ON THE VANGUARD

WITH LONG LIFE
“With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Psalm 91:16

I love reading, and in many ways wish I could read faster and more frequent than I do now. It wasn’t always this way, however. In junior high and high school when I had to do a book report, I would read just enough to get by. I figured if I hit the main points by reading a little from the beginning, the middle, and the ending, I would know enough of the story line to make a decent grade on the paper. Now that I am older and have taken up this pastime, I find myself reading from beginning to end. That doesn’t mean that in the middle of a book I don’t feel like skipping to the end to see the fate of the characters without reading the details in between. This thought probably crosses my mind way too often still. But today, I want to do just that. In fact, today I want to start at the end and work our way backwards.
Psalm 91:16 tells us that with long life, God will satisfy us and show us His salvation. He will show us His salvation from what exactly? For this we must move back a few verses. In Psalm 91:3-13 we read of many things that tend to come against us that He will indeed save us from. The list includes the enemy’s snare, the terror of night and the arrow of day, the pestilence and the plague, the falling and striking of our foot on a stone, and the great lion and serpent who take us as prey. That is quite a bit to be saved from, wouldn’t you agree? But there are two other factors that need to be looked at that define our salvation. In Psalm 91:1-2, we read from the beginning that these benefits come to the one who dwells under the covering of El Elyon (God Most High) and rest in the shadow of El Shaddai (God Almighty). It is He who must become our refuge and fortress. We see in Psalm 91:4 that He covers us with His feathers, hiding us from the enemy. And we read in Psalm 91:14-15 that the benefit of salvation comes to those who declare a love for Adonai, and who call upon Him. The salvation is there, but the factors must also be in line.
Yet, let us look a little deeper to the truth of this passage and the truth on III John 2. In John’s third letter he writes in the greeting that he wishes the reader to be in good health and prospering just as his soul is prospering. I have written on this verse a couple times and encourage you to go back and maybe re-read those devotionals. But let us focus in on the word ‘health’. Looking back at our main text in Psalm 91:16, we read that with long life we are to be satisfied and see His salvation. The word ‘salvation’ here is the Hebrew word YESHUAH. The meaning is salvation, but is also defined as healing, prosperity, and victory. Does it remind you of another word? Perhaps YESHUA, the name of Jesus? Did not Jesus come to be our salvation, healing, prosperity, and victory? So consider this verse again in using the actual Hebrew term. “With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation, My healing, My prosperity, and My victory.” Taking this same understanding to III John 2, that verse also takes on a new meaning. John is greeting us by saying that he hopes we are in good salvation, good, health, good prosperity, and good victory in the physical sense, just as we should be in the spiritual sense.
With long life Adonai wants to bless us and show us His salvation in every area we face. He wants to show us His healing. It is not His intention that we should be in pain and suffering in our body, and because of this He offers His healing. Just as truthful, He does not want us to be lacking but rather prosperous. In Deuteronomy 28:1-14 we see the areas where Adonai wants us to have more than enough as opposed to be lacking. So for this reason we see again in Psalm 91:16 that He will show us His prosperity. And as one who is to be the head and not the tail (Deut 28:13), Adonai does not want us to be defeated but instead living in victory. This definition is not a pile of empty words, though, but a truth that comes to those who live the full extent of Psalm 91 and dwell in Him. He who dwells in Adonai will constantly see the YESHUAH of Adonai. This is the long life I am after. This is the long life that far exceeds the fountain of youth. This is the truth of Adonai’s Word.