus died for everyone. In him there is no race or colour bar. Paul wrote, ‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3 : 28). Criticism is never welcome even if constructive and well intentioned. If Jesus had only said nice things he would not have been crucified. Prophetic warning has always been present in Judaeo-Christian history. Denunciatory rhetoric is present in the great prophets of the Old Testament. Prophetic Christianity should be redemptive and tempered with grace and forgiveness. But we are called to acknowledge the name of Jesus Christ as Son of God, Saviour and Lord. If we do not do so, we are betraying him. The churches of our land speak with an uncertain voice. Equivocation will never build the cause of Christ in the world. Isaac Watts’ hymn affirms ‘I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, or to defend his cause, maintain the honour of his Word, the glory of his cross’. 'With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation' - Moses, we know, did live a long life, to 120 years according to Deuteronomy 34 : 7 which also adds, ‘yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone’. David we also know lived to later years. Jewish history tells us that he died of natural causes aged 70 in 970 BC. Some of the prophets were not so fortunate. Isaiah was probably murdered during the reign of Manasseh from 697 – 643 BC. His contemporary Amos is reputed to have been killed by the son of Amaziah, the priest of Bethel. Jeremiah however lived to old age. John 21 : 22 – 23 tells us that Jesus indicated that while Peter would suffer early death for Jesus John would live to a great age. Tradition has it that he died in 100 AD at the age of 93 or 94 probably in Ephesus. Steven did not live even to middle age. He was martyred as a young man (Acts 6 : 8 - 7 : 60) for acknowledging the Name of Jesus. Martin Luther King said, ‘Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now...I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!’ For Martin Luther King, quality not quantity mattered. It is what we do with our lives that is important not how long we live. Psalm 92 : 12 – 15 says ‘The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”’ 'and show him my salvation' - Moses saw it. From Mount Nebo he gazed on The Promised Land. Isaiah saw it universally. ‘Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other’ (45 : 22). Paul saw it. ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God’ (Ephesians 2 : 8). Charles Wesley who left this life at the age of 81 saw it. ‘Changed from glory into glory, till in heav’n we take our place, till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise’. Have you seen the salvation of the Lord? It is there for you to discover if you have not. For all the follies and idolatries of the times we live in this ancient truth is blessed counter culture. That means you too.