MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Powerpoints used with this message are available at no cost. Just email me at Mnewland@sstelco.com and request #455.)
TEXT: Psalm 91:1-16; John 15:5; 1 John 1:3-7; Philippians 1:20-21. 4:6-7
ILL. Back in the early days of the American colonies David Brainerd was known as “The apostle to the Indians.”
In 1739 after three years of study at Yale Divinity School, including studies of local Indian languages, Brainerd made his way toward a hostile Indian tribe living in the dense forests of the "Forks of the Delaware," an area including parts of what we know today as New Jersey & Pennsylvania.
He arrived near one of their villages late one evening & decided to spend the night in the woods before approaching them the next morning. He didn’t realize that several Indians had been following him for hours. Once he was settled in his campsite the Indians went on to the village & reported to the chief.
That night, the Indians set out to kill him because, up until then, white men had brought them nothing but grief. The warriors silently drew near Brainerd’s camp as he was on his knees praying.
While he was praying the Indians saw a large rattlesnake approach him, lift its head, flick its forked tongue close to his face, & then for no apparent reason glide away into the darkness.
This made the chief & his warriors very nervous & instead of killing him, they returned to their village.
When Brainerd entered the Indian village the next morning, he received a better welcome than he expected. It wasn’t until later that he learned of the strange event of the rattlesnake the preceding night.
When the Indians gathered around him, he opened his Bible, read from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah & tenderly told the story of how God sent His Son to die on the cross that He might take away sin from people’s hearts & make them His children.
This message was warmly received by the Indians, both in this village & later among many other Indian villages in the surrounding area.
As the years passed, in the pages of Brainerd’s diary, he wrote of how he "endured hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
His sufferings, caused by disease, were intensified by the rigors of life among the Indians & his difficult travels in the wilderness as his ministry spread among Indians in areas of New Jersey & PA.
It is recorded that Brainerd faithfully sowed the gospel among the Indians & watered it with his prayers & tears until his death in 1747. (http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/biobrainerd2 & SermonCentral.com)
The story of Brainerd’s life & the result of the rattlesnake’s encounter with him is rather intriguing. Why wasn’t Brainerd bitten? Why did it happen just when the Indians were ready to kill him? And did God have anything to do with it?
For some answers to our questions, please turn with me to Psalm 91, & we’ll look at it together. By the way, some Bible scholars believe that Moses wrote Psalm 91 to assure the Israelites that God would protect them from such plagues & destruction as came upon Egypt.
Listen to the first 2 vs’s of Psalm 91. “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High shall rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge & my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’
I. GOD WANTS TO BE OUR SHELTER & REFUGE
A. Now let’s make sure we understand what “dwelling in the shelter” means. The word “dwells” or “dwelling” means “to stay, to remain permanently.” And the place where God wants us to stay is “in the shelter of the Most High.”
And staying “in the shelter of the Most High” means to be in a personal & continual fellowship with God. In other words, staying close to God & seeking to live according to His will in all that we do & say.
That is what the Apostle John means in 1 John 1:3, “…our fellowship is with the Father & with His Son, Jesus Christ.”
Then in vs’s 6-7 John says, “If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie & do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, & the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”
B. But these benefits are not for the person who occasionally visits the shelter.
They are for those who “dwell in the shelter of the Most High.” You can’t be indecisive about Christ & expect all the benefits of being close to Him.
Jesus said, “If you remain in me, & my words remain in you, then you’ll bear much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
C. Moses goes on to say that if you “dwell” - if you stay close to God – you will ‘rest in the shadow of the Almighty’, and you can say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.’” The word “refuge” used here can mean either a shelter from rain & storm or shelter from danger.
So it doesn’t matter if the devil comes against us in a small assault, or whether all hell comes against us, we have a shelter & a refuge in our God.
II. IF GOD IS OUR SHELTER WE CAN HAVE PEACE
A. Now look at Psalm 91:3-4, “Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare & from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, & under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield & rampart.”
A fowler is a trainer of birds. He traps falcons, & trains them to do his bidding. Moses says that Satan is the fowler, & that he tries to trap us, to get us to do his bidding.
Sometimes the devil will try to snare us in small, subtle ways. At other times he will try to take us down with some huge calamity. But it doesn’t matter. Moses says, “If you ‘dwell in the shelter…’ God will protect you.”
B. But how are we protected? Look again at the last part of Vs. 4. It says, “His faithfulness will be your shield & rampart.”
So Moses is saying, “Whether Satan attacks with an all-out barrage, or in single combat, God is faithful to protect us from him if we are dwelling “in the shelter of the Most High.”
C. Now look at vs’s 5-6. When are we protected? He says, “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the deadly pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.”
ILL. In MN, during the summer of 1876, swarms of grasshoppers destroyed most of the crops. The next year, fearing that the grasshoppers would return, Gov. John Pillsbury proclaimed a day of prayer & fasting on April 26, urging every man, woman & child to ask God for protection. When the day came, schools & businesses were closed as people prayed for Divine intervention.
The next day began 3 days that were unseasonably warm. It was more like summer than spring. The 3 days of warm weather triggered the hatching of the grasshopper larvae. People wondered why God had not responded to their prayers.
However, the fourth day brought a sudden dip in temperatures. The entire state of MN was covered with frost that night. The grasshopper larvae were killed in the frost, & the crops of MN were rescued from certain devastation. (From a sermon by Tommy Burrus, Power of Biblical Fasting)
Moses says, “It doesn’t matter whether it’s at night or during the day. It doesn’t matter whether it is something small or something big – God will protect us if we ‘dwell in the shelter…’
D. Psalm 91:7 & 8 say, “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes & see the punishment of the wicked.”
Why do these people fall? Because they got out of the shelter. I don’t care whether it is marital conflict, or family conflict, or church conflict, or business conflicts – you can almost always trace it back to somebody who didn’t stay “in the shelter of the Most High.”
ILL. There is a story of a soldier in the midst of a ferocious battle. He is desperately trying to deepen his foxhole as bullets are flying all around him. While digging, he finds a silver cross.
Just then someone jumps into the foxhole & he sees that it is an army chaplain. Holding the silver cross in front of the chaplain, he asks: “Hey, do you know how to work this thing?”
This is the kind of question many ask those who are Christians. “How can we have peace when there is turmoil all around us?” “Why does God allow evil in the world?”
It was during a perilous time in his life when the Apostle Paul wrote about peace in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Paul wrote that when he was awaiting trial before Emperor Nero. Consider also Philippians 1:20-21: “I eagerly expect & hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
III. IF GOD IS OUR REFUGE, HE WILL PROTECT US
A. Vs’s 9-12 say, “If you say ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no evil will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.”
“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
He’s not speaking of big stones you stumble over. He’s talking about little stones that you don’t see, things that you didn’t even know were about to happen, & yet somehow, someway that accident, that tragedy, was avoided.
ILL. Some years ago a Messianic Jew said, "I was part of a singing group scheduled to do a series of "peace" concerts in war-torn Northern Ireland. As Jews, we went with the message that Catholics & Protestants should stop fighting...
“We were scheduled one afternoon to do a concert outside of Wellworth’s Dep’t store in downtown Londonderry. The weather looked menacing, but we were sure the Lord wanted us there.
“We prayed that there would be no rain & expected a miracle. As we arrived at Wellworth’s, the menacing sky broke open with a thunderous downpour.
“To tell you the truth we felt quite let down by God. Hadn’t we prayed in faith? Hadn’t we gone there at the risk of our lives to serve him? At the last moment, our guide found another spot, just around the corner, where we could set up under a canopy & sing, even with the pounding rain.
“Then, in the middle of our concert, BOOM! A bomb went off right at the very place where we would have been had the Lord answered our prayers the way we had wanted.”
God always hears our prayers, but sometimes His answer is "No!” (From a sermon by Ed Vasicek, The God Who Provides, on Sermon Central)
B. Now look at vs. 13 which says, “You will tread on the lion & the cobra; you will trample the great lion & the serpent.”
If the small attacks against you don’t work, if the little stones don’t trip you, the devil sends bigger ones. He sends the lion & the cobra. The lion, I believe, represents frontal attacks. The devil comes right in your face & uses fear & intimidation, one on one.
What does the cobra represent? That’s one of the deadliest snakes known to man. It slithers around & is subtle & sneaky. But Moses says, “It doesn’t matter. You will trample the great lion & the serpent if you stay ‘in the shelter of the Most High.’”
But what happens if you don’t stay “in the shelter”? Well, if you move out of the shelter then you’ll have to deal with the lion & the cobra on your own.
IV. IF GOD IS OUR REFUGE, EVIL WILL NOT TRIUMPH OVER US
A. As we go on to vs. 14 we hear God speaking. “’Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.’” You realize, don’t you, that the “he” God is talking about can be you & me?
ILL. Two boys were playing one day when they got bored. Little Johnny turned to his buddy, Billy, & said, "You know, I'm bored. Let's go to the store & steal some candy!" Billy says: "Oh no! I can't do that! God is watching me!“
Little Johnny replies: "You mean you believe there is a God up there watching everything you do, so that He can punish you?“ Billy says: "No, I believe there is a God up there who loves me so much that he just can't take his eyes off of me!" (Dr. Larry Petton in Sermon Central)
And what is the reason God gives for saying that He will “rescue” & “protect” us? Well, God gives 2 reasons: #1, “Because he loves me.” & #2, “Because He acknowledges my name.”
Do you really love Him? And do you acknowledge the name of God? You see, a lot of people abuse & misuse His name. They profane it, & swear with it. They don’t reverence His name or honor Him.
But the person who dwells in “the shelter of the Most High” acknowledges the name of God.
B. Then, in vs. 15 God promises, “He will call on me, & I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him & honor him.” A lot of people pray, “God, get me out of this trouble.” But God didn’t promise to get us out of trouble. He promised “I will be with you in your trouble. I will be there for you.”
ILL. Corrie Ten Boom and her sister, Betsie, were sent to Ravensbruck, a concentration camp, because they had been hiding Jews from the Nazis. In her book, “The Hiding Place” we read of her sister Betsie dying in the camp.
Evil certainly was done to Betsie, but evil did not triumph over her. Here is Corrie’s account of looking at her sister’s body just after Betsie died:
“There lay Betsie, her eyes closed as if in sleep, her face full & young. The care lines, the grief lines, the deep hollows of hunger & disease were gone. In front of me was Betsie at peace. Stronger! Freer! This was the Betsie of heaven, bursting with joy & health. Even her hair was graciously in place as if an angel had ministered to her.”
Though she had been sent to the most evil of places & had died there, evil did not triumph over Betsie Ten Boom, & it will not triumph over us if we trust in Jesus.
Did you notice? He also said in vs. 15, “I will deliver him & honor him.” Now, he may not deliver us as quickly as we want. He may not deliver us the way we think He should. But He will deliver, so just hang on.
And finally, Psalm 91 ends with these words, “With long life will I satisfy him & show him my salvation.” (Vs. 16)
I believe God is saying, “It doesn’t matter how long you live. You won’t go home to heaven one second earlier than I want you to. And every step of the way, I’ll be with you & protect you if you’ll stay close to me, if you will ‘dwell in the shelter of the Most High.’”
CONC. There is a praise chorus that we often sing. The truth of it comes from Psalm 91 - "My life is in you, Lord; My strength is in you, Lord; My hope is in you, Lord; In you, it’s in you.”
That chorus can become your song today! God is our source, our shelter, our strength, & our security.
He gives us rest in the midst of our trials; He gives us courage in the face of terror; He protects us in the midst of danger; He saves us from evil that is within & without. And Jesus is our Savior & our triumph for all eternity!
INVITATION
