Covered by Grace (Psalm 61:4)

Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!
– Psalm 61:4

I should add that at the end of both of those sentences in verse four, there are exclamation points. Let me dwell in your tent forever, exclamation point. Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings, exclamation point. What a prayer. God, this is where I want to be. I just want to dwell in your tent wherever you are. God, I want to be where you are. I want to find refuge under… And this is imagery we see at different points all throughout the Bible, under the shelter of your wings. There is no safer, better, more secure, more satisfying place to be than in the tent with God himself. Or under the wings of God himself.

Psalm 61:4 reminds us God is our true and everlasting shelter.

As I read this in the Old Testament, I think about God’s Word to us in the New Testament, that through faith in Jesus and covenant relationship with him, through the blood of Jesus, he has not just forgiven us of all our sin and open the way for us to have communion with God, for us to come into the tent to be with God even more so, he has filled us with his Spirit. He’s put his Holy Spirit inside of us in such a way that you and I are temples… Tabernacles, tents of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us.

So I just want to encourage you today. As you go throughout your day, or if you’re listening to this at night, just as you rest tonight and get up tomorrow to see yourself in this way, to see yourself at every moment amidst whatever you’re walking through, amidst whatever you do, amidst whatever temptations you face and everything you do, see yourself under the shelter of the wings of God.

See yourself living in the tent moment by moment with God, your body housing his Holy Spirit with you, in you, working through you. Oh, just think of all the different ways that leads us to pray. God, we praise you for making this possible, for making communion with you possible at every moment, including right now.

Psalm 61:4 reminds us God is with us even in our hardest times.

As we’re praying, Jesus, we praise you for dying on the cross for our sins, for rising from the dead, for ascending to heaven, and sending your Holy Spirit to live, to dwell in us. We praise you for the mind-boggling, just awe-inducing overwhelming reality that right now your Spirit dwells in us. God, help us to live in light to this reality all day long today and every moment of our lives today, help us to realize, be cognizant of the fact that you are in us and we are under the shelter of your wings.

So when we are tempted, help us to run from sin, to help us to be holy, as you are holy, as your Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. God, we pray that our every thought, our every word, our every desire, every action, everything we do would be holy. That you would help us to be more like Jesus as the Spirit of Jesus is in us. And God, we praise you for the security we have. We praise you that we have nothing to fear today, and that when we go through hard moments today, challenging moments, when we go through trials or difficulties that you are with us and we are living under the shadow of your wings. Oh God, we want all people to know what this is like.

Prayer for the Tiyar People

So we pray today specifically for the Tiyar people of Bangladesh and India, for 600,000 of them, Hindu men, women and children who don’t know the security and satisfaction that are found in communion with you, living under the shelter of your wings made possible through Jesus. God, we pray for the Tiyar people to be reached with the gospel. And God, we pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit in us, you would help us to share the gospel with people wherever we go today and you would help us to lead people to communion with you by the supernatural power of your Holy Spirit in us. We pray all this according to your Word, which we love in Psalm 61:4. In Jesus’ name, amen.