Touched by an Angel

 Last Sunday our dear Pastor Dan preached on Psalm 91, which is one of my favorite. Even though it is one of my favorite Psalms...and I have read it and re-read it many times over the years...the Word was truly fresh and new.  At that moment, while Pastor Dan was reading the portion of the Psalm he was going to preach on...it was as if I've never heard it before, especially this part:

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”

and you make the Most High your dwelling,

no harm will overtake you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Psalm 91: 9-12

I just want to cry reading these blessed words again this morning. Even now, they become alive in my soul and feel new in my heart again.  I hang on to them for dear life, and claim the promises it contains...particularly when it says that The Lord "will command his angels concerning" me... what a precious promise.  In the House of the Lord nobody is unprotected.  He watches over us as we make Him our Refuge and Strength...and He sends His angels.  There is such beauty and comfort in this promise, it's as if we are reminded to breathe.  After holding our breath for so long, we are invited to come into the protection of His dwelling, and exhale...

Pastor Dan mentioned how his late, first wife had an encounter with what might have been an angel who saved her from being run over by a car in New York City when she was in her twenties.  He mentioned how she'd talk about that encounter all through her life...recalling the intensity of the angel's blue eyes.  I've heard of such situations, when a devastating accident is prevented by a stranger who is there, but then vanishes to never been found again.  There are also those who hear an audible voice, not a thought, a voice, that guides them, when there's nobody else around speaking.  

I've never experience anything like that myself.  The closest to anything so amazing is Dan getting warnings in dreams or premonition-type feelings when we are about to do something stupid.  Those "gut feelings" have kept us from making several foolish mistakes, that's for sure.  But not me...I have never experienced anything like that myself.  Perhaps, I have, but I have been too distracted to notice...I live my life in such a hurry, filled with so much stress and worry, that I miss quite a bit.  Probably the only way I would realize it is if I get the angel to reveal it to me, like in that show from the 90s, "Touched by an Angel."  It was a nice show, but I remember not liking the part where they would always say: "Hi, I'm an angel sent by God."  I don't know why, but that moment on the show was always kind of like a let down for me...

Anyway, I guess the reason I wasn't too thrilled with the angelic revelation in the show was because I've always thought that most angels are NOT supernatural.  At any given moment, we are all someone else's angel too.  As we obey the Holy Spirit's nudging, we are acting as God's earth angels in the lives of others.  A kind word, the giving of our time, a message, our company, our shared tears, our share laughter, our generosity, our compassion, our love, all of these and many more offerings we present to those around us constitute angelic gestures designed by Our Lord for the benefit of His children.  And, I am happy to say, I have been the blessed receiver of these angelic gestures throughout my life...for which I would always be most thankful.  

I guess, now that I think about it...I have been touched by an angel after all...countless of times...and the revelation is in His Word, as He invites us to take shelter in His dwelling and rest in the knowledge that He and His angels will guard our ways. And all I can say to that is: Praised be the Lord. In the Precious Name of Jesus, Our Refuge and Strength! Amen!