Psalm 91 + Matthew 21

Pastor keeps talking about how the job of the angels is to minister God's word. He keeps telling us how they preach in the unseen realm the things he preaches where we see and hear. He keeps telling us that it is not the angels' job to keep us out of car accidents; they are preachers.

Okay. Sounds good. But it's hard to get that through my head when that's so entirely contrary to what's out there in our world.

So this morning I'm reading the psalm appointed for the day in Congregation at Prayer.
He will give His angels charge over you
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Well, think of all the times Jesus is considered a stone. He was the Rock in the wilderness that provided water to the children of Israel. He is often referred to in the psalms as a rock or a fortress. At the end of Matthew 21, Jesus applies Psalm 118 to Himself:
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing
And it is marvelous in our eyes.

Then He goes on to talk about people falling on this Stone, or this Stone falling on them. So when we hear about "dashing your foot against a stone," ought we maybe to be thinking of tripping over Jesus and stumbling over the message of the gospel of forgiveness in His cross? (After all, the passages that are flitting through my mind are Ps 118 and Mt 21, and we can't get a whole lot more messianic than that!)

But I keep thinking of all the things we normally say about the protection of the angels. And yet, WHO was it in Mt 4 that quoted this Ps 91 passage and turned it into a promise of protection from owies and booboos? He's not exactly the most trustworthy commentator. The more I think about this, the more it seems that Ps 91 is saying that the angels shall bear you up in their hands lest you renounce the gospel of God's love seen in Christ's cross.