Meditation on Psalm 61:4

Posted on Jun 8, 2022 in Uncategorized | 0

Kevin J Youngblood
 

Let me dwell in your tent forever!

Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah

           (Psalm 61:4)

Psalm 61 is stacked high with metaphors attempting to express the security and safety that one finds in YHWH’s presence. He is a boulder behind which one can hide to deflect an onslaught of arrows. He is a high, well-fortified tower – a garrison – within which one finds protection against enemies. Finally, he is a Bedouin sheikh who offers his tent to refugees seeking protection from their pursuers.
 
It is this last image that caught my attention this morning. Middle-easterners take hospitality very, very seriously. Anyone whom they take into their tent is immediately under their protection and they are duty-bound to ensure their safety even at the expense of their own. Some good biblical examples of this would be:
  • Abraham’s insistence on hosting the three strangers who passed his property in Gen 18 on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah
  • Lot’s determination to protect the same strangers when they came to his home to bid him leave Sodom before its destruction even at his daughter’s expense (N. B. – The Bible notes this as evidence of the deterioration of Lot’s character, certainly not as exemplary of appropriate hospitality and protection from the divine point of view.)
  • The Levite’s Bethlehemite father-in-law in Judges 19 who hosted him for five days in a row of solid feasting and would have hosted him longer had the Levite not insisted on leaving
  • Jesus’ parable of the friend at midnight who assumes the honor of the entire village when taking in a weary traveler at an ungodly hour.

How interesting that the psalmist sees YHWH in this light. YHWH can ALWAYS be counted on to open his tent to weary, suspect travelers, a long with whatever trouble they bring with them. YHWH asks no questions. He simply invites us in, bids us rest, and treats us to extravagant drinks and delicacies without a thought regarding the expense. Then when our trouble finally catches up with us, he holds our enemies at bay while we rest and eat and make a clean getaway. This same imagery occurs in Psalm 23 which says “He prepares a table for me in the midst of my enemies.”

The psalmist here begs permission to enjoy this hospitality and protection forever. This would be asking far too much of even the most generous and well-to-do Bedouin sheikh, placing him in a most embarrassing situation since denial is unthinkable. YHWH, however, invites refugees to enjoy the endless delights of his infinite hospitality and the inexhaustible strength and resources of his patronage and protection regardless of the amount or nature of the trouble that we bring with us.
 
The picture of taking refuge “under the shelter of your wings” should not be understood as a shift to yet another metaphor of YHWH as a protective bird, but rather as an extension of the current one of YHWH as a Bedouin sheikh hosting a frightened refugee. The Hebrew word כנף here translated “wing” can also refer to the flap of a tent which opens and closes to allow or deny entrance. In other words, the psalmist is really saying “Let me be hidden behind the flap of your tent from those who seek my life.”
 
Admittedly, a tent does not seem at all like the most formidable defense against those hunting us down. But then again, the protection is not in the tent but in YHWH whose presence surrounds us with the fire of his fierce love. As YHWH says in Zechariah 2:5 “I will be wall of fire around you and the glory within you.”
 
Father,

I come to your tent today seeking your hospitality and protection. I am dogged by so many worries. My enemies are more than I can count and every one of them is stronger than I am. They are not, however, stronger than you whether individually or all together. Even the sum of their strength is but a drop in the ocean compared to your infinite power and resources. You are so kind to let me in. There is no limit to your hospitality. You invite me stay forever in your presence, to always know the security and abundance of your presence. You do this despite the immense amount of trouble that I bring with me and the extremely high cost it is to you. Let me dwell in your tent forever. Let me take refuge in the shelter of your tent flap. Lord Jesus, you are YHWH’s tent – the tabernacle in which the divine present dwells. It is in you and in you alone that we find satisfaction and protection. You are the true vine and you bid us to abide in you forever. Thank you for your inexhaustible hospitality and protection. Holy Spirit, you are the divine presence within the tents of our bodies, the divine guest to whom we are host. As we are in Christ so are you in us – turning our house into a home and making yourself at home within our hearts. Teach us to show you proper hospitality, to let you have your way in us. For just like the visitors who came to Lot’s tent, though he tried to protect them, in reality it was they who protected Lot and his entire family. In the same way, though we may try to host you and protect you, it really you sustain and protect us by bearing your fruit in us and by putting to death the enemies within. Thanking you for gracing the tent of this body with your presence and for making this house a home, your home.

AMEN

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