Daily Manna · Day 104 · April 14
The Protection of Habitation
“Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”
Is God your home, or only your emergency number? That question sits underneath this passage.
There is a fair objection to the way these verses are often read: "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." That sounds like a guarantee, and it seems to have failed for every believer who ever got sick. It would not be honest to pretend otherwise.
So start with the first word of the passage, "Because." The whole promise hangs on what comes before it: "Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation." A habitation is the place where you live. A shelter is where you run when a storm comes, but a home is where you are when nothing is happening at all. Then notice the psalm's own limit. Near the end of the psalm the voice changes, and God speaks for Himself: "I will be with him in trouble." The psalm takes it for granted that trouble will come. So this promise is not a receipt that keeps you from ever falling ill. It is a statement about whose you are, and it tells you what can and cannot finally reach a person who lives with God.
For many of us, the line to God goes quiet between emergencies. Most of us would recognise that in ourselves.
So here is an invitation, and nobody will force it on you. Move your Bible to the place where your keys land, instead of leaving it on a shelf. Open it for four minutes on an evening when nothing is wrong. Four minutes is not impressive, and it does not need to be. A home is built out of ordinary evenings, and nobody has ever built one out of emergencies. The God who promises to be with you in trouble wants you with Him on the quiet evenings too.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 104 is Heart, Soul, Mind (Matthew 22:37).