The Names of God – Almighty

Continuing our ‘Names of God’ study, we are looking at Almighty (Shaddai).   The power in which God is and operates is ‘beyond’ in the sense as ‘overpower’ (All-powerful) thus the title, God is ‘Almighty.’  There is one particular Psalm that when read, folks declare it their favorite: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty [Shaddai].   I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (91:1-2, ESV)  Beautiful! 
 
When reading this Psalm it is most helpful to place it and the author on the historical timeline.   Scholars believe it was written by Moses, composed sometime between the wilderness and the Promised Land.  Knowing this helps paint the picture of Moses’ heart.  He wrote in Deuteronomy that their God led them “through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.” (8:15) It was the Presence of God that protected and provided for them; Moses speaks of the same protection here in Psalm 91.
 
He is very careful in his directness, he doesn’t dance around or imply they run to God at times and enjoy occasional approaches – they DWELL.  Dwelling (in short) means to ‘sit’ – sit as to stay, not be moved, it is our unwavering presence in THE Presence (of God).  Moses doesn’t let up – he continues that as we dwell, we also abide.  Abiding is the secure and peaceful rest of living close to God.  It is HERE, we experience the All-Powerful, God Almighty!  HERE that He is beyond all!   HERE we are protected! And here, we can say “He is my refuge, my fortress, my God in Whom I trust.”  Folks, it literally is a cycle, we stay – we experience God is.  
 
Whether we are in a dry desert place or stepping foot into our proposed Promised Land, may we remember to DWELL, staying put in the Presence of God Almighty.
In Him, DeDe (“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love & good deeds.” – Hebrews 10:24)

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