Reflections on 2010, Hopes for 2011

Growing up, on New Years Eve, my family would always read from Psalm 91, a tradition we inherited from my Dad's family. In more recent years, as us kids have grown and flitted off to different parts of the country (and sometimes the world), this tradition has been modified, being squeezed in at whatever Christmas-ish dinner we had the greatest number of family members present, almost always the night before someone had to head off home. As such, I think I've always felt this psalm was a kind of benediction, a blessing upon leaving the comfort and safety of my parents' home, or leaving the surety of a year we have already lived, and looking with hope, and sometimes apprehension, to the year ahead.

I struggle with it, especially looking at the world around me, and yet, somehow, I like it. It's the reflection of what God did for me in 2010 - a year that, on the whole, kinda sucked. It's the promise of what He will do in 2011.

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”