Psalm 91
And let’s hear God’s word together.
This is Psalm 91, and it says this. He who dwells in the shelter
of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I
will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom
I trust. For he will deliver you from
the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He
will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will
find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield
and a buckler. You will not fear the terror
of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence
that stalks in the darkness, nor the destruction that wastes
at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side,
10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You
will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the
wicked because you have made the Lord your dwelling place,
the Most High, who is my refuge. No evil shall be allowed to befall
you. No plague shall come near your
tent. For he will command his angels
concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands
they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and
the adder, the young lion and the serpents you will trample
underfoot. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver
him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls
to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and honor him with long life. I will satisfy
him and show him my salvation. Amen. This is God’s holy and
inspired and inerrant word. I bet a lot of you, the ones
of you at least who were alive will remember where you were
on the morning of Tuesday, September 11th. 2001 that is. I sure do. I was sitting in class
about 845 in the morning down at Reform Seminary in Charlotte
and I was studying like crazy my Hebrew vocabulary because
that was an easy way to keep your grade up and I was desperate
to keep that Hebrew grade up because that is a weird language.
And at that time, in the early 2000s, we had televisions all
over campus, not the little flat screens, you know, the big heavy
ones, they were all over. And a lot of times Fox News was
on. And as we were walking into class,
we saw that something terrible had happened. It was a few minutes
till nine. And I remembered thinking, oh
me, oh my, what in the world is taking place? Because for
most of my life, it had been peaceful. easy going. My brother at the time was in
DC. He was on the freeway and saw the Pentagon hit. Phones
were jammed. You could not make calls. There
were no service. And it was an eerie time. You
probably remember. It was strange. Now, At this
particular time in my life, I was scheduled to preach somewhere
on the 16th, the following Sunday, and it would only be my second
sermon ever. And that’s not saying a whole,
whole lot. I probably should have deferred and told the pastor,
you better preach that Sunday. But anyway, the schedule remained
the same. And so I had to figure out what
to preach. And I scoured the library. I went and looked for
commentaries. I was trying to figure out what in the world
should I do? I was looking for an easy button. Remember, this
was only my second sermon, second time to ever preach. And Psalm
91 seemed to be what the Holy Spirit confirmed would be good. It was a Psalm that I knew, had
sung it many times from the psalter to the tune that we just did.
But also, if you’re an old ARP, it’s in our psalter, it’s in
the new one in the back. And it’s the old Sankey version. Some of you probably remember
it. Under the care of my God, the
Almighty, safe in the secret place of the Most High. He is
my refuge, the Lord is my fortress. Him I am trusting when trouble
is nigh. And then there’s the wonderful chorus. It’s one that’s familiar to us. Also, I remembered thinking about
the five missionaries who went into the jungle to evangelize
the Alka Indians, Jim Elliott and Nate Saint and Roger Udarian
and others. And they, read Psalm 91, they
sang, we rest in thee our shield and defender. They were making
their way into the jungle and to the midst of a hostile people
and they needed something that they could remember and trust
in. And so Psalm 91 was that for
them. So here we land tonight on Psalm
91 and it’s important. It’s important in history for
many people. It’s important to many of us
personally, but also it’s important in the Psalter. If you take a
look at Psalms 90, 91 and 92, we looked at 90 a couple of weeks
ago. We looked at, we’re looking at
91 tonight. We’ll look at 92 God willing
next week. All three of those Psalms tell God’s covenant people
at the beginning of book four, I am your God. You are my people. Sounds kind
of covenantal, doesn’t it? And I will take care of you.
And yes, you will have hardships. You will have difficulties. You
will have pains and sufferings. In fact, books, two and three
cover a good bit of that in the Psalms. But here we have book
four with a little bit of change of tune. The psalmist is telling
Israel, he’s telling the church, he’s telling us individually,
my covenant promises. are to give you long life, in
fact, to give you eternal life. And so in the framework, in the
context of Israel and the church, Psalm 91 is right smack in the
middle of the 91 and 92 trilogy, if you might call it that, of
book four of the Psalter. This is a psalm that helps us
understand trials and suffering, and it helps us understand when
God intervenes and when he doesn’t. that ultimately we will be brought
into his glorious shelter at Mount Zion and in the new Jerusalem. But the point of the psalm that
we’ll consider tonight is that we should trust in God. He is
our ultimate hope and salvation. So we’ll look at the psalm in
three parts. The first part is verses one
and two, and we’ll look at it by way of who is speaking. As
we make our way through the psalm, you’ll see that in verses one
and two, it’s the psalmist speaking. He says, I, I, I, personal perspective. And then when you get to verses
three through 13, the psalmist is saying, these are the benefits
to you. to you individually as a Christian,
to you, the church. And then finally, God speaks
at the end. Those are the three perspectives.
And so that’s how we’ll pick this psalm apart for our understanding. But the psalmist begins in verses
one and two, telling us what he believes. And he believes
this, that he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will
abide in the shadow of the Almighty. And then the psalmist says personally,
I will say to the Lord, I will say to Yahweh, my refuge, my
fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Sort of the Joshua speech, isn’t
it? As for me, this is what I’ll believe. You can believe whatever
you want to. I hope you’ll believe what I believe, but this is what
I believe, the psalmist. is saying. Some of you, hopefully
you older ones don’t have this anymore, but maybe you younger
ones still do. You have a special place you
like to hide when things get a little scary. If you older
ones do, that’s fine. Just don’t say it out loud maybe. But we hide under the bed. We
get in the closet. Maybe if you live out west, you
have a storm shelter. We have a little puppy dog and
he has his little safe spots where he can sit and rest, and
he can see, but he thinks no one can see him. We’re like that. We want a place of security,
a place of safety. And notice what the psalmist
says about Yahweh, about God. He is my refuge. He is my fortress. He is my God. This is his creed.
This is his manifesto, as it were. This is what he believes.
And we run this through the lens of being Christians. We run this
through the lens of the new covenant. We run this through the lens
of knowing fuller revelation than just the psalmist had. And we understand that being
hidden in Christ Jesus, being in Christ is a wonderful place
to be. He is our He’s our guardian savior. We oftentimes hear people speak
about their guardian angel. You know, don’t drive so fast
your guardian angel can’t keep up with you. Isn’t it a little
better to think we have a guardian savior? And here he is before
us. We’re hidden in Christ. We are
in Christ. And you know, some of the passages,
some of the scriptures, some of the catechisms and creeds
we have confessed as we’ve made our way through the shorter catechism,
the Heidelberg, the Belgic. We have a pretty sure foundation
when we rest in Christ and when we are hidden in Christ as our
guardian savior. There’s a little bit of imagery
in these first couple of verses of Psalm 91, he who dwells in
the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the
Almighty, my refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust. We think
of Psalms that we know like those who trust in Mount Zion shall
never be moved. Those who trust in Christ Jesus
will never be cast out of his presence. We sang a little bit
earlier that Hallelujah song, James Montgomery Boyce. What
can separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing. Hallelujah. What a wonderful
set of verses that is to remember. That’s what verses one and two
are saying to us. The psalmist is saying, I trust
God. He’s everything. The mountain of God is my home,
my safety, and my protection. The second passage. that we want
to come to where the perspective changes. We come to verses 3
to 13. And the psalmist is going to
give us some benefits of trusting in Christ. And he’s going to
use some imagery, the imagery of the fowler, the bird catcher. He’s going to use the imagery
of pestilence or sickness. He’s going to use the imagery
of pinions or the wings of a bird. And then he’s going to use the
image of armor. Notice what he says in verse
three. He says, he will deliver you
from the snare of the fowler. Maybe some of you have tried
bird catching before. My grandmother told us when we
were little kids, if you could pour salt on a bird’s tail, you could
catch it. Well, it took me to about now
to realize that if you got that close and the bird was dumb enough
to stick around, you could probably grab it too if you were gonna
be able to put salt on its tail. She also told us if you kissed
your elbow, you’d turn into a girl. For some reason, we tried it,
but we couldn’t quite get there. I don’t know why we would try it, but
we did. But how do you catch a bird? You need a net. You need
a snare. Some of you watch Bugs Bunny
over the years, and you’ve seen all the antics for trying to
catch things. But you have in mind here a net. And when the bird gets into it,
something trips it, and it’s caught. And the imagery here
is not really about the bird. It’s about us. And it’s about
evil trying to catch us. We get snared in traps. We get entangled with sin. We
get entangled with the wiles of the enemy. There are people
sneaking about for our very lives, our souls. And he says in verse
three, he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler. The
next image he gives there in verse three and from the deadly
Pestilence. We live in 2019, and Friday I went for my annual physical,
and they said, have you had your tetanus shot? I said, oh, sure
I have, because I’m still afraid of needles. How long has it been?
I said, well, I lived in this town the last time I got one.
They said, well, you need one. That’s a good thing, right? We
work with our hands. We get nails. We get rusty things. But it’s far worse than that.
Aren’t we grateful for the Centers for Disease Control? They give
us flu vaccines. They give us shots when we’re
little. We don’t have tuberculosis like
we used to. We don’t have polio. Any of you
have a loved one who got polio when they were little? I had
an uncle. He was a little one about the
time Polio was widespread, but now we get a shot and we’re okay.
My wife’s grandmother, Lois, who’s still living, she’s 102
and a half, going on 103. One of her baby sisters died
from whooping cough. But we have shots now. We have
vaccines. We, even in the last hundred
years, have come into a modern era where we don’t have deadly
pestilence like we used to. We don’t have outbreaks of scarlet
fever, yellow fever. We don’t have outbreaks of the
bubonic plague like we’ve read of in history. Where entire cities
died because of the spread of pestilence. And so you understand
the picture here. Sickness can sweep through a
village, it can sweep through a little nation state like Israel,
and it can wreak havoc. And God says, he will deliver
you, not only from the snare of the fowler, but from the deadly
pestilence. Some of you’ve heard the little
catechism story about how Two men were walking through the
streets during World War II, and the bombs were flying and
whizzing and exploding. And two men walked past each
other in the midst of this war zone, and they both looked at
each other as they passed. And as they passed, they realized
something about each other. They both turned, one stuck his
finger in the other man’s chest and says, what is the man’s chief
in? The other replied, man’s chief end is to glorify God and
to enjoy Him forever. The other said, I knew you were
a shorter catechism boy because of the look of the countenance
of your face. And so when we believe in our
God, when we believe the truths of scripture, when we are shorter
catechism boys and girls and men and women, we have confidence
because truth drives us. We know that in our suffering
and in our dying, we do it in Christ, who is our guardian savior. There’s two pictures in verses
three through eight about God’s protective care for us. Verse
four says, he will cover you with his pinions and under his
wings, you will find refuge. Probably don’t use the word pinions
a lot. Look at the pinions on that bird. You probably don’t use the word
plumage either too often, but God spreads out his wings. He
enfolds us. He brings us in like a mother
hen may do her little chicks. Remember Jesus, when he wept
over Jerusalem, he wept and said, Jerusalem, old Jerusalem, I would
have gathered you as a mother gathers her children, but you
would not. There’s a rejection. There’s
a rejection of Christ and his ministry, but his ministry is
right here. If we trust in him, he will put his wings around
us and we will find refuge in the shadow and the wings of the
almighty. And then there’s another piece
of imagery there in verse for at the end. His faithfulness
is a shield and a buckler. He’ll put his armor on you. He’ll
put a shield around you. He will protect you from all
evil and you will be safe and you will be sound. You know,
a lot of times we speak of salvation and we, we, you’ve heard this
a few times. from me. We speak of salvation
as our ticket to heaven. We speak of it as fire insurance.
You don’t want to go to hell now, do you? And so have faith
in Jesus and you won’t go to hell. But what we forget is that
God calls us to a Christian life now and there’s salvation now. Yes, salvation is future. Yes,
we do escape God’s wrath and curse. We do escape eternity
in hell, and we are blessed to enter paradise into the presence
of Almighty God and enjoy Him to all eternity. But in this
life, we also enjoy His salvation, where not only does He wrap His
wings around us, He also puts His armor on us. And we need to remember that.
He cares for us in His daily providence. Every moment of every
day, God in His wisdom is looking after us. Remember Jesus said
to The disciples, don’t worry. Don’t be anxious. I clothe the
lilies of the field, and they are better dressed than Solomon
in all his splendor. Why are you anxious? Why are you worrying about what
you’ll eat? I feed the birds of the air. How much more will
I care for you? These are good reminders that
God cares for us. And we need to believe in Him.
We need to have faith in Him. We need to put our trust in Him.
We need to rest in Him. And it needs to be daily. It
needs to be kindled and nurtured and encouraged. We need to remember
that our Savior claimed this promise when Satan came into
the wilderness, when Jesus had been 40 days hungry, fasting,
tempted by Satan. Satan attempted to tempt him
in those three ways, probably more ways, but the three we have
written down. He quoted this verse, jump off the temple and
your angels will catch you. And Jesus answered him and said,
we should not put the Lord God to the test. But Satan even tried
to use God’s wise care. as a way to lure or ensnare Christ
into sinning against him, that he might not be the faithful
second Adam. So we see in verses three through
eight, but also in nine through 13, God’s great care. Look at
nine. It says, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place,
the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall
you. No plague will come near your
tent. For he will command his angels concerning you. He will
guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear
you up, lest your foot strike against a stone. You will tread
on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpents.
You will trample underfoot. Now, how do we think about this? This begins to sound like if
I trust in God, all my problems will go away. Well, they will
ultimately, right? You’ll go to heaven. You’ll be
made whole. There’ll be no sin, sorrow, pain, suffering, stubbed
toes. jammed fingers, no more cancer, no more presbyopia, right? We won’t be wearing glasses.
No more everything that’s bad. But what about in this life?
What about when we do trust in God and bad things happen? Hardship
comes, sickness comes. God is still with us. And so
he doesn’t promise a happy, pain-free life. but he does promise to
be with us. He promises to spare us and to
bring us safely home. The last bit of this passage
comes from the perspective of God. The first perspective was
a psalmist. I choose God. Second perspective,
here’s what he can do for you. Now the final perspective, beginning
at verse 14, this is God speaking, because he holds fast to me in
love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he
knows my name. When He calls to me, I will answer
Him. I will be with Him in trouble. I will rescue Him. I will honor
Him. With long life, I will satisfy
Him and show Him my salvation. There seems to be three promises
here. Maybe some of you have sung this
song. I don’t know all the words to
it. I’m not very familiar with it,
but it’s a new song to me, at least, and it’s called, He Will
Hold Me Fast. I don’t know the rest of the
words. I just remember that line. It’s a good song, it’s based
on the promises of God. He will hold me fast. Notice
those three promises that pop up. Because he holds fast to
me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he
knows my name. And then second, when he calls
to me, I will answer. I’ll be with him in trouble.
I’ll rescue him and honor him. And then there’s a third promise.
With long life, I will satisfy him. I will show him my salvation. God promises three things. I’ll
deliver and protect you. That’s one. He promises to hear
and answer our prayers. And then he promises to give
us a long life, a full life. And so we’ve got a wonderful
God we can trust. We can believe in Him. We can
have faith in Him. There’s been a couple perspectives
here. There’s the psalmist view. I trust God. There’s been the
benefits to someone who wants to listen or is willing to listen.
God will take care of you. Then there’s God’s promise. I’ll
keep these promises. So what’s the bottom line? for
us with Psalm 91. Well, it’s simply this, trust
God. He can be trusted, and he ought
to be trusted. And then he gives reward, he
gives provision, and he gives long life. And it comes to those
who put their faith, their trust, their hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ, for he is our guardian savior, and he will keep us whole. Let us pray together. Our Lord,
we give you thanks that in your word, you tell us who you are,
what you’re able to do, what you will do. And in a world that’s
full of uncertainty, a world that’s fraught with difficulty,
a world that wants us dead, a world that wants us idolaters, and
a world that wants us not following Christ, not bringing glory to
his name. We need all the help we can get, and so we give you
great praise and thanks that we can trust you in the midst
of a topsy-turvy world. And though life won’t be rosy,
we can live with confidence knowing that we are on a dangerous path,
a dangerous journey, but we have someone with us every step of
the way who will not let the lion eat us or the snake strike
us or the rock trip us. Though life may be hard, we will
land safely on heaven’s shores. And in that we have great confidence
because you’re our God who protects us, but also you’re the God who
saves us. And we keep our eyes fixed on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And we thank you
for this chance to hear from your word and pray your blessing
it into our lives in Christ’s name. Amen.