“Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” Psalm 91:9-10
“At first, I gave myself up with youthful ardor to the visitation of the sick, and was sent for from all corners of the district by persons of all ranks and religions; but, soon, I became weary in body, and sick at heart. My friends seemed falling one by one, and I felt or fancied that I was sickening like those around me. A little more work and weeping would have laid me low among the rest; I felt that my burden was heavier than I could bear, and I was ready to sink under it.
I was returning mournfully home from a funeral, when, as God would have it, my curiosity led me to read a paper which was wafered up in a shoemaker’s window in the Great Dover Road. It did not look like a trade announcement, nor was it, for it bore, in a good bold handwriting, these words:
“Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” Psalm 91:9-10
The effect upon my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying, in a calm and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm. The providence which moved the tradesman to place those verses in his window, I gratefully acknowledge; and in the remembrance of its marvelous power, I adore the Lord my God.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) in The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon: Selected Books, Sermons, and Other Writings, ed. Daniel Partner (Uhrichsville: Barbour, 2009) 105-106.
The plague was getting the best of Spurgeon.
Sickness and death linked to the cholera outbreak of 1854 surrounded him. Notice it was not a sermon but a simple note in a window with Scripture written on it that lifted his spirits. The truth of that Scripture gave Spurgeon the security and refreshment he needed.
What can you do to lift the spirits of those around you with Scripture? Send a text? Write an email? Post a note in your window?