The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2010 |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. How are you this Sunday morning?
I would like to extend a warm welcome to 106 churches all across the country that are joining us via live broadcast this morning. Welcome to Lovin' Life Ministries. I am delighted to be in front of you again, and I'm so happy to share this Sunday morning with you.
We are so blessed to have such a wonderful gift sitting on stage with us, are we not? [Referring to Liberace's piano, recently donated to the Manhattan Center.] Liberace has a special place in my heart. I came to this country as a tiny little girl, eight years old, and a couple of years later we had the wonderful opportunity to travel across the country with my parents. That's when I saw the Petrified Forest, Niagara Falls, and other beautiful wonders of this country. My parents took us children to see a Liberace show in Las Vegas. I must say that he was fabulous. He not only knew how to play the piano with a beautiful candelabra to his left, but he used to fly through the air, hoisted by a cable. He wore glorious capes -- some were rhinestone, some were velvet, and they had all different textures. I said to myself, "If I could be that age and that happy, flying through the air back and forth in my glorious cape, life would not be too bad for me."
He used to tease the audience to come to the front of the stage so that he could show them his magnificent collection of jewelry. He would ask various men or women to kiss it. People would line up and come to the front of the stage; he would be holding out his left hand and then his right hand, with a big smile on his face while people, one by one, took their turn, kissing all his glorious rings.
He was such a unique character who actually had a tough life. But as a performer he wanted to give some joy and share a time of happiness with his audience, so he really put himself out there, literally. People who walked out of his performances usually had a big smile on their face because they were so royally entertained by this man. So to have his presence here at Lovin' Life Ministry this morning is a wonderful thing, and I would like to thank Gibson for this wonderful gift.
When I first came to this country and took that tour with my parents, we went to as many states as my father could manage to fit into his schedule. One of the places where we always stopped to eat was McDonald's. That was the first time I tasted this glorious thing called a cheeseburger, with something gooey wedged in there, I guess the special creamy sauce. For somebody coming to this country, it was incredible.
Nowadays we call French fries cholesterol sticks, but back then they were so tasty, and we could not get enough of them. I remember we would always stop at McDonald's or Burger King for lunch, and many times Father, while we were eating, would point to different families that were also eating there and say, "That family must be so and so, and that family must be going through such and such." He would give a snapshot opinion on what that family was going through.
I remember my father saying to the children, "America is such an incredible country, especially prepared by our Heavenly Parent to exercise its powerful ability to influence the world, to really recognize who our Heavenly Parents are and how we should live our lives in accordance with the teachings of our Heavenly Parent." He used to say to us over and over again that America is such a great country but that the children of America have forgotten how important their parents are. He used to say that if only America could recognize that its greatness comes from the generation before, that parents' greatness comes from the grandparents, and could inherit something that is very well taught from the beginning in Eastern families -- that is, respect for elders and respect for families -- imagine how great America would be. It would not just represent freedom and independence but also tradition and honoring the people who have come before us.
From time to time when I read the Bible, my mind goes to Exodus 12:20 [actually Exodus 20:12], where it says, "Honor thy father and thy mother." The Exodus passage is asking us to remember that it is God who put us in this land. The way I understand it is, when we think that God is our father or mother, or True Parents are our father or mother, we recall that we are in the embrace or within the cradle of their hands, their warm, supportive, and empowering hands. By remembering who they are, we recognize who we are. In knowing that we are divine and eternal sons and daughters, we aspire to the greatness that is destined for every person sitting in the audience. Just as this one man, Liberace, touched and changed so many people's lives, every one of us sitting here has that ability to touch and change someone's life.
When I think about time spent with my father and mother and the words that he spoke, I think he was beseeching his children to remember, honor, respect, and love parents. So when our True Father gives us a new banner for this year, the Year of the White Tiger, as a time or year when we should be reflecting on how to create oneness with our True Parents and our Heavenly Parent, I believe that this passage from Exodus is a good one to think about.
When I think about how I can apply this oneness or unity into my daily life, I find myself looking at Psalm 91:1–2, which I shared with you earlier. This psalm has a special meaning for many people because it's a psalm they say when they want to feel protected by our Heavenly Father. It asks us to remember. It opens, "You who dwell in the Most High," with Most High meaning God, our Heavenly Parent, or even our True Parents.
It's we who live or dwell in the Most High. God is reminding us that we are His children, that we live and dwell in His embrace, that wherever God is, that's where we are. If God is the Most High, then, as his and her children, we are living with God in the highest or most holy place. When you choose to live somewhere, you will note that there's a wonderful verb that precedes where you're going to live. That word happens to be choose.
When we as sons and daughters of God choose for ourselves that we are going to live our lives as sons and daughters of God and that we are going to dwell in the Most High, it is a conscious decision. It is a way of saying to ourselves that we are who we are and we know who we are; therefore, we're going to live our lives according to what we believe our Heavenly Parent would like us to be.
When you read further, it starts by saying, "You who live or dwell in the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty." Some of us sitting in the audience, when we come across the word shadow, we might think, "Why are we living in the shadow of the Almighty? Is it something disgraceful? Is it something embarrassing? Is it something negative?" But our Heavenly Parent through the psalmist is trying to tell us that it's not a negative understanding of what a shadow is but is using this word to convey how close we are to the Almighty.
When you walk down the street on a sunny day, your shadow follows you wherever you go. It's with you everywhere. Every movement you make, the shadow follows you; every step you take, the shadow is right there with you. I remember when my brothers and I were little -- I was a tomboy, so I used to spend more time with my brothers than my sisters -- and we used to run around in circles, trying to escape our shadow, but to no avail. The shadow would grow long or short, but it was right there with us, stuck on us. When the psalmist says that we are the ones who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, he is reminding us how close and how unified we should be with the Almighty.
When you are the mother of five children, you become well versed in the Disney collection. I remember when my children were young, especially Truston, one of their favorite videos was Peter Pan. The character of Wendy, a very motherly figure, goes on a journey to Never-Never Land, and Truston used to just love the crocodile. You could always hear the crocodile coming because he had swallowed a clock that went, "Tick tock, tick tock." Truston found it ridiculously funny. Every time he heard the crocodile go tick tock, this roly-poly baby would burst into laughter.
The children used to so enjoy when Peter Pan pops into Wendy's life because he's looking for his shadow, which is off doing its own thing. So with Wendy's help he finally catches the shadow, and Wendy helps him sew it on.
When I was watching that and thought about Psalm 91:1, I thought, "At times maybe we are like that rebellious shadow, trying to run away from the Almighty, trying to run away from who we are." But sooner or later, God will cradle it back into his arms and be the one stitching our shadow back onto each and every one of us. This is visual imagery of how incredibly close we are to God.
There is an incredible story told over and over again about the beauty of a mother's relationship with her only son. In this story, the son is going off to fight a war. This mother does not have a husband anymore, so this son is the hope for her future. While he's away at war, the mother is so fearful that he will not come back to her that she visits the temple and various churches, praying each day.
Before the son left, she had him promise that at a certain time every day they would pray together so they would remember each other, and remember that both of them were waiting to see each other again. So even though the son went off to war, he never forgot that hour of prayer. Both the mother and son were united in prayer.
The son's warship was torpedoed by a submarine, and everyone on board perished. When the mother heard the news that the warship was struck and everyone perished, you can image the state she was in. But at the same time, something in her said that her son was still alive: "We decided to pray at a certain hour together, and we promised to see each other." She refused to believe that her son was gone. Concerned neighbors tried to convince her that she needed to come to terms with the reality that the warship was sunk and her son had gone back to God. But she refused to believe it, and she kept on praying.
The most miraculous thing happened. After several weeks, she heard news that her son was found, and he was found in the most interesting way. Maybe because of the mother's prayer, because of the son's prayer, or because God promised through the psalmist that those who abide in the shelter of the Most High will be protected -- maybe those were the reasons why this person was protected. He was knocked unconscious and thrown into the sea, but when he woke up he was riding on top of a giant sea turtle, which had come out of the depths and saved him. That's how he was discovered by another boat and brought back to safety.
This tale is almost impossible if you think about somebody being knocked unconscious and thrown into the sea. But because of the power of the prayer, or because of his own belief that he would live to see his mother again, God worked his mysterious magic, this time in the form of a giant sea turtle, and he came back home safely into his mother's arms.
We live in the shelter of the Most High. It is we who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, and "we call out, 'My refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust.'" I love this line in Psalm 91 because what we are encouraged to do is make a personal claim on God: God is my refuge. God is my fortress. God is my God. The psalmist is encouraging us to own up to who we are.
When we go home to visit our families, we know that home represents a refuge for us, a place of comfort, a place of security, where we can be protected from all the elements of the world. A home is a fortress in that when you are well fortified in the love of your parents, when you are well fortified in the love of your family and your siblings, you have an incredible confidence that you can conquer the world, that there is nothing you cannot do.
God is our strength, just the way a home can be a great source of strength. We call out, "God is my refuge, God is my fortress, my God in whom I trust." The interesting thing about these two lines is that they have wonderful action verbs. The first line reminds us, "You who live." We need to live in that shelter of the Most High. We need to choose to live in God's home.
The second line ["We call out"] reminds us that we need to say this out loud. The word say is another action verb. It's another call to action, for us not just to think that God is my refuge, God is my fortress, my God in whom I trust, but to say it, to articulate it, to own it, to believe it, to exercise it with the power of our voice, saying, "This is the Heavenly Parent in whom I trust."
When you truly trust somebody, what are you doing? When we truly trust God, our Heavenly Parent, what are we doing? We are giving our love. We are entrusting our love to the Almighty. When we really trust, believe, and live accordingly with our True Parents in this time of breaking news, what are we doing? We are loving our True Parents. We are entrusting the most precious thing that we have, which is our heart, to our True Parents. When we trust ourselves in each other, or our family, or our worldwide family, what are we doing? We are loving each other. We're giving our hearts to each other because we believe that we are all divine beings, that we are all eternal sons and daughters, and that we were all put here for a purpose: to be agents of change, to do something wonderful for the world, to leave something beautiful behind by raising up glorious children whom we can proudly call our future.
When God asks us to call out loud, own up, and claim this personal relationship by saying, "My God, you are my refuge, you are my fortress, you are my God in whom I trust," Heavenly Father is not just saying, "Own up and be glorious unto yourself." He is saying that when you realize that there is a purpose behind your existence, it really is a call to live your life for the sake of others.
My father's philosophy of altruism, of living for the sake of others, just because, then becomes something that we need to do in our daily lives. When I meditate on the Word of God, there are three things that come to mind. I love trying to explain things using acronyms or mnemonic devices so they are easy to remember. Thinking of "God" as an acronym, the thing that I remember is that God represents Goodness; he represents everything wonderful. But God also represents the Oneness that we should have with our Heavenly Parent by having an intimate, personal relationship through prayer and through inviting God into our lives, no matter what we are doing. And when you want to live your life honoring God, it calls for a life of Discipline. My father loves to start his day out with Hoon Dok Hae at 5 a.m., but your discipline could also be a series of fasts that you do because you are making a condition to set the foundation to do great work. We are called to live a disciplined life, meaning an orderly life, a life with a purpose.
When you're thinking about bringing God into your family, it is a call to encourage each other, the husband and wife, the bickering older sister and younger sister, the older brother and younger brother who are having difficulty, to concentrate on the goodness of each other and to remind each other of the importance of understanding that we all belong to one family of God, that we are all part of this oneness.
An application of that understanding of what kind people we need to be calls for a certain amount of discipline in that the children should always honor the father and mother. Children should always greet their father and mother at the start of the day. Don't leave the house without saying, "Good morning, Father; good morning, Mother. I'm off to school. Please have a great day." And when you enter the house, greet your father and mother again because you are living in the shelter of the Most High.
Think about how you're going to take care of each other. In a family setting, have a set of chores for everybody to do so you can work as a moveable, functioning unit in which everybody is working together in the spirit of oneness to make the family an effective one. If you want to be great in life -- if you want to be a great musician, for instance -- you have to practice, right? I'm sure Chris Alan, when he first started out, practiced many hours on the piano. I'm sure when Ben first started out, he practiced many hours on the guitar. I'm sure Alistair, when he first started out, practiced many hours on the keyboard, and so on and so forth. It takes a certain amount of dedication. It takes a choice on the part of the person to say, "I want to be a great musician," or, "I want to be a great person. So I am going to schedule a certain part of my life in dedication to what I want to be."
If you want to be a great student, you'd better do your homework without your father and mother asking you to. If you want to be a great dancer, you can find ways to get yourself to a dance academy and practice (and practice and practice!). If we do such things in remembrance of God, in remembrance of what we're all about, exercising goodness in our lives prepares us to be great human beings.
When we concentrate on the importance of oneness, of how we must operate like one family, it allows us to remember that we all belong to the same Heavenly Parent. So it doesn't matter whether your hair is curly, whether your hair is black, whether your hair is blonde, or whether you come from a Jewish background, whether you have Palestinian parents, whether your parents are from Nigeria or from Germany. We are all part of one family.
So by concentrating on the importance of unity and oneness, we become more open in our understanding and appreciation of one another because everybody is just as great as we are. Nobody is better than anybody else. We are all divine beings. A black brother is as precious as a yellow sister. A red grandfather is as precious as a white baby. It doesn't matter what religion we come from. When we concentrate on oneness, when we concentrate on the importance of opening up our hearts so we can experience the beauty, the diversity that God prepared for us in this world, then we realize how lucky we truly are.
When we apply ourselves in the daily discipline of a religious and pious person's life, our lives slowly take direction. Once you decide to be a disciplined music student, you might not be Prokofiev or Rachmaninoff overnight, but en route to becoming a great musician, you realize that your life has direction, and you understand why you are so special. You understand why you have been touched by this gift of music: to share it with the world by becoming somebody great.
Or when you become disciplined in your studies because you want to be a great professor teaching at one of the best universities in the world, in the beginning you go through various courses -- and you have to go through the core curriculum before you can concentrate on what you really love to do. You might feel like you're really not sure whether you're en route in that clear direction of what kind of person you would like to be. But if you keep on being disciplined and if you keep on practicing, slowly your life will come to have a very clear direction. As it comes into focus, you will realize that this is how God tapped you to be so special.
Or if you feel called by God toward a life in the ministry and you start living a very disciplined life by reading the Bible, familiarizing yourself with World Scriptures, knowing the Divine Principle, and learning different languages, in the beginning you might think that you're rummaging in the dark. Maybe you're testing out different faiths to understand whether your faith is really valid or whether it has something tremendous to offer to the world. But if you open up your heart, while staying disciplined and focused on what you feel is the gift that God gave you, the gift that makes you unique and special, and if you are persistent and consistent in your application, then you realize that you are going to be a great minister who not only leads people but leads people in service to other people.
In whatever capacity we may enjoy our lives, as a great professor, as a great artist, or as a great minister, if we don't remember why we're here, not to glorify ourselves but to speak out loud about the glory of the Almighty, our God, our Heavenly Parent, and share the breaking news about our True Parents, then we are falling short of our true potential.
Let's remain vigilant, knowing that we are not circling, we are not dreaming but actually living in that shelter, in that home, in that embrace of God, our Heavenly Parent. Knowing that our God and our True Parents are as close to us as our shadow is to our bodies, then we can proudly proclaim who our True Parents are and who our Heavenly Parents are; we can declare to the world that we have absolute faith and belief in entrusting our hearts to them, remembering that they are our parents, we are their children, and how blessed we really are.
On this Sunday morning, please remember that because we are his children, it is the heartistic desire of our Heavenly Parent to raise us up to be great sons and daughters who live the potential, who fulfill the destiny, who respond to the calling in each and every one of us because all of us are meant to do great things. Greatness comes in all shapes and sizes; sometimes the greatest gifts come in a very tiny box. So it doesn't matter whether our victories are small or great, as long as we can focus on God and as long as we can take one day at a time and really treat that day as one step taken closer to heaven. There is only God whom we can look forward to seeing. How wonderful it would be to take each step every day, knowing that one day we're going to be face to face with our Heavenly Parent, he's going to invite us deep into his embrace, and we are going to celebrate all of eternal life together.
Brothers and sisters, this is what Lovin' Life is all about. It's about understanding who we are. It's about unleashing our greatness. It's about tapping into that infinite reservoir of true love. It's about being the dream and living it, making it a reality. So brothers and sisters, we have a lot of wonderful things that we can look forward to in this Year of the White Tiger. Please have a wonderful Sunday and a wonderful, wonderful week. And remember, with everything we should honor our Heavenly Parent. Thank you.
1: The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2: "This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.
3: Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;
4: and if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5: Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats;
6: and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening.
7: Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them.
8: They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9: Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.
10: And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
11: In this manner you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's passover.
12: For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.
13: The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14: "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance for ever.
15: Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses, for if any one eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
16: On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly; no work shall be done on those days; but what every one must eat, that only may be prepared by you.
17: And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as an ordinance for ever.
18: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, and so until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
19: For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for if any one eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.
20: You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread."
21: Then Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the passover lamb.
22: Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23: For the LORD will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to slay you.
24: You shall observe this rite as an ordinance for you and for your sons for ever.
25: And when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.
26: And when your children say to you, `What do you mean by this service?'
27: you shall say, `It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he slew the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28: Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
29: At midnight the LORD smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle.
30: And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where one was not dead.
31: And he summoned Moses and Aaron by night, and said, "Rise up, go forth from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said.
32: Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!"
33: And the Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, "We are all dead men."
34: So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their mantles on their shoulders.
35: The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked of the Egyptians jewelry of silver and of gold, and clothing;
36: and the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they despoiled the Egyptians.
37: And the people of Israel journeyed from Ram'eses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
38: A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very many cattle, both flocks and herds.
39: And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any provisions.
40: The time that the people of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
41: And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
42: It was a night of watching by the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the LORD by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.
43: And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the passover: no foreigner shall eat of it;
44: but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him.
45: No sojourner or hired servant may eat of it.
46: In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth any of the flesh outside the house; and you shall not break a bone of it.
47: All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48: And when a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
49: There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you."
50: Thus did all the people of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
51: And on that very day the LORD brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.
1: And God spoke all these words, saying,
2: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3: "You shall have no other gods before me.
4: "You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5: you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6: but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7: "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9: Six days you shall labor, and do all your work;
10: but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates;
11: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
12: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
13: "You shall not kill.
14: "You shall not commit adultery.
15: "You shall not steal.
16: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's."
18: Now when all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off,
19: and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die."
20: And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to prove you, and that the fear of him may be before your eyes, that you may not sin."
21: And the people stood afar off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
22: And the LORD said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: `You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.
23: You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.
24: An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.
25: And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you wield your tool upon it you profane it.
26: And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.'
1: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
who abides
in the shadow of the Almighty,
2: will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress;
my
God, in whom I trust."
3: For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and
from the deadly pestilence;
4: he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you
will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5: You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow
that flies by day,
6: nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the
destruction that wastes at noonday.
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 look with your eyes
and see the recompense of
the wicked.
9: Because you have made the LORD your refuge,
the Most High
your habitation,
10: no evil shall befall you,
no scourge come near your tent.
11: For he will give his angels charge of you
to guard you in
all your ways.
12: On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you dash your
foot against a stone.
13: You will tread on the lion and the adder,
the young lion
and the serpent you will trample under foot.
14: Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him;
I
will protect him, because he knows my name.
15: When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him
in trouble,
I will rescue him and honor him.
16: With long life I will satisfy him,
and show him my
salvation.