The closing verses of Psalm 91 are God speaking to His beloved followers. The description, “lovingly devoted,” is so important. We all have those rainy day friends—the ones who come around when they need something but pretty much ignore us the rest of the time. We wouldn’t call them lovingly devoted to us, would we? God isn’t talking about rainy day Christians here—He’s talking about the ones who have dedicated themselves to Him. The ones who strive to stay close to Him. The ones who dwell beneath the shadow of His wings.

The King James version phrases it this way: “Because he hath set his love upon me…” On what do you place your hope? In whom do you place your trust? To whom do you give thanks and adoration? Those who answer these questions with the name of the LORD—Yahweh—are probably the same ones who have set their love upon Him or are lovingly devoted to Him. The King James follows this opening declaration with a “therefore,” which of course tells us we’ve got a cause and effect situation. Today we looked at the cause; tomorrow we’ll examine the effect.