My friend Rebecca Michelle asked if I were to write the story of my life, what I would title it. The title I was thinking of was 'Holding onto Hope' or something along those lines. But 'Evensong' would work well, too, or perhaps better.
Evensong, or Compline as my Roman Catholic sisters and brothers name it, is the closing prayer of the day before retiring. It is a time to reflect upon the day, what has gone well and what has not, what blessing I may give thanks for, and what misdeeds I need to confess to God so that I can sleep with conscience clear.
Psalm 91 is the psalm for Sunday evening. "The one who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and abides in the shade of the Almighty says to the Lord, 'My refuge, my stronghold, my God in whom I trust.'"
Psalm 91 used to bother me because, on the surface level, it is simply not true. God's people do suffer, and all too often they suffer specifically because they are God's people. Then I realized that those who suffer most acutely, the ones who do not know whether they will live to see the morning, have no such difficulty with Psalm 91, but find in it deep comfort. In the end, we are safe beneath God's wings, safe in God's marvelous arms.
As the Apostle Paul says, "Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38, 39)
That is the perspective from which I want to live my life, and from which I would want to write my life story, my Evensong, for which the concluding benediction is, "May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death."
Amen.